Our COVID Christmas

 Tuesday, December 22 and Thursday, December 24, 2020

 

The COVID virus/epidemic in Canada had a huge impact on our traditional Christmas activities.  Because Christmas get-togethers were not advised our family was not able to gather at 9 Lambert as usual.  Papa and Uncle Craig arranged a ZOOM conference/dessert together for Christmas Eve. Everyone agreed that we would have a family Zoom conference including dessert and gift opening of Craig and Pamela’s gifts for the boys.

 

Uncle Craig and Aunt Pamela had mailed their Christmas gifts for the boys to 9 Lambert Dr.so Grandpa, Barbara and Grant delivered these on December 22 along with their gifts for Kirk/Karine and family.  Kirk collected some fresh eggs from their chickens for Grandpa.  Barbara said the boys could each open one small gift she had brought – cast iron pans for baking brownies.  They decided to save the brownies for the Christmas Eve dessert/Zoom call.

 

The Zoom call was a great success, featuring the brownies made by the boys, a sweet dessert with maple syrup made by Karine and a photo of their newly born puppy they would bring home in January. Kirk was able to set up virtual Christmas hats and other disguises for the boys to wear. Craig and their cat Cosette looked on. Then there were Christmas crackers.  Grant and Barbara opened three Christmas elves from Karine, ready to put on their tree.  Finally, the gifts for the boys. Lots of excitement! Merry Christmas to all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karine’s Outdoor Birthday

 Saturday, December 12, 2020

 Karine was working on her birthday on Friday.  On Saturday she and her Mom who share their day decided to go for a family hike at Mer Bleue.  It was cool and rainy but the boys had fun feeding the birds – 40 chickadees and nuthatches. Then they stopped in at 9 Lambert for an outside front deck “party” – respecting COVID 19 distancing protocols.  It was nice for the family to share the birthday and watch Karine open her gifts, including her annual Gatineau Park ski pass. Sam and David were happy to show their new teeth and to drink hot chocolate and eat some Christmas treats.  They were also pleased to get Grandpa’s gingerbread moose and cookies.  Sam gallantly repaired the birch deer’s leg.  It was a short cool rainy gathering but very enjoyable.

 

Eggs and Mail

 Saturday, November 28, 2020

 It was a beautiful late fall day.  Grandpa and Barbara drove up to Chelsea to deliver an advent calendar for Karine.  As she was at work, they left the calendar for her and had some outdoor time with the Bowman boys.  They were helping Papa set up their Christmas lights. David was pleased to show us his toothless smile.  Then the chickens arrived.  As snow is cold for their feet, they stop and stand on one leg for awhile, tucking the other foot up under their bodies to warm it up.  The boys showed us where one chicken had laid eggs under a canoe – they didn’t know how long these had been there so decided they wouldn’t eat them  Sam collected two eggs from the chicken house and one egg from Ross’s chickens next door (they were looking after them), so grandparents had three eggs to take home. (They were delicious!)

 

Kirk decided it was time to take a hike to their mailbox which was up the road.  David received a nice birthday card from cousin Mary Janet.  The boys were very pleased to get notes and homemade crocheted Christmas snowmen for their Christmas tree, from Jenny Craddock, their grandparents’ neighbour in Nepean.