Our Christmas Day in Powell River 2020 

 

It's been an unusual year with the coronavirus and our Christmas was unusual too. We have four married children all living in Powell River and we had none of them for Christmas visits this year and we didn't go to their homes either. Since this was our first year at home for Christmas after spending many winter seasons in Mexico, we thought it would be wonderful that we could have some family for Christmas but that wasn't going to be the case because of the restrictions of no social visits outside your core bubble, basically, those in your home, established by Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia. However, saying that, we decided to stay positive in a difficult situation and make it a special time. We decorated our home early with a Christmas tree and a nativity scene; we hung lights outside on our balcony and added an illuminated Santa and candy cane lights.  John also hung sets of lights on two bushes in our front yard completing the festive atmosphere we wished to create.

 

It was a dull, dark, wet Christmas morning as we awoke before 7:00 a.m., not at all like Mexico’s warmth by 6:00 a.m. where we would stand on our front deck to exchange Christmas greetings with our neighbours and feel the warmth of the morning sun on our faces as we sipped away at our coffees.  No, this was Canada, and after having hot coffee we had a surprise carport visit from our daughter Ann and our granddaughter, Tina, who both appeared in their red Christmas coats and wished us a Merry Christmas.  When they left we subsequently opened our Christmas stockings which Santa had filled with small cosmetic gifts and a lovely sweater for me and tools and candy for John. Later we ate a special breakfast of French Toast using raisin bread soaked in eggnog complimented with sausage rolls and smoothies of cucumber, banana, yoghurt, eggnog with two teaspoons of flax meal. A great start to our Canadian Christmas Day!

 

We received numerous texts from family members and made several phone calls as well and juggled those between opening our numerous gifts from under the tree.  We had far more gifts than we deserved and felt very spoiled with all the parcels we opened.  My gifts included a day backpack, gloves, puzzles, stretch pants, scarf, slippers, tea towel, ornaments, candles, and a compass. John’s were a day backpack, gloves, socks, wall clock for the workshop, shirt, lighted cap, and first aid kit.  We shared a gift of a wooden based Marble Solitaire set with stone marbles and a beautifully framed photo of our newest grandchild with her parents.  I know I’ve left out many other gifts, too numerous to mention.  To top this off one gift has not yet arrived!

 

We ate a quick lunch of quiche and then had a short nap before a scheduled computer visit with five other family members, organized by our grandson Mark.  That was exciting and lovely to see different people on the screen.  Greg, another grandson, lives in a group home and this made his day as he saw his family on the screen.  He was overjoyed and chatted a lot which made us all realize how important it was for him to connect.  We saw the greatgrandchildren with their new Christmas gifts and each child anxious to show us as many gifts as possible.

 

Early afternoon, we prepared the turkey for the oven by stuffing the cavity with frozen green grapes from our grapevines and the neck portion with chorizo sausage then basted the carcass with a mixture of butter and spices. We covered the 15-pound turkey with foil then placed it in the oven at 325 degrees convection, expecting it to be cooked in four to five hours. In the meantime, John prepared a pot of potatoes and another pot of mixed carrots and yam.  I cut the base from brussels sprouts and used a knife to make a cross-cutting into the core. Our vegetables were ready to cook.  Now we simply had to wait until the turkey was done.

 

In the meantime, we listened to our Sunday sermon taken from Matthew about the importance of the “baby” born in Bethlehem, no ordinary child but Emmanuel, God with us.  This was a peaceful acknowledgment of the purpose of this remarkable day.

 

We had everything ready for our special meal. And while we waited with anticipation we connected with other family and wished them Christmas greetings, thanking them for their generous gifts. We checked the turkey which looked like it was coming along nicely so we decided to have a couple of crib games before we organized the supper in earnest.

 

After checking the turkey once more we started to cook the vegetables expecting the meat to be ready to eat around 6:00 p.m. Well, that didn't happen because the turkey did not look cooked at 5:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. although the meat thermometer indicted a few degrees off 180 degrees C.  So, at 6:00 p.m. we raised the temperature to 365 degrees after returning the bird to the oven and checked at 6:30 p.m. and still the meat thermometer wasn’t high enough and finally, at 7:00 p.m. we took the turkey out of the oven and John carved it ready for dinner. By this time all the vegetables had been cooked and were ready to be served.  Needless to say, the brussels sprouts had turned a pale green as they sat on the stove, the mashed potatoes were barely warm but the carrot and yam mixture was ready as it had been placed on the warming element.  We did have a  pot of hot gravy to pour over our plate of food to hide our calamity. Perhaps I need more practice cooking turkeys!  We were ravenous by the time we ate and enjoyed our late evening turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

 

Now to the clean-up, I put the leftover food into plastic containers while John washed all the pots and utensils and tidied the kitchen.  It has always been our habit that whoever cooks the dinner does not do the dishes so it isn't so onerous for one person. 

 

Next, we watched a little television and took a break after an hour to have our dessert of pumpkin pie sprayed with whipped cream which we heartily devoured. 

 

This was our 2020 Christmas Day!  We are thankful for all the blessings we enjoy in life.

        Photo Taken from the Yew Trail Viewing-Stand Overlooking Haslam Lake