Christmas Day with Family

      The roads have been cleared so the family was able to get here for our annual Christmas feast. And what a feast it was - as usual I cooked way too much food so I will be eating leftovers for the rest of the week. Judy took home some of the bird, half the plum pudding and custard and the mincemeat pies I had made - they just did not have room for them, even oldest grandson who has a hollow leg!

   So now I am sprawled on the couch, covered with my new thermal throw (a gift from the grands) but I won't be eating anything more until tomorrow. Well, maybe a small chicken and cranberry sandwich before bed!

   Youngest grandson wore his Blue Jays hat through the whole meal (usually no hats allowed but it was his favourite Christmas gift so he got a special dispensation) and can you tell what granddaughter's favourite gift was? (hint: it's also on her head).

   We played some games before they left for home but we were all a bit sleepy by then so that didn't last long. Finally we Face Timed with the family in Victoria for a bit before they went to have their feast. They are four hours behind us. Now to tackle the clean up. Thank goodness for a dishwasher!

   Hope all my readers had a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Wild Weather

 It's blowing a hooley out there - minus 13C and winds of 40 kph - so I am huddled indoors and plan to stay here until at least tomorrow afternoon. I did go out and shovel snow for a while this afternoon (it was at least 10cm. deep at that point) but by the time I stopped tha path I had dug was already filling in again. My weather app says it feels like minus 24C so I am definitely in for the night!

High Excitement!

     Tuesday afternoon is my Bridge game. Around 12:45 we had just played one hand when the fire siren in the building went off. There were about 24 of us in the room (less than our usual 40) and we all studiously ignored it until the building manager arrived to tell us to vacate the building. No one rushed to grab their coats but gradually we did realize that there was a distinctly smoky odour in the air. Yes, the building was on fire!

    We gathered outside and a few minutes later a fire truck could be heard in the distance. Still no flames or obvious smoke which is lucky as the fire truck went to the adjacent building! Eventually it rolled up and the firefighters donned their gear and set off to investigate. Then another fire truck arrived, then another and another - all told 8 trucks arrived, plus their supervisor and a police car. A little bit of overkill in my opinion.

   Eventually it transpired that some guys working on the roof had been using a blow torch for some reason and had ignited something. However, we weren't allowed back in the building except to gather our possessions so that was the end of Bridge for this week. We will be back on January 2 providing there is no lasting damage and we will have lots of tales to tell those who weren't there today!

Digging Out

    We only got about 5 cms. of snow but this was followed by rain so it was very soggy and weighed a ton. Most of my neighbours were out shoveling before the rain started but I left it until today. Ooh, my aching back!

  This was my morning's work. I got it done later in the afternoon. You can just see my neighbour (she's 88) tidying up her driveway. She has a guy with a plough clear her driveway but it still needs a finishing touch. Most of my other neighbours used snow blowers but my little one wasn't up to the job with the snow being so wet.