Santa's new reindeer

Friday we drove up to Killaloe to celebrate Christmas with bdot's Mom. The drive up is usually long and tiring but uneventful. Sadly for someone, this trip was not. Our main highway, highway 60 was closed due to an emergency. (We later found out the highway was closed due to a serious car accident...) There are few highways outside of the main city centers in Ontario. Due to lakes and Provincial Parks, detours are hours of winding, dark roads. We with both already pretty tired already, so the detour was quite unwelcome. We passed through the town of Haiburton which was curious. It would be interesting to see it during the day. We found you can find road closures in Ontario on this site. (Also a road closure map!) Since her Mom's house was fill, we stayed with her friend Jessica in Barry's Bay. It was a relaxing evening once we finally arrived. We were greeted by all her allergens, Parker, Dexter and Jane.

Dexter. My other cat.

We talked all night. Pondering potentially moving to the area and finding some water to call our own. Hmm, one day perhaps.

Yes, the snow looks good there but it was all melting and/or gone within 3 hours

Saturday got started with a dog walk on a snowmobile trail. The weather is painfully mild - above zero - so we didn't see any snowmobiles. The dogs enjoyed themselves however. Yes, we were hoping for a Winter wonderland but instead we got a gray, beige, muted green palette. Blahsville. Her Mom's house doesn't have a room where everyone can be together at once. So this, unfortunately, creates people rotating around from room to room all night. Everyone seemed pretty tired and the nephews, full of sugar and not much else, weren't in the best of form. We wandered out to the Christmas Parade and it was over on 10m. Cars, truck, a few 'floats' and tons of candy projectiles tossed at kids. Once we returned to the house, we enjoyed a delicious spiral ham dinner and apple pie for dessert. Everyone was eager to crowd around the TV and unwind. Oddly we ended up watching Tuna Fisherman bringing in their catch. It looks like a feast or famine job. The waves were 7-10 feet and tossed the boats around but the guys seemed unconcerned about safety or any potential peril. Nope. Her sister (etc.) left pretty abruptly so I guess we'll have a longer visit with them at cottage later in the month. *shrug*

Festive Fish

We had Jess' house for the evening as she was away visiting family. I slept very poorly, awakened by her robot vaccum, then her dog, then her cats. Yep. In light of the issues on the drive up, and bdot wanting to stop in Newmarket to shop, we didn't stay late into the morning at Jess' place. The drive home was fortunately quiet and much shorter.

Once home, we tossed in a Costco Lasagna for dinner (it is surprisingly good). Cats were happy to see us and (gasp!) no vengeance pees that we are aware of. We were ready for couch time and settled on watching Incredibles 2. It was a fun animated film with some unexpected treasures like the baby and the villian. Also, interesting to see an animated film where the Dad stays home with the kids and Mom goes out to um, fight crime. Certainly remains the premier animated crime fighting family. Fun. Solid animation. ⭐⭐⭐⭐