CHRISTMAS 2016

We woke up to a fresh coat of soft snow on the ground for Christmas morning and the sun was shining. It was glorious...  and on Boxing Day the kids went wild in the snow.

Christine helped the boy make a snowman. They even made a snowdog, but it's not finished in this photo.

Grampy George made a snow mountain for James and Daniel to slide down from.

Mama and Daddy had snowball fights and tumbled in the snow.

James is enjoying his hot chocolate milk after  playing in the snow. He looks exhausted.

And so is Daniel.

Christmas was busy as usual with family and stray visitors and little people. I kept my spending in check and as per my budget but everyone got plenty of gifts under the tree. We kept up with Christmas traditions of going to church for the Christmas mass. We no longer have midnight mass at our church.( No Pics.)

As per tradition, Joe made Belgium Waffles with real whipped cream topping and the boys devoured every bit of it. 

Another Christmas tradition Christine started is The Elf on the Shelf brings a new book during advent right up to Christmas Eve.  His name is Choir and he brought the book you see on the table. Choir watches to see if James and Daniel are good boys and reports to Santa.

The Christmas turkey was huge as we were 18 for dinner. I roasted the turkey and the girls did all the rest.  That was easy on me...  Roasted turkey with sour cream mashed potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, cranberry relish, dressing, gravy, Broken Glass dessert to crown the meal and wine.

Sorry,   no one thought of taking a picture of the food but the  kid's plates were filled first as Daniel wouldn't wait a minute longer.

There were so many presents for the game that it had to be played twice so not everyone is shown here.

Cypress wanted to use my camera to take photos. 

Liam got some present on his lap and grampy is calling the cards.

Bill's turn at choosing  a present.

This is one of the many present Cypress won in the game.

Uncle Sandy's turn to pick a present.

This year, the present game was a bigger hit than last year.  The present game was introduced to us by Nicole many Christmases ago and has become a serious tradition at our house.... We had over 60 gifts for the present game as more people brought more gifts... This has become serious business...

Our new tradition this year was a toast of Scottish whiskey to remember Nicole. Everyone got their turn to talk about a memory about Nicole. There were tears and laughter in remembering and lots of hugs... This was a solemn time. A photo of Nicole was on the buffet with candles that were blessed.

Nicole was much present in our hearts. We also held my brother in law, Henri and my sister Leona and family in our thoughts and prayers as he's is in Palliative Care in hospital during the Holidays.

 We worked on a puzzle, another tradition we usually do on Boxing Day. Jackie got the puzzle out  on Christmas afternoon. Christine and I finished it late that night and we went to bed.

This blog is to record these memories for posterity.  I missed taking a lot of pictures but at least, I have mentioned how we spent Christmas Day to the best of my memory.

Now on to the New Year. It will be a quiet event for us. No sparkles or gala but a quiet evening at home.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Happy New Year everyone.
Julia

SIMPLE THINGS THAT BRINGS US JOY

Sometimes it's the little things that brings us joy. To my grandson Daniel, it's his new cap he got from grandpa when he came in November. He loves it so much he would not take it off and even wore it to bed.  It says Quality Seeds on the cap. We all know he's Quality Seed.

To James it's it new spiked hair do. He puts the gel on his hair himself. It was his idea.  Here he is sporting it in his school picture.

For me it a new set of shelves in what was a cluttered closet in the office that is now home for my over flow grocery bargains. I tell my granddaughter to help herself if she needs something in there. The shelves were so easy to install. Home Depot has everything you need.
Yep, I need to dust my lover doors...

What little things brings you joy?

Thanks for stopping by and bringing me joy.  Hugs, Julia

DR LISA NICOLE BOURQUE OBITUARY

For those who haven't seen our daughter Nicole's obituary, I've decided to print it here for the family records of which my blog is all about. To us she was our beloved daughter  Nicole, to her students and colleagues she was known as Dr Lisa Nicole Bourque.

          Dr. Lisa Nicole Bourque
            1966-2016

It's with heavy hearts and great sadness that the family of Dr. Nicole Bourque announces her sudden and unexpected passing in Glasgow, Scotland.

