December was full of good times and festive cheer. It was fantastic to see the fish, Inuk (my ball python) and Star (my Siberian Husky) after so long. Julia and I returned to our regularly scheduled JJ Days baking gingerbread men and, if I do say so myself, we put together one MEAN gingerbread house - complete with a penguin parade. We decorated the Christmas tree and listened to old Christmas records, while Kiki sang right along, out of tune as usual. No decorating session could be complete without a cup of hot chocolate 
with a dash of eggnog, a candy cane and marshmallows... yum! We even made it out to The Forks to go ice skating one night, which was simply magical since it was a cold snap and we were the only ones out on the ice. Beneath the warm, colourful lights with carols playing gently while people walked by, we hardly noticed the cold at all.
I stayed in town with my good friends Tracy and Rakesh, back in the neighbourhood where I lived once-upon-a-time, not long ago. Trent helped out with renos while I ran errands, preparing for Christmas and the next phase of our travels. Winnipeg put me into a fantastic mood what with all the beautiful decorations hanging from the ceiling of Portage Place, carols being sung in the halls at Polo Park and festively spicy lattés at Second Cup. All the bustling streets and people were enough to put my head into a spin, though – it’s funny 
what living in a remote community does to your sense of personal space after being away for a while. The best escapes were the get-togethers with friends I hadn’t seen in months – dinners, lunches, parties, Smitty’s wing night, tobogganing and Timmy’s. What a busy month!
Trent surprised me with a visit to see the Nutcracker at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Tchaikovsky has always been a favourite composer 
of mine, and I’d never been to the ballet. We dressed to the nines and sipped on wine before the first act, while listening to a group of carollers who were as expressive in their actions as they were in their words. It was a beautiful performance that really set the mood for the event. We also tried frozen cheesecake on a stick – sooo tasty, but gone way too fast.
The month of December was not all fun and games. Star had a stroke and had to be put down. The family went together to the vet. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever had to do. Star was a great dog, as well as my first, and it’s strange to know that she’s gone now. I will always remember her very fondly and cherish her memory in my heart.
Christmas Eve and Day were memorable as always. We had an abundance of 
Polish and Ukrainian food, prepared primarily from scratch by Mom, Dad, Bapci and me. We ate, drank, listened to carols, ate and drank some more. In the morning, we went to mass then opened up stockings and snacked on nuts and chocolates until we were full. We 
finally moved on to the Christmas tree and exchanged gifts. 
These are the moments of Christmas I enjoy the most, when everyone is happy and together. The gifts don’t really matter, they’re simply a symbol of love and caring. It’s the moments together that really count – sipping on flavoured coffees, eating chocolates and mandarins, sitting round the Christmas tree and cleaning up the carnage after the gifts have been unwrapped. It’s the togetherness that I enjoy. Dinner was at Babcia and Dziadziu’s where we sang carols in both English and Polish, as is the tradition. Trent was asked to choose a Polish carol and he did the unthinkable: he chose the one carol that stumped us all, even Babcia.
The next morning, we were back on a Greyhound bus, bound for Jasper where we would couchsurf and snowboard for a few days before starting work in BC. I said my goodbyes and was off again, driving through the near white-out conditions on the snow covered prairies.