Reader’s back from a fun Christmas break!

Reader here, back at it after a few days at the farm, enjoying my quick four-day Christmas vacation at the farm, just west of Conquest, Saskatchewan.

It always seems to go by in a blur, doesn’t it?

Since, in sports terms, my car is on the injured reserve list indefinitely, with a bum ignition cylinder, I rented a car to get me home to the farm and back.  After years of rolling in Quicksilver, it was definitely a change taking a road trip in a different set of wheels!  But it was a comfy ride, and I was able to get on the road and home before any really ugly weather hit.

For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it was relatively quiet.  Just me, my parents, my youngest brother Barrett and his wife, Claudia.  We just kicked back, opened gifts, and crushed some ham and all the fixings for Christmas dinner.  Then, in the evening, we watched some of our favourite Christmas specials, and broke out the Scrabble board for a couple of rousing games (Which I won, by the way!  Quite often, my Dad will pull out the victory, scoring most of the Triple Word Scores!)

I got some fun gifts, including the autobiography of former Philadelphia Flyers great (and Neudorf-raised) Brian Propp, as well as a nice travel mug, some tasty Lindt chocolates, a Beatles t-shirt, some lounge pants, and a package of what may be my favourite beef jerky, made at a butcher shop in Martensville, that is fantastic!

Bear and Claudia got Mom and Dad tickets to see the Persephone Theatre production of “A Christmas Story,” on Boxing Day, so on the 26th, we drove into the city to catch the play, and it was really good!  I should add that I’ve never seen the original 1983 movie or any of its sequels.  (I guess I’ll put that on the viewing list for next Christmas!)  I knew of it, and had seen the odd clip here and there, but not the whole show start to finish, but we really enjoyed the play.

On Saturday, the 27th, we planned to have our big family Christmas, with all of my brother and their families home at the farm.  My brother Ward, his wife Aimee, and their girls, Abbie and Brynn made it home from Saskatoon, however, life had other plans for my brother Curtis and his family in Balgonie.  Curt ended up getting really sick, with a fever, sore throat, and cough, and a couple of the kids weren’t feeling so hot, so they stayed home.  So we sure missed the Balgonie crew, but we’d rather the be safe and resting up at home, trying to get feeling better, than having them pushing themselves to come and wind up even sicker.

Hopefully we all be able to get together soon enough!

Then, after lunch yesterday, after loading up the car with my luggage, Christmas gifts, and a few containers of Mom’s baking, I hit the road, and was back in Yorkton before 7 p.m..

With the snow everyone seemed to get over the past few days, I was worried that my street would be a mess.  But, to my pleasant surprise, my street was plowed out, and there was only 2-3 inches of snow on my driveway, which’ll make shoveling a fair bit easier!

Of course, we’re not quite through the holiday season yet, with New Year’s coming up later this week, but now Christmas is behind us, so I s’pose it time to start getting back into the usual routine.  I hope every enjoyed a relaxing Christmas!

Since we’re starting to get back to normal, this tune seems fitting…  Enjoy!