Out with the old

It's December 31, 2015.  Life in Vernon carries on as I guess it does in most families with three generations living together and trying not to dwell on the small stuff.  I'd become used to planning my life in advance because when you live alone that's what you do if you don't want to be by yourself all the time.  I continue to do that in the part of my life that I have some control over, but for the rest I find that the best times come when I least expect them, when I sit back and see how the others shake things out.  Christmas Day was a good example of one thing leading happily to another as if it had been choreographed when the real reason why it worked so well was that it hadn't been.

 The one constant here is the glorious sun and snow at Sovereign and Silver Star.  Cross country skiing this morning, amidst the tall spires of dark Montane Spruce that appear to pierce the luminous blue sky, unbent by their burdens of snow, was as uplifting an experience as my Protestant spirit could bear.  

I was thinking of going back up to Silver Star this evening to watch the torchlight parade and fireworks as I did last New Year's Eve with Mo and John, but I couldn't muster much enthusiasm among the other members of the family.  It's cold and dark, so we are going to eat Korean food that May and Jay have made and then settle down on the Christmas couch and watch the new James Bond movie, 'Spectre.'  That is, Jay, May and I will do that.  Min Hee is out with her boyfriend, and Jin Hee has just declared that now that she is a teenager, she has to stay by herself and text her friends, her many friends.  She is pleased to be popular and quite prepared to do all the networking that that entails.

More Peace, some Joy and Good Health to all in 2016.

Miriam skiing amid the Montane Spruce at Sovereign Nordic Centre this morning.

FIVE MORE SLEEPS

CHRISTMAS IS COMING.  The goose isn't getting fat, but the turkey is out back keeping cold in Jim's Eccentricity.  We haven't put any pennies in any old man's hat, but we left out lots of canned food for the Vernon realtors to pick up during their food drive for the homeless.  The woman realtor who has organized that program for the last few years received the 'volunteer of the year' award this week.  She deserves the recognition.  Her system is really efficient, and they collect MANY boxes of food for those who don't have enough each Christmas.  Whether you have a ha'penny or not, may God, in whatever form you imagine, bless you, wherever you are.

Our family has a lot to be thankful for in 2015.  Min Hee and Jin Hee are adjusting well to school in Canada, especially Jin Hee who is younger and more enthusiastic.  But Min Hee is making a real effort; at 16, life is not as easy as it is at 13.  Now that May and the girls are officially immigrants, they can take advantage of all the help that Immigrant Services offers with training, job searches and just providing a staff that can answer most of their questions and give them a place to meet others.  As I'm a volunteer ESL teacher with IS, I am also invited to some functions.  May and I went to a great Christmas lunch there last week.  The food from all over the world was delicious and the ambiance was lively.  Jay is working every day with a framing crew.  They are roofing a huge home at Predator Ridge, a golf 'venue' just outside of Vernon.  They're working at quite a height, but he likes it and takes pictures of the views of Kal Lake, etc. from the peak. They have all gone through a lot of changes since Bert and I picked them up at the Kelowna airport in early July.  

Who knows what 2016 will bring.  

Peace and good health to all, I hope.

Ghost trees on the snow shoe trail at Sovereign Lake last Friday morning.

Our house in the setting sun, around 4:30 that same afternoon.

 

Bringing in the tree

The first Noel in Vernon for all of us is fast approaching.  I have spent every Christmas since I moved west in Victoria with mom and dad and Barbara and Terry.  Jay, May and the girls say that Christmas in Korea is a very 'maimed rite.'  So this year we are going to do it right.  At first I thought we would never get underway, but that's because I'm still getting used to Filipino teenage time.  I had the weekend schedule planned.  On Saturday we would drive up to Silver Star to watch the turning on of their Christmas lights.  I've seen it once before.  It's a beautiful spectacle with hot chocolate, blazing fire pits and tall dark spruce instantly glistening with lights.  We didn't do that.  My enthusiasm was not contagious enough to infect two teenage girls intent on becoming the most popular people in their schools.  Dates and sleepovers came first.  My hopes were dimmed for Sunday.  Would we make it to the Christmas Tree Ranch in Lumby to get our tree.  I had never been there, but the web site looked good.  MILAGRO!!!!!  We went.

