Nothing works quite like hosting an enchanted Christmas forest walk for the neighbourhood to fast track into the festive season. Mitch with some help from neighbours, did a great job clearing new paths and getting everything set up. It’s amazing that an entire forest can be lit with only three plug-ins available. Without LED lights, this would simply not be possible.
Below is a view from Mitch’s drone, showing the trails lit up through the forest. The walk involved two loops that met in the middle where we had Santa’s Cottage, a fire pit and hot chocolate before you ventured onto the second loop. The total of these two loops was somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a kilometre. There were a couple of four year olds that insisted on running through the entire forest walk four or five times, usually followed by a increasingly exhausted looking father.
For nine nights in a row we opened up the forest to visitors to experience a half kilometre of trails that were lit up with Christmas lights, a garden train weaving its way between fir trees, enflateable Santas and Grinches, sparkling deer and snowmen, an elf house for the wee ones to play in, and an outdoor movie for the kids. In front of Santa’s cottage we offered a fire to warm your hands and a cup of hot chocolate to warm your belly. It gave the neighbours a chance to visit while kids and dogs ran circles around their parents. Although the names and faces blurred at times, it was a great opportunity to meet and reconnect with people that live up and down the upper Sunshine Coast.
We also had one of those rare dumps of snow on the coast. About six inches of snow fell, making the forest walk even more magical. While the temperature was around minus 5 degrees for most of the week before Christmas, on the last night of the forest walk, the temperature rose to plus eight and the next day the rain began. By Christmas Day, there wasn’t any snow to be seen. Typical West Coast winter weather!
A quick update on the house they are building on the bluff. We had expected to be living in the Art Studio part of the house by Christmas, but unfortunately, the builders weren’t able to make that deadline. Although there is no working kitchen, the bathroom tiling isn’t yet done and the fireplace hasn’t been installed, we were able to setup the bed in the sleeping loft of the Art Studio and spend one night sleeping in part of our new home. Milestone achieved. As Mitch noted, this will be the most expensive BnB we’ve ever stayed in.
