Christmas Haida Gwaii Style

I am a traditionalist, I like traditions. Remembering them when things are not quite right or if I am far from home gives me comfort and connection. I have lived on Haida Gwaii nearly eight years. I grew up and lived much of my life in Ontario with hot summers and snowy winters. I like winter, I like clear blue skies and snow that crunches beneath your feet, I like how it makes everything look fresh and new and I like a white Christmas!
Haida Gwaii has a temperate climate which means really boring! The temperature rarely goes below zero or above twenty degrees celius and it rains.....about 150 mm on the east coast of the islands and a whopping 500 mm on the west coast! This year we have broken records all over the west coast for "liquid" sunshine! However Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me by offering up what you want.
I was feeling a litte homesick this year and missing the cold bright weather of winter with its mantle of snow(I guess you guys in the east were feeling that way tooo!?) and wishing that maybe it would snow just for a day or two over Christmas and then go away! Well, it rained and it rained and it stormed with winds maintaining a sustained speed of 100km for two days. Finally on Christmas morning the winds stopped, like someone had turned the switch off and so my host and Marley headed for the beach to see what was up. Mother Nature came through.....not with snow but with so much salt foam on the beach you would have thought it was snow! So we all played in "our" snow and a great time was had by all!