Tag Archives: tradition

birthday…

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

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today is my birthday;-)…

I love birthdays, mine and everyone else’s… I like presents too… they don’t need to be big or expensive… 

I enjoy the birthday song being sung over the phone, or in person, or nowadays by text… when my kids were little I’d sing it to them the number of years they were turning… eventually you can’t sing it enough times in the day, lol.. 

last night my BS friends brought birthday cherry pie and presents… so this morning I enjoyed the last piece of the pie with my breakfast…

I’ve never been a cake lover…

busy at work but there was time to spend with visitors, who also brought treats – chips and a lovely purple water bottle… and answer some of the birthday calls and texts that came throughout the day…

purple tipped flowers from my colleagues with a fun balloon and card… one of our traditions is to circulate a card that everyone adds comments to for the celebrant… always a gift to read the kind notes included…

was going to order from SkipTheDishes but made leftover turkey dinner instead, one of my favourite meals…

then had a treat, lol…

had some loose tea in my new left-handed the wall tea cup… works really well and the tea I’d picked up recently at one of the Farmers Markets is delicious – it is similar to one of our all time favourites that was discontinued a number of years ago… and chips with two types of chocolate bars – my favourite Aschenti Cacao 79% with Sea Salt, and one of the bars we picked up in Mazatlan – a Ritter bar that had rum, nuts and fruit in it…

I mean, I’d been good all day, and it is my birthday, lol…

thinking back to a delicious piece of chocolate cake we found and shared by the Flatiron building in New York last year on my birthday…

really was one of the best pieces of cake I’ve ever eaten…

a great day to be alive…

weekend…

09 Sunday Apr 2017

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I should be completely worn out because it’s been such a busy weekend… but I’m not…

up and out for an early morning hot tub and took a picture of the garden before I came in…

it needs the spring cleanup…

was picked up and met the rest of the family for dimsum… this is one of our traditions when my sister-in-law comes to town… and we all love it… well most of the time… sometimes the younger ones don’t want to have anything, but another time they eat everything in sight… 

that black blob on the bottom right is the youngest not participating, lol… but he did eat…

my oldest grandson came home with me and did some cleanup in the garden, although it was rather cold… he raked and swept and moved furniture and took dead plants to the composting barrels… then we sat down at his suggestion, and made a list of projects for the garden this summer…

we didn’t get everything we wanted done today, but it looks much more ready to be in…

I am so blessed to have this young man help me with the garden maintenance… and of course my son-in-law does lots of the work with the ponds;-)…

looking forward to warm days and hours spent by the pond…

sparkly…

01 Sunday Jan 2017

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this morning the table was covered with glitter as we toasted the new year over breakfast and then fixed a few things around the house before the kids headed out to visit with friends…

I set the table and prepared for our family New Year’s dinner of steak and lobster… we used to have it on New Year’s Eve but it has morphed into New Year’s Day…

used the Ferrero Roche tree as the centrepiece, as well as our dessert, lol… had fun setting the space up… even put out some glow-in-the-dark bracelets…

groups arrived at different times and last to arrive was the working son-in-law who joined us just after seven and headed right out to the garage to barbecue the steak and lobster…

it was beautifully done and went perfectly with the baked potatoes, escargot stuffed mushrooms, fried Brussels sprouts and Caesar salad…

the dessert tree was a hit as well… the kids cleaned up and we had some fun tasting chocolate…

photo by @thedevils3


fun time… as they were leaving we lit sparklers for them to enjoy…

above 2 photos by @peacecyndi


blessed to be able to spend time with the whole family as the year begins…

lobster…

31 Thursday Dec 2015

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for most of our married life we would celebrate New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… started this tradition when we were newly married with a couple of longtime friends…

I can remember the first year, before we had kids, when we were in their yard and the old style charcoal bbq melted the snow all around it… the guys were in their shirtsleeves, it was giving off so much heat…

what great fun we had… over the years we kept up the tradition with appetizers early on, and then the steak and lobster very late in the evening, usually with at least one other couple… for much of the time the girls didn’t participate as New Year’s was our adult celebration…

when the girls were adults, they started to come for the dinner before going out with their friends, so we began eating earlier so it would fit with their plans…

the last few years before George died we would spend the remainder of the evening reading or watching tv and heading to bed after the midnight glass of bubbly…

last year I decided not to have steak and lobster on New Year’s Eve and instead had it on New Year’s Day with the family… I spent a quiet evening, watched fireworks at our community club from the dining room window… tonight I could hear the fireworks at The Forks…

  

I roasted a Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and cauliflower, with a carrot and raisin salad… a lovely remembrance… for years having a Cornish hen was a special treat for the two of us… a tasty reminder of my beloved…

  
the lobster is thawing in preparation for tomorrow’s dinner… 

  
everyone in the family loves it now… not sure why we ever fed it to the little boys, lol…

likely I will be asleep at midnight…

dumplings…

09 Monday Nov 2015

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today at lunch I enjoyed some of the zucchini basil soup I made on Saturday… it was delicious and a lovely shade of green…

