This excerpt from my Calendiary detailed a fun little trip my older sister Corinne and I took over the Christmas holidays when I had just turned fifteen and was in grade ten. I think my Aunty Janice came up with this idea and paid for Corinne and I to fly to Calgary from Saskatoon but that meant a grueling bus ride on Christmas Day to get there.

The next few days in my Calendiary are filled with fun activities Aunty Janice and Uncle Roy had planned out for us such as shopping, downhill skiing, cross country skiing and even some fine dining.

They lived in a storybook little village called Bragg Creek, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Calgary was half an hour to the east and Banff and Jasper less than an hour to the west. It’s beautiful country.

On NYE, as per my entry that day, we ate with Aunty Janice and Uncle Roy and another couple at a place in Canmore, Alberta (I think) called Chez Francois. I remember it. It was fancy. I felt like such a country bumpkin. It was the kind of place where they brought out course after course and some sorbet in between meant to cleanse my redneck backwoods palate.

December 25, 1991

Got up at six o’clock before Mom left for work to open presents. Got two headbands, a scarf, a dickie, a tape, a shirt, earrings, chocolate and a mood ring. Also nail polish and tights. Left for Saskatoon on the bus, got there at ten pm. (We left at three pm.) Stayed at Doris and Merlin’s.

Because my Mom always worked shift work as a nurse and guaranteed she worked every other Christmas, we had to be flexible about what our Christmas mornings looked like. Getting up at six am to open gifts is not fun but it had to be done. My older sister Corinne and I spent most of Christmas Day on a Grey Goose bus headed west to Saskatoon.

My parents’ friends, Doris and Merlin lived about an hour outside of Saskatoon and they picked us up from the bus depot and kept us for the night, put us on the plane the next day.

December 26, 1991

Went into Saskatoon with Doris and Merlin and Todd. Went to a museum. Flew from Saskatoon to Calgary, it took one hour. Staying at Janice and Roy’s.

I have no recollection of the museum we went to, no idea what kind of museum it was. Must’ve been exciting.

I had gotten a horrible head cold on this amazing trip to the Rockies and spent much of the remaining time convalescing on Aunty Janice’s couch, doped up on Contac C and Neocitran.

My head was so congested that on the flight back from Calgary to Saskatoon, my head felt like it was going to blow right off my neck. It literally felt like someone was poking my head with pins the whole flight.

It had been a great vacation but when we got home on January 4, 1992, I wrote that I was so happy to be home.