Dec 26/27 - arrivals

David and Vanda made it up on the 26th, braving some freezing rain that made our driveway slippery but it hadn't gotten cold enough yet for 522 or Osprey to be a problem.  In fact, the warming and then the cooling, was so gradual that 522 ended up completely bare with some icy patches on the 27th; Osprey is kind of rutty/crunchy, not enough snow to plow.

Jeffrey, Sara, Emma, Zoe and Matthew left Reading PA after 6am and got here 11 hours later, give or take.  The "kids report" said that they were good.  Zoe was focused on getting here, hardly even paying attention to her toys and having a couple of naps.  Emma hangs out in the back-back and does her thing.  Without the other two bugging him, Matthew also had a quiet trip.  Great !

David and I made chili or, to be more correct, I made chili for the gang and then David and I made chili for his lunches, which are now all bagged up.  His batch was much larger !

Sandy and I made the trip into Parry Sound on the 27th, picking up 7 cases of wine at the LCBO, making two visits to Walmart, one to Canadian Tire and one to Sobeys.  Sandy actually went back to Walmart for veggies and Sobeys was pretty bare.  I got driveway salt from CT and Christmas candies on the first Walmart visit.  They're all pretty close together so getting around Parry Sound adds no time to the trip; unlike Sudbury !

It doesn't look like we're going to get much more snow while we're here, so the new snow blower is only insurance.  I'll have to give it one more run to work some fuel stabilizer into the mix.

The road is quiet but while we (David, Vanda and I) were out on the ice out front we saw a walker coming across the lake up by Carter's.  I don't think that person was from there but haven't checked.

The Hendriks gang are supposed to arrive today but that will depend on the weather.  Right now it looks pretty clear so hopefully they'll make it.  Chris and Kylie are coming in one car, apparently; Stef, Aaron and Lauren in the other.  If all goes well, today we will celebrate our family Christmas together. 

The lake is like glass out front.  You could easily skate to what used to be the Whippoorwill lodge.  The 1/2" of snow overnight last night won't have messed that up and a little wind will probably blow that off anyway.  I'll have to get out my skates, see if they still fit.

Here's some interesting reading regarding our Kilimanjaro trek -- we are doing the Lemosho, Western Breach, 8 day route.

http://www.wdthompson.com/docs/Kili.pdf

Onward !