Adios 2025

Welcome 2026!

In hindsight, what a difference a year makes!

A year ago we were in Guatemala City (after a family Christmas week in Mexico) to pick up our perrito de Chichicastenango. She’d been boarded at a veterinary clinic just a few kilometres down Avenida Reforma from our hotel.

On Jan 3 we head to the airport with her, fingers still crossed that there are no glitches. Surprisingly there aren’t. Later in the day we walk out of YVR with Chichi in her carrier, wide-eyed and eager to start a life in Canada.

I look back and relive parts of the experience just to reassure myself of their reality. I scroll back through photos trying to connect the dots between 40 lb year-old Chichi and the 2 lb barely-weaned puppy riding around in my shoulder bag. Seems a lot like a dream. Some parts much like a nightmare, especially the first few days when we were not sure if she would survive and be healthy. What would we do with her while we were in Mexico? How and when would we get her home? More than a few tears were shed as we navigated the morass of bureaucracy associated with adopting a Central American dog.

I wish I could go back to that time, dry my tears, allay my fears and tell myself it would all work out. I wish I could have enjoyed those early days with Chichi instead of being distracted by worry. But that’s not how it works. And we’ve more than made up for our early qualms by adoring her more than we’d have thought possible. She is a gem of a dog.

In addition to a puppy we acquire two tabby cats, rehomed because of “allergies”. They arrive as Pickles & Beans; we rename them Charlie & Archie. They are an odd mix of ferociously strong & brave and loving & docile. One minute they are on the garage roof and the next they are letting Chichi drag them around by the scruff of their necks.

Our suddenly expanded family takes a while to adjust to. The puppy training. The walks and off-leash hours in dog parks. The vet visits. The neutering costs. The vaccines. The pet food bills. The endless cleaning of messes.

As well, the limits put on our time because the puppy needs to be let out to toilet every few hours. The limits put on our travel, not wanting to leave her with a pet-sitter at such a young age.

We do manage a few junkets.

In March we drop Chichi in Kamloops (huge thanks C & W) on our way to a week in Vancouver. Here we see friends & family, Gabor Mate (author of The Myth of Normal) at the QE, a Banksy exhibit in Gastown. Chichi gets to meet Willow & Winstin, niece Jaclyn’s dogs. They hit it off and spend hours running and play fighting. 

In July, at the height of summer, a road trip to Osoyoos ends up being a lesson in travelling with a dog.  We stay in a dog-friendly motel, spend mornings walking dog-friendly trails, afternoons on dog-friendly beaches. And evenings with Chichi in the car (the motel has a strict “no dogs left alone in the room” policy), us in a restaurant, hurriedly eating so she doesn’t have to be alone for too long.

Dog ownership is a lifestyle that goes with you on vacation.

A very short and impulsive trip to North Vancouver for friend Brian’s birthday happens mid-August. It’s Chichi’s second road trip, other than to the cottage. She turns out to be a star traveller. Mostly alert and looking out the window and blessedly quiet. I’m relieved that she doesn’t snap at or bite one of Brian & Renee’s six grandchildren, all sticky fingers and grasping hands, reaching to pet Chichi as she cowers in a rhododendron bush.

I spend a week in Toronto with my Saskatchewan family, staying with friends Seonag & Geoff in their spacious and conveniently located home. Not that we are there much. Our action-packed itinerary has us out and about every day, all day. Name the tourist sight, we took it in. Missed nothing on Fodor’s list of the Best of Toronto. All done in the delightful company of 10 yr old Blake.

Big Chill # 39 caps off the summer in Revelstoke. We spend the September long weekend in a large house on the outskirts of the city. The glorious weather has us outdoors enjoying the late season sun, the fresh mountain air, and the breathtaking scenery.

A third generation chiller joins the party. Lexie, the year-old daughter of Jenn & Jonno, and Jeanne & Don’s granddaughter, attends her first Big Chill. We’re reminded of our ever increasing age. Once our generation had little kids. Now we are the grandparents, whether we actually are or not.

Another birthday party, another short, impulsive trip in November. This time it’s to Calgary for Jim’s 70th. We drive to Kamloops, leave Chichi with Curtis & Wendy and fly to Calgary from there.

