Erin

On Sunday morning we all bid Mum goodbye, then took a cab to the airport and picked up the rental car. The drive from Montreal to Toronto was no difficulty, except that bits of salt scum would kick up from the road and form a crust on the windshield; I had to keep hitting the "wiper spray" every few minutes for about a hundred miles, until the road dried a bit.
Kelly and Alun and their kids were there; Jenn and John and baby Ella arrived midday Christmas. In the meantime we went to Erin and did a few minutes of shopping; went to a cidery for lunch; and visited the horses.

Josh won Christmas by getting me a pith helmet; Gwen came close, with a set of miniature swords for skewering hors d'oeuvres. Or maybe Gwen won, because she got Diana a pair of opal earrings to match the opal necklace we got in Cairns; there was much oohing and aahing over those.