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John,
Thank you for responding and confirming that you won't be coming until Saturday.
My dad talked to my grandpa yesterday morning on the phone and he said that they didn’t get
any new snow where they are since the last snowfall on Sunday (just two days ago) so my
dad drove out there this morning and delivered their Christmas present from us. You remember my
mom and dad telling you that they ran into my uncle Gordon not once but three times within the
last few months when they were at the casino in Cloverdale. And that’s three times since Gordon
retired almost two months ago. It was the second of those three times when my mom and dad were
there when they bought a couple gift cards to give to my grandparents for Christmas seeing how
we know that they like that one better than the Cascades casino in Langley.
Anyway, this morning when my dad saw my grandparents they told him that my cousin, Shelley,
and her husband, Bill, will be spending this Saturday night at a hotel in Vancouver because it’s
their wedding anniversary and they will be leaving their two kids with my auntie Karen. If my
mom and dad go out there on Saturday and see Karen, they will finally get to see Marshall for
the first time.
On my dad’s way home from the valley, he stopped at ”THE FORT WINE” store in Fort Langley
where he got two bottles of RED CRANBERRY Fruit Wine, one to give to Shelley and Bill and one to
give to Shelley’s brother, my cousin Jeff, and his wife, Jen. He also got a small bag of
chocolate-covered cranberries to give to Shelley and Bill’s older son, Ben. And he got two
bottles of “CRANBERRY KLONDIKE FORTIFIED WINE;” one to give to Karen and Robert and another one
to give to Gordon and Sue. And my dad dropped off Kris’s Christmas and birthday presents with
his grandparents after THE FORT WINE because Kris said that he’s not going to be home tomorrow
on Christmas Eve Day and my dad didn’t want to drive out to his place this evening in the
snow.
I called my friend, Mac, yesterday. He said that he’s having lots of people at his house for
Christmas and that he’s helping out at some banquet dinner so he thought that it would probably
be better for us to give my presents to him sometime after Christmas. And my dad was thinking
about Mac when he drove by the bus stop a couple days ago while he (my dad) was out driving in
the snow. You know that Mac goes out in the community almost everyday and goes on the buses by
himself.
Today in the mail, we got a Christmas card from my cousin David’s ex-girlfriend and her son,
Kiernan. And Kiernan wrote inside the card, “Merry X-mas! Can’t wait to go fishing in 2009. I’ll
catch the big one.”
We sent a Christmas eCard last night to my auntie Ann and uncle Les and their family back in
Ontario. Speaking about them, I haven’t yet sent you those pictures of their dogs that I said I
would forward to you. See the bottom of this E-mail for the pictures and let me know what you
think of them.
My dad set up my tripod by the deck door two days ago (on Sunday morning) and put his
camera on it, he then took a picture whenever a bird came by. And it doesn’t look too likely now
that I will have my Sony camera back in time for Christmas.
My mom and dad misplaced the skirt that goes around the bottom of our Christmas tree so my
dad went out to Zellers two days ago (on Sunday afternoon) and the only one they had left
was this red one that had white trim around it. It’s suppose to be like a giant Santa’s coat,
it’s got a belt on it. And Chloe likes it, I found her laying on it last night when I went to
take her up to bed.
My mom just has to write the cats’ names on their stockings and then their Christmas
stockings will be all done. I was hoping that my mom could do more than just their names on
their stockings, I was kind of hoping that she could do some kind of a Christmasy picture
underneath their names. She suggested that it might be easier for her to sew a picture on the
white trim at the top of the stocking if I want a picture on it, but I don’t think that’s a good
idea and think that a picture would’ve looked better if we could’ve somehow sewn one on the
green bottom part.
A few news stories from the last few days:
• My dad told me to be glad that I’m not at the airport after he saw yesterday on
the TV news about some people waited four hours in lineups only to find that they were in the
wrong line. And hardly any planes were taking off because of the snow.
• My mom read me the story that was in the Vancouver Sun and was written by one of their
columnists, Pete McMartin, who my mom told me writes some good stories. This one was about a
puppy he adopted, and it sounds like the puppy didn’t have a very good life before he adopted it.
Points about meals and snacks:
Sunday Dec.21,2008 - afternoon: My dad stole one of the shortbread cookies, he
said that they looked pretty good.
• Yesterday for my evening snack, I had the small “peppermint bark” chocolate that I told you
one of my dad’s bosses brought back with him from Eastern Canada and I had that with both of the
chocolates that were in that little box that my dad found on his desk after he got back from his
Christmas lunch in.
• For my snack this evening, I plan to have one of the bags of Lay’s Classic potato chips
leftover from Halloween with some of the dill dip that my mom makes.
• And when my dad was out in the valley this morning, he picked up a CHOCOLATE ICED DOUBLE
LAYER HOLIDAY cake from Safeway in Abbotsford for us to have for dessert after Christmas dinner.
It’s even got red and green sprinkles on it and maybe you and I could each have a piece for
dessert after supper on Saturday if there’s any leftover.
My dad phoned up the Bank of Montreal yesterday morning to ask them about the
new “Disability Savings Plan.” He first tried calling the 1800 number in Eastern Canada, but he
got put on hold forever so he hung up and just called our local branch here in South Surrey. My
account is currently with the Royal Bank, but BMO is currently the only one that’s offering the
disability savings plan so now I will have two accounts (each at different banks). And if
I set it up before the New Year, the government puts in some extra money. They also said that
whatever money I put into this account won’t be taxable until after I take the money out.
I hope you write me at least one more time before Christmas Day.
-Neil
P.S. Here are those pictures of all the snow that my auntie Ann and uncle Les got where they
live. The second to last pic is of their younger son, my cousin Joey, playing in the snow with
all three of their dogs. I remember they said that they recently had to put down one of their
dogs and one of the ones that’s in this pic is one that we haven’t seen before so they must’ve
got a new one since they put the other one down.
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