Well we’re still in Victoria visiting with family over the holidays. Christmas day when we were on the mainland with the inlaws went very well too. We both really enjoyed the drive out to them in Chilliwack. It was the first time we’d seen Wolfe’s parents new house out there, it’s quite a beautiful house. They have a generous fully enclosed back yard, which was a Christmas treat for the puggies, who love to run free – they love houses which come complete with what must seem to them their own personal park. Can’t wait till we have property for places for dogs to go wild. Besides our living room that is, we frequently still have puggy wildness in the living room. Which can be either very amusing, or very annoying.

After Christmas day and night at the inlaws, we once again took to the road on boxing day and drove to the ferries to head over to my family on Vancouver Island. It was such comparitive luxury to travel in car on the ferry instead of by foot passenger via public transit – our old way. In the past it would have meant the hour and 45 minute ride on the car deck in a little ‘room’ on metal benches with metal floors and walls and a stiff cold breeze coming through, and freezing the whole trip over with sore butts, and miserable shivery pugs clinging to us. Even though we could have left the pugs in the car and gone up to the even greater luxury of the passenger decks above, we opted for family time just enjoying the warmth and lovliness of our car interior for the ride over. We dropped the bucket seats back, Wolfe dozed some, as did the pugs, and I read my book. It was warm, it was peacefull, it was heaven.

Not used to being the ones in charge of driving places on the island, we got lost trying to get to my sisters place once we disembarked. Unlike for the inlaws, we didn’t bother to get directions, we figured we’d been to my sisters place so many times before, we’d have no problem figuring out how to get there. Mistake. After an hour of driving around and finally getting totally turned around, we called in for help, and made our way there with speed to get to the big family dinner gathering. We did roll your own sushi, which was so so yummy, it’s a crazy family tradition we have, and a tasty one at that. Raw tuna, lightly smoked tuna, smoked salmon, flying fish roe, shrimp, prawns, advocado, cucumber, green onions, and more to put inside little mouthfulls of sticky rice and nori (seaweed paper), seasoned usually with wasabi (a horseradish like green spicy paste) and sometimes mayo, and always soya sauce. I stuffed myself. Loads of deserts followed, and we sat around and caught up.

Since then we’ve been staying at my parents place, in their den, which is awkward sleeping because the double bed for the two of us with the dogs to boot feels insanely small. I don’t mind it so much, but sometimes Wolfe has a harder time with it. We could stay at my sisters and have to seperate singles, my preference, but Wolfe seems to prefer it here. My theory is my mothers food. My sisters cooking is just as good, but with three kids and a full time business, she’s not waiting on us. My mother does. I can’t blame him, he’s the one waiting on me at home, and so it must be nice for him to have a real break. On the 27th, my mother made a great thai chicken curry with a pilaf style rice and green beans. Last night it was awesome shepards pie with sides of beets. Tonight is still an unknown, and tommorow night we’ll take them out for dinner.

So we’re going to spend a quiet new years here too, with parents and my sisters family and a family friend, eat, drink, and be merry. Then we’ll probably head back to the mainland on the first or the second. Whichever day we go I want to catch an earlier ferry so we can go through Richmond on the way back and stop at the Daiso – Japanese two dollar store. It’s the only one in North America, though they have them many place in Asia. It’s huge, two floors of everything under the sun, and -everything- is only two dollars. I want to see what kind of ‘stuff’ we can get for our car. Actually don’t have anything specific in mind to buy, you just never know what you are going to find there. They get different things in all the time. It’s like an adventure.

Found out about another alternative weight loss procedure I’m going to look into, since the lap band surgery isn’t covered by our medical and would mean shelling out 15 grand. It’s balloon weight loss procedure and doesn’t require surgery, they sedate you, and then insert a balloon down your throat into the stomach, fill it once it’s in. It gives you less stomach space and therefore you eat less. Non-surgical means likely less expensive. I belive it was actually developed here in Canada, so even though it’s very new, finding someone to do it may not be that tricky. Haven’t fully researched it yet, just starting to, so we’ll see.

Well, enough out of me. I’m feeling over all really great this holiday season, and have much hope for the new year, lets hoping it keeps on this way.

XO
L