Holidays are over, back to normalcy... sort of

Well the holidays are officially over as my Mum has just gotten on to the bus to head back home. It was a wonderful holiday with lots of family time. Now to get back to "normalcy" and figure out some goals for the new year.

I am going to spend some time thinking about just what I want to achieve for this new year. Stay tuned for my goals... :)

New Year and New Beginnings

Well I hope everyone has recovered, if they need to recover, from last night's gaiety. :)

Mike and I had an unusually quiet New Year's Eve spent together with the animals and my Mum who is visiting. Good to be with family but a tad anticlimactic and quiet for my liking. Next year we will attend a party or host one so we can bring 2011 in with style.

Mike did make some homemade egg nog which totally rocked but it was a sober evening of quietness all round.

I hope everyone came home safely and wish everyone the best of all good things for the New Year that is now upon us. :)

and so this is Christmas and what have you done?

Another Christmas has flashed by... without a Christian faith I find that the day is strictly a celebration of family and love for family and friends. I am struck by the need to express love on a daily basis rather than only once a year.

Yesterday was a very momentous occasion, Joshua asked Lindley to marry him, and she said yes. :)

Our family is soon to be expanding again.

We went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie yesterday afternoon. We were surprised at how full the movie theatre was! Guess we weren't the only ones looking for a family activity for the afternoon. :)

We have family coming over for lunch today which I will serve in a buffet fashion; turkey, potatoes, veg, meatballs, tourtiere, and yule log/cookies for dessert. It will be a great way of clearing out the fridge from a lot of the surplus food!

I hope everyone is having a good time relaxing over this holiday period.

Christmas comes but once a year... thank heavens!

Well the eve of Christmas is upon us... Mum and I did some baking in preparation for visitors and feasting yesterday. Today I will cook the Turkey and we will have our Christmas dinner this evening as Lindley is going to her boyfriend, Joshua's, home for Christmas Day dinner tomorrow. This is a different celebration this year as it is full of adult children and the need for compromise within a family. Emilie's boyfriend, Derrick, will be over for Christmas Day afternoon and evening with his two year old, Nathaniel. He is such a lovely little boy and it will be fun to hear a child react to Christmas again. :)

The need to compromise on celebration times has prompted Mike and I to think that we will make Yule our large celebration in future years (once we are empty nesters) to allow our children to have their own traditions and celebrations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, if necessary. Time changes things and the biggest thing as a mother is to embrace the change and realize that it symbols growth and renewed vigour rather than stagnation.

I hope all of you have a restful and loving holiday celebration!

keeping the faith

What a wonderful weekend! We celebrated Yule four times!

Once with Thornhaven Grove, once with our Red Maple Grove, once with our family, and once as a couple. What wonderful times were spent with friends and family. Closer bonds were forged with both Gods, friends and kin.

Now to soldier on with the Xmas preparations... shopping is basically finished, turkey is starting to defrost, now baking must begin. :)

Yuletide Preparations are ongoing...

Morning all! Well last night we managed to get a lot of the yuletide shopping done along with some Xmas purchases also. Tonight we are headed out to Inkerman, Ontario for an overnight Yule party. We will be returning home after the sunrise and a celebratory breakfast. We will then crash for a few hours before we head out the door again. It is going to be a busy and sleepless weekend.

On Sunday afternoon we pick up my Mum from the bus station to spend Xmas with us. It will be fun to all be together to celebrate again.

As you can imagine, I have tons to do before we leave tonight and not much time to get it all done! I am not sure how much time I will have for posting this weekend but will try to touch base early next week and catch you up on what transpired over the weekend of festivities. :)

Countdown to Yuletide is on!

This morning I am starting to feel the effects of a cold. I do not have time to be sick! I am starting on a regime of ColdFX and Vitamin C to see if I can stave off the worst of it.

First thing today I am going to make a realistic "Things I must do" list and work on getting duties finalized and checked off the list. The floor renovation is definitely going ahead full steam. Andre, Mike's brother, came over last night and they got the rest of the subfloor up and the majority of the laminate down in the hallway. There are only a few pieces and doorway dividers to go in now. I think the kitchen will have to wait as the laminate is not water proof. I am not going to put it in the kitchen as that will be asking for trouble! I think we will buy some of the new laminate ceramic tiles that look like high end tiles but are stick on and then you grout them with special grout mixture. It is a much more durable and cheaper solution than going with more tiles!

Without putting the kitchen in the "wood" laminate we should have enough to do the music room and our smaller bedroom... Our bungalow is being brought into this century again! :)

Now on to taking the meds and making a list!....