Sometimes You Just have to Look Hard for the Blessings
COVID, Snow storms, heavy winds, unexpected surgeries, power outages and encounters with deer: What a Christmas this has been!
We have been anxiously awaiting our first Christmas with our newest additions; Lewis Wolfe and Benjamin Ollivierre. I keep saying, life is about memories – well we got our fill this year.
The lead up to Christmas was relatively uneventful. Aside from getting our family to agree on a date where everyone could attend. Talk about herding cats!!
We finally agreed on Saturday Dec 17th. Then the juggling started. Trevor came down with a mild case of COVID. Would others still attend if he was negative in time for the big day? It was a wait and see kinda thing – maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn’t. We decided we would go ahead anyway. Whoever could come would come, and we would play Santa to the others – delivering turkey dinner and gifts to the door in turn for a holiday visit.
Then a co-worker of Ryan’s tragically died in a workplace accident. The funeral would be Saturday Dec 17th. Ryan and Savanah would of course have to attend and pay their respects to a family decimated by the untimely loss of a father and husband.
Understandably, Ryan and Savanah would be late and perhaps miss dinner. But they would definitely be there.
Martha’s dad had not been feeling well for a few days. With much cajoling he made a visit to the hospital for a routine check up – and it turned out that he was at risk of a heart attack. On further examination, they found that he had severe heart damage. If he chose not to have surgery immediately, the results may be catastrophic. Bill decided to go ahead. After 6 tense hours on the operating table, he survived a quintuple bypass and a damaged part of his heart was removed. He is in stable condition, recovering nicely. A long road lies ahead to recover, but things could have turned out much differently. We are grateful for that.
Martha and Geoff came for dinner and participated in gift opening for them and Lewis. But the anticipation and stress of Bill’s pending surgery was too much and they left early.
The day before Christmas Eve, the snowstorm from hell broke loose, with high winds and gusting snow shutting down major roadways and causing chaos on secondary roads. Thank goodness we were not obligated to drive in that weather. Hundreds were stranded for hours in their cars awaiting help.
Our power went out around 6PM and was out for 18 hours. It got down to 42F (about 5.5 degrees for your millennials) by morning, so friends Bob and Sharon Will invited us to their home in Union to shower and get warmed up. A lovely breakfast was included. I highly recommend their establishment. Lovely service and the price is right. Email me for more details 😊
We got home around 2pm, and Eastlink’s TV and Internet were down. Despite several calls and assurances that “technicians were onsite”, it was a ruse. 72 hours later we were reattached to he world. How did we ever live without internet? Conversations were had, games were played, laughs ensued. But lordy – we missed the tv and internet!
By Christmas day, the wind had died down and Santa made it. We were blessed to be able to share Christmas morning with Geoff, Martha and little Lewis.
Later in the day, Lauren and Mark invited us to their home in St Thomas to share in family time with their extended family and see Ben on his first Xmas – and he was GRUMPY 😊 ☹. Too much excitement, too many people and too little sleep. 😉
From Mark and Lauren’s house our Christmas adventure took us to Ridgetown to share a turkey dinner with Ryan and Savanah. We had a lovely visit in their makeshift home in the shop! They are busy renovating their house and have moved into the shop until they get the inside of the house finished and some heat flowing. The cement floor was a lovely shade of grey.
Leaving for home around 9PM, Karen and I had an unfortunate encounter with a doe – a deer – a female deer (apologies to Sound of Music enthusiasts). I managed to miss the first one, but could not get stopped in time to avoid the second one firmly attached to my grill. Sadly she did not survive and neither did my grill. We sustained considerable damage to the front end of my truck. No one was hurt, but I felt awful for the deer. There was no sign of a red nose, so at least it wasn’t Rudolph. He would be hard to replace!
We were planning on going to the cottage for New Years, but apparently there is up to 5 feet of snow there and we are now evaluating if the potential downside is worth the upside. The road is not close to being plowed at this time, so alternative plans are in the works.
SIGH!
Update: We have been invited to our good friends (and cottage neighbours) Mark and Sue Kocaurek’s for New Years. We had planned to spend New Years with them at the cottage, but no can do! What a great alternative though.
Hope your Christmas was less eventful than ours – but at least as wonderful.
Wolfeish Musings thanks you for your indulgence over the course of 2022.
Happy New Year and wishing you, your family and friends much happiness throughout the coming year.