  
I had turned down a sandwich from a local deli because I knew I was having dumplings for my supper which meant I couldn’t have any bread during the day…

while we were eating we talked about dumplings… 

for dinner I was planning on chicken soup with dumplings… made the base last night and tonight skimmed the fat and added in the barley… usually it has peas, potatoes, corn and carrots, but none of those are on my good for me to eat list… 

the dumpling recipe is one of the few I have from my mom… we always had them, whenever there was chicken soup…

someone mentioned that they never had dumplings… it wasn’t a tradition in their household…

always interesting to me what items were traditional in different people’s homes… I just assumed that everyone ate dumplings with chicken soup, lol… 

  
nowadays when I make the dumpling recipe I cut it in half so that I am not tempted to eat more than I should… well, probably I shouldn’t eat any…

my learning today is that you can’t use the full amount of liquid with half of the dry ingredients in a recipe, lol…

looked a little beige but tasted good enough for me to eat two bowls full…

it’s a great tradition in my life…

sushi…

24 Thursday Oct 2013

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got a call a few days ago talking about getting family pictures taken this Saturday…

wasn’t sure I really wanted to participate, but decided to get a haircut just to be on the safe side… after that I realized that all the purple is gone from my hair, so I made an appointment to get purpled…

the pictures are going to be taken in the park, and when I ask what people will be wearing I’m told – blue jeans…

here’s something you may not know about me… I don’t think I have ever worn blue jeans… for sure not in the last 50 years… this past summer I was talked into a pair of blue jean shorts, which I wore out about three times – when I was with my daughter, lol…

so, after talking with Cyndi, this morning I asked Crystal if she was available to go shopping with me after work… we went to Reitman’s which is where daughter number one suggested they might have something in their Petite line that I would like…

after trying on a couple of pairs Crystal picked one which I didn’t mind too much… then we went to Addition Elle and picked up a hoodie type top to go with them… Crystal had to text her sister to let her know the exciting news… she is waiting for pictures…

tempura and edemame...

tempura and edemame…

after that, to celebrate, we went out for sushi for our dinner… funny because I’ve been thinking about sushi for days and when I asked Crystal what she wanted the first thing out of her mouth was sushi…

sushi rolls...

sushi rolls which we gobbled up…

after our lovely dinner we went to Chapters where she picked up a book and I found a few for the little boys for Christmas… since Cyndi was born we have given each of the kids a book for Christmas and their birthdays… that has followed through with the boys – husbands and grandsons…

finally home after another busy day…

so, now I am ready for family pictures…

Friday payday Chinese food night…

09 Saturday Feb 2013

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many years ago, George and I would go to my parents’ house once a month on a Friday after payday and have dinner with them and their neighbour and friend Margaret…  it was before we had the kids, a really long time ago…

we would decide what we wanted and George would call in the order and it became a lovely tradition… it is always more fun to eat Chinese food with others so you can have lots of variety…  we did this for many years and the people at the Chinese food restaurant would recognize George’s voice even many years later…

I decided a while ago that this would be a good family thing to do as I certainly don’t want to order just for myself…  so I’ve tried a couple of times to get this going again, with Crystal and family and my nephew and his girlfriend…

once it worked out and we actually went to the restaurant… this week we had a lovely time with family and a friend chowing down on a lovely dinner…

Chinese food dinner...

Chinese food dinner…

it reminded me of my parents, which was funn,y because today I was going through some files and was looking at some of my mom’s poetry…

time goes by so swiftly and you forget so much of what has taken place…

I hope the picture will help remind me of the special moments in my life…

February…

31 Thursday Jan 2013

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February is coming fast, and with it Valentine’s Day…

we’ve always made a production about Valentine’s Day in our house…

when the girls were little I would always bake special event cookies or other treats for their classmates, and supper would invariably be on the theme… and that tradition has continued over the years…

card with chocolate and candy...

card with chocolate and candy…

George made Valentine’s Day extra special for us as the girls got older… he always made sure to get them each a rose, whether they had a boyfriend/husband who might do that or not…

last year he remembered a particular jacket that I had been eyeing and it, along with roses and chocolates, awaited me when I got up on Valentine’s Day…

Valentine rose...

Valentine rose…

I hadn’t really noticed the hype that goes on before Valentine’s Day, but this year is different…  every time I turn around I see an ad or hear a commercial all about doing something special for your sweetie… Groupon, Teambuy and others have been suggesting things to buy for Valentine’s Day since mid January… Pinterest has been showing DIY projects since about that time as well…  TV and radio are all on the same bandwagon as well…

Valentine rose...

Valentine rose…

my beloved was the love of my life and I miss him… I am still thinking about how I will remember this year..