Christmas Past

Christmas week was definitely slower than the week prior. Thank goodness!

Besides the big day, I filled my time with packing for leaving today (to the city), reading, watching television, and making mini-quiche for our Christmas breakfast. D had errands to run on the 24th in the morning and also baked buns and set a pan of cinnamon buns for the next day's breakfast. 

That evening we dressed in our new Christmas pajamas and went for a drive around town to look at the Christmas lights. There were some pretty fantastic displays, no photos though. It was clear that at some point small inflatable snowman were purchased by many; we ought to have counted them up as we drove around as I'm sure they would have numbered in the dozens.

We had hoped that a bath and the drive would help Eli fall asleep that night. It did not, and D said it was nearly 11:30 before he dropped off. I wasn't far behind him - not sure why I couldn't sleep but I was up past midnight. This is what our Christmas morning looked like:

5:30 a.m. Eli is up and raring to go. His mom attempts to distract him with his stocking. That takes about 3 minutes for him to unwrap some small gifts. He does go downstairs to play with the cap gun in the stocking...for about 1 minute.

G'ma gives up and gets up at this point. We discuss whether we ought to have breakfast before opening gifts. Eli vetoes that idea, but I manage to put the cinnamon buns in the oven before he has his say.

5:45 a.m. Gift opening commences. We have a tradition in our family, that only one gift at a time can be opened. It must then be admired by all before the next gift is handed out. This extends the amount of time.

6:05 a.m. I check the cinnamon buns and give them another 10 minutes.

6:15 a.m. Gift opening continues. Eli opens a gift from Santa and finds Mario Bros. underwear. It is the only gift that disappoints him. G'ma and Momma get slippers from Santa; we are not disappointed. 

I pull the cinnamon buns out of the oven and put the mini quiche into warm up for 10 minutes.

6:25 a.m. Quiche are ready. D realizes that she forgot to put one present under the tree. (She didn't really but she wanted to prank Eli). It's the Nintendo Switch that he asked Santa to bring. Much joy is observed, at least until she has to start the process of making it work with the television. 

6:30 a.m. I sit down with a cup of tea, two mini-quiches and a cinnamon bun. Eli has a bowl of cereal and a pear due to his egg allergy. D doesn't eat until later.

The hilarity (for me, at least) continued for another hour or so while D set up a profile on-line, watched several videos on how to set up the Switch, tested it, and said a few HBO words. When the video game was finally passed to the small child, I did the dishes and she went up to bed where she napped for three hours. Eli and I hung out in my bedroom, where I watched the Great British Baking show. 

Christmas dinner was a sirloin tip roast done low and slow in the oven, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, and my daughter's favorite, Stove Top stuffing. The beef was so delicious - it's been some time since I've done a roast. There is enough left over for a sandwich or two for D. 

We were all in bed early that night! Eli slept for over 12 hours and woke just as D left the house to do a bit of Boxing Day shopping. There was a table on sale that we wanted for the office/craft room at Canadian Tire. I was just as happy to stay home with the kid and the cats.

Christmas was taken down and put away on Friday. While D likes the sparkle, there is a lot of it to deal with. I had brought in the tubs from the porch the day before, and we made quick work of dismantling the Christmas tree, and the other Christmas stuffies, Nativity set, green garland and such. We did leave up the snow flakes and blue and silver garland. So, still a little sparkle and winter themed.

This morning I will get the car packed with the Christmas gifts for my brother and his family, my bags - duffle with clothing, laptop, and knitting. There are a couple of errands to run in the city before I head for C's house. Hopefully I'll have everything done, so I can park the car in the garage, where it will stay for the next two months. Then it is just packing for Yuma, hanging out with my son, Saku (the cat) and Sage (the dog) before I fly out on Tuesday!

Have a great week ahead everyone! 

Christmas past

 It was a quiet day here on Christmas Day, with just my son and I and the two cats.  My brother had stopped by on Christmas Eve to drop off a few gifts, and we ordered in pizza for dinner that evening. I was being entirely lazy and planned that we'd eat leftovers on Christmas Day.  We did; my son had pizza and I ate the remainder of a pasta bake we'd had earlier in the week. I didn't even do the dishes, they sat in the sink until this morning.  As I said, lazy!

I started the morning, as always, woken by the yells of a hungry cat. At 20.5 years of age, Sasha has no patience when waiting for his meals.  And he's spoiled too.  After feeding the cats, I made a cup of tea and sat in the living room, with just the glow of the Christmas lights from the tree.  

This is a something I've done for years.  I can even recall being a teenager, and getting up in the quiet of the morning to sit by myself in the living room.  Usually Dad would be awake too, but busy with lighting the oil burners that heated our farm house, bringing in water, and starting the coffee for Mom.  

It was a little more difficult to do when my children were young as they were up at the crack of o'dark. We always spent Christmas at my Mom and Dad's, and she had a rule no gifts could be opened before we'd had breakfast.  Breakfast didn't come before her coffee either!  Since it was her birthday and her house, her rules. As the children got older there was definitely more quiet time for the adults first thing in the morning.

