Christmas. Part 2.

Today, we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family.  The power finally came back on at my parents' house yesterday, so we gathered there.  Paul and Michelle and their 3 year old foster daughter (whom I will call CutiePie for the sake of privacy) came from Stratford for the day.  Connor was also able to join us.  So with Auntie Ruth, Bruce, Sarah and myself there were 10 people around the table.  A new record!  We had to bring in a folding table to be able to seat everyone.

The day started with our traditional breakfast of "eggie-weggs", mini croissants and orange juice.  The eggie-weggs are made in muffin tins with a Ritz cracker crumb crust on the bottom, bacon around the edges and an egg cracked into the middle, then baked until the eggs are cooked.  Yum!

Then present opening.  Michelle made us a lovely quilled leaf, inspired by the trees around Falcon Lake.

I also received the "wake up light" from Philips I was hoping for from my parents.  It simulates sunrise 30 minutes before the alarm time, to help you wake up more naturally.  

For the afternoon, some people napped or read, while others played games with CutiePie.  I cooked the turkey, Mom made the stuffing.  Dinner was great, with all my favorites.

It was so great to have so many people I love all gathered together in one place for Christmas.   We even had phone calls from Auntie Barbara in Calgary and my cousin Allison in Victoria.

Back home now, I have just put the turkey carcass into the crock pot with some cold water, peppercorns, bay leaves and 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar to make a yummy bone broth for tomorrow.

As much as I love Christmas, family gatherings and lots of rich food and drink, I am going to be happy to get back to routine again.  A nice bone broth will be just the thing to get me back in the mindset of Paleo eating.  I'm also looking forward to taking down the decorations and starting back on my FlyLady schedule for a major decluttering this January.  Stay tuned!

Merry Icestorm Christmas!

This has been a Christmas we will always remember.  During the longest night of the year, 4 days before Christmas, southern Ontario was hit with an ice storm like nothing we had ever seen before.  The weight of the ice encrusting everything outside brought down branches and power lines all over the city.  Over 300,000 homes lost power that night.

Our hydro was only out for 2 days and two nights.  It was warm enough with all the candles burning that all we needed was a sweater and maybe a blanket to snuggle under.  I downloaded a Doctor Who radio show, which we listened to while sipping on cocktails.

By the evening of the 23rd, we were back up and running.  We had a little glitch with our furnace, but it sorted itself out overnight.  We emerged to assess the damage to our trees and property.  We did pretty well, with the exception of one lattice fence which will need to be replaced.  Lots of branches fell, and we won't know how badly the trees were damaged until spring, but the house, shed, etc. were all untouched.

My parents' house, however, is still without power as of this writing, December 25th.  After 2 days of inviting and insisting that they come stay with us, they have finally agreed.  And Auntie Ruth flew in from Winnipeg tonight to spend the holidays with us.  So we have a full and happy house tonight!

As for the rest of our non-icestorm related Christmas doings...

We got up around 9:30.  Sarah the pre-teen has reached the stage where she would rather sleep than get up early on Christmas morning.  I can't say that I really mind, though!  We had stockings and presents.  Sarah's biggest excitement was for an RC helicopter and a makeup kit.

We had bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast and packed up enough for Mom and Dad, along with thermoses of hot coffee, then hit the road. First stop, my parents' with our care package.  They had a nice warm fire going in the fireplace.  We dropped off our goodies and got back in the car.  Next stop, Bruce's parents', where we had a nice afternoon and a lovely dinner.  Then back home in time to meet Mom, Dad and Auntie Ruth coming back from the airport.

We sat and chatted a bit.  We had wine and ham sandwiches.  Around 1 am, we all tucked ourselves snug into warm beds.

What a great Christmas!

Guess who is 45?

Me!

At least, I will be tomorrow.  So here I am, in about the middle of my life (with good luck on my side), and in about the middle of my career (ditto), and it occurs to me that things are passing way too fast.  Often, they are also passing by un-noted, practically unnoticed, in the mad rush to get to the next thing.

Here, then, is my intention of starting a blog to better keep track of the things that are important to me.  There will probably be posts about family, home, cooking, health, reading, crafting and who knows what.  I hope it will gain a shape of its own as I go along.