Nicole was born in Fredericton to George and Julia Bourque on July 25th, 1966. She graduated from Fredericton High School in 1984 and went to the University of New Brunswick where she completed a degree in Anthropology with First Class Honours.
Her outstanding scholarships earned her a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship which funded her pursuit of a PhD at the University of Cambridge (Girton College).
She won an O'Brian Foundation award to fund her field work in Ecuador which resulted in her outstanding thesis "Of Soups, Saints and Sucres".

She received her PhD in 1993 and joined the faculty in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, where she spent her entire career, her final position being that of Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology.

She was deeply committed to her work, her students, and her faculty colleagues. An open, friendly and caring person with a winning personality  (and a good listener), her expansive knowledge and easy manner made her a stellar conversationalist. She was bubbling with life and made so many long lasting friendships everywhere she went.

Apart from her life as a scholar, she was a free spirit who, the moment her work was done, loved to travel. Over the years she visited dozens of countries and became somewhat  of a polyglot.  She was a mountain climbing enthusiast and climbed mountains all over the world. She was only the second  Canadian woman to climb all 282 Munros in Scotland and the first from New Brunswick to do so. Munros are mountains that are over 3000 feet in height (914 meters).

Nicole was very humble despite her many accomplishments, too numerous to mention here. Her passing leaves a big void at the University of Glasgow, and amongst her colleagues, students, friends and family.

Nicole is survived by her parents, George and Julia Bourque, her beloved siblings, Jacqueline Bourque (Bill Briggs) of Fredericton, Vaughan Bourque, of Fredericton, Dr Christine Bourque (Joe MacDonald) of Ottawa, nieces Jordyn Bourque and Nicole Briggs, and nephew Vincent Briggs, Simon Briggs, Liam Briggs, all of Fredericton, James and Daniel MacDonald of Ottawa, and one grand nephew, Cypress Fletcher of Fredericton, and a large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Visitations will be on Sunday, Nov. 6th, 2016, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00p.m. at St Francis of Assisi Church, 2130, Route 102 (Lincoln Road). A celebration mass will be held on Monday,  November 7th, at 12:00 noon, at the same location. Interment to follow in the cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St Francis of Assisi Parish.

The family would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the many thoughtful, supportive and helpful people of Glasgow who assisted with the many tasks the family faced. These included friends, faculty colleagues, and government officials. Online condolences and sharing of memories may be sent through www.bishopsfuneralhome.com

                                        ❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦
         
Thanks for all your show of support and caring at this difficult time.
Hugs, Julia and family.                  

IN AN INSTANT, OUR LIVES HAS CHANGED FOR EVER

On October 18, my somewhat normal life came crashing down. I arrived home from the barn after dark and was a bit late. I was met at the door by my husband George. He held out his arms and delivered the news to me as gently as he could, of our beloved  Nicole passing away in Glasgow, Scotland. I was in shock,  disbelief and denial. It just couldn't be. Oh God, oh God, oh God,  no, no, no, it can't be. That's impossible...  This can't just can't be.... I wailed... I wanted her brought back home. Loosing a child at any age is so very difficult. We expect parents to leave us first, but not a child.

Nicole was so full of life and enthusiasm about everything and everyone. She had just finished painting her flat.  Had returned from a week in Berlin,  had gone to Spain to volunteer at the Pilgrimage Office  of Santiago De Compostella, and had just returned from Virginia USA from a symposium on pilgrimage study at the College of William & Mary where she made a presentation.   This was the third year in a row that she was invited to the college to make a presentation as she was considered an expert on  pilgrimage. She was to return to teach  her PHD's students in Anthropology early in November.

Just days earlier we had been in contact like usual by email. My two other daughter were always included in the emails and we replied or commented on each other's discussions.  I always ended my emails with  I love you....
She had made plans to come home and spend some time at the cottage at the lake this coming summer and everyone was looking forward to it.

As soon as I realized that she was gone, I asked George to call our youngest daughter Christine in Ottawa and I was going to break the news in person, to Vaughan our son who lives next door and  our daughter Jackie who lives about 10 minutes drive from our house. I'm glad I did as the news was so very hard on everyone. As I entered the house, I was greeted with smiling faces and  one by one they said, Hi Mamoo...   As I shared the sad news, my throat felt restricted and my words were barely audible but they were heard from the deepest part of everyone's soul.

