Christmas Day in British Columbia

Early this morning I boarded a fully packed flight from Edmonton to Victoria and, after a little deicing and 1 hour 15 min of flying time, was gliding over progressively enlarging dawn-lit Gulf Island shadows towards Vancouver Island. In spite of a coffee, I dozed on and off throughout the flight, waking intermittently to look out over the lights of Kelowna and Vancouver, shining like constellations in the blackness. I walked out of the Victoria Airport into a pink and orange sunrise, heralding the beautiful day ahead.

in the queue for airplane deicing

our plane's turn to be deiced

sun starting to rise as the plane nears Vancouver Island

sunrise at the Victoria International Airport

I had breakfast with my parents in their sunny kitchen, surrounded by the vibrant pink and red blooms of my dad's Christmas cacti. I lost count of the number of hummingbirds and Steller's jays we spotted at the backyard feeders.

breakfast: yogurt, granola, chocolate Krave cereal, cranberries, and apricots

just half of the Christmas cacti in the kitchen 

hummingbirds in December!

With the warm sun, bird song, azure sky, and verdant grass (something I haven't seen in a while now!), it felt more like spring than the fourth day of winter! It was perfect weather for a neighbourhood walk with my mom, overseen by a bald eagle circling high above.

a perfect day; that black speck in the sky at right is a bald eagle

Back at home I had a lunch of miso soup, followed by rum and egg nog and a warm-from-the-oven slice of pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing (my parents have been offering me treats all day long...gosh I'm spoiled!).

home-made miso soup

fresh-from-the-oven pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing

rum & eggnog

On a more sombre note, it seems that our budgie, Greenie, has numbered days remaining. The poor thing has lost function of one of her legs and today has been sitting on the floor beneath her cage, apparently unable to stand on a perch. We've put water and seed troughs on the floor. Hopefully she's not too uncomfortable. Greenie has lived a good twelve years -- which is geriatric in budgie terms!

Greenie, on the floor beneath her cage :(

My dad built a fire in the wood stove and I spent a cosy afternoon in front of it, enjoying the intensifying roasting turkey smells. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and awoke to the turkey coming out of the oven. As soon as it's carved it'll be time to sit down to turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, bacon broccoli salad, and more pumpkin cake for dessert.

ready to be carved

Today has been a wonderful start to my winter break; it's so nice to spend this time at home with family! Merry Christmas!