Merry Christmas and Coxmas

Our annual festive pilgrimage took us to parts east and north, with good roads and sunny skies seeing us as far as the Barrie area. After lunch with Kevin, we carried on to Oro and Orillia to visit friends and family for a few days.

Winter reminded us that it was late December, forcing a sketchy drive from Orillia to Eastern Ontario, though affording some lovely scenery across Highway 7. Extreme cold followed in behind the squalls, making for a very white and chilly Christmas. More visits with friends and family followed, though unfortunately my sister came down with the flu and we had to skip our planned stay there.

The cold persisted but the roads improved in time for the return trip. The Juke was not pleased with a -28 C start to the day, but otherwise we sped westward along the 401 without incident. We spent a few days in the London area enjoying Coxmas and huge bags of gag gifts.....along with a few thrilling adventures in Mansions of Madness.

We headed out for the final leg home, just ahead of another round of squalls off Lake Huron. Other than a thirst for wiper fluid, we again enjoyed bare roads and sunny skies. Ironically the worst roads were closer to home, where snow was minimal but wind and drifting across our main road made for a few dicey moments. We made it home on December 30th to a house full of happy cats, in time to prepare for New Years Eve.

Balogna sandwiches at Coxmas

Don't sweat the holiday stuff

Coronarita!

Mansions of Madness with John and Julie

A blanket of winter

The river is icy.....but still liquid!

Merry Christmas!

"A Christmas Carol" with Mom and Burt

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Jane's festive beverage of choice

Dave is 80!

Jane's dad turned 80 this month, so we celebrated in family style with a few notable outings. We started with a lovely dinner at Mama Maria's in Chatham, before strolling across the road to catch The Men of the Deeps perform at the Capitol Theater. Even without the dearly departed Rita McNeil, this choir of Cape Breton coal miners put on a wonderful show, combining mining songs and stories with some festive tunes.

Later in the month, Julie landed tickets for John and I to take Dave to see a hockey game at Budweiser Gardens in London, with Team Canada taking on the Czech Republic as a tune up game before the World Junior tournament in Buffalo. The home side won handily in a 9-0 rout, a great ending to wonderful night of food, drink, hockey and fun.

Happy Birthday Dave!!!

Happy Birthday at Mama Maria's!

Pre-game beer peering out onto Covent Garden Market

National Anthems

Game on!

A packed house at Bud Gardens

Game action!

Team Canada scores again!

The Changing of the Goalies

....and this is why!

Respect

Spit-fired Up!

...or not so much. I got tickets to a Windsor Spitfires home game, hosting hated OHL rival the London Knights at the WFCU Centre.....in what should have been a hard-fought battle.

The Spits didn't really show up for this one, other than their goalie DiPietro - sadly he was their best player in a 4-0 yawner. Still, I had a great time in good seats with buddy Kris....even if we did spend the third period making juvenile jokes about Knights player Cliff Pu just to amuse ourselves. To Pu's credit, he actually played a great game....but every time he touched the puck, it was a "crappy play" or a "shitty goal".

Better luck next time Spits, especially if you hope to defend your 2017 Memorial Cup title - at any rate, we plan to get to many more games!

Pre-game warmups from the bar area

Local school choir sings the national anthem

Offensive zone faceoff

Zambonis....or Zambonii?

A stalwart blimp patrols Spitfires airspace

Lopsided score

Late bid to break the shutout

The Knights celebrate a road win

Yer Not the Ocean

You are just a Lake.....though in fairness, a pretty Great one.

During my weekend wanderings, it occurred to me how close we live to water and don't often take the time to visit her serene shoreline. So today I made time.....before the gales of November come slashing.

It may be said that Superior never gives up her dead, but Erielhonan's "long tail" can still whip up a gale! Stiff breeze today but otherwise luckily witnessed the calm before the storm.

Erielhonan means "long tail" in the Iroquois language

Son of a birch, or son of a beach?

Fishing Tugs and Missing Sails

Wheatley Harbour....

......is apparently for the birds!

Splitting Headache

I headed down to The Farm to help my uncle stock some wood for the winter......nice drive after some initial whiteouts between Chatham and London, as winter fired its first snowy salvo - a flurry of blows (or blowing flurries) if you will!

Thankfully windy and bitter turned to sunny and cool, just nice for working outside around a woodpile. The temperamental log splitter threw a wrench into things - and a few screwdrivers and some ether - but eventually we got some wood split, including some the old-fashioned way. I'm not averse to the maul, but gnarled and heavily-limbed stumps are not much fun to split.

In the end, we got some wood up to the house and into the basement, and sampled a few brews and some fine pork recently procured from a neighbour.....half (a pig) of which made its way back home to the new freezer.

The drive back was much more enjoyable, as winter retreated to its frozen lair to warily glare with icy stare. Oh, and on a Sunday morning, coming down through Toronto was equally merciful.

1930 Ford Model A....just storing it for a friend!

Made in Michigan!

Time to split!

A load ready for the basement

Beauty day in The County!

Logging some time on the splitter

Rustic rust