escargot…

04 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by sulis303 in family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishwasher, escargot, family, food, home, lobster, memories, moments, New Year's, preparations, remembering, steak, time, treat, widow

for years we celebrated New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… this started with friends before we had kids;-)…

at some point it moved to New Year’s Day as the kids wanted to participate but were off celebrating on the night before…

this year I enjoyed the preparation as I worked on getting escargot stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and sautéed Brussels sprouts ready…

the kids arrived, got the barbecue going and then grilled the steaks and lobster tails…

dinner was delicious and we had a great time…

on Monday, as I emptied the dishwasher and put away all of the pieces we used, I revisited the fun and special moments…

and the tradition continues…

Audubon…

02 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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Audubon, big girl pants, birds, blessed, calendar, Chihuly, garden, memories, moments, nature, pictures, Technology, tradition, widow

January first was new calendar day…

for many years we have had Chihuly calendars… either my daughter or I would get two and give one to the other person;-)…

one year I even made one filled with photos from our trip to see his installation in Atlanta…

this year I changed it up…

I found an Audubon calendar online that shows a different bird each day… ordered two and sent one off with the other Christmas presents…

took down the old one and put up the new one…

I think I will learn a bit and maybe it will even help me with bird identification in the garden…

first-footing…

01 Sunday Jan 2023

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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blessed, coal, dark, definition, family, first footing, garden, her big girl pants, home, loss, memories, moments, remembering, tradition, widow

we have done first-footing since I was a little girl… for us, it meant that just before midnight on New Year’s Eve my dad, who had dark hair, would jump in the car and drive around to all our aunts and uncles and grandparents’ houses and take them an offering – it always included coal, bread and sometimes oranges and a little drink of something… I also remember how my dad would have to search out new coal every year because no one ever kept it from year to year, lol…

from Dalhousie Castle:

“Stemming back to the time of the invading Vikings in the 8^th and 9^thcentury, it is believed that the first person to enter a house, the “first foot”, can bring luck – or misfortune – for the year ahead. In Scottish tradition good luck comes in the form of a tall, dark-haired man being the first footer.” Dec 7, 2020

I spent time this morning looking back at some of the different ways it has happened for me…

my daughter being the first female to cross the threshold first when she was here in 2017…

my middle grandson taking home a bag and making sure to bring it and be the first one to cross my threshold…

my daughter arranging for friends to come by with a box of items she had sent to them…

while visiting the kids in Ottawa, having a diamond necklace in the bag because there wasn’t any coal, lol… and I did have to give it back🤪…

this morning I went out the back door in my housecoat, walked around to the front door, and first-footed myself…

those big girl pants 😂…

endings…

31 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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beginnings, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, endings, enjoy, friends, Life, memories, moments, remember, struggles, widow

been thinking of those in my circle who are struggling… sometimes it is hard to remember that not everyone finds joy at this time of year…

holidays are often a time filled with grief and pain for many… and often it comes out of the blue…

maybe the rush to get everything done and perfect adds to the stress that then can bring on ill health or sad memories…

as one year is ending and another beginning let’s all sit in the moments and enjoy as many as we can;-)…

blessings to all…

shelf…

30 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by sulis303 in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, lifted, memories, moments, ornaments, put away, shelf, squashed, waiting, widow

on Wednesday I took all the ornaments off the trees in the living and dining rooms… the dining room one looked a little lonely and empty as it sat on the table…

the ornaments ended up on two tables and are still there, lol… but I have washed out a bin and it is drying as I write this…

Thursday I brought up the box that the trees live in and was able to squash them in…

then I taped it closed and was able to get it downstairs but not onto the shelf where it lives… will have to wait for someone else to lift it up;-)…

cheers…

28 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by sulis303 in business, family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized

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beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cheers, computer, family, happy, internet, memories, moments, shopping, Technology, time, treat, widow

Sunday we opened gifts over the internet, lol…

we always like to cheers together and being 1330 miles apart doesn’t stop us although it took a bit of direction from the kids for me to get my mug in the right spot, lol…

there were lots of treats and great minds thinking alike as we all opened Chapters/Indigo cards…

technology has made such a difference in our lives…

what a treat;-)…

paths…

27 Tuesday Dec 2022

Posted by sulis303 in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, bunnies, garden, memories, moments, nature, paths, photos, snow, weather, widow

what a treat this morning…

as I was heading downstairs I spotted not one but two bunnies in the garden…

this could explain the numerous paths through the snow;-)…

it always amazes me how those special moments happen… how I just happen to look out the window at that moment…

life is good 😊…

yards…

19 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by sulis303 in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, exercise, hard work, memories, moments, nature, path, shovelling, snow, weather, widow, yards

hadn’t shovelled for a few days so went out on Saturday morning to do the sidewalk so people knew I was alive, lol…

wow… a lot of snow had come down…

besides doing the front sidewalk and a space towards each of the neighbours’ yards for the mail carrier, I also shovel a single path along the driveway to get to the vents for the furnace…