Everyone was keen.  We took two cars; mine for the tree and Jay's for the gang.  I got us lost, but that just meant we drove down more backroads in the Lumby countryside.  The ranch was great: lots of trees, an outdoor fire with benches around it and a workshop/ hot chocolate place to warm up in.  We went for a walk along a semi frozen stream to a perfect miniature house and back to the main ranch. Jay had brought a saw because we intended to cut our own tree, but just before heading out we decided to look at the pre cut trees; one of them was plump and the perfect height.  The tree rancher came over to explain that it had been cut earlier in the morning and then abandoned by the feckless people who found it because they had broken its top branch.  We happily bought the orphan at a $10.00 discount. We don't have an angel to place at the top anyway.  It filled my car from door to door to door.  From that moment everything went from Filipino/teenage time to a New York minute.  Jin Hee and Jay put up the tree.  It was Jin's first time and she wasn't spared either the excitement or the cursing that always goes with that ritual.  Jay began confident in and proud of the tree stand he had bought, but he descended into frustration and the odd curse as he struggled to make it work, while Jin and I took turns holding it and Min Hee sat near by, looking up from her cell phone once in a while when asked to tell us whether the tree was perpendicular to the floor or not.  Before this part of the season's traditions was completed, I left to enjoy a Sunday hot tub and dinner with Mo and John, as I do every week.  When I returned around 9:00pm, the house was transformed for Christmas.  The tree was alight, decorated and even had presents under it.  It turned out that May, planning ahead as usual and only too eager to shop, had beaten us all and bought some Christmas presents last week.  The lights were strung in the livingroom window and the whole house was aglow.  Today there are even more gifts under the tree.

So  our first Vernon Noel is well underway.

At the ranch

Walking along the stream

Skiing with Mo today

Our chubby tree 

THEY DID IT!!!!!!

It's 4:30pm, they're back and they're now officially immigrants to Canada. 

Jin Hee, Jay, HRH Queen Elizabeth ll, Min Hee and May. This is the official picture,taken  by a Canadian border guard. 

South of the border

Jay, May and the girls left early this morning to drive to Osoyoos, BC and then cross the border into the USA so that they can come back through the Canadian border and thus receive the entry stamp that will complete their acceptance as immigrants to Canada. It was either that or drive to Surry, BC, which is farther away. I hope all goes well. Jay had what I hope will be the final heart-stopping moment of doubt this week when he realized that both the girls and May were classified under "spouse". He made a joke of it at first by telling the girls that they were now his wives. Their expressions of shock and disgust when they finally understood what he had said gave us a good laugh. But Jay himself was a bit worried about what might be an error on the forms. For the first time since he began the whole procedure he had been given a phone number with the final papers. He tried calling twice with no answer. Finally someone answered the phone but couldn't answer his question.  After much careful rereading of the obfuscating language on the CIC form and consulting with my Korean friend Lusia he decided that because the girls are minors they are being accepted along with their mom, who is the official immigrant and his spouse.  I can only hope this was the case.  It's 3:20pm, already getting dark, and they're still not home. I think that's good news. They're celebrating. 

I had four days of excellent cross country skiing this week, so winter is well underway. There's still no snow in Vernon, but the hills are white. 

My latest Immigrant Services ESL student is inspiring. She is Russian. She has plan. She has dream. I don't think the Russian language has articles. Her enthusiasm to learn English has inspired me to offer her classes of 2 hours each, two nights a week. She also takes 3 hours of ESL a day at Okanagan College in Kelowna; she gets there by bus, which takes 2 hours each way. They've been in Canada four years, but as the mother of three teenagers she was the last in line to learn English and get back to work. Now she's making up for lost time. 

Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre

Miriam celebrating the snow. 

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

Jay received an email this morning from CIC informing him that the files he submitted for May and the girls have been processed.  They will soon receive the cards that prove they have been officially accepted as immigrants to Canada. WOW!!!!

