Friday 13 December

A relaxed morning, sitting and watching the snow fall as we had breakfast. Dianne and I went to the local ice hockey rink, which has a walking track on an upper level overlooking the rink; Friday it’s open for public skating, so we were able to watch the skaters as we walked around the track: quite cold inside with the ice but that’s how you get exercise when it’s too cold to walk outside! It was lovely watching a couple of the skaters – a teenage girl who was obviously a skater, a tiny boy, maybe 3 or 4(?) in an ice hockey outfit, helmet and stick, learning the game with his mum – falling, getting up, etc.

Afterwards, a drive to Kitchener’s ski hill. It’s a good height for getting a taste of skiing and would certainly be perfect for learning and for families; I guess the professionals would find it too tame, although it’s high enough to have a chair lift. It will be opening tomorrow because of the sudden early snowfalls and so today they were grooming the snow ready for the first use of the season (of course, snowmakers are involved as well). People were already buying their season passes and thanks to the early snow they’ll get quite a few more weeks’ value out of their pass.

Unfortunately, the cafe wasn’t operational today yet but we were invited to go up and look and to go into the restaurant area, overlooking the slopes: so pretty, with all the Christmas trimmings inside and the pristine slopes outside. Then it was back to Williams’ for coffee after checking out the local thrift store - Vinnies, Salvos style but much bigger and huge stock, very well presented and organised. 

Here's our tree in daylight - very pretty! Graham's stocking is in the foreground right.