Leave the shovel in Edmonton, we won't need it in Parksville.

Surfside RV Resort, Parksville BC (2 stars)

Lee does not recall the last, and maybe only, time that he has put Chuck into four-wheel drive. Today it was needed. There is a significant dumping of snow that makes two-wheel drive out of the question. Not the least of which is the hill out of Surfside into downtown Parksville on the Island Highway. Chuck does well.

Lee made his famous (only in Lez's mind he thinks) dinner buns and brought them over to mom Worel's place for a wonderful Christmas dinner with her and Ralph, Herb, Jan, Lez and Lee. Too much food, but lots of laughs and stories.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Easy on the rum and egg nog, and save some turkey for tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day.

We had a wonderful day with mom, Ralph and cousin Herb and Jan. I went over to mom's earlier to stuff the bird and get it cooking. It truly filled her oven. I cooked a ham in my Instant Pot that I took over. Jan brought a sweet potato dish and cabbage rolls, Lee made dinner buns and brought them over later. Mom added a jelly and fruit and carrot salad to the table. For dessert Jan brought a tray of many little sweets. We were stuffed. We also had a wee Zoom session with the kids.

Jan brought over a quiz game for us to play. She had 10 picture boards - very simple drawings each depicting a Christmas Carol. We had to guess the carol from the drawing - such as a stand of pine trees, and big boots walking by 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland'. We all had a good laugh as we saw the pictures and then groaned at the ones we didn't get that were so obvious. We had a small gift exchange, each person had brought a gift with no names to or from. They were put in the middle of the room and we were each given a little paper with our order of picking. We chose a package from the pile in the order of our number. Again, more laughs as the gifts were meant to be something under $10. Mom picked the biggest box and we all chuckled about what it could be. As we speculated mom said - oh it's probably toilet paper. We laughed. Then we hooted - she the loudest - when it WAS a package of TP. And no, she did not pick the one she wrapped. We all made it home safe and sound - there was an incredible snowfall today.