Christmas 2021

 

Back to work today, so Christmas holidays are officially at an end. It was an enjoyable break, and timed perfectly, considering how things are at the moment.

Things kicked off with my first trip/flight/visit with my grandparents in two whole years! I'll be honest, I was really scared about travelling the handful of days leading up to our departure, but Ottawa's airport was great, everything felt safe and, other than a bumpy landing, we had a nice flight to Halifax. 

The first day of our vacation, we went to visit my Nanny Perkins (Mom's mom). Not having seen her in two years, I got a bit emotional (this would happen a few times throughout the week). After sitting around and chatting for a few hours, we treated my grandmother/she treated us to dinner. After that, we drove around looking at all the Christmas lights, and got the usual "tour" of where everyone was born, lived, worked, went to day care, etc.

The next day, we made use of our rental's snow tires during the vacation's one day of Winter weather in order to visit with my Grammy and Grampy MacLellan, as well as my Uncle Sean (Dad's parents, brother) for a big Christmas dinner.

The day after, my sister and I spent time with my Nanny while our parents ran some errands. For dinner, I got to enjoy one of my two "asks" for the trip: fried clams, something I'd been waiting two whole years for!

For our final day on the East Coast, we celebrated Christmas.

We opened cards, gift cards/certificates, snacks, and other small gifts we were able to pack. Later in the afternoon, we went to one of Dartmouth's shopping malls and saw Woody the Talking Christmas Tree, my second "ask".

Woody wasn't feeling so well.

After that, we went out for a nice dinner then back to my Nanny's place. I took time to explore the basement, like I usually do. I found a few really awesome old books (which my grandmother said I could have), including a hardcover edition of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger from 1959, published in Oxford, England!
 

So cool!

While saying goodnight, and goodbye, to my grandmother, I had a moment where I got super emotional. It's been so long since I've been down there, and because of her heath it will probably be the last real Christmas with her. And who knows what's going to happen with the pandemic. It's all really sad, and kind of stupid in a way. Oh well, focus on the good times!

We got to say one more quick goodbye the next morning, before a delicious brunch and catching our flight home later in the afternoon. 

What followed was a nice, relatively quiet Christmas with the family.

This trip was several months in the making and I'm so, so happy we were able to do it! Not sure when the next trip will be, but hopefully sooner than two years.

Cheers!