Silent Sunday – December 28, 2025

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…taken on Christmas Eve by our neighbours across the street

Wishing You All Love, Hope and Good Health in the NewYear

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…and time with family and friends

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.

The Cute and Christmasy Factor

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…the reason why my husband’s cards outsold mine

Kevin is very talented and had a lot of fun creating our annual Christmas cards but he also made numerous other images that had a winter or Christmas theme. Here are some of the images that I had printed and made into greeting cards.

A Busy Time of Year

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…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.

Why I’ve Been Absent

Posted on December 20, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…since December 9th

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.

Cheers!

Trios of my Christmas Gnomes

Posted on December 18, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…for this week’s Thursday Trios

Last week and this week has been super busy for me. I was burning the midnight oil to finish making my gnomes for the Holiday Market on Dec. 10th. I also assembled over 100 new photo cards. The actual market was a little disappointing because the bad weather kept a lot of people home, so the attendance was low. Despite that I did make sales that day and since then I’ve sold more cards and most of my gnomes.

Thursday Trios – The First Christmas Decorations

Posted on November 27, 2025 by Mama Cormier

…I always start out slowly

If you have any trios to share, your choice, please copy my link and paste it into your post. When I get the pingback I’ll be sure to leave a comment. Have Fun!