Wrapping up Christmas

and just like that, it is over again. 

We had our first celebration the other night at mom and dad's, as I blogged about previously.

Christmas eve was quiet. DS1 went to his gf's house. They do their big celebration on the 24th with a big supper, mass, then opening gifts.

DS2 seems to have picked up my cold. He was thrilled I had decided to share it. We had a quiet Christmas eve at home and he and I curled up to watch The Hobbit. We had seen it in theaters a couple summers ago but I had honestly forgotten.

Christmas morning was quiet with only one son home. DS2 had the choice of when he wanted to do gifts and he opted to wait until later in the day when his brother came home.  We went over to my mom and dad's for brunch - pancakes, bacon, sausage and eggs and opened a couple of gifts to and from my parents.

Then we popped over to DH's sister's house for a little visit with them.  DS1 and his girlfriend met us their on their way back into town and he introduced her to them, then we came home. 

The kitten was excited to open his presents and it was fun watching the boys play with him.

DS1 loved his Craven ticket, as did his girlfriend. I hope they are still together come summer. They are good for each other.  He was excited about his Roughrider deck of cards, as well as the clothing he got. The gamble on the dress shoes paid off and he loved them.

DS2's face lit up when he opened his book on the canoeing routes of the Churchill river system. He flipped through, finding the trips he has been on and the one they hope to go on this summer. I bought that book in July or August, and I am so glad I did. He loved his camping gear and his new chainsaw pants.

And me? I got a fitbit for Christmas as my big gift.

I will have to spend some time figuring out how it works.  I also got some Cinnamon Yankee Candles, some Baileys, new gloves, and a cashmere infinity scarf from my sister. The gf's family sent in a bottle of wine and some wonderful homemade baking, including these chocolate cheesecake balls that were amazing.

After presents we went to my sister's house and had our Christmas meal there. Turkey and all the trimmings. It was a chance to see that set of nephews, their wives and the two little girls. The little one is 18 months now and no signs linger of her being so premature. We built the 3 year old's Gingerbread house, played foosball and I watched the kids doing Just Dance.

Our evening wasn't very late. By 10 PM my boys, the gf and the nephews headed to the outdoor rink at my school and played a pick up game of hockey with some other folk hanging out there. They came home by midnight, rosy cheeked and ready for a snack and some movie watching.

It went far too fast, but the many simple moments made my heart smile.

Pitter patter of little feet

Well we have a few new pairs of feet running around our extended family this holiday.

The first is in our house. His name is Izzy and he joined us at Halloween. He is DS2's cat, technically, and reminds us of our orange tomcat we lost in the summer of 2013. He spent the first few weeks sleeping in DS2's room at night, to give our Maine Coone a bit of a break. She is not thrilled about the new arrival, though it's getting better slowly.

DS1's face lit up when he came home, to find this new addition to the family. I think that the kitten is the best present he could have had. He and his girlfriend have been spending a lot of time playing with Izzy.

My boys have never had a kitten in the house. Of the three cats we have had since the boys were born, they all were grown and strays when they came into our lives. It's fun watching the boys learn what a kitten means: sharp teeth, little claws, limitless energy, cute meows and fishing him out of the Christmas tree :-)

 

 

The other pitter patter comes from 2 new babies. My niece had twin girls (not identical) on Friday, December 19th. They were 5 weeks early and are still in neonatal care. They were each a little over 5lbs. She had a tough go of labour as the twins were side by side and neither was willing to shift to let someone out.  Their names are Kate and Kara. I don't have any pics of just the two of them yet, but hopefully soon. I am hoping to get into the city to see them at the hospital after the 28th. My cold and flu  needs to be 100% gone.

 

That brings our family number to 7 great grandchildren for mom and dad.  5 girls and 2 boys.

 

My house is quiet right now. Just me and Izzy are up. DH and the three kids are all still asleep.  I have the lights of the tree on and am watching HGTV and sipping some coffee with a tiny bit of baileys. 

 



Christmas Traditions

I was scrolling through old December posts and came across this one from 2010. It made me smile, just to read it. Despite the changes in our lives and our families, many things appear to be the
 same.

Christmas traditions are different for every family out there, but the  essence of the celebrations seem to be the same....quality time with family or friends, spending time together and eating way too much.

Whether folks have a big Christmas or small, go out to eat or do a family gathering, no matter how diverse we are, we all seem to crave the same core values and traditions over the holiday season. I find that rather comforting in some way.

