Christmas and the aftermath

 Christmas Dinner was a success; the free range turkey delicious.  The challenge was keeping the food hot as it traveled downstairs. Dessert was a traditional "Buche de Noel".    After the meal, we opened presents.  My brother loves Christmas crackers and I had found this giant one.  Here he is opening it with his grandson.

 On Boxing Day, we took lunch up to my parents.  Paul had made a big pot of beef and barley soup which was absolutely delicious.  I made a strawberry and caramel banana trifle.  This was my first attempt at making a trifle.  It turned out very well except that I didn't cook the custard long enough so it was rather thin.  Instead of putting it in the trifle, we just poured it over our individual servings.

This morning we woke up to heavy snow which soon turned to pouring rain and melted much of the snow away.  The temperature was +6 but if this all freezes overnight, I don't think we will be going anywhere tomorrow either.  Since we didn't go out today, we finally got the rest of our blinds put up.  It was nice to get this job done.

T'was the Night Before Christmas

And everything is ready.  The tree is up and the presents wrapped.  The table is partially set. Tomorrow the family is coming over and I'm looking forward to everyone being together; the first time in a long time.  It may well be the last Christmas with my dad so trying to making it extra special.

I made the napkin holders and placemats.  The embroidery took hours to do and I am happy with the result.  Looks very festive.

The wall hanging below is paper pieced and has tiny led lights.  Pearl is the big present lying underneath it and on the right is the new mantle.

Hope Everyone has a Merry Christmas. 

Christmas is not far off

Strange Looking Bow 

I'm really getting into Christmas this year.  This morning I put up a wreath on the front door and put together a pot arrangement by the side door.



I finished a Christmas Tree Wall Hanging complete with small LED lights.  It really needs a bar in the bottom to help it hang a little better but overall I am really pleased with how it turned out (the picture doesn't do it justice).    This would be a great tree for someone living in a small space as you could pile presents on the floor under it.  Next on my list to decorate is our mantle; its looking very plain and bare.  I have bought presents for everyone and they are already wrapped.

Life continues to be interesting here.  Small village affairs are fascinating.  Life at my parents continues to be a challenge.  My dad doesn't have any good days; just days that are less bad than others.  I'm spending more and more time there as my mom's time is completely taken up caring for my dad and so I pick up the slack of cleaning, cooking and shopping and whatever else needs to be done.  Our family friends from St. Pierre & Miquelon are coming on Friday for a few weeks and they will be a great help to all of us.

The weather is quite strange.  It has not been very cold, I think the coldest has been 1 degree.  Today, it would snow one minute and the next minute the sun would be shining with a very brisk cold wind.

Hope everyone is doing well.