Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas 2011

Once again we traveled to Vancouver for Christmas.  This time we were traveling with Claire, which gave us some concern ahead of time but turned out to be a non-issue.  Claire was a great traveler, either sleeping or being quiet on all four legs of our journey!  Someone in the Bellingham airport even called her the perfect baby! Megan picked us up late Wednesday evening after we arrived in Bellingham.  Other than Claire crying in the border lineup, our trip to Vancouver went very smoothly.

In Vancouver, we went to the Festival of Lights at VanDusen Gardens for the first time.  It features 1.4 million lights on display in a garden.  It was much bigger and brighter than the display at the Idaho Botanical Garden but way more crowded.  I think I like the Idaho experience better - less crowded, more spaced out, and it has LED trees!  Dave works at the garden and was very helpful in arranging our visit - thank you Dave!

Our visit to Vancouver was dampened by a stomach flu bug that was being passed around.  Dave, Greg, Liz, Megan, and Emily were all affected but somehow all three of us managed to escape.  Despite at least one person being sick for much of the visit, we did a little bit of shopping, attended the Christmas Eve service at Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church, and were there for the Christmas brunch and Christmas dinner at the Shepherd house. We had lots of good times with family and had a great time giving and receiving presents!  Of course Claire had a big haul, consisting of books, toys, clothes (thank you Dave for the Santa suit!), and other items.  Everyone was excited to meet Claire and we were very happy that she behaved well during her first trip away from home.

Our return trip was also uneventful (thank you Claire!) and was highlighted by a quick stop at Trader Joe's in Bellingham where we got a few things to cram into our already stuffed suitcases and some food to eat in the Bellingham airport.  We got home late in the evening on Tuesday and I had to look forward to two days of work.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas 2011 Pictures!
Christmas 2011 Video
Present Opening Video

5 comments:

Cathy said...

Looks like everyone had a good day. Present opening looked a little choatic - to be expected though! GG and I both wish we could have been there to meet Claire. She looks to be a real sweetie pie!

Cathy said...

chaotic - obviously I can not spell well or I am dyslexic!

MomV said...

I love the Santa outfit........I am trying to make a print. It looks like Claire had a good first Christmas!!

zdv said...

Yes a great time was had by all!

Cathy said...

Wonderful pictures. I will print some of them for GG to see. Will also put them on a card for the dgtl pic frame. Almost like I was there!!