An Early Canadian Christmas Trip

So last week Alison and I braved the snowstorm that beat the living snot out of the Northeast part of this country called America to travel across the border to visit my family. We drove as far as we could in the nasty weather on Thursday night and grabbed a hotel room in the small town of Johnston, NY, not too far north of Albany. At 6am the alarm went off and it was time to hit the road again and we drove straight through to make an appointment I'd scheduled at 11am on Friday.

With that out of the way, we finished a quick bit of Christmas shopping before heading to my mother's place and then moving on to my dad's, Swiss Chalet for dinner, and then my grandparents' apartment. Friday was busy, but it was great to see everyone on that side of the family again.

Saturday morning we went for breakfast with mom and my stepdad and then drove up to Toronto to see my mother's side of the family after checking out my Grandmother's swanky new digs in Niagara Falls. We all crammed into my uncle and aunt's house and enjoyed a nice dinner. Once that was over, Alison and I went to Young and Dundas downtown. I hadn't been there in over eight years and was amazed at how much like Times Square it has become. We drove down Queen West only to find that almost everything had closed at 8pm before heading up Bathhurst and parking near Honest Ed's. We peeked inside Suspect Video, I was relieved to see it was still there as it played a huge part in my movie watching habits while I lived in Toronto, and then spent a good hour combing the CD bins at Sonic Boom before hitting the hotel in Yorkville. We ordered some BBQ from a place that delivered, watched TV, and crashed.

During all of this, I accumulated some pretty rad Canadian content in the form of:

The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein DVD Collection Vol. 2
The Hanson Brothers - Sudden Death CD
Stompin' Tom - The Ballad Of Stompin' Tom CD
Stompin' Tom - Bud The Spud CD
Stompin' Tom - Kic' Along With Stompin' Tom CD
The Gruesomes - Live From Hell CD
The Forgotten Rebels - In Love With The System CD
Thor - Keep The Dogs Away 30th Anniversary Edition CD

I was disappointed to see that no one was stalking the new Hanson Brothers 2-CD set called It's A Living, but I'll snag it online sooner rather than later.

Sunday we woke up and drove back to Niagara Falls to visit with my sister, her husband, and their two super cool kids but once noon hit, it was time to drive back to NY. We made it back late Sunday night and as rushed as the trip was and as exhausted as I was from it, I'm glad we did it.