At Long Last, December 4, 2025

 Realizing I've been absent from blogging for months now, I thought I should show proof of life. This morning, here in Ontario, I am sitting with my Santa mug of coffee, reading blogs and preparing myself mentally for getting ready for a supply teaching job even though buses are cancelled due to the wintry weather. (The schools remain open and many children are brought in by their parents). 

Life has been busy and good. We spent the whole summer and fall doing projects related to getting ready to host our daughter's wedding here in August of '26. We also went away for a week to Cuba in November which was ill fated and probably won't be repeated again in our life time, ha ha! 

I am just starting to gear up for the Christmas season. We were in the city to deliver our son's cat back to him (we were cat sitting while he was away for a much more successful holiday to Mexico later in November) and we managed to get some shopping done. We found a Christmas tree (real) close to home for a sale price of $60.00 which suited us much better than the $99.99 price tag we were seeing! I decorated the tree with Celtic Christmas music in the background yesterday. 

As per usual, Murphy has ensconced himself in his rightful place under the tree. (Tree skirt is not yet put down, so excuse the ugly mat that is used to protect the wood floor). 

I shall start baking soon. We will be having our immediate family get together on the 24th and then extended family will be on Boxing Day, hosted by my eldest brother's long time girlfriend. I am not heart broken over not hosting this year. It is a big undertaking. This will be the first year that we will not be bringing my mother-in-law out of her nursing home to come to our house for a meal and presents. Her dementia has made it more difficult to leave the comfort and familiarity of her place and she is not always aware of who her son is. So we will go to her and hope that it is a nice break in her day. 

As I said, today is blustery and as I look out at the one street light on our dead end road here at the edge of the village, I see there is a tiny break in the weather. Hopefully when it is time for me to set out, there will be another break as I navigate the 20 minute drive through the country side to the school I am working at today. It is a JK /SK class that I am in (junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten split) so I'm not sure how many little ones will show up. 

I hope everyone is well out there. I still enjoy reading blogs, but have lost the previous years' momentum of writing posts myself. Perhaps I will do another Christmas baking post soon. 

Cookies - December 13, 2023

 This Saturday, we will be having our "Christmas" dinner and some present exchange with just our immediate family, as two of them will be elsewhere in the province on the actual Christmas day. For that reason, I baked early and purchased early. On Monday night, we all gathered round to do what is now our annual decorating of gingerbread and sugar cookies. 

We are a funny, sarcastic, and traditional bunch, so when we do our cookie decorating, we see what we can create out of the traditional shapes of trees, bells, ornaments, holly, stars, candy canes. I am super prepared (ha!) with all of my technical decorating tools, those being little zip lock bags of coloured icing with the tip of the bag cut off, so you can "pipe" the icing, some sprinkles, and toothpicks for precision. I must say that this year's icing was superior to other years, so I have Tiktok and my daughter to thank for that. I also realized I am now out of green food colouring, so we had to make our own.

From the left is son, "soon"-to-be son-in-law, and daughter. They are all looking very dedicated to the task at hand. Christmas village is in the background (I went with three levels this year, and no Lego figures).

Catching husband in the act of eating one of the "allowed" cookies. I made other cookies for eating to preserve the ones we were currently working on. We had rum and eggnog whilst decorating.

Most of the gang. Phones were used for images to copy on the cookies.

As you can see, some cookies are traditional (stars, trees, present, ornament) and others are interpretive (snake, cat, skeleton, whatever that swirly white and green thing is...).

Cookie Monster is featured in the lower left (all the while, son complaining that we should have black icing), the Leg Lamp (minus the benefit of yellow icing) , and others. 

Things got a bit political, as some Canadians might recognize some symbols. I won't reveal which ones were celebrated and which ones were scoffed at. As well, please note the Canadian Tire symbol! The gnome cookie is an ode to daughter who despises all the gnome products out there ("friggin' gnomes"). 

Compliments to daughter who took things seriously at the end and created this beauty (there was another one in white and red). I told her it could be a side hustle if the need ever arose. 

The cookies were laid out to set and dry and are now safely packed away in the freezer for future eating. I really love these family times and am very fortunate to have my adult kids close by, as not everyone has this. I get a bit maudlin at this time of year and hope that in the future such traditions will continue within their own families and they will reminisce fondly. 

How Many More Sleeps?

