Hey all… time to snoop through Noah’s diary again. Why? Because we can.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025, 10:15am: For someone who hates gym class so much—and ballet class and gymnastics class and all other forms of exercise—Ursula sure is running laps of the house these last few days since school got out. Upstairs, downstairs, up again, and at 6:15 in the morning nonetheless… again: for someone who hates getting up early on school days.
And if it’s not this house, it’s across the yard to run around Agnes’ & Frank’s house. And in the breaks in the rain she was running around in the driveway and yard with her Burgoyne cousins all weekend.
It’s nice to see. But also quit lying, kiddo. You’re not allergic to exercise. That’s not even a real thing anyway.
She and Ingrid’s kids didn’t run around after Sunday brunch, but then Ingrid’s yard is pretty small and Ingrid didn’t want her kids running around in the rain since they were flying out to Reykjavik on Monday to spend Christmas with Einar’s folks and rest of the Snorrason clan, so she didn’t want the kids getting clothes all mucky such that she’d have to do laundry on Sunday to not leave mucky wet clothes getting stinky for 2 weeks.
Mind you, Ingrid’s kids have kinda outgrown running around in the yard anyway. They do get their running in at soccer but they all just wanted to play video games anyway, which suited Ursula just fine.
Anyway, with the Snorrasons off to Iceland, and Olga and her kids staying in Kelowna this year, it’s gonna be a very Burgoyne Christmas here in Victoria. Which is fine. Norm’s alright, Mallory and Ruth seem to get along well, and Ursula gets along great with those cousins.
Well… except Hazel, but like I told Ursula: she’s 3 and she doesn’t know better than to be annoying. And Ursula was the same at that age, she just doesn’t remember. Ursula just needs to stick to playing with Abigail and Willow and be nice to Hazel and the baby.
I have been tasked with bringing the baking and desserts but I got all that ready weeks ago, just need to take everything out of the freezer tomorrow morning. And Mallory got Norm to nag Agnes to “let” Mallory help with making the side dishes, so that means between sides and dessert, at least half of Christmas dinner will be edible and not burnt.
Well… plus salad, because it’s pretty hard to burn leafy greens that you just take out of their fridge packs and dump into a bowl… though I’m sure Agnes is working on a way to burn that too.
Some day perhaps Agnes will let either me or Mallory cook the turkey and then Christmas dinner will be 100% edible. But I get the impression that won’t be until Mallory is a grandma in her own right, which is a problem because Kyle is only 14. Mind you, I was a dad at 19 but Adam wasn’t exactly planned.
I also get the impression the Burgoynes are kinda late bloomers on the kid front. Norm and Mallory have been together since college and got married in the mid-20s with Kyle coming along when Norm was 26 and to hear Agnes talk of it you’d think they were teen parents.
Probably Agnes was just pissed ‘cause Mallory comes from a well-off local family and not some rich but also powerful family in Ottawa or Montreal. Y’know, she’s still angling to get Norm to be prime minister some day, whether he wants to or not. Or at least an ambassador.
And if he insists on staying a lawyer, the least he could do is become a judge and then get on the supreme court.
And if Norm won’t comply, she’s gonna push hard on Kyle to do her bidding instead. Kyle’s younger brother Caleb is more like Ursula in that he doesn’t bow to Agnes’ dictates, and it looks like Caleb’s gonna end up in an orchestra or something someday… which Agnes blames on Uncle Noah’s bad influence, even though Caleb’s gone from piano into percussion and Norm just rented him a marimba. I guess there’s less competition for percussion spots in symphonies than for piano. Anyway, Caleb’s mama don’t dance and his daddy don’t rock n roll, and Caleb don’t do either neither, but sure, blame Uncle Noah for Caleb not conforming to your political aspirations.
Anyway, Uncle Noah’s job for the next few days is to cook the Thorsen Danish Christmas Eve goodies then on Christmas Day just sit back and shut up and let the Burgoynes fight amongst themselves over burnt turkey. And be a bad influence just by virtue of existing.
