Kidding Around Vancouver Island

We always enjoy a good breakfast with Santa. The Rotary Club of Lantzville puts on a great event at Costin hall – tickets for the December 22 event are only $10 per family – and we’re looking forward to the pancakes and sausages again this year, but most importantly, the arrival of Santa. [...]

Things got a bit awkward as we stood in line at Nanaimo North Town Centre the other day for the requisite picture with Santa. Our six year old was observing that Santa seemed to be in a lot of places at one time these days and isn’t that odd. As we desparately thought [...]

Happily free of awkward questions is the annual ritual of getting a Christmas tree. As we pulled into the lot, the kids don’t recognize it as our usual tree-picking spot, yet as we were paying for the tree on our way out, they were quick to remind the owner that he gave them chocolate [...]

Having traditions is very important for kids – even if they don’t always recognize it until later in life – and one of our traditions is to attend a pantomime each Christmas. A pantomime is a tradition in British theatre dating back to the middle ages – something between a music hall production [...]

If you haven’t had a chance to introduce your children to the magic of live theatre, there’s no better time than the Christmas season. Most theatre companies have something for families at this time of year and a set of theatre tickets makes a great Christmas gift. Both of our kids attended their first live [...]

We were at the store the other day buying yet another pack of double-A batteries. If we kept track of how many batteries we buy these days…hmmm, batteries or a Mexican vacation? It doesn’t bear thinking about. We managed to put a little dent in the battery budget recently by getting the kids a pair [...]

We did a story some time back about the Via Rail train between Victoria and Courtenay. We described traveling from Nanaimo down to Victoria, but to keep it a day trip, you’ll need someone to pick you up in Victoria. That prompted a note from reader Kate Britton, who really knows her Via Rail schedule! [...]

There are two things I’m not much good at: painting pictures and cleaning up after my kids have been painting pictures. However, I am good at googling, so I set out to find an art class for the children. They’ve been having a ball at the 4 Cats Arts Academy, which holds classes in Courtenay, [...]