I am writing this at 6:57 a.m. and I can hear Bruce crowing like a crazy beast in the chicken coop. No, I am not going out to open up the coop. Why is one crow not enough?? When are the "neighbours" going to start complaining and come over with an axe? But I digress. I have decided to just stop dancing around what I do for a living, so that you may have a clearer picture of my world right now. Husband and I are both elementary school teachers. I've been in this game for twenty-eight years now. Yesterday was the last school day before Christmas holidays. I am tired to my bones. The enthusiasm and craziness of the lead up to holidays is more of a young person's forte. At fifty-two years old, I crash at the end of the day, especially after a week of Sprit Day (every day  e.g. Ugly Christmas sweater day, Christmas hat day, Christmas pajama day...), the Festive Lunch for the entire school, carol singing in the gym every day, Festive skate at the community centre, and desperately wishing our salt dough ornaments were dry enough to paint. Do I still love it? Yes, but it's more tiring now. Add a spouse who's doing the same things (different school), and that equals two people who sit on the couch at the end of the day.

Anyway, when I came home yesterday, toting wonderful, thoughtful gifts from students and spreading them out on the kitchen table (and husband adding his own collection - we are never without Tim Horton's cards!), I declared that I would not be making food for anybody and phoned a restaurant in a nearby small town (everything around here is a nearby small town). It's nothing fancy, but the food is always good and there are always leftovers to bring home, which makes son happy. (He, by the way, was working his part time job, then happy to be seeing his girlfriend who is now home from university, and then going to coach his basketball team). We set up a reservation, and then I had a much deserved glass of red wine.

When we got there, we saw that the little shop two doors down had a new window display. I had featured this display in a previous post. There are always moving features and lights. I have no idea who builds these displays, but this one was very well done with details and quotes from 'A Christmas Carol'.

This centre piece rotates around with the before and after Scrooges, the after one featuring lights, and other parts of the display also light up at the same time.

Do you see the big goose hanging in the butcher shop window?

Well done, to whoever the craftsperson is who creates these wonderful windows.

As we quickly approach Christmas (my big gathering on the Boxing Day, a smaller gathering here as well on Christmas Day), the weather changes constantly. We had a ton of snow just a couple of weeks ago, then it became ridiculously mild and it rained and we lost most of it, and now the temperature is dropping and it's calling for more snow. Although I am not a fan of winter, I would actually like some snow on the ground for the holiday. The pretty outdoor lights would look better, and it would just feel more Christmasy. A couple of nights ago, the sunset was just incredible. This picture does not really capture the colour well, but imagine the sky on fire.

Notice the grass? Crazy.

Another sight from a few nights ago...

Scooter, just casually lounging on our kitchen table (excuse the clutter - that's life). This is a big no-no. Not that I am foolish enough to believe that they never go where they aren't supposed to, but to be so bold as to just be lying on the table when I'm around... tsk tsk.

I am still rushing about, trying to get ready for the gatherings. I did some more "baking" (these cookies don't really qualify as they don't spend any time in the oven). They are chow mein noodle cookies, or as son calls them, 'spiders'. Do you make these?

I have lists upon lists of things to do. I have always been a list maker. I have lots to keep track of. Some of the items on my list read, "put away boxes / stuff from front hall", "bake Christmas crack / marshmallow things / choc. cookies", "quick Swiffer upstairs", "wrap presents", "flies in kitchen lights"...

For what it's worth, the rooster has now stopped crowing.

When to deconstruct Christmas?

Christmas is one of those big events that takes a lot of planning and preparation leading up to the big day. Then the big day happens in a flurry, but you are too busy to genuinely be part of things and really relax and enjoy it. In a short time, the day is over and you are left sitting, tired, and wondering what happened.

Christmas was very nice here. Christmas day was spent quietly with just the four of us and a ham. The next day, Boxing Day, was spent with 16 people mostly in the kitchen (good thing it's big enough) eating WAY too much food ahead of time and then not actually able to cram around our table even though we had two extentions on either end. (I really thought we would all fit!). The meal turned out well and I had lot of help tidying up.

But now, on December 30th, I am tempted to pack it all up. The kids are older, so it isn't like the "magic" of Christmas is the same. We are not having anyone over for New Year's Eve, so it's not like I should have decorations up for company. The giant rubbermaid bins are still upstairs, waiting to be repacked and put away for another year. Yes, it is a royal pain taking everything down, apart, packing, padding, re-labelling because they don't end up in the same boxes as last year...

How long do most people keep their Christmas decor out? I suppose it depends on how long it has already been on display. But for me, it's like the rush and exhilaration is over and now it is time to move on. It may sound a bit "grinchy", but even though we are still picking away at turkey leftovers and ham leftovers and lord knows, chocolate and cookie leftovers, I'm so done with Christmas! Anyone else feel that way?