Jackie's agonizing screams filled the room, with such pain and disbelief. I held her for a long while, and everyone were dealing with this unbelievable news in their own ways. A very sad way to end a normal day. After a while, I returned home in the darkness of the night. It felt so unreal, like a dream from which I wanted to wake up from.  Everything changed the moment we received this tragic news.

There was a message from the Glasgow police constable on the phone and we had to wait till the morning to return their call. In Glasgow, they are four hours ahead of us...
We were assigned a very nice  lady liaison  police constable to help us with information we needed. Her heavy Scottish accent was a bit difficult to understand and there was so much information. I asked her to send the information by email and that was so much better. Then there were constant phone calls and emails from  Nicole's colleagues from the University of Glasgow who wanted to help in any way they could. They would make hotel reservations, pick up at the airport, transport them when possible, even pay for their accommodations and taxis or anything else that was needed.

 George's passport has expired over a year ago and he needed to reapply for one but mine has expired less than a year ago so it needed only to be renewed. In order to get the passports in urgency, we needed a letter from the  High Commission of Canada Consular Services in London.  This was sent in a PDF file so I had to print the document from my computer and bring it to the passport office.  Passport photos needed to be taken.

George needed to have two unrelated people sign the form and one had to have a valid passport and needed to sign the back of one of his passport photo.  We finally found his accountant who was able to help us but his passport was at his house and not at his office downtown. He called his son and Got the passport number, date of issue and expiry date.

 To speed up the process, we needed to pay an extra $50.00 each for each passport.  My husband had cash, but they didn't take cash... I used my debit card and paid for them both. We both renewed our passports for 10 years.  Our passports were applied for on Thursday and they would be ready for pick up on Monday at noon, otherwise it would take 10 days. What a complicated procedure it is to get a passport quickly.

George wanted me to go to Glasgow with him and Christine. Jackie also wanted to go but her passport would not be ready on time.  I decided that someone needed to stay home to take care of the farm in case something happens and to be a contact. Once we had a date that the passports would be ready, Christine arranged for the flights. She would fly from Ottawa to Halifax and her dad would fly from Fredericton to meet her in Halifax, from there they would fly to London and then to Glasgow. Scotland.

Christine paid for all the flights and made arrangements to stay in Glasgow for 10 days.  I printed the itinerary and gave the document to George to look at. They were flying on Tuesday  October 25.

On Monday October 24, I went to pick up the passports and doubled checked the name to make sure everything was correct.  I noticed that the passport had only one name instead of the full name and I checked the itinerary had his full name. I told George that he will not be able to get in Glasgow with different names. They both need to be the same. I emailed Christine and she quickly fixed  the itinerary with Air Canada and I printed the new itinerary. A good thing I noticed it as it was almost time to leave.

The night before he was leaving, George got a call from John Deere Dealer in Woodstock N.B. that his tractor was repaired and needed to be picked up. Also the vet called to say that she was  coming do do herd health at 9:00am on the 25th. Herd health is when they check all the cows for pregnancy.  He told them that she would have to come at 8:00 am.  He milked the cows in the morning,  got through herd health and came home. I made a sandwich and a mug of coffee and he was off with his friend with the truck and the flat bed to Woodstock New Brunswick,  and two and a half hour later he had the tractor back on the farm.

He had advised his bank that he was going to use his Visa in Glasgow Scotland and a teller typed something in a computer and when he went to use hiss vVisa , it was rejecting his transaction so he needed to go back to town to the bank to get this fixed. Just what he needed... While there he also bought travel insurance.  He needed a hair cut so he had to get across town to his barber.  Meanwhile he still  had not packed his luggage and I did that for him. The only thing I forgot was his cell phone charger.  By now, I was almost chewing my nails... I think a good drink of Scotch Whisky would have been what I needed but it was time to get to the barn. lol... Living with a Last Minute Man is really hard on the nerves...

Wait a minute.... Christine reminded me to make sure that he took a shower before leaving and I did...  and  he barely made it to the airport in time to make his flight. The airport is only minutes away. A very good thing... I had to get back to work at the farm so George's sister Pauline whisked him to the airport and off he went.
Now, I'm breathing a sign of relief...

There's more but it will have to wait. The important thing is that he's off to his destination for now.

Thanks for reading just in case someone finds me here.
Hugs,
Julia