Kevin and I still have some family and friends to visit before this holiday season is officially over. Sadly it may not happen until January because this terrible flu that’s going around has affected these same people we had planned to visit.
Apart from that it’s been a busy and productive season. Christmas Eve was quiet and Kevin and I exchanged a few gifts, enjoyed some light snacks and watched some Christmas movies. The next day we had Andrea and Josie over for dinner. I prepared the turkey and the stuffing before they arrived. After opening a few more gifts everyone pitched in and helped prepared the side dishes. We sat down to an absolutely lovely meal of roast turkey, a rice stuffing, cranberry and orange relish, green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts with bacon and mashed potatoes. For dessert we had ice-cream topped with our homemade Rumtopf.
…from writing cards to making soup for the unhoused
This year I sent out over 75 Christmas cards. For the last three years my husband, Kevin designed our Cards and had them printed through a printing company. Last year we went through a postal strike so most of our cards didn’t arrive to their destinations till well after Christmas.
This season both Kevin and I donated our time, energy and money to support our communities and individuals who aren’t as fortunate as we are. A good friend of mine has given three Ukrainian families an opportunity to work in her home. It’s an arrangement that has been beneficial at both ends, especially after C suffered from a stroke last year. These amazing women helped her with cleaning the house, doing her cooking and preparing meals.
A couple of other friends have also used these women to clean their homes. They left Ukraine when the war broke out while their husbands stayed behind to fight. This Christmas, C and her husband put out the call for new items so that these women and their children could have a Christmas. I spent a day shopping for presents and two more days sorting and wrapping gifts.
Kevin has always wanted to make soup for the unhoused. Another friend, B has been working with the unhoused for a number of years now and told me about a project where people can come every Friday and pick up food and clothing. Right now tables are set up on the street and people line up to pick up a hot meal, some groceries and warm articles of clothing.
This past week Kevin made a huge pot of soup that made about 30 servings. I helped him take the soup to the drop off and I stayed to serve it up. Another woman had also made soup so there was plenty for everyone and there were lots of trays of other hot foods like tortellini and other pastas. It was bitter cold but I didn’t really feel it until the soup ran out.
Today, after shopping for ingredients, I finally got around to making bags of Party Mix and dozens of chocolate cookies for my Christmas plates that I hand out to my neighbours. I’m hoping to make more cookies tomorrow.
The clutter on my work table in my studio will give you an idea of how hectic the last 10 days have been.
Apart from the normal craziness of getting ready for Christmas I decided at the last possible moment to take a table at the Holiday Market at the Inn. Initially I was just going to sell our art and photo cards and display some of my smaller pieces of art but then I got it in my head to make a few of my sock gnomes. A few turned into 28 and 9 gnome ornaments.
Sadly on the day of the market a snow storm descended on the city and the turnout was definitely affected. Many people chose to stay home and a few of the vendors were no shows as well.
Since that day I made a few more sales at my hair salon and through friends. Most of the gnomes are now gone and 25 more cards have sold.
On the home front we’ve been busy putting our Rumtopf into jars and labelling them to get them ready to give away. I made up 9 bags of gifts for the volunteers that I’ve worked with most closely this past year at Montgomery’s Inn.
Last Wednesday we had our last bake for the year and will be on a break for about 6 weeks. The staff at the Inn hosted a lovely luncheon for the volunteers as a thank you for all their hard work and dedication to making bread every week to sell at the Farmers’ Market.
So this part of the reason why I haven’t posted as regularly as I normally do. I’ll bring you up to date with what else we’ve been up to in my next post.
Yesterday Kevin and I went shopping for our Hallowe’en treats to shell out this Friday. We’re feeling a little behind this year because of our recent trip to the UK. We did purchase our pumpkins before we left but we left them in the house so that the squirrels couldn’t feast on them.
The neighbours, however, started putting out their decorations at the beginning of October.
August started with my sister’s birthday and a family celebrating 50 years in Canada. The Heideckers became very close friends with my Mom and Dad soon after they arrived. Sadly they are no longer with us so my sister and I were there to represent the Winklers.
In the middle of the month Kevin and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Where did the years go? We invited our friends and family to share a meal at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Pulcinella.
Twelve days later we had a quiet dinner on my birthday and two days later at our lawn bowling end of summer event the club sang Happy Birthday to me and another Carol. That was quite unexpected.
Today I attended the 50th wedding anniversary of a couple I knew in high school and when our children went to school together we became good friends. This party was held at the Rogers Centre during a baseball game with the Blue Jays and the Brewers. It was a great game and the Jays won 8 to 4. Congratulations to Diane and Don. Thanks for a fantastic day!
Mama Cormier 