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

I'VE NOTICED A TREND

I've noticed that since I've started blogging on August 2, 2010 a lot of the bloggers are no longer blogging every day and it seems that they post less and less just like me, others blog once in a blue moon and others have stopped blogging all together and I wonder why but I know life happens along the way... I keep checking everyone's blog and comment even if I don't post just  because I feel like you are my friends.

 For me, I feel too tired at the end of the day to bother and I put it off and then I have so much stuff to blog about that I can't make up my mind what to choose so I don't blog. In the summer, I do pretty much the same from year to year, weed,  mow the lawn, feed calves, plant gardens, office work, meals, run errands and do housework so it's kind of repetitious. I don't have time to run around with a heavy camera around my neck and I don't have a Smart phone to take carry with me to take those awesome shots that happens when you least expect it.

Some of you have been after me to post so here it is today. For dear Kezzie all the way across the ocean, here are photos of  my last two little calves.

An overhead shot of the two of them. The shiny black one is a heifer calf named Lemmon and the other one is a bull calf that we don't name as he is sold. He looks small but he is about 130 pounds and very strong.

I tried to take a decent photo of the two of them standing and they just wouldn't stay still two second. After they were fed, they laid down and I got this shot. Anyone who has tried to take photographs of curious calves can tell you it's not easy. It takes another person to distract them while the other takes their pictures.

Daniel is sitting in his booster seat next to mama while James is sitting on the end.

James is trying out some pasta salad. It doesn't seen to be to his liking...

He said  he didn't like it before even trying but he must at least do the taste test.

Weeding... yes weeding...

I got many wheelbarrowful of these kind of weeds on the edges of the back vegetable garden. These long roots runs under the ground and spread and have to be totally dug out to remove them. If you cut them up they will roots everywhere.

This is what they look like where it grows  in the hayfield  along beside of the garden.

Weeds along the long bed by the driveway.  Mostly wood sorrel and so hard to get rid of.

More weeds around the big rock

Creeping Charlie weeds have taken over my my lawn.

A little row of snowpeas for stir frys.

Some spinach that is ready to be picked

Early cabbage and some chickweeds sprouting again after all the rain.

Some Roma tomatoes starting to grow.

A row of Spanish onion, a row of red onions and a row of yellow  onions

My little potato patch is doing really well after digging out those weeds with long white roots. Notice some Milkweeds have been left for butterflies on the left.

My peonies are starting to bloom

Some peonies way out by the shed have also started to bloom. 

Hopefully I'll be posting again this week. I have more family pictures and I missed some really good shots while being preoccupied in preparing meals.

 Thanks for stopping by.

JB