Climb Every Mountain

Santa's sleigh would have made deep gouges in the muddy green grass as he was making his rounds. The temperatures stayed well above zero for all of Christmas day blessing us with dry roads for travelling. Christmas night the bright full moon guided us home from our activities. The golden orb in the sky accompanied us on what would have been a dark voyage.

Our Christmas morning started like any other morning: dogs out, Grace fed, dogs fed, check email… you know, the regular. Once all of that was done we got ready to go into the city to have lunch with my parents, brother Graham and his kids Erik and Juliette. Traffic was light. We visited for a while then opened stockings: Santa had stopped off and left some packages for us at mom and dad's! My eyes lit up with joy when I saw the package of Ginger Nuts from New Zealand. Hurrah! Hurrah! I love ginger nuts and am slightly ashamed to say that I won't share them… with anybody. How greedy! There were a few more treasures from Santa - he always knows exactly what I'd love.

We had a leisurely lunch with my family and then it was time to visit with Carm's folks at his sister Maria's house. We saw his nephew Paul just before he and his partner whisked away to Montreal, only giving us a moment to lay our eyes on the sleeping great nephew.  Rocco, his other nephew, stayed through supper so we got to admire his son for much longer. Carm's mom was there, looking slightly overwhelmed by all the commotion, but happy to see all the babies.

As anyone with dogs can appreciate there reaches a time when they have been away from home too long so we had to take our leave. The dogs greeted us with crossed legs and shot out of the door like jets.

Once all the beasts were fed, we cuddled up on the sofa to watch 'Sound of Music'. Even after seeing it countless times there are still songs that move us. Carm's favorite is 'Climb every Mountain'. I love them all.

After a long winter's nap, we got up refreshed and ready to take on the boxing day crowds. There wasn't much we wanted, but it is fun to get out into the crush and pretend we are normal people. Best of all though, we stopped for Vietnamese noodles at our favorite hole in the wall. The warm meal gave us enough energy to tackle Costco, which was surprisingly empty. No good bargains there to draw people in.

Our day didn't end there. Once home we got a phone call from our neighbors Trudie & Leo. Their daughter Elinor is visiting from Australia and they  had a few hours that they could drop in for a visit. The dogs love Elinor as she is a pretty good petter. A few hours turned into many hours and the clock had passed the witching hour by the time we wound things up. I slept in but still feel pretty groggy today. Good though.

Freezing rain overnight has put a slick glaze on all the surfaces, but it has changed to light snow now. Not sure what that means for our day, but I suspect that we'll be watching the last of the Christmas movies today!

Lyrics from the uplifting song from 'Sound of Music'.  'Climb Every Mountain' is sung by the Mother Superior:

Climb every mountain,
Search high and low,
Follow every byway,
Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
'Till you find your dream.

A dream that will need
All the love you can give,
Every day of your life
For as long as you live.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream

A dream that will need
All the love you can give,
Every day of your life,
For as long as you live.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream.