I was so sick on Monday that I was useless. I spent the day on the couch sucking on ice cubes and trying to keep my fever at bay. We drove to Barrie to pick up the van I had reserved only to find out they had a Jetta available instead! When we arrived in Collingwood, Rick went to the rental office to get the key and found out that the condo wasn't ready. It was still under construction and they didn't even call us to let us know it wasn't completed! The owner was there assuring us that he would have it ready by Christmas Eve and that he had a four bedroom one we could have until then. When we arrived at the buildings, we discovered a large muddy field.

We were supposed to go to Christine and Fred's on Tuesday for our traditional get-together on Dad's birthday, however I was still contagious and way too sick. The condo was no closer to completion on Wednesday but by then I was feeling well enough to shop for groceries and do something about our situation.

We received a full refund from the rental company and found a beautiful three-bedroom house in Nottawa. It would work for our purposes and was close enough to Collingwood to make skiing easy to get to if needed.

Helen came over from Lindsay today, Christmas Eve and we settled into Nottawa with the RV just steps away from the back door. Rick and I are staying in it and Helen and Karley are staying in the house. Rob was working so we invited Rosanne to join us on Christmas Day along with Jamie, Bill and Laura, Angie and Glenn and Jay. Rachel would be up on Boxing Day. Mary had to work through the holidays so we weren't sure when we would see her.