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Published: December 30th 2015
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I had an easy flight from Manila to Vancouver with a stopover in Guangzhou (where I went a little overboard with the duty free!). I was lucky enough to get the emergency exit row from Guangzhou to Vancouver - which gave me unlimited leg room - and I also didn't have anybody sit in my row with me! I was able to stretch out across all 3 seats and use all the little tables etc. I only had a few short naps though so was pretty tired when I landed around 8:30 am Vancouver time. My plane landed an hour early and I found my Dad there waiting to welcome me back. The weather was pretty chilly in Vancouver so I had every stitch of my warm clothing on (I had put it on in Manila), and I was still a bit cold!
We packed up everything at Mom and Dad's and pretty much drove straight up to the cabin in Whistler. I thought I would be able to push through and stay awake until bedtime, but fell asleep for a solid 3 hours on the couch that afternoon while Mom and Dad decorated the Christmas tree. I did manage
to go to bed around 10 am and with the help of some melatonin slept through until 9 am. My older brother Jason, his wife Jenny and their two little girls Amelia and Chloe came up as well and we all settled in for a relaxing Christmas at the cabin. I got up skiing on Christmas eve with Jason and my mom, it was a beautiful blue bird day after a day of heavy snow. We also had my younger brother James arrive late on Christmas eve after working that day.
Seeing my two little nieces (whom I hadn't seen since July!) alight with the magic and delight of Christmas, along with having my whole family together was the best part of my vacation and made coming home much more exciting than if I went straight back to work! It was a very merry and happy holiday with lots of fresh snow, blue skies, cold walks, warm fires and lots of good food, wine, beer and company. We even had a great visit from my Uncle David and Aunt Cynthia who drove up to Whistler for a visit!
I returned to Vancouver after an amazing 7 days in
Whistler and will be spending a few days connecting with my friends here for New Year's and then fly back to Calgary this coming weekend and then - *gasp* - back to work on Monday.
I've had lots of chances to reflect on my travels and the amazing places I visited, the wonderful people I met and the sketchy modes of transportation that I managed to survive. I am so grateful to continually get these opportunities to travel and explore the world (biggest thanks to my boss who will hopefully let me do this again sometime in the future haha!). I will likely have one final blog post to recap my packing list - what I used and what I would do differently next trip - but otherwise this is the final blog post of this journey, and may there be many more in the future!
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Deb
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Welcome home!
I am thrilled you made it home safely and that you enjoyed your time with friends and family. Merry belated Christmas and Happy new year to come Jods! I look forward to reuniting! Xoox