I've not gone underground

So we are back from our 4 night trip to Alberta.  It was minus 17 degrees celcius for most of the time we were there - we are sure wimps since we left.  I was cold the whole time.  I do not regret for a single moment moving out to Vancouver Island.  It did dip just below zero at home while we were gone but it really happens so rarely and yet we still have 4 full seasons here, which I like.  The days leading up to the trip were filled with madly trying to finish painting the living room and decorating for Christmas as I like to have most of it done before we leave on our annual December trip.  When we were putting up the outside lights on the house I found this in our gutter. Some bird must have dropped it on our roof, either an eagle or a crow.  It was fully petrified - didn't even smell so must have been some time ago. 

I got a smoking deal on peanut butter right before we left.  $1.44 per 1 kg jar of peanut butter.  Hubby eats it every single day so these will only last a couple of months.  Not our usual brand but for $1.44 a jar he will eat it.

I spent the Sunday before our trip decorating for Christmas.  Not the best picture but you can see what it is starting to look like.  We will paint the ceiling tray in January as it is still the old color.

I love this time of year - 66 cent bananas and .99 cent a pound mandarin oranges.  They look great in the $5 Mexican pottery bowl I bought on our Facebook bidding site a while ago.  

We came back thoroughly exhausted but managed to see family, friends and business associates.  It has been a tough year business-wise but hubby came back rejuvenated in that area.  We picked up Buddy and he was equally tired after partying for four days with his other human family and dog family.  

A wee bit of unfortunate news though - we've had to set our Mexican trip back to the end of March due to unforseen circumstances with our dog sitter.  We could have tried to get another sitter but would worry the whole time we were away so decided to change our dates (with change fees) instead.  Animals are lovely but sometimes they are a pain in the butt.  Buddy is worth it though.

I have a few minor Christmas preparations left, putting up our vintage Christmas lights outside in the back - I usually like to wait on those as they suck up a lot of power so mid-December is soon enough.  I do love how they look though or I wouldn't put them up.  The newer less energy draining ones are on the front of the house and are on now until January 1 every night.  I also need to make cookies as zero baking got done.  Finally I need to do my Christmas cards to my American relatives up and get those in the mail by Monday if they are to make it there by Christmas.  I still send some as most of Mom's sisters and brother are not on social media and they do enjoy getting a card from us.

We also are helping my friend get her tree on Saturday, she usually gets a 12-13 ft real tree as has the ceilings for it.  Next week I have two Christmas get togethers so life is busy.  I haven't been able to read any blogs and have to do a bunch of work here before I even consider it but I just wanted to let everyone know I am alive, just trying to catch up!