Chapter 1: Christmas 2023

This is the first official page of my digital scrapbook. Welcome! We are starting off strong with the physical form of my Happy Place.

This is a compilation of a few of my favourite photos and memories from my 3 weeks at home over the holidays. I grew up in Penticton BC, and about a 30 minute drive away is Apex Mountain – the lovely little ski hill that has allowed my family to have a second home where we can escape our hectic lives and enjoy warm fires and happy times together.

The cabin is a very special place for my family. All of my extended family lives in Penticton which means I was lucky enough to grow up in the same town as all my cousins and grandparents. Apparently that wasn’t enough because while my mum was pregnant with me (the last grandchild), my Aunt and Uncle decided they wanted to create a place where all of the family could live and grow up together. Thus, the cabin was born. My Dad, Uncle and Grandpa built the entire thing themselves the summer I was born and by the time of the first snowfall that year we had a place to call home that quite literally was made with love.

For the last 20 years, my family of 4 has lived every winter season in the cabin with my aunt, uncle and two cousins and our collective 4 dogs (wow! 4 dogs and 4 kids under 5 all under one roof… what were our parents thinking?!?) with the 4 grandparents coming to visit often for sleepovers and snowy days. It allowed the 4 kids to grow up more like siblings than cousins, as we shared rooms, fought over toys and told each other secrets after our parents tucked us in for the night. We spent most our time outside building snow forts, sledding, skiing or skating but when our noses turned red and we couldn’t feel our toes anymore, we would come in from the backyard for hot chocolate and popcorn while all 8 of us would curl up to watch a movie together.

Now that all of the grandkids (minus me of course) have graduated university and started separate lives the cabin has become a place for us to reconnect and enjoy each others company. We always make sure to make it back home for Christmas because there is no better place to spend the winter holidays than the log cabin on the snowy hill built by the hands and hearts that held and loved me my whole life.