You know that old expression....

“Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!” But do you know where the saying comes from and why its relevant to us today?

Its often stated that the ”brass monkey” was the tray used to hold the cannon balls shaped like a pyramid, on the ships during the Napoleonic wars. When it got very cold, the tray would contract, and the ’balls would fall off the tray. Some say this is a myth, but I couldn’t find anything else that really explained where the expression came from!

So why is this relevant to us today?

I awoke this morning to Richard getting up and dressed at 6am. We didn’t need to get up at 6am, so I asked what was wrong? He said that he tried to flush the toilet and our water line must be frozen! OMG!!! No water at all!! I had all of these visions of how I would get washed up this morning, even thinking I might have to traipse up to the pay showers in the RV park!!

Richard put his coat and boots on and went outside to see what the situation was at the post where our waterline is hooked up. Of course in the process of going to check the water line, he woke up our neighbour Steve! Steve ran out of his RV and together they found that Richard had left the brass connector/splitter on the water tap yesterday, and the brass had frozen, effectively freezing any water from getting into our water line!

I could hear both of them talking, and chuckling as I’m trying to grab a few more winks, (because the water tap is positioned, almost at the head of our bed). Richard came back inside and said, “Problem solved”! I asked him “What was so funny?” He said Steve mentioned to him “Have you ever heard the expression COLD ENOUGH TO FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY?” How appropriate! Richard had forgot to leave the tap running in Newman last night, in the kitchen sink, which is what we need to do, to make sure our water line doesn’t freeze. He’s still learning about this RV business but we dodged a bullet, and were still able to have nice hot showers this morning!

We had a stunning sunrise this morning and with all of the commotion around the water tap, I was awake to see it!

I love the colours of the sky reflected in the waters of Fanny Bay.

Beautiful colour so early in the morning!

We decided to do some staged pictures of what our evening will look like tonight. Ugly Christmas sweaters courtesy of Canadian Tire!

Richard has had a family tradition of reading ”The Night Before Christmas“ to his 3 boys on Christmas Eve. While he has not carried out the tradition in awhile, he decided to revive it this year, now that we have a new grandson. Richard has an old “pop up” storybook of the tale, which he usually reads from, but since that book is back in Fort Erie, he purchased a new book to read from a few days ago. Tonight after we have our Christmas Eve dinner of tourtiere with pickled beets for Richard, beef and mushroom pie for me, we have a FaceTime call lined up with the boys, our 2 daughter’s in law and our new grand baby, Owen Benjamin, to read them ’Twas The Night Before Christmas!

We did a quick run up to Courtenay to see what Purolator had in store for me. The mystery package I wrote about yesterday hard arrived...but what a disappointment!

Batteries for the new camera which hasn’t arrived yet! I think I’ve gotten everything except the camera so far in all different manner of packages! Hopefully the camera does come by December 30th!

I had not done any Christmas baking yet since we’ve been out here and Richard kept asking what was for dessert on Christmas Day? So I decided we had to have some home baked goodies for tomorrow (if they last that long). Almond shortbread cookies and perhaps some lemon shortbread squares (if I have the energy).

I didn’t want to suffer in Newman so I brought the best appliances (that were portable) from home to allow me to bake! While there isn’t that much counter space, its still very functional to prepare good tasty meals and of course delectable goodies for Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and we both hope that you stay safe for Christmas! We’ll be around all day tomorrow and looking forward to connecting with some of you virtually!

And the water line will be dripping this evening......all night long!