Odds and Ends

Story Telling Sunday - May

I've been sitting here wracking my brains trying to think of a story I could share that I hadn't already shared or that family members might prefer not be shared.  After hours of not coming up with anything I thought would be good I finally started going through pictures or should I say going through the laptop looking at ones I'd scanned in as part of my digitizing our slides.  Finally I had it when I saw a couple of  pictures of my niece and my Dad taken many years ago.  It`s most definitely out of season.  They're not very good but they are the only ones I have of them with Lisa (aged 2) participating in a family tradition for her very first time.  

I'm not sure how this little tradition of ours started but I know that every Christmas and Thanksgiving after my Mum died in 1976 my Dad took it upon himself to get the bread ready for the stuffing - he might have done it before that but I don't remember.  Dad did the bread every year right up to his last Christmas at the age of 97 in 2003. 

This was my May contribution to Storytelling Sunday that started over at Sian's blog last year. This month's stories can be found here.....Why don't you grab a nice beverage, sit back and enjoy everyone's stories and even better it would be great reading your story next month.

 

 

It's Been One of Those Weeks

You know the kind - when everything gets away from you and before you know it it's gone right on by. In my case without even 1 blog entry since a week ago Friday. I'm behind on blog and e-mail reading too but at least I'm caught up on replying to comments made on here. I won't even talk about the courses I'm supposed to be taking this month but there is always this coming week. I at least have started one of them and now even have my own font.

So what do I have to show for the week - absolutely nothing. :) Well I did do a lot of cooking - the nice comforting food we love to have in winter. Made a few soups too. I did manage to pop out 3 times during the week for some much needed tea/chai and crossword time with my friend Jean (the most we've done that in months I think as usually it's just once or twice a week because of other things going on. I did manage to get my Project Life Week 2 done (I'll share that in a wee bit) but I don't know what I'm going to do about week 3 as there were hardly any pictures taken that are worth putting in there. :)

Now as for those who wished me well while coping with shingles, thanks so very much for your thoughts and I'm happy to say that the pain seems to have gone (knock on wood). Guess getting right on to those meds as quickly as I did was definitely a good thing.

We've had about 4 inches of snow since Thursday morning and I'm hoping to get out there today and get some pictures - course it would have been better to do it while it was still fresh and white but that just didn't happen for some reason.

Ok, Project Life. I finally finished week 2 on Thursday when we had the 3 inches of snow and just got around to getting decent pictures of it today. :)

As you can see, a lot of week 2 had to do with getting all the Christmas decorations down and put away till 2013 (we're supposed to be on a cruise Christmas of 2012, keeping fingers crossed about that).  A note of explanation - all those liquor boxes piled up at the front door - we make our own wine and had just bottled 4 batches.   My cross-stitch lady is one of my on going projects - I'm working away at finishing off the bead work on her.

Little Miss K at Her First Christmas

I thought this was the cutest picture when my nephew's wife shared it on Facebook. Remember my tiny little Great Niece that was born in April at 3 pounds 3 ounces that a lot of you were including in your thoughts and prayers? Well here she is Miss K happily playing in a box this past Christmas. With my niece-in-law's permission I'm sharing it with you so you can see how great she is doing.

 

I'm waiting for my niece to share pictures of my Great Nephew and other Great Niece so I can share a couple of the 2 of them too.

Our Christmas Angel

For years our Christmas tree has been topless without a topper. We used to use the one my parents used - I don't even know how to describe it - a sort of round thing with coloured mini lights behind it with filaments sticking out all around. I think it was supposed to be someones idea of the star of Bethlehem. But it sure wasn't my idea of it.

It's not a great picture but I think it shows what I mean.

Finally it bit the dust and for years now I've been searching for the perfect tree topper that would go on an artificial tree - couldn't be too heavy.

Finally though I found it - this past summer we were down in Halifax (the Canadian one) visiting my sister Jone and her husband Ted and I saw it. Many years ago, when the kids were young, they started giving us Amos Pewter Christmas ornaments (we've got quite the collection now as you might imagine seeing as both the kids are now married and parents). I wondered if Amos Pewter had any toppers and discovered they had 2 - a star and an angel. We both really liked it but wondered would it be too heavy. The clerk assured us it would be fine on an artificial tree and that was all I needed to know.

