Christmas in Canada 2010

Christmas in Canada

It is always a challenge to travel in the great white north in the winter. Christmas hustle, bustle, gift buying and flying across borders increase the stress level, but it does not seem to deter anxious family members to brave the elements and put their shoulder to the wind and get on a plane.

My 2010 Cold Canadian Christmas adventure was no different. Sounds simple doesn’t it? With two sons, the younger one with his new wife in Toronto and the elder and his wife in Ottawa, I would take a plane from New York City to Toronto and fly back from Ottawa.  It would be an easy bus ride from Toronto to Ottawa and therefore no winter driving would be involved. I thought I had Mother Nature beaten; it was not going to stop me from enjoying a family Christmas in snowy Canada.

The first part of the plan went well with my sister in law picking me up at the Toronto airport after an uneventful small plane flight from Newark a few days before Christmas. As my son was at work we swung by his house to pick up “Monty” his 6 year old  Golden Retriever who thinks he is a playful puppy. He will do anything to retrieve a stick, and will keep it up until your arm gets weary. I will divert the story to focus on pets in the Pitt family.

My sons have both had a connection to Goldens since before they were born. Our family has had goldens since before they were born and they travelled everywhere with us in the back of the Volvo station wagon, in Canada, and New York. They even flew back from Switzerland every summer to swim in Lake Muskoka for the period we lived there.

Monty continues the good life with a good back yard and trips back to Lake Muskoka when my son visits his in laws who live by the lake. His life has been complicated by a kitten being adopted by my son, but he has adjusted and seems able to cope with the playful antics of the kitten. While I am a total dog lover, I have no time for any feline creature, period. Of course, all cats know this and immediately start purring, rubbing up against me and jumping on my lap. Over Christmas, the sly playful, hungry kitten jumped up on the inviting kitchen table and started slurping and eating my freshly poured cereal as my back was turned. Wack! I quick backhand sent it to the floor and it was a while before it returned to the scene of the crime!

The family visit in Toronto was a wonderful time with lots of catching up and enjoying each other’s company, and then I headed up to Canada to visit my elder son. There was still no snow in Ontario, but the forecast for the North East to be blanketed was starting to appear. It was bitterly cold when my son’s father in law picked me up in Kanata, just east of Ottawa.

We had a wonderful gift filled, food fiesta Christmas with Andrew’s in laws from Nova Scotia joining in the festivities. Of course “Camy” the Golden had to join in all the fun. She is a 9 month old puppy and acts like one! Having a dog in Andrew’s regulated apartment is a challenge. They have a bylaw which states that all dogs have to be crated or carried while in the building. As Andrew lives on the 12^th floor, each time Camy has to be walked she has to be in the crate, wheeled to the elevator, then to the exit, then put on the leash and taken away from the building to respond to natures calling. Guess who did most of the early morning drills? I didn’t mind to get out into the crisp cold Canadian fresh air, and being with an ecstatic dog bounding about looking for squirrels to chase. The only problem was that he was on a leash with my arm on the end of it, getting longer each time I took her for a walk.

Andrew and Sarah had a beautifully decorated tree and much fun was had opening the presents Christmas morning and the wonderful festival scrumptious Christmas dinner that his mother in law lovingly prepared.

The issue was the blizzard at Newark airport and the lack of preparedness to deal with it. I am sure there were lots of worse stories than mine. At least I was with family and the delay was tolerable, but inconvenient to say the least. Continental Air just stopped flying to Ottawa, refused to allow me to change to another airline. To get back before January 4^th, I would have to buy another ticket, which I did, to get back to my friends in New York for New Year’s Celebration.

Mother Nature had that last word!