Category Archives: family

blowing…

04 Sunday Jan 2026

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Saturday morning I wandered around the house going to each window to look out and take photos of the beauty outside…

it snowed a lot overnight, but the lovely light kind of snow… the trees were gorgeous…

sometime later my housemate was outside blowing the steps and sidewalks…

he doesn’t like to be photographed, lol…

on his return home later he made sure the driveway was shovelled…

I truly am blessed;-)…

undecorating…

02 Friday Jan 2026

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spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s morning undecorating the Christmas tree and putting away the ornaments (with a little assistance from my housemate)… even found a few for the pass-along box… the snow people also found their way into the appropriate container…

it always seems to be a much quicker process than decorating, lol… and I put some plants back into the window…

finished by putting away the trees which, besides being on the stairs, were in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom;-)…

likely I will still find one or two ornaments that were missed, lol…

mid-day…

28 Sunday Dec 2025

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my grandson usually arrives here on Christmas day around noon…

our current tradition is to have appetizers for our mid-day meal as he may have already had breakfast and will be heading out for dinner a bit later in the day…

we had wandered the aisles at the grocery store picking up things that looked fun…

we had shrimp dumplings, fancy cheese fries, tempura shrimp, wontons, veggies and dip, sausage rolls, and a shrimp ring… lots of shrimp on that list, lol…

this year we did stockings for each other, which was great… it has been many years since I had a stocking…

it was filled with a great many treats…

then the second round of presents were opened, and I was royally spoiled;-)…

although he only had a few gifts he was very pleased with them…

we sat around and visited before he had to leave for his next engagement, lol…

I truly am blessed to have this thoughtful young man in my life;-)…

face-to-face…

25 Thursday Dec 2025

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all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…

put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…

woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…

laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…

made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…

we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…

what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…

such a lovely Christmas morning;-)…

concrete…

23 Tuesday Dec 2025

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as my housemate was leaving the driveway on Sunday, the plows came down the street so he wasn’t able to leave…

he was quick to get a shovel to start shovelling through the windrow… he headed to the sidewalk and they saw him and did a bit of extra snow moving so he didn’t have nearly as much as imagined…

the plow drivers were amazing in how they move the snow… by the time they were done, there was just a small windrow to be moved before he could leave…

so happy he was here because you have to move it immediately before it turns to concrete and then I would have gone out to move it;-(…

after he left they came down the other side of the street… the first plow moved the snow up over the curb and the second one went exactly along the edge of the curb to clear it up…

they have great control over their equipment…

blizzards…

22 Monday Dec 2025

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we’ve had our first blizzards of the season… they sort of happened over two days…

Thursday, a good amount of snow fell and then the winds came… later the snow stopped and returned the next day with more wind…

I had to cancel two outings, so was able to stay home and watch through the living room window…

on day three my housemate spent over an hour shovelling the sidewalks and driveway… there was a lot of snow🤪…

thankfully, a neighbour a few houses to the north came with his snowblower and dealt with the area closest to the garage which saved another hour of shovelling…

the back door had about a foot of snow covering it and the deck… now it is all clear…

we will see how long that lasts;-)…

instructions…

18 Thursday Dec 2025

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I’ve been enjoying my Advent calendars for these past eighteen days…

the boxes for the one have been on the stairs with a few elsewhere when all 24 wouldn’t fit…

as they’ve been opened I’ve rearranged them until now there aren’t any on some of the steps…

they have been filled with items from paper clips, a label maker, seeds, purple and handmade items, as well as a favourite chocolate bar ;-)…

the ones on the wall are turned once opened and I’ve enjoyed all the treats in them as well… from a variety of nuts to a few with chocolate in them;-)…

these are the hands that have filled all of them, some with instructions from far away, lol…

completed…

05 Friday Dec 2025

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enjoyed time in the computer room wrapping up the Christmas presents…

this year there was just a small box to go to Ottawa which went into the mail a few days ago… a few items were ordered and delivered directly to them…

the remainder of the presents are now under the tree…

happy to have this piece of work completed…

widowhood…

04 Thursday Dec 2025

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as I sit here quietly in the living room I am thinking of two big events that took place in the last few days…

the first was a congratulatory note from WordPress… on December 1st, 2012 I began writing about my journey into widowhood… and have continued that since then, moving into commenting on my life…

the second was today, which would have been my beloved’s 77th birthday… this year we had burgers here, one of his favourite foods, while the kids in Ottawa had an apple galette… he loved apple pie… we had a video visit between the burgers and galette, lol…

my grandson is going to use his Christmas stocking for the first time…

I sure do miss him🤗…

restrung…

03 Wednesday Dec 2025

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spent Sunday setting up the Christmas tree…

first I had to move the plants in the front window to other spots and move two tables out of the way…

then I spent some time removing two strings of lights… one that didn’t work and one that I restrung on the tree…

then, six or seven boxes came upstairs and were gone through to see what was in them and decide on the theme for this year’s ornaments…

chose glass pieces that have rarely been out since my beloved’s passing…

once it was decorated, I was advised that it needed more purple🤪… can you believe it, lol…

so I added more purple…