Red for the Season

Walking through the pharmacy, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. Lookin around, I was expecting to see a friend but saw no one. I lowered my gaze when I realized  and realized that a little, old lady was talking to me.

In a British accent she complimented me on my red wardrobe, the one in the photo. I wish to heck I could remember exactly what she said in her sweet accent, but I thanked her and off we went in opposite directions.

Then, in another store, the cashier also remarked on my attire.

It is suitable for the season, don't you think?

Nuts and Pots

The nuts did come out at ours. I asked Sue about it, and it was the same for her. The difference is that Sue thought it quite the treat, but I just said nuts to it. Neither of us remember when the tradition stopped, but I can't recall us continuing it after we were married. If we did, it couldn't have been for long.

Another tradition from my youth was having a box of Cadbury Dairy Box. Now, that was much better than nuts, eh? I am pretty sure that this is not how the box looked all those years ago, but the name is the same.

Sue reports a similar tradition, but it was always Pot of Gold at hers. I still see Pot of Gold in the stores, but I don't know when I last spotted a Dairy Box.

You must have your own unique memories of Christmas treats. Fess up.

Getting a Lifter

With bodily constraints being what they are, Sue has been worried about clearing the snow on the walk by the front door. We have a contractor to plow the driveway, and the town will eventually get to the sidewalk. but the walkway will be up to us.

It's not a long piece to shovel, and I think I could manage around my shoulder issue, but Sue has been apprehensive. Then she saw a little electric shovel on FB. We don't require a big blower, but this little contraption might be sufficient to blow it from our entrance way without having to lift the snow. The snow pile beside out path can become quite high by the end of winter, so it could become quite a strain. 

Then, Shauna found this very model for sale, second hand, in our own little town. It's wasn't terribly expensive, so off we went. We closed the deal within minutes and were soon back with the device. 

We shall have to see if it is what we need, but it looks promising, but it won't be used where it is in this photo — the path to be cleared is behind me, near the front door.

Morning Phone Calls

Well, that was a major morning for me. Due to my poor hearing and the fact that I don't like people (kidding — sorta), I tend to put off phone calls as long as possible. They were mounting up, so yesterday morning, I girded my loins and made three calls. One was to resolve an issue with our property insurance. The second was to call CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) which is enough to cause a fit of the shudders. The third was to call our Honda dealer about a safety recall.

All things considered, the calls went well enough. That I can divert the phone audio directly to my hearing aids helps a lot. The sound is clear and the volume is good, and it is almost like I can interact like a normal person. 

However, I will have to spend at least a week recovering from the ordeal.

Maybe I should curl up in my chair and imbibe some Bailey's Irish Cream. Not being much of a drinker, I haven't done that at Christmas for several years, but my feeble eyes were attracted to a display while purchasing a bottle of wine for Sue. Maybe I should let my hair down and indulge, but I have some trouble locating hair.

Well, that's my short and sweet post for today. The question looms: will he or won't he? About the Bailey's, I mean.

Ice

November is the bleakest month: the colour has gone, and the snow hasn't yet arrived. Well, sometimes it arrives and stays by the end of November, but not usually. One thing that is beginning to happen is ice because most nights are now falling well below freezing. 

For the most part, our Mississippi River in this vicinity doesn't freeze because it runs so fast, but there is am embayment in Appleton where freezing is occurring already. In both of these photos, there is ice until the darker blue near the far trees.

This is the boat launch in Appleton.

At least we were graced with nice blue skies for these photos.

The pond at out local park ↓ is mostly frozen already. The outer, lighter section froze first and the darker section, near the water intake, later. I like the curving line where the two sections of ice meet.

When we walked from the park along the path by the river, we did encounter some ice right by the river bank, but it didn't extend very far into the river. (I decided to process this one in mono, but it was a mistake.)

To continue the ice there, when we made our way back to the car, there were some patches of ice in the grass in the park.

Apart from the ice, I nabbed this photo of Sue. She had just emerged back onto the path after photographing something or other in the bushes to the left.

