Mark and I spent Christmas in Bedford (near Halifax) at the home of Mark’s sister Patsy. We didn’t have Christmas at my house until December 29 and 30. On that Saturday afternoon I went to the Polish deli near me to get sausages and cheese. Grant, Evelyn and Trooper arrived just after 5:00 as I was assembling an hors-d’oeuvres platter. I had picked up an enormous sushi platter at T&T Supermarket the night before at a reduced price since I had arrived at the store one hour before closing. I usually do this to take advantage of their closing sushi specials. This is my Christmas house:

Meat, cheese, sushi, artichoke hearts, jumbo shrimp and olives

My living room before Santa arrived. We opened one gift each on the night of December 29. Although Christmas had already passed, we still pretended as if it was Christmas Eve and opened up everything else on the morning of December 30.

This is how my place looked after Santa Craig visited, but before Mark had put his gifts out. I took this picture at 1:55 a.m. on the morning of December 30.

Grant and Evelyn on December 29 with their terror of a dog named Trooper