About 4 weeks ago the time came to actually put it on our tree. Well that was quite the laughable experience. Thankfully we decided to put her up before doing the rest of the tree. John got up on the step ladder and managed to put the top branches through her 2 loops on the back. All seemed good for about 1 minute when she slowly started bowing towards the front door. Well that wouldn't do. What to do next? John thought and thought and then remembered we had some sturdy green (so that would blend in) plant sticks - the kind you tie plants up to. Off to the basement to get one. He cut off a piece of one of them and this time he stuck that through the loops. Poor little angel with all that stuck up the back side of her.

It's a good thing the back of our tree is only visible from our staircase is all I can say. :) But it looked fine from the front and sides of the tree. Next Christmas I'll have to look for a tie that doesn't quite stand out so much from the green of the tree.

This has been my contribution to Storytelling Sunday that started over at Sian's blog. She's changed it a tiny bit this year which she tells you about here. The stories for January can be found here. So why don't you grab a nice beverage and enjoy the stories?

Merry Christmas Everyone

I've been very remiss at blogging this month and have a lot of catching up to do but I wanted to make sure I got on here today to wish you all a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hannukah (I know I'm late on that but think it's still going on).  

We're having a very relaxing morning and haven't even done the tree yet - guess you can tell there are no kids in this house.  :)    Just finished breakfast and will soon be having our Mimosas while we do the tree and stockings.   It's just the 2 of us this year and I'm really missing my family but hoping the phone lines aren't jammed later today and we get to talk with them.

 

December Daily & Journal Your Christmas

I thought this year I'd do a combination of the two and of course I'm behind as usual (already!).   But today I finally picked out the kit that I'll mainly be using (that was a lot easier after I changed my digi supplies to a different way of organizing them).   So aside from some templatels & numerics from other designers (namely Ali Edwards & Biograffiti I'll be using Cilenia Curtis' Days of December digital kits that I got last year from Digitals.

So at least that is one thing settled about the album.  :)

 

The Tale of Dad's Other Christmas Tree

I've been thinking and thinking about what story I was going to share on this the last Storytelling Sunday of the year and then it came to me, out of the blue as they say, when my niece Lisa shared a picture on facebook last night.

Dad was always one to have a big real Scotch Pine Christmas tree.  Nothing else would do.  But this is the story of a little ceramic tree that he came to love.

Back in the 1970's I was working at one of the major power plants in our province. There were over 500 employees there but only 10 of us were women. With such a small number we became friends and did a lot of socializing together - most of us even took up golf when one of us expressed an interest in it and we were soon heading over to the nearby golf course once a week after work to try and get 9 holes in before heading home. But that's another story.

If anyone of us was having a "party" - plant, jewelry, tupperware you name it - we all went.  That's probably how I ended up with so much tupperware come to think of it.  :)  It was at one of those parties that I met Ella - the wife of one of the men at the plant.

Ella was into ceramics, not just buying them but making them - she had a little studio in their basement and would turn out all sorts of things down there.  It was during one of my visits there that I noticed she was working on Christmas trees.  I hadn't seen them anywhere before.   She had 2 different sizes of them - little tiny ones (well compared to the one I liked).  I've always been into Christmas decorations and immediately decided to order one for myself.  As soon as I got back to my apartment I thought well that was dumb I should have ordered one for my Mum and one for my sister as well.   After a quick call to Ella I'd ordered 2 more.

When I showed up at Mum and Dad's with theirs Mum was delighted with it and knew exactly where she was going to put it - right beside the nativity scene on the buffet.   Dad on the other hand thought as he told me later  - hmmm a ceramic tree next thing you know she'll want us to get an artificial tree instead of a real one.  For the next few years it held its place of honour on the buffet even though Dad still didn't care for it.  It all changed though when Mum passed away  - it became the first Christmas decoration he'd put out every year and be the last one put away.  When he moved into his retirement residence many years later it was one of only 4 Christmas decorations he took with him.  Every time we put it out for him he'd comment how much Mum loved that little tree.

When Dad passed away and we were going through his things I asked my niece if there was anything special that she wanted - the tree was her quick reply.   Now it sits in her house and as she said on facebook yesterday - Christmas has officially begun in their home - she had put the little tree out.

Oh yes that comment of Dad's about next I'd be wanting them to get an artificial tree - well he decided that all on his own once he was spending most Christmases down at my sister's in Halifax.

