As we approach the big day, we see more and more signs of
the impending season.
December 1 featured the Christmas Day Parade in Osoyoos, and
it was a lot of fun to watch. I believe
the fire department contributed half the vehicles in the parade. Local businesses such as one of the grocery
stores participated as well, but it was a lot less artificial than a big city
parade.
When Mr. and Mrs. Claus arrived, the children went
absolutely nuts, and it was clear that no one had given away the secret.
As I may have mentioned, many of the major roads on
Anarchist Mountain are named after local wildlife, and there are some amazing
bronze statues at the entrance to the road.
The people on Wapiti obviously got into the Christmas spirit(s?) early,
because Mr. Wapiti was looking quite festive on December 2.
As December came to be, there was considerably less snow
than we had at this time last year, and plants seem to have no idea it was
supposed to be winter. On December 4, I took a picture of the shrub roses blooming
vigorously outside the dental office.
A brief cold snap came, and the city water fountain bore
mute testimony to the chill.
We started getting into decorating, and Sinister and Dexter
flung themselves into the Christmas spirit.
It seemed a shame that no other statues were matching the
splendor of Wapiti, so a quick trip to the dollar store rendered Eagle,
Sasquatch and Caribou more festive. That
appeared to spark a little competitiveness because when we came back to take a
picture of Mr. Caribou, his decorations had been enhanced by someone else.
Mother Nature added to the picture briefly with a beautiful
dusting of hoar frost. (It can be very
cloudy/foggy here to the extent that we can see nothing from our windows. Sunny Okanagan is sometimes a veritable myth……)
One of our local spiders must have been
shocked to see the new decoration of its web.
Naturally Christmas includes some great food, and one of our
mountain traditions is to have a pot-luck dinner at our local fire hall in the
middle of December. The food is
tremendous with a huge variety, and there are draws for door prizes. About 125 people sat down for this event,
completely filling the hall. We are
extraordinarily lucky in our volunteer fire force which is apparently the
largest in Canada for a volunteer team.
A number of things happened last week. One of the wineries here features a “Communal
Table” where the chef features a 3 course meal based on a specific theme. We previously went to a meal based on native recipes
from the Haida Gwaii, and then the last one in December featured “Christmas in
Piedmonte”, an Italian area. It’s called
a communal table since everyone eats at a long table, and servings are
presented family-style. You can get wine
pairings with each course if you so desire.
Seventy people sat together for this meal. The food was divine.
We still have very little snow on the ground, but the cloud
patterns are fascinating. It will very
likely be a green Christmas in Osoyoos because there is no snow today, and the
temperatures continue to be mild.
The spirit of competitiveness notched up big time when the folks
on Sasquatch got the boy fully dressed up, and Mr. Moose got festive according
to a long tradition from one particular occupant. The few undressed statues remaining will probably get a
lot more attention next year based on boxing day sales.
Brian and I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and
look forward to sharing with you in the New Year.
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