Happy New Year!

As unbelievable as it seems, another Christmas is over and it is almost 2016!  It took me most of this year to get it into my head that it was 2015, but here we are, only days away from another new year.  I swear that the older I get the faster time goes by.

Christmas was nice, fairly quiet with only six of us here for dinner.  We spoiled each other with gifts and with my retirement package, I was allowed to be more generous than usual.  Next year, on a pension, it might be a bit of a different story.  We’ll see.

Boxing Day, we were at my Dad’s and there were 22 for dinner!  Quite the crowd, but a lovely visit.  I look forward to spending more time in Napanee in the new year, now that I am retired.  Mind you, Dad and Sally will be heading to Australia on January 2nd and won’t be back until mid February, so visits won’t likely start until the spring, although we have yet to see what winter has in store for us!

As to my retirement, to be completely honest, I don’t think I want to work anymore, except perhaps as a volunteer with seniors and to use the training I will get this year while becoming a deacon.  I have so many books to read, rooms and closets to organize, crafts to do!  Who has time to work? I also hope to be able to visit some people that I haven’t had the time to see.

I was pretty good this year.  I did connect by phone with folks I hadn’t been in contact with for some time.  Next year, perhaps I can actually go out and visit them!

So, a short blog today, to send out blessings to one and all for a wondrous and prosperous new year.  May you set and attain your goals this coming year!  God bless.

Christmas Traditions

Happy rainy Monday!  I have made no secret of the fact that I am a Christian.  I can’t say if I was born a Christian, because I was adopted as a baby, but I was raised one, and I tried to instil my beliefs in my daughters, particularly around Christmas.

When my girls were young, one tradition we had was to have a birthday cake on Christmas Day, to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It was made in the shape of a star and the frosting was always yellow.

One of the other traditions was to always get together as a family.  This was challenging for my siblings on the west coast, but those in Ontario got together Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day.  My daughters’ father had left before Kaitlyn’s first Christmas, so it was especially nice to be around family.

When the girls were quite young, we would go up to my parents home ahead of Christmas, but when my oldest was about four, she decided she wanted Santa to come to our house.  That began a many year tradition of going up to my parents (a nearly five hour drive) on Christmas morning.  It was very challenging in some of the weather we got around that time of year, but we managed it.

A newer tradition that my brother Paul started a few years ago, was the ‘Deck Paul’s Halls’ annual event.  It was intended to have the nieces and nephews decorate his tree, but there are a couple of aunts that seem to be more into it than the younger ones, but nonetheless, it is a great time to be together and we enjoy the time together.

Time goes on and traditions change a bit as families change, until we settle into new traditions.  We lost my mother just over ten years ago and then three years ago, my father sold the house, so we are settling into new traditions.  I must confess that my father has been away for a couple of Christmases, which makes me sad, but his girlfriend has so much of her family in Australia, I understand

Now, my girls come to my place for Christmas.  This year, my girls will arrive on Christmas Eve with their stepsister Victoria and Victoria’s boyfriend Shavoy.  This is kind of a bi-annual tradition.  Victoria is the daughter of the woman my ex-husband left me for, but Victoria and my kids seem to have been disowned by Gary and Litsa, so I am happy to welcome them all.  Victoria is a lovely person and we enjoy her company.

So, I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, with all of your own traditions and pray that all of you have a prosperous new year!  God bless.

Car Saga

It looks like I have yet to blog on the story of my car.  Black Monday (the day our company let 500 of us go, including me), was the 16th of November.  On the 22nd of November, my honey totaled my car.

I should start out by saying that except for a bit of a sore neck, Cavan was fine.  The airbags did not even deploy.  What happened was this:  some driver decided to cut off a car, which caused that guy to slam on his brakes, which caused the guy behind him to plow into him, the next car to slam into that one and then Cavan slid under the back of that pickup.  So, Cavan was the 4th into the accident.

My car was an eight year old Pontiac G5.  The damage was really just that the hood of the car accordioned up.  At least that was all that it looked like.  Then the tow truck drivers got involved.  What happens when you lift the front of a pickup and pull it forward when it has a car part way under it?  It pulls the whole front off the little car!  Most of the damage to our car was done by the tow truck.

To add insult to injury, the police would not let Cavan call CAA (the Canadian equivalent to AAA) and he had to let a tow truck on the scene take the car.  This resulted in our car being held hostage for nine days!  Cavan called the tow truck driver the Monday to have the car released, but he refused.  We tried again on Tuesday, but the guy insisted that someone had to be there to fill in forms.  I had to be in the city on the Wednesday, so I went to this place that actually had my car locked in a fenced in area.  I was told that he had to be sure he gave the car to the owner. He had no forms, I just put a declaration, freeform, on a folder and he never asked for ID, license or even ownership.

Our insurance company was unable to get a truck to pick the car up that day and the next day was US Thanksgiving, and the tow trucks were dispatched out of the US, so another day went by.  On the Friday, the insurance tow truck showed up and the guy insisted on over $1000 to release the car!  The insurance company wouldn’t pay it, but later that day, they negotiated a price.  The weekend went by and so did Monday.  Tuesday, my car was finally moved to where it was supposed to be.

In the meantime, we had a rental car and anticipating a new car, we rented a Hyundai Elantra, which is what I expected to replace the old car with, at some point.  The mechanic at CarStar was working on the estimate, but up until now, everyone told us it was not worth fixing, so we decided to take advantage of the Black Friday pricing.  The deals ran until November 30th, so we showed up on the 30th.  There were only two cars left that had that deal and I chose the red Elantra GLS with the tinted windows, discounted at $5000 off!

So, new retirement, new car!  It is still too busy to know what retirement is all about, but perhaps after Christmas, I’ll figure it out!

Here’s wishing all of you happy new adventures!  God Bless!

Christmas Concert

Happy Monday afternoon!  I’m late getting to my weekly blog because I was in Toronto from Friday night until Sunday evening.  Cavan was singing with the St. Michael’s Choir School Alumni Association at Massey Hall.  The final practice was Friday evening, with concerts on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm.

While Cavan was at the rehearsal Friday evening, I got to have dinner with my daughters at Yonge and Gerrard.  The dinner was delicious and we had a great chat.

I didn’t attend the Saturday concert, so I got to spend some more time with Alysse.  She met me at the hotel just ahead of noon and we wandered over to Allan Gardens for a little while and then stopped at Cora’s for lunch on our way to her place.  At Alysse’s, I got to help her decorate her Christmas tree and we baked some delicious paleo brownies!

Alysse then styled my hair for the St. Michael’s dinner and I headed back to the hotel to change for the event.  It was another lovely meal, but I was pretty tired from all of the walking I had done in the city that day!  We headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next day we slept in and had confirmed a late checkout at noon.  We loaded up the car and parked in the Choir School parking lot meeting Cavan’s brother, sister-in-law and mother for lunch along with his sister-in-law’s mother.  We ate at Fran’s, right across from Massey Hall and then just walked over for the event.

It was a wonderful concert!  The little kids from St. Mike’s (the Choir School starts at grade 3) were just adorable, but it was the Alumni that got the standing ovation. It was a great concert.  The Alumni for this performance range from the class of 1946 to the class of 2009.  The group was over 70 voices strong and just goes to show you that once you have talent, you can conjure it up whenever necessary!

So, this is just a short blog because I need to get to my Christmas cards!  I haven’t even had time to figure out what retirement is all about!

Stay safe and enjoy the coming festive weeks leading up to Christmas.  God bless you all!