08/12/2007 - 14/12/2007 Kaleden Eames's arrival

08/12/2007 - Today Bobbie and Brant took us Christmas Tree Hunting (I'm finally going to get my real Christmas Tree) so off we went. We drove up some beaten up old dirt track for miles and miles (Deliverance Country) to Brant's secret hiding place looking for our Christmas Trees, we were out in the middle of no where, it was freezing cold and not from lack of trying we didn't find one. We were surrounded by "Charlie Brown Christmas Trees". As usual Bobbie came through for us and served us up some Hot Chocolate for our trip down to the Christmas Tree Farm at Summerland. Here you pay $40, pick us your saw and off you go. It took Dave and I a little bit longer to pick out our tree, okay it was probably me Dave was Happy to cut down any old Charlie Brown looking tree. So after we'd picked our tree out we then had to get it into the car, get it home and get it out of the car - maybe I should of picked a bit smaller tree. It was really another great adventure.

09/12/2007 - Dave is out in the yard with Tony and crew splitting the last of the Fir trees (and yep for the first time since they were last out there, it's snowing again) it really is quite hard labour. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I'm unable to get out there, I've been ordered to stay inside (bugger), so I'll get the lunch. After the crew had finished and cleaned up Tony came in for a drink or two.

You wont believe how wonderful the people over here are. Tony has offered us his Ford Explorer (7 seater) to use while we have the Elford and Eames visitors. This will save us hiring another car for that period of time. - we can't believe how generous Lisa and Tony have been. They are truly wonderful people.

10/12/2007 - We headed up the mountain so Dave could get some more practice in before the families arrive. My shoulder is still not right, so I'm left to wander around and drink coffee (it's early in the day). The Canadian Aerial team were practicing so I walked up one the runs and watched for about an hour or so to see what skills I could incorporate into my snow boarding - it really is amazing they get so high and are so skillful. When we got home we decided to set the Christmas Tree up inside, so that I can start decorating it. Well it certainly was a lot easier said than done, Dave really did have a bit of a struggle on his hand to get the tree up straight. So when he said I could decorate off I went, he then decided that he needed to make it more secure (it was leaning a bit forward) well he struggled for a while and during the struggle he managed to remove about half the decorations. Well after a couple of hours the tree was up and all decorated.

11/12/2007 - 13/12/2007 - Not much has been happening for the last couple of days - Dave has been trying to get up the mountain each morning to get some boarding in (I'm hoping to be back on the slopes soon - it's really frustrating me not being able to board) and we've just been trying to get things in order for when all our guests arrive - we are so looking forward to seeing all the family.

14/12/2007 - The day started off really well, Dave and I left Kaleden (in separate cars) at about 10:30am, it was snowing quiet heavily so we took it really easy - the scenery was once again absolutely breathtaking - it was a really beautiful drive. First stop was to have a bite to eat so about 1:30pm we stopped at Hope. Second stop at Port Coquitlam was to drop off a table and a chair for Tony W (the least we could do after he has lent us his car). The traffic was really heavy, but we thought that we had left plenty of time to get to the airport at 6:00pm (the crew were due to land at 5:45pm) - WRONG. So at about 4:30pm we set the navigation system for the airport and headed off. The navigation system was telling us that it would take approx. 1 hour 20 minutes - perfect. Mmm - well the traffic didn't get any better, than we heard on the radio why - there was an emergency landing at the airport so they had closed 3 bridges. It was also raining heavily and there were accidents everywhere - so after running through the car park etc. we arrived at the airport at around 7:00pm - thank goodness the Eames's hadn't walked through customs - so we were very relieved. Well we all piled into the cars and off we went, it was raining quiet heavily but we travelling pretty well. We stopped off at Chilliwack for a feed and then set off again for home at around 9:00pm - expecting about a 4 1/2 hour drive - WRONG again. It had and was still snowing very heavily, so not only could we not see very well the roads were really treacherous and in some places was about a foot deep - needless to say we were all getting very tired but the kids were really well behaved. Well after the Eames's had been travelling for 39 hours and Dave and I driving for 16 1/2 hours we arrived home at around 3:30am (I don't think Dave has ever been the driver after midnight -that's the shift that I tend to get). So after the bags etc were unloaded from the car and it's 4:00am what do you do - of course you start the fire, open up some Kokanees, relax and let the kids run around in the snow... The kids and Simmy and I went to bed not soon after - I think Dave and Tony finished at around 5:30am.

It's now 10:30am on 15/12/2007 - I've been awake since 7:30 and still no one up to play with - I'm giving them until 11:00 and then that's it..... The good thing about all the snow last night is that we have a couple of good inches of snow cover all over the yard - so it's looking really beautiful.