My Mom in Yellowknife

Last fall we (my sister and I) tempted the Canadian winter travel gods by suggesting to my 90-year-old mother she consider spending the Christmas season here rather than in her assisted living apartment in the Niagara Peninsula, her home for the last four years. It took a bit of arranging, but the upshot of it was that she arrived on December 8 and departed on January 6, a period which enabled her to attend my concert, take in a few shows at NACC, "do" Christmas and New Year's with family, and celebrate her 91st birthday on January 4th.

The weather gods smiled benignly (whew!! thank you thank you thank you!!) in Toronto, Calgary, Yellowknife, Edmonton, and Toronto again. It must be said right off that the whole undertaking could not have happened without the wonderful contribution of my son Willem, who ferried his grandmother from her apartment to the airport in December and back again in January, the return trip no small feat since it involved a midnight pickup in Toronto the night before his first class. Thank you Willem!! And the Air Canada staff who saw to my mother's well-being in the various stages of the journey were almost universally uncommonly attentive and kind - thanks to them, as well!

So of course the first thing winter visitors from "the south" almost always require is suitable attire. Note the difference in my mother's outerwear in the first picture (waiting in Calgary airport, where I had gone to meet her), and in the second (Yellowknife, my sister having brought the right clothes to the airport):

The polar bear is iconic and must appear in thousands of photos around the world - not that polar bears are native to Yellowknife, but they are to the arctic parts of the Northwest Territories, and since Yellowknife is the capital, it's legit.

We did many things, considering that the first few weeks were indeed very very cold. One day, after we had spent the previous one only indoors, I suggested a walk, if only a short one, on the flat and relatively sheltered path around Niven Lake. Dressing my mom in windpants, parka, hat, mitts, boots, had us both laughing at the Charlie Brown image it invoked, of his falling down in his winter attire and having to be pushed around by Snoopy. That was certainly what it felt like! but such wear does have the advantage of warmth, which is the ultimate goal. So mom at Niven:

We attended a few events at NACC - Timothy Chooi on the violin, the Bella Dance Academy's delightful performance of the Nutcracker - and of course there was loyal support for my choir concert at St Patrick's Catholic church. Here my sister, my mom, and I after that concert:

Other events were more mundane - comparing grocery prices, for example, which to my mom's chagrin turned out to be cheaper here than where she lives:

But the most important part of the visit - besides giving her an impression of where two of her daughters are living - was family. My niece Laura was up from San Francisco - in the first picture she and mom are at Trudy and Bill's enjoying a bit of advocaat (potent Dutch vodka-laced "pudding"), in the second she is relaxing with Bou, in the third about to open her stocking at our family Christmas "do":

 It was a good visit, all told - and we all agree we'd better not tempt those weather gods again!