.....and then the day was done......

So, Christmas Day is over.....and the shopping madness begins (or continues?)

It was a quiet day....slow starting, slow moving, and slow ending.....
We webcamed with the travelling offspring to open presents and it was wonderful!! For the rest of the day I felt that I had actually spent time in the same room with them ....in person....and it was a good feeling.

Because it was a sleepless night for me on Christmas Eve, I napped for 2 hours in the afternoon and then we had our M & M dinner!! I must say that their Beef Wellington and frozen veggies are quite lovely. We had a huge turkey dinner last weekend, so turkey was NOT an option for us on Christmas Day. We decided to go the convenience route and bought 2 single serving Beef Wellingtons from M&M and a bag of assorted frozen veggies (so much fresher and tastier than the supermarket assorted veggies!!) and then we had potatoes. ....and that was our dinner ....with wine of course. After dinner we relaxed on the couch drinking wine and chatting (mostly reminiscing!) and then watched a VHS version of Holiday Inn. That was about it for me.....I headed to my bed to read and then snuggled up to sleep the night away.....and didn't emerge until 10:45 this morning. It's amazing what a couple of glasses of wine will do to you!!

Today, it's present wrapping for J'little bro's prezzies as he's arriving late on Thursday....and then tomorrow we just may attempt to tackle the crowds and pick up some last minute stocking stuffers for J.

We have snow on the ground and more to come today if the forecasts are right.....so I guess it's just stay at home day for sure.....time to make appetizers for New Years Eve......hmmmmmm.......or not. I'm going on gut feeling here.....do I feel up to it.....or is it just wrapping and reading today? We will see. Time seems to fly by so fast.....

All in all.....a very satisfactory Christmas Day.

Best wishes to everyone and I hope your holidays are special and full of good things.....and as I recently heard one person say in his greetings.......just don't forget to laugh!!

It's all good !

Slainte!!

A pictoral essay....getting ready for Christmas...

The tree is up!! In it's little nook, surrounded by accumulated stockings draped on the railings.
It will sit like this for a few days "to let the branches fall into place"......or so they say. Who is "they" you ask??? Well....that would be the people who sold us the tree.
I miss the tree farms....:-(









Time to take a break and enjoy the snow falling in the back yard. The top picture is of an apricot tree stump that used to have a bird feeder on it that I haven't set up for this winter yet.....tsk tsk....I really must get to that. Poor birdies!!








This is looking out directly from our patio doors to the terraces in the back yard. The rocks are where the wee meeces hide out in the winter in the hopes of grabbing a few tiny seeds that the birds spill about! I took both of these pictures with a flash at night and the falling snow came up wonderfully....although I'm not sure you can see it in these pics.









Well....the lights are on the tree now, but not so visible in the daylight......mini-lights also went up around the front windows so we could view the North Thompson valley through a halo of slowly changing colours.












Whew....that was exhausting....time for a nap with the cat!!!
...note the bins of decorations...they will remain there for a few days.....keeping the lights on the tree company!!







Saturday was tree trimming day....a day of memories with each of the ornaments collected for J & T over the years. I believe there are at least two that T (Stella) cross-stitched for Grandma, which I inherited ......also little stockings with coins in them that were knitted and crocheted by Grandma for J & T...with their initials worked into the stockings.....a silver bell with J's name engraved on it.......and somewhere (not on the tree) there is an ancient Christmas card given to my Mom and Dad many years ago, with a little lad in his jammies and plaid dressing gown....singing...."Oh come ON all ye faithful". That card always sat on the piano when I was growing up....and always made me giggle!!





The finished product, taken at night without a flash. I do think that this is the nicest way to view a decorated lighted Christmas tree......don't you?? It glows!!





Slainte!!

A good evening.....

A good evening.....2 brothers, 1 husband, lots of Christmas food, wine, single malt scotch, and much conversation full of many memories.

Far exceeded expectations!!

We definitely must do this again sometime!!

Slainte!

A Sad Day....

Today has been a mixed day.....which has ended in sadness.
We started the day with excitement, planning our trip to Shrewbury, flights, car rentals, dates etc.....it was wonderful and we finally got it sorted....although nothing booked yet...but itinerary has been firmed up.
After this, I decided to make some more shortbread, still feeling pretty upbeat, thinking about Christmas and the upcoming visit with my brothers......then the phone rang.

My mate answered it and I knew from his voice that it was my dear aunt from the coast....and then I detected a note of distress and surprise in his voice. He mouthed to me that my cousin, whom I've only just over the last few years gotten to know again, had passed away this morning.

A huge weight has settled on my heart.....

My aunt (his mother) of 95 (whom I've blogged about previously) was remarkable. Apparently it was a lung cancer that travelled very fast - weeks rather than months and the end was days rather than weeks. She was grateful for that. He didn't suffer long and now he is at peace. She lost her husband four years ago after a long drawn out battle with cancer and she could not go through that again.
"My dear, I am so thankful that I had him for 73 years!!" was her response.

I didn't see my cousin that often, but we did send emails and cards, and my aunt kept us both up to date on each others comings and goings. He used to bring her out to visit us when we lived in Langley. I have memories of my childhood when he used to babysit me and my brothers. He was a bit wild at times, but always so much fun and he thought the world of my mom and dad.

There is a lot that I can say, but suffice to say that I will miss him, or rather I will miss knowing that he's there if I care to email him....I will miss hearing about his studies at SFU (just to keep his mind active)......I will miss hearing about the excursions that he and Auntie D. took to Steveston ....... I will miss hearing about the good natured ribbing between he and his brother.....and I will miss hearing about the close friendship between he and his lady D. that lasted for 50 years.

It has all become memories.......

It seems that, lately, so much of my childhood and past is being relegated to memories.

But as we get older I guess that's as it should be.

Rest well cuz...

Slainte