White Christmas

The weather in Virginia has been amazing. Except for a few inches of snow just before Halloween (long before Ottawa had any!), it has been in the 50s and 60s most days (that would be in the mid-teens in Celsius), with a few nights getting just below freezing. Since it is December, I’m really not complaining.

I decided to head back to Ottawa for Christmas. The cats stayed behind (in the capable care of Pat) and Nikita came with me. Although there was no snow when we arrived in Ottawa, it did snow on Christmas Eve — it would be a white Christmas after all.

After many delicious meals, lots of presents and a few tipples, it was time to work off some of the calories I had consumed. It has been a Boxing Day tradition to go skiing, but this year we decided to go snowshoeing. The temperature was about -10 C, which is certainly manageable, particularly when you’re working up a sweat. After a few hours of tramping around the woods and fields near Bowesville, we headed to Mrs. Le’s for some delicious Vietnamese food.

The rest of the week was spent visiting with friends, taking the dog for long walks in the snow (which she loves) and organizing stuff I wanted to bring down to Virginia. I pulled some items out of the storage facility and sorted through the stuff at Kim’s house. I spent my last day in town packing my car to the gills in freezing weather (-30 C with the windchill). I was ready to go south, this time with a good selection of riding gear, including my saddles and enough tack to get me started.