He spent over a year carefully compiling everything, and it's paid off well before he was told it would. Last week, he was thinking about what had to be done before Jan. 4, 2016 the date when it would have been necessary to renew the visitors permits for another 6 months.  He's happy now that he decided to put that off for a while. What a roller coaster we are on; yesterday there was a teenage crisis with Min Hee and today jubilation with CIC. I thought it would be ages before I could make the latter part of that statement. And so it goes. We rise to meet the challenges that knock us down.  

When I phoned Mo to tell her the good news, she suggested that the new Liberal government might have sped things up. I kind of doubt that. It takes more than 22 days to turn the rig that is CIC around. But I would rather give the credit to the Liberals and Justin Trudeau than to the Harper Conservatives. I remember how immigrants who were welcomed to Canada when Pierre Trudeau was PM remaind loyal to the Liberal Party for years afterwards. Now Jay's gang and 25,000 Syrians will perhaps feel tha same connection to his son's Liberals.

We had a hard frost last night, so when I finish this, I will go outside and cover the roots of the roses for winter. On Tuesday morning I woke with a start, suddenly thinking, for the first time since the last ski of last March, of my duct-taped boots. I had meant to buy new ones at the spring sales, but family turmoil overwhelmed such considerations. So I spent the day shopping and finally bought a pair up at Silver Star. There was a complete covering of snow up there.  Cross country sking began yesterday, but much as I love my new boots, I'm going to wait until the blanket is thicker and softer. 

Jin Hee and Min Hee dressed for Hallowe'en. 

Home again

I made it over the Rogers Pass in summer tires.  There was a skiff of snow on the sides of the road but nothing to compare with the slush storm west of Sault Sainte Marie. It's been a warm, bright fall between Quebec and BC. By driving west, I passed through about four different Falls, with colourfull leaves at both ends, even if West Quebec wasn't as brilliant as it sometimes is. The most extreme one-day change was between Calgary, where most of the leaves had fallen but it was still quite warm, over the Roger's Pass where some of the peaks and glaciers of the Rockies were puffy white with a seven minute frosting of fresh snow and then down into the valley of the North Okanagan where the temperature was cosiderably warmer and the trees were still brightly in leaf. 

The warmest part of that day was the late afternoon when I walked in the door to see Jay, May and the girls. The house was steamy from May's "making food".  The basement that I had left with bare beams and duct work in the ceiling, cobwebs everywhere and plumbing trenches in the floor was utterly transformed.  It's not your father's fifties 'finished' basement, but a professionally built bathroom and bedroom that fits perfectly into the rest of the house. The girls are sleeping there now, and May spends happy hours there decorating it and transforming an 'L' shaped space under the stairs into her own hidaway. Jay even put a rug on its floor and painted one wall the same red as the doors. It's festooned with hooks from which hang all her favorite purses, dresses, hats and jewels. 

Now we are preparing for the girls' first real Hallowe'en. May, Jin Hee and I went to Value Village to buy the costumes. They are going to be twin clowns. We went to the corn maze at the O Keefe Ranch the other night and screamed our throats sore. Min Hee was running so hard she tripped and lost her cell phone. That was really scary for her and aggravating for the adults who had told her to put it in a zippered pocket before we were let into the maze. We carried on running and screaming and being chased by aliens. I was terrified twice. Both times it was because I was at the back of our gang when an alien, one waving a chain saw, burst out of the corn stocks behind me and began chasing us. It took my breath away, my back withered and I screamed so loudly my throat hurt later. Min Hee was lucky. The people in charge found her phone; she got it back at the main gate. I think she thought she was going to take a selfie with an alien or something. She doesn't do much without her phone. 

Today Jay and I drove Jin Hee to her basketball game at BX School. We stayed to watch them win. Jin scored 3 baskets. Tomorrow is her birthday; she will be 13. 

Downtown Calgary from a hill above the Elbow River near Jo's. 

A view of the Rockies from the Roger's Pass. 

Yellow larch amid the spruce and pines in the North Okanagan.