I visit some of my old addresses, places of work, favourite restaurants (mostly no longer there), the top of Nose Hill for the views. Jim’s party is at the local pub, where the room that has been rented ends up packed to the gills with 39 guests. Jim basks in the glow of so much love that it is palpable.

On the home front: Silver Star, the garden, the pets, and volunteer work occupy much of our time. We socialize with neighbours. Meet new people. Family, friends, friends of friends, and other wanderers, plus their dogs, visit us. We find that Vernon is an easy place to impress and entertain guests.

Brian & Renee, Brent & Heather, Bev & Larry, Don, Quintan, Fiona, Megan, Julie, Sharon & Ray, Bianca & Kim, Shelley, Seonag & Geoff, Peter & Lanni, Rob & Lisa, Jan & Rick, Scott & Emma, Bruce & Syl, Jaclyn, Curtis, Wendy, Mackenzie & Eric …. we loved having you. Your dogs too: Soda, Juno, Linus, Stella, Blue, Fred, Willow, Winstin. We love that our dream for the house as a social gathering place is coming true.

Ditto for our Vernon friends. Donna & Ron, Sue & Ron, Allen & Patti, Lloyd & Janet, Rob & Leslie, Mike & Kathleen … thank you for gracing our table.

The cottage, now 26 years old, continues to work its magic as a refuge from our busy, noisy, messy, full lives. We cart the critters and their paraphernalia with us. Once there, all three go into wilderness mode. The cats successfully stalk & kill all manner of small rodents and birds. Chichi goes off-leash, racing through the forest, chasing sticks into the water, trying and failing to catch one of the ducks swimming close to shore.

Inside the cottage we all down-shift to a much slower gear.

Christmas in Vancouver is the last junket of the year. We find a large VRBO suite in the west end, on the edge of Stanley Park. Niece Jaclyn, a $90 thrift store haul, an hour of time, and voila! the space is decked out for the season. It is a perfect spot for a week of social engagements.

It’s so cozy and festive that when friend Rosella comes for lunch we sit for several hours gabbing, never getting around to taking Chichi for the planned walk on the seawall. She seems happy to just sleep, likely still recovering from the 23,000 steps she and Craig logged the day before.

Rather than the traditional roast turkey on Dec 25th we do a Mexican meal, most of which is prepped in Vernon. Craig makes & freezes lasagne and we bring it for Christmas Eve. The lasagna comes out again on the 27th when friends gather.

Friends Peter & Lanni have us to her Kits Point home for dinner and a look at her art studio. Chichi & Juno, their older-by-a-year doodle, have met before and are happy to reconnect.

Lunch with Charlotte, the friend I’ve known since I was 10 yrs old, is a chance to go way back into the distant past. We talk about high school classmates, girl cliques, old flames, and where did everyone end up? We decide that we are amongst the lucky ones. The ones who didn’t marry their totally unsuitable high school boyfriends, the ones who didn’t end up in bad marriages and then divorced, the ones who didn’t end up single moms, or worse, moms with breast cancer who had to leave their little kids too soon. We raise our glasses and toast our great good fortune.

Back in Vernon for New Year’s Eve, it’s off to Donna & Ron’s where new friends gather to send out the old year, which we do at 9 PM, reasoning that it is midnight in New York.

And so we say goodbye to 2025. Another year lived fully.

A chaotic and life-changing year! Craig getting his retirement wish for two cats and a dog turned our lives inside out and upside down. Craig retiring further upended our lives. Very little is as it once was. For better and for worse, we end the year older but wiser, more convinced than ever that every shift, every change, everything new happens for a reason. Fate deals the cards, we play the hand.

Maybe 2026 will be the year we can slow down and catch our breath. The year we can reap what we have sown. The year we can look back on and say that nothing much happened. Although with two weeks in Saskatchewan and a month in Japan already booked, smooth sailing seems unlikely.

What stays the same, never wavering, always true, ever reliable are the wonderful friends and family who love and support us as we muddle our way through a life that seems more prone to drama than most.

We hope when you look back on 2026 you can say that it was everything you hoped for. That the inevitable bumps in the road were manageable. That you have more good times than bad. That we all stay connected to what’s important: each other. And our precious pets. Now more than ever I understand the power of a furry animal to keep me grounded.

Happy January 2026 to all!!!