When my brother and his wife told me a few months ago that they were thinking of coming up to visit us for my 50th birthday, I thought they were crazy. Near Christmas is the worst time of the year to travel. And it is also the prime hibernation period of the year in Dawson, because it’s dark and it is cold.

But they seemed eager to experience the cold, and the Yukon delivered!

Their arrival

It took them a couple of days to get here, of course, with a night in Whitehorse on the way. My friend Tarie prepped a Klondike survival kit for them!

Despite the cold, they made it without any significant delays!

Jeff and I drove out to the airport in separate vehicles to fetch them, since both of our vehicles only fit 5 people. Despite renting winter gear for a Yukon visit, none of them put any of it on, and they arrived in southern Ontario clothes and shoes! I think they all have warmer toes and fingers than I do though (I’ve frozen mine too many times) so they didn’t seem to mind!

Cold weather fun

The first day we got them acclimatized by going for a walk with Hank. It was -43°C/-45°F most of the time they were here. But the gear they rented in Whitehorse was perfect. It had boots, a down undercoat, a down parka, down snowpants, a balaclava, a hat with ear flaps, and down mittens with inner glove liners.

Can you tell who everyone is by their frosty eyes?

What troopers!!

We played a lot of games (thanks for the game loans Tarie!)

Some of us went for a nice hike up to Crocus Bluff and down the Supply & Demand trail one afternoon. We saw a sundog but the sun just didn’t quite clear the hill across the Klondike.

My Birthday

I am FIFTY! Wild, eh? It feels like a real celebration for me. Not to get too dark, but there was a time 7-8 years ago when it wasn’t that clear that I was ever going to see 50. That makes it far less terrifying to see such a big number on a cake!

Jeff made TWO birthday cakes and we invited some friends to drop by for pizza and cake. It was too cold for the pizza place’s propane to flow to their pizza oven, but Jeff was prepared with some freezer pizzas as a backup!

My friend Janet gave me a box with 50 wrapped gifts inside. It was so fun to open them all, and fish around in the box to open them in order! What a gal!

Jeff gave me a new food processor, and then he hit me with a big surprise! He wants to stroke another item off my bucket list and we’re going to New York City to see an NBA game in Madison Square Gardens!!! I’ve never been to an NBA game. Basketball was always my favourite sport, and I had long ago picked that arena as my goal. NYC!! I haven’t been there since 1991. We have nothing booked yet, but we’ll see if we can make it happen this winter. If not, it took me 5 years to get Jeff to Denver for his 50th birthday gift to see his Broncos play, so that is okay!

On my birthday, I also won a turkey dinner! Jeff entered my name into the daily Christmas draw at the grocery store, and I won! It was a frozen turkey, a can of cranberry sauce, a couple cans of creamed corn, and a box of stove top dressing!

Jeff cooked up the turkey and we ate it one night with our guests!

Another night we went around town, all squeezed in Jeff’s truck, to search for the 12 days of Christmas light displays we hunt down every year. It’s a lot of fun, and you think it would only take 30 minutes, but there is always one or two that you can’t find, and that was amplified this year when several were not lit up due to cold weather issues. It took us so long that we took a break halfway through at the arena to warm up with some burgers and fries.

I had a lot of plans for us that didn’t happen due to the cold: figure skating, skiing, more hiking, but the ice road opened while they were here, so Jeff took them for a drive across the river and back, and one day him and Easton got out for a frigid short skidoo ride. They got up to the top of the dome a couple of times.

Despite the weather, we had a great week. It felt like an old-fashioned Christmas with lots of people around, lots of snacks and food and games. It’s been a while since we’ve experienced this, maybe since Mom and Julie came to spend the holidays with us in Nova Scotia? Our house is small, but we all survived the close quarters, and they were great guests who didn’t complain about sleeping on air mattresses!

And then they were off, on a much fuller flight to Whitehorse:

Come again soon! And if it is warmer next time, maybe we can do some of those warmer activities!