Have yourself a floody little Christmas

[stef]
Just a few minutes ago, my mom, who was standing near the kitchen window, exclaimed, "Look! Snow!" Naturally I rush to catch a glimpse of this rare occurrence in the lower mainland, expecting to see big, soft flakes of snow gently drifting down from the sky - but nope, basically just thick rain is whipping by the window (I should mention that it is supposed to get a few degrees colder by evening, so maybe, just maybe we'll get those soft, fluffy flakes yet). Yep, Christmas in BC has begun.
The plane rides were quite good for me and the babe. Can I just say that I heart West Jet? The employees were more than helpful with Hudson, carrying bags when necessary, blocking seats beside me so I could have more space, and taping the bejeezus out of one of my bags that both the zippers broke on minutes before the flight commenced. The first flight was at 6:00am, so it was dark in the plane, with most people catching a few more winks of sleep before they go to their destination. Do you think Hudson cared? Nope!! He was just loving being surrounded by all kinds of new faces, and would squeal excitedly whenever someone would walk down the aisle, or he would catch someone looking at him from in between the seats. Silly baby! I was a little nervous about the air pressure hurting his poor little ears, but nursing is pretty much the solution for everything, so I did just that when we took off and landed, and thankfully, it didn't seem to bother him a bit. On my second flight, I sat next to a delightful couple from Grande Prairie, who I found out had 9 grandchildren ages 7 and under! So all in all, it was a very good experience...except for the fact that by the time we touched down in Abbotsford, it was only 9:30 am, and I had already been up and travelling for eight hours. Oh well!
We were greeted at the airport by grandma Gayle, who was more than anxious to snuggle the stuffing out of the little bundle. He (obviously) took to her right away, and thankfully she had a couple hours to spend with us before she had to be back at work. Then Auntie Devan came by for a visit, as she and Brandon were shortly taking off for Seattle, and then the next day, off again to Hawaii until Christmas Day (Mele kalimaka is the thing to say on this bright Hawaiian Christmas day). And shortly after that, Auntie Laura came by for a visit too!
Yesterday me and my momma did some Christmas shopping, and then I got to spend the evening at my grandma Ps, which is always at the top of my list when I come to Mission.
Today we started out by going to Firwood Forest Christmas Tree Farm, my auntie Rita and uncle Vern's christmas tree business, to pick out a tree. It was nice to visit again - since I haven't been home for Christmas since 2005, I haven't been up there at holiday time in that many years. It's a whole experience, buying a Christmas tree, and my aunt and uncle make every effort for it to be an enjoyable and memorable experience for families to come and choose the perfect tree.

Getting the boy all bundled. It may not be -30, but it's still chilly!

The great tree quest

In mom's words, "We're looking for a tree with the same build as Mark".

After we were finished there, me and mom went to go pick up the Christmas day turkey at Safeway, and came back to decorate the tree. But minutes after we got home, I was tucking Hudson in for a nap, when all of sudden I heard frantic calls for Mark and doors slamming. I went to see what the commotion was all about, and it turns out that when my mom went to go put the turkey in the freezer downstairs, she discovered that the basement was covered in hot water!
So Mark grabbed the shop vac, and has spent the past few hours sucking all the water out, ripping up carpet, and moving stacks and stacks of boxes of wood away from the walls. I guess the hot water tank gave out in the short amount of time we were away, and spread it's joy allll over the basement floors.

Stacks and stacks of wood flooring

My mom and Mark have amazingly good attitudes about this sort of thing. I went down to (cruelly) snap a few pictures of the action, and Mark said, "Well, we've been meaning to get rid of the carpet and put down wood floors anyways. Sometimes you just need a little motivation." And my mom has basically laughed it off too, even though it will be a ton of work to move everything/go to the dump/put down floors/get a new water tank installed/etc! Luckily it didn't get as far as the room me and Hudsy are staying in, which already has wood flooring.
Anyways, despite everything, we managed to get the tree up and decorated, and are shortly heading over to my grandma's to shower before supper.

So that's basically it for our first few days out West. More to come!