CHRISTMAS IN JULY 25, 2017

I'm going back in time here but I wanted to keep a record of our family gathering. Life has been a bit busy for me lately and I'm still playing catch up.

We always celebrate Christmas at Christmas time but this year we tried something new, we celebrated Christmas in July.  We will probably still celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December as it's Jesus' birthday ...

No we haven't lost our mind or got our date mixed up. You see July 25th is Nicole's birthday and it just happened that the family was all together to celebrate and we even played the traditional present game after a big family meal.  After all she was the one who introduced it to the family and it's a fun tradition.

Christine got all the presents for the game over a period of time as she went shopping, she would pick  up some and added to the pile. I think that she wrapped over 50 presents by herself... There was a big pile.  She did this because her and her family will be celebrating Christmas in Ottawa this year and won't be coming home for Christmas as travelling in the winter with small kids can be very long and tiresome drive  flying a family at Christmas is not much fun anymore...

Isn't this a gorgeous smile and the cupcakes are lovely too.

Christine even made a dark chocolate zucchini cake batter and made small and medium cupcakes and made some ganuche icing, oh so moist and yummy.  My son in law Bill,  made his famous Chicken Fettuccine with Sun Dried Tomatoes and my daughter Jackie made her famous toss salad with home made dressing and she also made an appetizer of baked Brie and it was to die for.  I provided the wine and did nothing else since I was working at the farm.

Vaughan was milking and George was baling hay. Since I was a bit late with 7 new born calves to bootle feed plus all the others and  having to shower before the meal, I had no time to take pictures of the meal but take my word for it, it was very delicious and enjoyed by all...

Aren't those most amazing fork jewellery that Jordyn got! She had picked it up at an earlier date and was wearing it in honour of Nicole... unfortunately she left before I could take picture of Cypress and Willow.

Remember the shipment of 17 boxes from Scotland of Nicole's things, the rest of her belonging stayed in Scotland and given away to charity with her mask collection to be donated and shipped to The University Of New Brunswick Anthropology Department.

We toasted our  Nicole with a wee dram of 12 years old scotch whisky again  and after we went upstairs to distribute the rest of her belongings amongst family members.  It was done with the upmost respect for her things and when asked who wants this, someone would say, I want it if no one else wants it. There was no greed.  Of course we all pretty well know each other's taste and everyone would say it's yours, take it. There was jewellery, home decorations, souvenirs from places she visited, and lots of decorative and interesting items she picked up on her many travels to so many countries, clothing, tons of photos,  postcards, and too many things to name here.  It has taken days to organize and there is still lots of belonging to divide or to donate at a later date. It all went so smoothly and everyone got a little piece of Nicole to cherish.

This week Nicole's tombstone was finally installed in the cemetery.  May she rest in peace,
Thanks for your visit and know that I enjoy reading you comments.
Hugs, Julia