Friday, December 28, 2007

Not a good season for BLOGS


It is incredibly hard to blog over the Xmas Season, for many reasons. First off, who's got the time.... secondly, too much stuff happenin' to blog about....thirdly, family who typically read my blogs to keep informed, are already here, or have been here and are up on all sorts of things... fourthly...ok, I can't think of a fourthly, but I did a minute ago, so it will come back to me.

Our first Xmas without our normal full house. Michelle was away with Scott in Winnipeg, and we have all done well to keep a positive twist on the whole idea of her not being home.... but enough of that. She is coming home today and I am happy to have her home!!! We missed her terribly during the mayhem of Xmas morning, and Xmas Eve during Midnight Mass. No giggles to be had, except the perfectly timed "raspberries" emitting from Agatha and Tim's little baby who obviously learned that amazing sound just that day and was revelling in it all during the very late mass. So, we will be seriously happy to have Mick home by midnight tonight. Even Dad has been extra cranky without his constant bickering partner to banter with!

Stephanie has been home for a week now and it is fun to have her home for so long. Truly, we don't usually get much more than a weekend at a time, so its lovely to have her back in her bedroom and comfortably perched on the sofa with laptop in lap. While home, she had taken advantage of her dad's wealth of computer resources and between the two of them, she had re-vamped her tired ole laptop, and it is running fairly smoothly and is a joyous thing for her. Sean, her mate, arrived on Boxing day, after he spent 4 days with his family in St. George. Late last night, an ole friend of Stephanie's arrived for a few days after a long 28 hours on the bus from Ottawa. He is also a computer geek, so it is quite humorous, yet somewhat normal, to see three of them perched on the couch with laptops loaded on laps. When Michelle and Scott arrive home this evening, we will have 5 kids who each own one, plus Terry's 2, and dad's laptop (which is really a big MP3 for listening to audio books). So, in total, our living room will play host to no less than 8 laptops. I will be downstairs where I have the old computer, my craft room, a TV and lots to work on.

Today is my first day I am wearing my brand new retainer. I have been without a retainer for 5 years or so, but all the money and time invested in my teeth have started to unravel this past year, andmy teeth are shifting back into their former state, and therefore, I am back into the retainer that doesn't quite fit. But with the help of my dentist, we have got it positioned well enough that over the next few weeks it should slide into place and sit comfortably for the next few months. Then, a permanent retainer will be cemented to my teeth in the back, to keep them from shifting around again. Meanwhile, my T, H, & S's are hilarious, and my eyes water instantly and I am on the constant verge of gagging. This will all calm down but today, we are heading to Halifax to visit with Terry's family before picking the kids up, and this will be a challenge when I starting gagging over every conversation!!!! The good part of all this is...I have to learn to listen more, and speak less, and NO SNACKING!!!!! no licking of the fingers either when you have turkey on them.... ugh.

So, whats a blog without pictures... actually highlights of the past week
Stephanie made this gingerbread house at her friend Sarah's place. Sarah's mom, made the cookie parts, and then Sarah invited some friends from University (9 girls in all) and they sat and drank marguritas and made houses until late. Then Stephanie managed to walk all the way home in the damn night, on icy roads and wisps of wet and wind. This is now our Xmas centerpiece on my buffet. How sweet!Mollie got a new scarf from Jill. Well, not new, better than new. It was Midnight's scarf and still smelled of Midnight. Mollie wore it proudly for a day, until Grampa got it off her and hid it. We found it the next day, and it smelled more like cinnamon than Midnight, since Grampa hid it in the super smelling pinecones in the basket on the table. So, we had to let it air out a bit before putting it back on Mollie. Sadly, the scarf is missing again, and we haven't quite found it yet. Its' amazing how resourceful a blind old man can be, when hidding something..... hee hee. Grampa claims he doesn't like the scarf on Mollie, but we think he just enjoys the hidding part.Terry's sister and family came up for Boxing Day from Halifax and Caliegh brought with her a fun game from Cranium. Terry is a "master" trunk packer, and this game challenges how fast and how many items you can pack in the back of an SUV... It was a hoot, and Caliegh won, which was even better!!!!

Terry built a lit tree for outside to rival the taj mahal from across the street. Its pretty cool, I must say, and the fun part is, there is no tree. Its a series of strings and the lights are wrapped around it!! Leave it to my wizard of invention to come up with this.Pika was overly excited to see the chickadee's come back to the feeder. He is used to sitting in the window and getting a birds eye view of them. But since he was outside when he noticed they were back, he decided to get a closer look himself. Didn't quite work out for him, as the activity at the feeder grinded to a halt when he showed up, and secondly, he had no clue how to get down. Terry had to go and get a ladder and rescue him. Too funny.


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