Monday 16 January 2023

Merry Christmas & Happy Birthday to us!

 ❄️ 🌲 We had not celebrated December birthdays (Josephine and mine), nor Christmas. There were colds going around. I am glad we postponed, since I have heard of many getting sick with RSV, or flu, or upper respiratory infections after family celebrations. It's tough seeing all the Christmas photos people post when you cannot see your family. We made it, though.

We made a plan. JL bought the turkey. Caitlin made the stuffing! JB shopped for the veggies and cake. 

Sunday was a tad chilly. Happily, I was gifted a beautiful lap blanket made from recycled plastic! It is amazingly beautiful. So soft. I am blessed. 

Turkey was put into the oven. Lunch was had. I had shoveled the sidewalk and deck, I'd had my shower and was done. The kids went out for a walk in the snow, in the forest. Caitlin helped, knocking snow off the branches I couldn't reach. They look so sad! They came prepared with their bow saw, but the dump of snow did not help. It's dangerous walking where you cannot see the branches on the ground. I still need to find someone to do the larger branches. I don't think they are going anywhere, the tree limbs, and it will get cleaned up eventually.


This is what I had to do for a lot of pine trees around us after our big storm. Caitlin took this in the forest with her Smartphone in slow motion. Tres cool!
 

snow fall from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The turkey was wonderful. It takes me back to childhood Christmases, the smell of turkey wafting through the house.



Yes, they are both taller than I! 

Caitlin brought Christmas Crackers. They had a fun treasure hunt game. After all their work, I insisted on doing dishes while they played the game. They are a hard working crew.





I sliced the carrot cake. We've had it in the freezer for awhile, awaiting our celebration.

Jos served up the ice cream.


We opened up presents. 

Josephine has a teddy bear named Chaucer. It looks something like this! We were out at a the September Sundance Festival and found a beautiful necklace that looks like Chaucer. This was her birthday present. Its head and arms and legs move! [Peggys Passions Jewelry] The girls love their jewelry, but it is getting increasingly difficult to find special things for them. I texted them back in the fall. That has been handy. Books for Jos and a calligraphy set for Isabelle. They love art. Isabelle led a Pathfinders group in doing some art. She is quite prolific.



A grand time was had by all. We hadn't seen them since October. The girls are doing well in school. They both walked to school after the snow storm and busses were cancelled. They had 3 or 4 kids in each class. Things haven't changed! 

 Josephine's high school goes into exams after next week. The school board decided (in its wisdom?), not to give exams to gr. 9 & 10. I hope that isn't a mistake. 

16 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Merry Christmas, fun family times and happy memories being made. The bear necklace is cute. Take care, have a great new week!

Anvilcloud said...

How wonderful for you. We will be missing family dinner tonight as there is a Covid outbreak at Sha’s residence in Perth. She is testing regularly and is negative, but we are not going to take a chance. She may work late anyway because many of the staff also has it in addition to more than a dozen residents.

Tom said...

...Happy 29th!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
What a wonderful thing to have done - brightening up what can be a long and dark month leading into the year!!! Congrats to all. YAM xx

Olga said...

What a beautiful day for you all -- well worth the wait, I am sure.
When did those little girls turn into such lovely young women?

William Kendall said...

Sounds like you had fun.

RedPat said...

Happy family time.

Barbara Rogers said...

Well snow and school have long been part of Canadian education...maybe pandemic really cut into it too. Sorry so many children missed learning...they didn't do remote learning on computers? Maybe the snow outages wouldn't have, as you said there was a teacher there for the 3-4 kids. Anyway, what a lovely holiday celebration for you all! So happy to see your grands there with you, for such a yummy spread.

Divers and Sundry said...

What a festive occasion! and so nice that people can be flexible with their gatherings :) The food looks delicious.

Nancy J said...

Lots of snow falling after the tree is shaken, the slow video is wonderful.So glad you could all share a celebration, never mind it is late. XXXX

Jeanie said...

It sounds like you had a lovely and delicious time, surrounded by happy family! Definitely a White Christmas! Love your cracker crowns and so glad you finally got to celebrate together.

Cloudia said...

I feel as if I've been to a party with you! Thank you so much for inviting us. Jenn

Red said...

Who said Christmas had to be on the 25th. You had a very happy celebration.

The Furry Gnome said...

Well Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas! How those girls have grown!

Lorrie said...

The slow motion tree shaking and resultant snowfall was lovely to watch. That turkey looks delicious! So glad you could all be together to celebrate!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

My goodness your grand-girls are so grown up! I've been visiting you for a long time I guess as I remember them as very small. (I know mine get older, but for some reason I'm still surprised when other people's grands grow up!!) What a lovely belated celebration! So smart to wait out the darn colds etc and do it right~~