April 14th, 2020 and It’s Snowing

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….reminds me of the story my mother used to tell of how she remembers snow on her birthday

I have a memory, as a little girl, of huge snowfalls in early April and when I was at university we experienced some serious ice storms in April. My sister who lives in Calgary, Alberta experienced some major snowfalls over Easter and I’ve seen photos of friends from the west coast and the mid-west who are covered with the white stuff. The only good thing about snow in April is that it doesn’t tend to stay around long. My mother’s birthday by the way was on April 18th.

The white stuff that is blowing around right now but probably won’t even stay on the ground but it does come as a bit of a shock when you’ve had a relatively snow free winter.

Snow clouds

I didn’t get the camera in time to catch the mini blizzard we had and it really didn’t amount to very much. Today it is sunny and not a speck of snow anywhere.

A Photo a Week Challenge – Over a Hundred Years Old

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Nancy Merrill for hosting A Photo A Week Challenge

If my grandparents were still alive they would have been over 100 years old…..

….and my great, great grandfather (over 160 years ago) and his mother (over 200 years ago). In fact, the next two photos are over a hundred years old.

Here in Canada this church is considered old. It was built before Canada became a country in 1867.

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Playing

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…with my granddaughter

It’s amazing to me what I won’t do for my granddaughter. Getting down at her level is not easy for me. It’s one reason why I want to get into better shape. On Friday my husband and I spent the day in Hamilton to give our daughter some time to work on her at home business. The teachers here are on rotating strikes so we try to help whenever we can. Here are some of the images of our playful day. 1941EAAA-A8DB-4B77-A051-91C6A63CBD3D AC63114D-8B1E-4543-8FF8-D3A0CA42CD79 FF86BE3A-ACF4-4DC0-B5C2-CF2BCD51B890 927CFA69-1077-4945-8770-B60D8CC93FBE AA54387E-ECF1-4BB4-A0B7-6ABA3392CA9F DD138CEA-24F7-445D-B5DE-EE2C44189EA1_1_201_a 1E71CA08-38C2-4E5B-B0B8-34993C24211F_1_201_a

30 Day Creativity Challenge – Day 19

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Rainee for hosting the 30 Day Creativity Challenge\

I’ve been making art with my granddaughter again and making pizza with her. I’ve always loved her free style but she does have a vision and you don’t want to tamper with that. That was clearly evident when she decided to make her pizza in the shape of a ‘stop sign’. The adults kept wanting her to add cheese to her creation but she refused and when they didn’t listen she had a melt down. Oma and Papa to the rescue. Lots of dough left over so we started again. Here are our efforts from last Sunday.

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Summer Scenes

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge

Something to look forward to.

A Photo a Week – At Play

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Nancy Merrill for hosting A Photo a Week

My granddaughter and her second cousin got together last week and all seemed to go well as they chased each other around the room, giggling and laughing as they ran. That is until he caught her and accidentally pushed her into the wall. I could tell that it hurt and it took a few minutes of mommy cuddles to calm her down. The two cousins continued to play but the age difference of two years clearly affected how they played. My granddaughter is four and her cousin is two. She was fascinated with his computer game and he didn’t want her to play with it. He liked her stuffed toy but preferred to throw it around. I’m sure as they get older they’ll have more in common. Time will tell. DEAEAB38-06A4-4085-AC77-B87BDC8F2F8B 440F3AA0-2CAB-4B12-A3AC-056ADA3431E3 5F21CC92-0EF2-4880-8890-E634ED3559C2

30 Day Creativity Challenge – Day 4

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…..my attempt at free form poetry

Sisters and Cousins

Sisters

sibling rivalry

shared memories

some bad but mostly good

some forgotten

others not

separated by marriage and distance

reunited by an aging parent

and children

Cousins

offspring of the sisters

separate lives

because of distance,

circumstance and work

a longing for family connection

reunited because of their children

an unbreakable bond of love

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Four generations; Dad, my sister and I, my youngest daughter and her daughter and my sister’s son and daughter and her daughter’s son.

Thanks to Rainee for hosting The 30 Day Creativity Challenge

Christmas is for Children

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….of all ages

I was actually organized for the first time in my life and ready for Christmas Eve. Normally I’m still wrapping gifts as the family starts to arrive but this year I finished all my wrapping the night before and I got all my deliveries of baked goods to the neighbours done earlier in the day.

Our granddaughter came early with her Mom and she was clearly excited. We kept her busy with stories and watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Papa gave her an apron and chef’s hat so that she could help us set up the table with Christmas goodies.

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Later in the day she helped her Mom wrap some last minute gifts that her Papa needed help with and brought them downstairs and set them under the tree. 1BFC492D-8642-4A7C-8A41-D6387E922B20

When all the family arrived we opened our stockings and Winnie helped hand out the presents. It was a wonderful evening and as always we had way too much food. We’ll be bringing some over to our daughter’s place tomorrow when we celebrate her birthday. Her twin brother is in London, England so hopefully we’ll hear from him like we did on Christmas Eve, unless the second grandchild decides to come early.

Taking silly selfies with Auntie JoJo.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or holiday celebration with family and friends this season. Wishing everyone all the best in 2020.

Carol

In Search of the Perfect Tree

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….an outing with the family

Last weekend my husband and I drove to Hamilton to our daughter’s house where I picked up her family and we drove about 15 minutes north of the city to a Christmas tree farm. It was most definitely a farm with ducks, goats, cows, rabbits and a donkey.

We came fully prepared to cut down our own tree but as we explored the grounds we couldn’t find anything small enough to fit into our homes. My son-on-law always gets the biggest tree because their home has high ceilings but I was instructed to come back with a very small tree that would fit on a table. All the trees were over 10 feet tall and we could see that people had been cutting trees from the top. The only tree that we all liked had signs around it telling people NOT to cut it down.

We enjoyed the walk through the property so not all was lost but we were disappointed in the selection. We got back in our cars and headed up north for a few more kilometres, back to the tree farm we went to last year. We weren’t sure that it would still be open because the owners are into their eighties and told us last year that that would be their last year selling trees. Luckily for us they decided to open for at least one more year. The pickings were great and we all found our perfect tree.

We drove back to Hamilton with our treasures inside and on top of the cars. Back at Gaelan’s house we were treated to a wonderful lunch and afterwards Winnie and I decorated Christmas cookies.