We began our celebrations tonight (last night), and no matter the players, the essence is the same. There were only 21 of us, half of our immediate family clan, but fun was had by all.

Mom and dad hosted Sister 3 and her family at her place. Sister 1 and two of her kids made it, and sister 2 made it with one of her daughters and her two little ones.  The four of us were there, along with DS's girlfriend. While the cast of characters changes, the theme is the same.....food, games, conversation and lots of laughter.

My niece wasn't going to be there with her two little ones as they are going to her dad's for Christmas (divorced family), but when she heard DS1 was going to be home, she bartered time off work and drove the 2 hours to see us. Her son, who is 4, idolizes his UncleDS1.  We brought over our ministick nets and sticks and it was great to see the 20 year old and the 4 year old engaged in a 45 minute hockey game.  Sister 1 got the little guy some evil racetrack thing that needed to be assembled so it was UncleDS2 to the rescue. He spent an hour with him, helping him set it up and then playing cars with him.

There were a couple of heavy Kaiser and Crokinole tournaments going on. Competition is always fierce. DS said that down in the States where he is, the boys have never heard of Kaiser, so  he and his roomie (also from SK) have been teaching them how to play.

It was an appetizer/crockpot kind of supper. Dry ribs, homemade pizza, lasagne, sweet and sour meatballs, wings, spinach/cheese dip, veggies, fruit etc. As usual, there was far too much food. Aren't we blessed to be able to say that?

As I write this, everyone but DS2 is home. He was finishing off a last round of Kaiser so the rest of us came home and Sister 2 will drop him off within the hour and then it is off to bed for everyone.

My boys :-)

For 7 sweet days I get a bit of normal back in my life. My boys are both home :-)  

It will go fast. He flies out the 28th and won't be home until....May, I think. For now I took my calendar off my wall so I don't do that mental countdown and just enjoy the days.

My boys are not overtly boisterous with each other. Just the way they are I guess, but you can tell they are happy to see each other.

DS's  second flight got delayed the night of the 19th due to fog here in Saskatchewan, at the airport. He called, bitterly disappointed that he would have to stay the night in the Minneapolis airport...a lovely 12 hour extra layover. No compensation. No vouchers for food or hotel. He and his roomie found a spot under a staircase leading to an observation level, and pitted in for the night.

He got back into town with 10 minutes to spare before he went to the rink to see his old team play and see all 'the boys'.  It was quite something to watch how the fans were, seeing him and several of the other graduated players, who came home to watch the final game. The kid were all running up to them for high fives, the senior citizen fans were full of hearty handshakes and a couple of big hugs. The best was watching how excited the special needs fans were. They love their boys and their faces just lit up, seeing them.

I am sharing DS with his girlfriend and her family for these 7 days. They live about an hour away from us.

DS2 got to spend two weekends in a row at his camp 3 hours north of here. He figures there is about a foot of snow up there. They snowshoed in from the main road and hauled their gear on sleds. They slept under tarps in the snow and loved every minute of it. They found a skunk sleeping in their boatshed and repaired a few spots where something had gnawed through another building. The ice isn't terribly thick in many spots on the lake so they put out markers. Lots of folks snowmobile through that area and the boys wanted to be sure the snowmobilers knew where the trouble spots were. He took some amazing pics of the hoar frost up there. I will get him to send me a pic or two and I will add them to here.

The time went so fast while they were growing up. I really wish I had appreciated all those moments, even more.

Over the flu hump

The last thing anyone needs the last week before Christmas, is the flu.  A third of our staff managed to do just that the though. It hit in the wee hours of the 14th and was an evil one. I was in bed all last Sunday, home from work Monday, part of Wed and part of Thurs. Aside from vomiting and his good friend diarrhea, he brought a complete lack of energy.  We all pushed through though and finished classes on the 19th. Lots of the kids had it first. It's hard to say who got it first.

I came home that night and just went to bed, trying to push out the thoughts that I hadn't really even started shopping, my fridge was empty, my house a mess, and the tree wasn't up yet.

I am still not at full energy, and my appetite is off...things taste funny and I am not eating a whole lot.

But I am much better than I was and I can be ever so grateful for that.

For those who keep track, I did not get the flu shot. The two years I did, I ended up with pneumonia. Could just be a coincidence though.