Christmas dinner

It was -18 ℃ this morning, Sun, Dec. 28.

We are expecting an ice storm tonight. We'll see what happens over night. 

Dec. 25 –  There was much planning required! And then it is over. I enjoy looking back at the event. Everyone has gone back home after two nights here. It was terrific. 

My friend sent me home with a lovely plate of goodies (center). She'd been baking up a storm, including her famous Christmas Crack. Joe Brian brought some nuts and chocolates. We had a fine time nibbling until dinner. 

There was a Facetime with the Vancouver clan! Poor Jordan has a bad cold, and he had several naps. The grandies both wore masks for us. 

I made the kids a book of their photos from their Newfoundland trip. They had fun reviewing their trip.

Jordan was given a mystery gift. He couldn't quite figure it out! 

🚽 Jordan is in residence. He and another kid share a bathroom, but their bed rooms are private on either side of double doors. They are responsible for their bedroom, but their joint bathroom is cleaned once a week by staff. The toilet paper is replaced with one single-ply roll, but tends to run out. Grampa bought a 4-ply six pack!

The cats had a grand time.

We watched 5 Jeopardy shows, everyone trying to answer. We all have our specialties between space, science, history, literature, etc. 

I even put my face on!

JL was gifted a food basket of cheese, crackers, condiments, canned oysters, olive oils, etc. We hadc fun watching him open it.

My personal shopper bought us two hams. We only needed one, so maybe on New Years! We divided up the meal. The kids brought the cake and yam casserole. JL did the cooking. 

 

I saw this recipe on TV, by Mary Burg. I was keen to try it: Everything Bagel Star Buns. I watched the video twice to get it right. 

Star Bread! Recipe here.

I made it Christmas morning. It didn't brown as well, but it was tasty. I will make it again.

Grampa put on a show, with a singalong and some jokes and Christmas puns. He started this during COVID when the grandies were with us alternate weeks for Virtual School. It made our time fun. 

He is a hoot. Here is a snippet. 

Merry Christmas from Crumbly Acres!

🎁♪♫♩♪♫♬ It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Things are pretty quiet, aside from the weather. Somebody is putting data together about football game results. Did I mention both my husbands were accountants?! Shiny shoes, and numbers.

Science and technology is grand. I'm watching Santa. First on NORAD, also on Flight Radar.

Flight Radar, it's a hoot!

We'll open the things we ordered for ourselves and gave to the other to wrap, or keep it in the shipping box. At our age we forget what we got, and it is a fun surprise. 

The kids are coming over later, after they have their family Christmas. 

🐇 Labbit has been out under the bird feeder. Last week she was cleaning up under the lilac bushes. (Oh, spring, lilacs!) Tuesday she was on the sidewalk headed for the feeders. The squirrels have been cleaning up pretty well, though. 

The Christmas Bunny has arrived! 

 

 

One year, trying to capture a roving cat (not ours) I tried to trapped Labbit!  Who knew she came up on the deck?

March, 2024

🐈  Another morning I was sitting blogging, in the dark. It was windy and cold again. Looking up, I spotted Cinnamon outside the window on his bench, looking to be let in. I had not let him out! He'd slept with us that night, so he hadn't been out. 

It turns out the basement door hadn't been shut properly. I imagine he went down to use the litter box, and sauntered out the door. I taught him to use the cat door recently, and he took off in the night. I'll have to teach him that you can go in the door, not just out! He was cold.

  

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. 

Christmas is coming!

 JB decided to change up the area under our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I spray painted the castle red. We won't be using it as a toy anytime soon. It came in handy last year.

This year, we are all set up. Presents are wrapped. We're good to go.

Notice the temperature Saturday morning, -11 C.

JB added more lights to his display, but it was a bit bouncy. Nutmeg jumped up, took a whack at the train, and it fell off the track. I used tweezers to take some fluff out of the train wheels. 

Back in July, 2011, I used a couple of pieces of wood to make a baby gate. It worked really well, but we don't need it anymore. I noticed Daisy climbing on it in the photo. (She's doing well, I've heard, rehomed in an apartment of JB's cousin's friend.) 

The train hasn't been working very well. I took the baby gate apart, and recycled the wood. I had another brainstorm, for Plan C for the train. Splitting the two pieces in half, I cut them up to fit the top of the card table. What a difference it made. The cardboard was to bouncy and the train kept losing contact.

As an aside, while I used my circular saw to cut it up, in the frigid -5 temperatures, I could smell the sawdust and I thought of my father. He was always building stuff. 

It works so much better. Cinnamon is quite cautious. He keeps leaving the room when we start up the train.