Similarly, yesterday my son was up about noon'ish.  Once the pot of coffee was made we opened our gifts from R's family.  My gift is perfect, a pair of cleats to attach to my boots or shoes, so I can walk this winter with less concern of falling.  We've got snow in the forecast for today so I'll likely wait a day or two before testing them out. 

I spent the day knitting, watching a movie (Fried Green Tomatoes) and three games of junior hockey, and I joined a zoom call with my older brother M and his family.  My first time using zoom and it went very well. I probably should have waited until later, though, as most of M's stepsons and grandchildren weren't interested in our conversation.  The youngest boy A and I had a chat, as he's currently living in Vietnam, and I was quite interested to hear how he ended up there.  I think, had M's wife D been on the call as well, it might have been easier but she was busy making a meal for the two of them.

I also had several calls from my daughter and video-chatted with Eli at least twice.  I know she was feeling quite lonely being on her own.  Next year will be different, I'm sure.

Later I did more research on my family trees in Ancestry while looking through various photo albums. Mom had eight photo albums, and my grandmother (Nan) one as well.  The latter album has disintegrated over the years and the writing under the photos has faded. 

This is one of the photos I shared on FB with various cousins.  It was taken in December, 1954 in my Nan and Grandpa's home. I originally found it loose in Nan's album but later noted that it should have been in Mom's as she had a notation that read "Dad (head), E and A." The photo bomber is my grandfather, E is my dad, and A is my aunt - she was married to my mom's brother B.  Dad and Mom were married on November 26, 1954, so this photo was taken just weeks after they married.  

One of today's tasks will be to sort through the loose photos to see if I can find the appropriate places in the albums.  I'll also try to decipher and re-write the information in Nan's album.  Note to myself - printed photos should include details of names and dates. It sure makes it easier for those who come later.  

I've started my eighth scarf, this one crocheted, and there are three junior hockey games today as well.  There are some chores that need to be accomplished first though, so I'd better get moving.

Take care everyone and stay well!

The rest of the week

 Things got a whole lot quieter around here after D and Eli left for home on Wednesday.  C had helped clear up the toys so there wasn't a lot to do as far as tidying.  Instead I focused on cleaning: bathrooms were scrubbed down, the kitchen counters were cleared and the floor washed, the front hall rug was lifted, the floor under it swept and washed, and today's chores will include vacuuming both my bedroom and the living room.

I finished watching The Queen's Gambit and an animated The Grinch on Netflix.  If you have an opportunity to watch the first, it is a very interesting story of a young girl who arrives at an orphanage as a young girl.  We'd started watching the second program when I was at D's in early December, and watched a bit more when they were here so I finished it on my own.  It was fun!  Last night I watched a documentary on the disappearance of Shanaan Watts and her children.  I recall the story from the news; the documentary was a compilation of police cam videos, interviews, text messages, and videos from Shanaan's Facebook page. Sadly, her husband Chris Watts wanted a new life and there was no place for her or their children.  It was a sad story, but I found it interesting how the police worked the case.

While watching television, I've been knitting and crocheting. I've finished three scarves, with a fourth near completion.  It's a great way to use up scrap yarn and I enjoy using different pattern.  By the way, the photo is upside down and my photo editor would not allow me to rotate it properly.  Weird!  (By the way, Olga, you were correct about the toques, one was inside out. Sometimes I'm not the brightest bulb.)

Speaking of bulbs, my oven light has burned out.  I had to Google how to replace the bulb, but the cover has been on there so long it won't easily turn.  A job for my son to do. Hopefully he'll be able to wrestle it off. If not, I'll have to learn to live without the light until I decide to replace the entire stove...not for a while yet.  Since I was in the oven anyway, it seemed a good time to give it a clean so I've been letting the baking soda and vinegar work away at it while I write this post.  A little scraper (for use on a glass top stove) and some elbow grease and the latest spills will be cleaned up.

Earlier this week, I received some information on my maternal grandmother's side of the family from my cousin Ken.  He's sparked enough of an interest in me that I've decided to join Ancestry, at least for six months to complete some research of my own. In the materials he sent me was this photo.

William John and Mary are my great great grandparents, my great grandfather, William Francis, is pictured to the furthest right of the back row. I never knew him as he passed long before I was born but my first name is Frances, as I was named after my grandmother Mary Frances. Obviously she was named after her grandmother too. 

Nan (as we called her) had at least eleven siblings, and I'd only met two of them.  Her family were Latter Day Saints and I'm particularly interested in determining whether they lived in the United States at some point.  My limited research thus far, has not revealed any clues to how they came to this faith.  I have been able to trace back to 1775 to my sixth great grandfather but beyond his birth in Ireland, there is no additional information.  I certainly hope someday to make the trip to Ireland to look into the Jordan family history as well as my father's family.  

Well, I'm sure that was of little interest to my readers (as was most of this post) so I'll end this with one final response to a comment.  John, you're absolutely correct there were a lot of presents under the tree - most of which were for Eli.  In fact, my daughter and I had words over it, as I think she over did her gifts for him.  When you add in my gifts (two), Santa's gift (underwear), Uncle C's gift, G'ma D's gift, and her friend M's two gifts, I think he was feeling a little overwhelmed.  He just quit opening them and played with what he had.

Take care everyone, stay well and however you choose to celebrate (or not) have a Merry Christmas!