I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE XMAS

5am Monday morning and bleary eyed I crawl out of bed to catch the flight to Toronto. My brother John is staying at our house to look after Chloe our cat and after stocking up the fridge and making the house welcoming I can at last relax as my son Justin takes us to Birmingham airport. All is going smoothly and we wave him a fond farewell only to be confronted by a massive queue on the Toronto flight, this doesn't look too good. When we get to the desk we discover our flight is delayed due to bad weather in Newark and we are going to miss our connection and the next flight they can put us on is 6.45am the following day!

With at least 6 hours to wait, we remember that all the toileteries, toothbrush etc have gone into the hold and we are left with 2 cases full of presents, a flashing, singing reindeer whose ears shake, flashing reindeer antlers for me to wear and a Father Xmas hat for John. All highly useful when you are sleeping overnight at the airport!!

Eventually we board the plane and Air Continental gave us a very comfortable flight although the films seemed rather old as I watched Ginger Rogers and David Niven in black and white. We finally arrived at Newark and we became hopeful knowing that there were still 3 flights to Toronto that day and we might be able to get standby tickets, but it took so long to get through security that already we had missed one flight and all the hotels were completely full, hope was fading fast.

Not one to admit defeat I went up to the Continental desk where the lady confirmed we were flying at 6.45am tomorrow. I must have looked so dejected that she took pity on us and went off to make a phone call and hey presto we are booked on the 5pm flight that night, so no sleeping on an airport bench in my reindeer antlers after all.

As we flew over Lake Ontario I never dreamt that it was so large and suddenly we were flying over the vast snowy Toronto landscape. 21 hours after leaving home we were given the warmest of welcomes and were sitting cosy and warm with my son Jonathan and his girlfriend Jaimie in their beautiful home nestling in over 2 feet of snow and we knew it was all worthwhile.

Jonathan and Jaimie's house.

After a good night's sleep in our basement bedroom complete with cinema we walked in -10C through the thick snow to Lake Ontario which in the summer is bustling with sunbathers on the beach - hence the area is called The Beaches.We walked through Kew Gardens where pure black squirrels were searching for food in the blanket of snow and headed for the wonderful smell of coffee at Starbucks Coffee Shop. As we sat in front of a roaring fire I knew that I would be sharing a white Xmas with the people I loved and the nightmare journey of the day before was long forgotten.

Jaimie making Snow Angels in the snow late last night on the way home from a wonderful meal at the Balsalm Restaurant.