Bill and I usually have a very busy holiday season with lots of parties to go to. This year has been a little different. Much more quiet. But we did do a few things. As usual, Bill was in charge of judging for the Rotary Festival of Trees. This year they did things differently though. No gala event; no auction. Instead they had trees at the Hilton for the public to view as usual but instead of auctioning the trees off, they had a raffle. Not sure if it was successful or not as a fundraiser compared the the auction. Bill was happy that there wasn't a gala this year. It is a pretty expensive event to go to and we never need to buy things in the silent or oral auction but it didn't seem the same without the gala this year.
Everything that we usually go to all ended up being on the same day--December 14th. We didn't go to the Army-Navy game party. Bill had no desire to watch Army lose again and he had made plans to go to see the opera with his mother instead. I thought about going until I discovered that the game was not in the morning but in the afternoon and would interfere with getting ready for a party in the evening. So I ditched it too and watched the game at home.
It also happened to be Christmas Open House at the Marshall House and Fort Vancouver. I don't remember the last time that I had time to go down there for Christmas or even if I have before. Stopped by the Marshall House to see their decorations. Beautiful of course.
And I always love to go to the Fort when they have everyone dressed out in costume. I kept looking for a Christmas tree at the Chief Factor's house and never found one. I had forgotten that Christmas trees were really a German thing and didn't catch on with the English until after this time period of Fort Vancouver. But they had carolers, various demonstrations of cooking, firearms, games, etc.
Saturday night was the CAA Christmas Party. We had fun seeing our friends and especially joining Jeff and Julie for dinner there. We have seen the Dickens Carolers perform past Christmases at a friend's home. They happened to be at our CAA party this year which was fun as well.
Wednesday night, Bill and I went to the annual Rotary Christmas Ships party at the Red Lion. This was the first year that I was actually able to take some photos. We have gone to many parties over the years. One of our friends used to always host a party at her condo on that night. But her home was much too far from the river to actually take photos and you needed to use binoculars to get a close look. We went to another friend's party one year on the beach but the boats didn't get close enough to us for photos to turn out that year either. It was pretty cold being out on the beach to watch them as well. I like to be able to watch and wait indoors.
Last year we went to the Red Lion for the party and I was all set to take pictures but the weather was so miserable that there weren't very many boats, they were way behind schedule to arrive at the Quay and I wasn't feeling very well. So we ended up giving up and leaving the party. We did take a route home along the river so we did get a glimpse of them on the way home.
This year the stars aligned and I was able to get pictures. We had a great time at the party so it wasn't too bad waiting even though they were later in arriving than we thought. And the weather was wonderful so I headed outside to get some photos as they passed the hotel.
So even though it has been a quiet holiday season for us, we have been able to enjoy a few traditions. Wishing all of you a joyous holiday season as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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