Boxing Day – Dec. 26th

AKA my birthday! Isabelle and momma made breakfast.

 

After breakfast, presents. Dear Jean, all the way in New Zealand, sent me some lovely pieces. She is amazing.



These fun musical cards!



As always, when one has a birthday, the girls also get something.



Out we went to play. In the forest and on the frozen wetland. The goldfish pond is quite solid.



We went out to the island, at least the three of us. JL and Isabelle took off in their own direction!



Back indoors... the kittens did really well with the kids. I'd forgotten the kittens had spent 2 months at the vet clinic, looking for a home. Caitlin snuck ito the office to take photos of Josee with Nutmeg.



The kids made dinner, spaghetti carbonara and salad. The girls decorated the cake Caitlin had made. It was a lovely day. 

Christmas Day

It's wonderful seeing family over the holidays. It's fun finding the loot we've gathered over the summer and fall.



Fraggle Rock toys and DVDs!



My Jesse, and his family, live in Vancouver. We've done Facetime with them, they've sent some lovely video messages of "Merry Christmas!", but it is really fun watching the cousins interact with one another!



We had a turkey, of course. I threw it in the oven, slightly frozen, and didn't even take out the guts. Those we put down for the trailcam and our pudgy raccoons, bless their hearts. (More on that later, but: 3 raccoons, fox and a barred owl!)



Then, there was Caitlin's famous stuffing!



We wondered how the cats would manage with strangers. They were fine! Cinnamon climbed up onto Josephine's lap, putting his paw on JL's shoulder! (He's not a cat person, but he OK with them!)

Izzy and I fed the deer. We ended up on the trailcam.



This is the video I took!



I was reminded of Josephine feeding the ducks!


Visit more critters here! Thanks for hosting, Eileen.

Night falls

I'm still sorting through the merriment of that past few days. These are from Dec. 24th. My poor bear. He's lost an eye and he is starting to split. He's gotta be 15 years old! I've been to sick to toddle out to decorate him!

It's my birthday!

It's my birthday today. The kids are here and we are having fun. A great dinner yesterday. Grampa spent the day reading in bed, for the most part. That's 6 weeks with this cough. He overdid it the day before. I told him so!

Anvilcloud told us about this app. It's hilarious! I had to fiddle between my Mac laptop and the android smartphone. It wouldn't load to my laptop. But I did it!

cinnamon2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

 
nutmeg from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

I went silly with the window crayons. If I'd planned ahead, I wouldn't have put it on the outside. We'll need a couple of warm days for me to clean it off. 

We bought a turkey, and rather than putting it in the refrigerator, I put it outside on the back deck, with ice packed around it.


Also, the fridge thermometer to make sure it is cold enough. It was a lovely Christmas Eve.



I've been watching Christmas movies I've PVR'd. It gets me through the days. Christmas in Montana was filmed partly in Canada! Also, Christmas at Dollywood, which was filmed partly in B.C.

I also watched A Cheerful Christmas, Filmed in Ottawa, on the Rideau Canal, and Mill St., Mississippi Textile Museum, Cedar Hill Tree Farm, Cashmere and Rose store, Almonte. I'm happy to see all these Canadian sites. I have fun researching the locations. I add to the imdb.com website, as well! There was a very negative post on Facebook dissing all these movies. People do this every year. It is tiresome. Don't judge me and my choices, people. We're still looking after our health, and I'm happy to take it easy.

I suspect this is in Dunrobin!

The cats are getting closer to one another.

For the first time, Nutmeg perched on my foot rest, then settled on JB's chair. She helped me wash the kitchen floor, as well.

nutmeg 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

nutmeg from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Hubby was downstairs watching some DVDs. Two days ago, we watched United 93. Seriously. He was heavily involved, as he worked for Air Canada at the time. Several of the air traffic controllers played themselves, so it was quite realistic from that point of view.

 The kids are coming over in the afternoon. We'll see what fun we get up to. They had Cornish Game Hens for dinner yesterday, with their respective brother-in-laws. Jesse and the grandies visited us in November, from Vancouver. My youngest won't be here. We are estranged. C'est la vie. It's good Caitlin can take him in. He's healthy, at least.

Wetland walkies: forest bathing

A warm, above zero, sunny day! The one feeder is caked in ice from the rain/snow day we had. It is melting, thankfully.

The sunshine shows me where I ought to clean the window.



The wetland is glorious. I decided to toddle on down to the island. It's an outcropping of higher land in the middle of the wet. It's a travel lane for the critters who are navigating their way across their habitat, the 'wetland' being quite solid and frozen. I like forest bathing!



I crossed back over to the mainland. Isn't it beautiful?



I thought I'd take another route, you can see where the sun has melted the edges of the ice. It's still quite solid, though. Honestly, Jean!



Not at the edges, where the sun's warmth is absorbed by the forest.