Christmas 2017
The song says, "Christmastime is here, happiness ensue". On December 22, 2017 my siblings, niece, and parents all came together for a short but jam-packed holiday. Never ones for a run-of-the-mill get-together, my family put its usual pizzazz into planning our festivities.
On December 20, 2016 I took posession of my house. We had a quick visit there last year, but this was the first time there was a true gathering at the place.
My parents have in-floor heating, but since I do not, I presented my guests with slippers on arrival. We had a lovely evening together.
Next we convoyed to my parents' place, for three themed days: Christmas Future, Christmas Past, and Christmas Present. My sister and her husband were in charge of Future night, and made an excellent blue pie.
Olympus E-PL1: f1.8, 1/100 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop
Olympus E-PL1: f4.2, 1/30 sec, ISO 1600
IrfanView: Crop
There was more to our Christmas Future evening than just a scrumptious portabello-based meal and tasty pie. We were randomly assigned extraterrestrial quirks to act out during the meal (I, for example, had to look up what I wanted to say in a translation book). My sister and her husband created a trivia video for us to do and also brought a spacey board game to play. They pose in the photograph on the right.
Naturally, we were also required to dress up for the occasion. On the left is my brother and his family, all in costume and posing with some light sabres bought especially for the occasion.
Olympus E-PL1: f4.3, 1/25 sec, ISO 800
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Olympus E-PL1: f4.0, 1/60 sec, ISO 1250 // IrfanView: Crop
As the Christmas Future activities were winding down we received some nighttime guests. They were not spirits as in The Christmas Carol, but rather cousins. Poor road travelling conditions meant we got a little more time with them than we expected - they were storm-stayed overnight! Our family can be a little insular with our elaborate themes, so this was an excellent opportunity to have some time with kin we do not get to see very often.
After the storm had subsided things became quite pleasent outside. That was favourable, because in addition to what was on our thematic to-do list, we were also running a family photo contest. Our task for Christmas Eve was to photograph a bird. While I did not win in the bird-category, I think my entry, seen on the right, was a solid one indeed.
Olympus E-PL1: f6.3, 1/25 sec, ISO 200
Olympus E-PL1: f6.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 200, IrfanView: Crop
Once again this year, a White Christmas was a victim of the changing climate. All was very green on our birdwatching walk! Nova Scotia has the highest annual temperature out of all Canada's provinces. Around here, Winter really begins in earnest in January and lasts into April.
Each year we make a point of dressing up in old-fashioned clothes and singing carols as the Church across the street lets out on December 24th. It was natural, then, for us to have that be our Christmas Past day.
My parents (Who were in charge of the event) put together a fun scavenger hunt with a wide variety of clues, like the one on the right.
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Christmas Past simply would not be complete without a candlelight dinner, so we all dressed classically for the great feast that my mother prepared. It was the most traditional of our meals, with turkey and stuffing. We were lucky; our candles were simply for ambiance - Elsewhere in the province, high winds knocked out power and many families ate by candlelight even if they had not planned on it!
Olympus E-PL1: f5.4, 1/25 sec, ISO 1000
IrfanView: Crop
I should mention, when my father was running the scavenger hunt he was dressed up as a pirate. The prize, as befits such a theme, was a box full of gold and silver coins. Perhaps better than the real thing, these were made of chocolate!
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The candles had a bit of a gift for us; in the melting wax I was sure that I could see an angel. Judge for yourself, my photograph is below.
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We tend not to give gifts at Christmas, rather putting our economic efforts into the games, food, and costumes of the season. Still, we did get to do some unwrapping. The twist (With us, there is always a twist!) is that we each had five seconds to contribute to opening one - while wearing oven mitts! It was a great activity that was part of the Christmas Present event that my brother and sister-in-law created for us. During supper we ate (And photographed) tacos, but in true modern fasion were forbidden from talking - We had to text each other anything we wanted to say!
Olympus E-PL1: f4.0, 1/30 sec, ISO 800
Shakespeare made a valid point about all good things coming to an end. On the right is a farewell at the airport. We did not have a very long time to spend all together as a family, but we certainly made it count! Our final day together involved a road trip to the Halifax Regional Municipality and an overnight at a hotel. My father prepared a song trivia game for the car ride, and we made good use of the hotel pool and its waterslide.
Christmas 2017 was an outstanding time together for my family. Below is one last memory, from a morning when the dress code was stripes and polka dots.
Olympus E-PL1: f4.0, 1/60 sec, ISO 1250
We always play lots of board games over the holidays, and this year we also completed several jigsaw puzzles. In the photo above is one (Hiding under the wrapping paper) made from a photo of my sister's wedding this Summer. The one seen on the left came to us wrapped under the tree, a 1000-piece one from my grandmother.
Olympus E-PL1: f4.1, 1/500 sec, ISO 400
