The snow ceased by the time I woke up on Friday morning, and had even begun to melt already, what with the temperature being above zero. I checked the airport website and Donna’s flight was still scheduled to arrive at 2:50pm. I spent the morning doing odd jobs before catching the subway and Airport Rocket out to Pearson to collect her. She got out a minute before I got to the gate, so it was great not to have to wait.
And of course it was great to see my little sister again.
Apart from Skype and ten days in the UK in July 2013, we hadn’t seen each other for nearly 26 months (she was in Europe for eight months before Glen and I left for Canada). Despite staying in close contact, we still had plenty to talk about on the journey home and afterwards. In particular was her rather weird stay at a hostel in Washington DC that didn’t endear her to the capital (not after a fantastic week in New York).
Once we got back to our apartment, we got some food, she unpacked, we chilled, and then Glen came home at a reasonable time (he’s finally off on-call), we had dinner and then went to Scotiabank with Julian to watch Mockingjay, Part 1.
Julian was the only one who rated it more than a ‘meh’, but he hadn’t seen either of the other two films so he was at a disadvantage (or advantage, depending on how you want to look at it). Donna, Glen and I were all a bit bored with it, and were free and easy with the hole-picking.
We then went for dinner at Mother Earth, a Thai restaurant on Queen St West that we’d walked past a lot but never gone inside. Julian said it was good so we went in. He was right. The food was pretty tasty and we filled up on some delicious dishes (and cocktails).T
On the walk back to the subway, we stopped into the garden of Campbell House, which was covered with snow. This is the place where Glen and I had a great snowball fight last year. The snow was perfect for making large snowballs, which Donna and I proceeded to pelt each other with, before Glen and Julian joined in. Donna and I then made snow angels.
Rather than catch the subway right there, we headed further up the road to the town hall…but along the way we stopped at Osgoode Hall, which has a big park in it. It was also covered in snow and untouched. The added bonus this time were trees to hide behind. Donna and I made one team, while Julian and Glen formed another. We had a great time running around, trying not to slip over in the snow, and doing our best to escape being hit while trying to knock out our opponents. We were all puffed by the end of it. Such good fun.
Next stop was Nathan Phillips Square to see the Christmas tree (also there were people skating on the rink and playing hockey – at midnight), and then we looked at the Christmas displays in the windows of the Bay. We then caught the train home. Not a bad day at all.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?