And she took a photo of me.

Sunny, blue sky days with some clouds really help at this time of year.

Tree Parties from Yesteryears

After posting of this year's tree party yesterday, I found a few scans of older gatherings from our previous residence. Collaboration amongst Sue, Shauna, and me have led us to conclude that the four photos cover three different years, but we'll get to that, shortly.

I have told you here yesterday that the tree-decorating parties began sometime around the mid-80s, but we believe that these photos were from the early 90s. 

In the first image, Shauna appears to be untangling ornament strings from the previous year. This was an annual chore. That's my little father hanging a decoration. Like me now, he mostly sat back and enjoyed watching the others trim the tree, but we made sure that he hung at least one ornament.

We are not sure whether the above photo was earlier or later than the next two, which show the whole gathering, except for me. We believe that both years are from the early 90s.

Our youngest is in the background of both of the next photos. The woman on the right is our friend, Val, who, sadly, did not live to a ripe old age. Sue is in the second photo with her original hair colour. 

My parents are of a roughly similar age to what I am now.
Like me, my father's hair is more dark than gray.

Look at my little father next to Sue, who is not exactly a giant.

As you can see, we were a small gathering then, but we have since then decreased from 7 to 5, which is just as well in a way since Shauna's place is rather on the small side, as is ours. Sue and I don't even put up a tree anymore, apart from a tabletop one in the kitchen. 

After much discussion, focusing on wallpaper, we concluded that this next photo was the most recent of the three years represented in this post. I believe that it was from 1994 or 5, and Sue agrees that it was at least 1992 or later. I was thrown off by my mother's outfit at first, for it is the same as it was in the earlier year, above. In this ↓ photo, Little Mom and Big AC are doing our bit. I did help more with the tree decorating back then, but, like my father before me, am content to be more of an observer now.

I think the saying is "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose:"  the more things change, the more they stay the same. The location and some of the characters have changed, but the family core continues to decorate the tree together.

* After the previous post, I was asked about Boxing Day in Canada. Whatever its old-country origins, here it is a statutory holiday like Christmas. Stores remain closed for the most part, but we don't tend to do anything special — at least our little clan doesn't.

Tree Party 2023

Sue started the tree party tradition sometime around the mid-eighties when we began having Christmas, or at least part of it, at ours. Until then, we had driven the 200 miles from Sarnia to Toronto join, first my parents, and then hers for Christmas.

Early in the eighties (I think ~1983 or 4), my parents moved to Sarnia, and we had Christmas, or at least Christmas Day, at home. Usually on Boxing Day, we would make the trip to Toronto to celebrate with her clan. But before Christmas, come late November or early December, we would have my parents and our friend, Val, over to decorate the tree with us.

These forty or so years later, the tradition continues. Shauna kept it going at her place once we moved here in 2005. Last Friday evening, November 23 2023, we gathered once more.

Between Sue and me, we captured many photos, but, thankfully, Sue coalesced a number of them into collages to spare us some space

Speaking of Sue, let us begin with her comfortably sitting by the faux fire with a glass of wine beside her.

Also beside her are three of my mother's smocked balls — three of the many that she crafted, We choose a few to hang each year, Sue chose the white one, and I the red or one of the reds. I wrote in more detail about mom's smocking least year in Present Via Her Crafting, so I shan't go on, except to point out that that we are hanging the smocked balls in the two bottom photos of this ↓ collage.

Jonathan has traditionally put the topper on the tree.
This year, he didn't require a ladder to do it.

Here ↓ is a close-up of Sue's offering with a bit of mine off the the right.

Work proceeded.

Snuggles were had.

Many moments were captured: more than you see here. Danica kept her hair hidden for the most part because she wasn't happy with it for some reason.

Although I am holding the big camera, above, I soon switched the phone,
which worked better in the dim conditions.

Soon, the 2023 tree sat proudly in her finery.

Sabine was happier once the hubbub subsided. Shauna reports that so far she is being good, content to sit under the tree and to refrain from climbing it, even if she does look impish.