If you've enjoyed reading my little story as part of Sian's Story Telling Sunday you can enjoy reading some more from those who participate in Sian's Storytelling Sunday the first Sunday of every month. You'll find the stories from the last Storytelling Sunday of the year here.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope you're all having a wonderful day.   There's just the 2 of us but we're definitely enjoying it, especially the deciding not to do turkey this year for Christmas.   Instead we'll have it New Year's Day.  This way we actually get to relax between having brunch & getting dinner ready instead of spending most of the day in the kitchen.  :)

It's not quite a white Christmas here - we got a light dusting of snow the other day but it's the kind that doesn't really cover the grass.  :)

 

Definitely Not The Year for Family Christmas Trees

Last night I thought this is definitely not the year for Christmas trees in my family.

While I was down visiting Jone & Ted, their Christmas Tree fell over while we were out shopping one day.  Ted had come home at lunch time to find it resting on the box of presents that they're taking to Ottawa with them.  If it hadn't been for that it would have been right on the floor.   Unfortunately though it spilled sugared water on their hardwood.  Ted had tied it up between the dining room arch and one of the living room windows.  The living room window string broke.  It took the 3 of us to get it back upright & tied up - this time with a doubled string.  Evidently it wasn't the 1st time it had fallen over from what I gathered.    Ted said that this was the only tree that they'd had a problem with in all their years,

Now it was our turn.  I was all set to go upstairs last night when I heard a tinkling noise.  I couldn't figure out what it was until I looked at the tree.  Two of my Mum & Dad's decorations had come down off the tree and smashed onto the carpet.   I think one of them fell & crashed into the other one breaking both of them because they shouldn't have broken by landing on the carpet.   They were decorations from the 1950's and are totally irreplaceable.  I've now got the 2 special decorations off the tree just in case anything happens again.   I think I'll be getting stands for them instead.

 

 

Sian's Christmas Club #4

Sorry this is a day late - I've been having Typepad issues, namely I couldn't get into it.

This is the fourth installment of my Christmas memories for Sian's Christmas Club (see my post from 3 Sundays ago).

I've had a hard time deciding what memory to share this week - the year we got married, the 1st Christmas that Lisa really was into it, a trip to Walt Disney World (not a wise thing to do at Christmas - talk about crowds!!),our Christmas cruise or what finally won out - the last time our family was all together for Christmas.

It was 1993.  Dad of course was heading to Halifax to spend Christmas with Jone & her family.  There was no way he was going to miss Christmas with his grandchildren if he could help it.   After checking with Jone who of course said yes we decided to go too.

It was John's first time in Halifax in winter and the weather sure made it memorable.  It was bitter cold while we were down there but we managed some trips downtown (normally a short walk but because of the cold we drove) while Dad would be napping.  On one of these little trips we saw quite the sight.  It was just below the Citadel on an even more bitterly cold day when we saw a man in light clothing and barefoot walk across the road through the traffic.  All these years later I remember that so vividly.

One night Ted led us (we had to use 2 cars because of the # of us) on a Christmas light tour.  One house in particular stands out in my memory.  It was a small house but it seemed like every square inch of it was decorated up, including the lawn.

Christmas Eve it started to snow, just lightly mind you, and it seemed so great that we'd be waking up to a white Christmas.  We hadn't had one of those in years it seemed.   Mother Nature didn't disappoint us and we did wake up to a white Christmas morning.  We discovered a new family tradition that morning.   The kids would sit up on the stairs waiting to be told to come down while "Santa" made things just so with the tree.  Dad sat up there with them - he was like a kid.  :)

The snow didn't seem know when to stop - it snowed all day and gradually got heavier & heavier.  By the time the 4 of us went for our walk before dinner it was really deep to the point we were walking on the streets instead of the sidewalks.  It was no problem though because there was absolutely no traffic.  It made things look so nice - you know that white snow before the sand, salt and cars make a mess of it and turn it dirty gray. 

We were booked to fly home on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas for those who don't know when it is) and we started to wonder how the roads would be by the time we had to leave.  In one word - they were horrible!  All the snow that had been cleared the night before had blown right back onto the highway and iced it up.  Luckily we got to the airport without any issues but it sure was a white-knuckle drive and we're used to driving in snow.