This year the boys decided that we should do something different for Christmas, so they planned a ski trip for after Christmas and arranged for us to have Christmas with my nephew Richard and his wife, Lauren. Aaron drove to Gull Lake after work on Friday, the 22nd, and then we travelled to Calgary on the 23rd. We sort of bummed around on the 24th, doing a little shopping at MEC (just two blocks away from Steven’s apartment). Then on the 25th, we drove to the north end of Calgary to have supper with Richard and Lauren.

In the 26th, we drove to Banff. Not too much has changed in Banff in the last few years, except that skiing has become bizarrely expensive. It’s still a Mecca for Aussies, who comprise 90% of the workers at the ski hills and at least 50% of the service industry workers (waiters, …) in the town itself. We skied on the 27th and 28th. We had one day of fresh snow and poor visibility and one day or gorgeous, clear weather. The crowds were quite bad, but we were skiing Louise, so at least we could go to the back side and avoid most of the insanity.

After two days on the hill, our legs were tired enough, so we travelled back to Calgary on the 29th and back to Gull Lake on the 30th.