The Week Leading Up to Christmas

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…the furnace broke down, two more COVID tests, my nephew’s quarantine ended, a drive by gift exchange, preparing plates of goodies for the neighbours

I was pretty much absent for the the last couple of weeks. In the week before Christmas there were a lot preparations for our non traditional Christmas celebration and during Christmas there were Zoom calls, phone calls, dinner preparations for two of us and just taking it easy.

The Friday before Christmas our furnace decided to break down and all of a sudden we had no heat on the main floor and in the basement where my nephew was staying. The repair man came that same night when we discovered our problem but it just so happened that the part that was broken was not in stock and they weren’t able to get the part until Monday. So for three days we were bundled in extra sweater and blankets. We did have one working space heater and that did help somewhat.

A good friend of ours has not been feeling well for awhile and because she is on her own our daughter who lives close by went over a couple of times to make sure she was alright. Unfortunately, her doctor suggested that she might have COVID so our daughter went and had the test to make sure that she wasn’t infected. Thank goodness it came back negative. Then our nephew who was quarantining in our basement didn’t feel well and he went for a COVID test. Again the test came back negative and he left to visit his mother on the farm near Chatham.

On Monday the furnace was repaired and I ran around getting last minute items for stockings and the gift platters that I prepared for the neighbours. The next two days are a blur. I filled the stockings, made soup and our granddaughter made art. Even though no one was coming inside the house I spent a lot of time tidying the place up.

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When Christmas Eve finally arrived we were ready. It was the first time in my life that I wasn’t wrapping gifts right up to the last minute. It actually felt great.

….to be continued.

The Best of 2016

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Mama Cormier

…..despite the terrible events that took place in 2016 on a personal level it was a wonderful year

Most people would agree that 2016 had to be a terrible year for natural disasters, untimely deaths of beloved celebrities, horrendous terrorist attacks around the world, the Syrian refugee crisis, Brexit and a nasty election campaign in the U.S.

Even on a personal note, 2016 hasn’t been all sunshine and roses but there were many memorable and special moments.

In January our son ended up staying with us for an extra week before heading back to London, England. The circumstances of his extended stay aren’t exactly positive but we did have him with us and for me that was special. By the way, at the end of December of last year, he slipped on the ice and broke his upper arm and he required surgery. The surgery was successful and he was released from the hospital on January 1st.

In February my friend M celebrated her 64th birthday and my niece, S, her 26th.

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The biggest event in February was our daughter’s wedding to her first love and partner of 10 years. They met on Feb. 10th so they decided on their 10th anniversary they would make it official and tie the knot. What a special day!

In March while we experienced snow, our future daughter-in-law was sitting in an outdoor caffe in Assisi planning her wedding.

In May we celebrated Mother’s Day with the family in the backyard (a little chilly) and at school we had our Forest of Reading celebration, Jump Rope for Heart and our annual Fun Fair. Winnie also had her first swimming lesson and her Daddy started Go Cart racing. Also A and J and their brother-in-law, G, ran the Sporting Life 10k.

In June two of my colleagues retired from teaching, my very good friend, A, celebrated her 75th birthday and our son and his love were married in London at City Hall.

Our school choir also sang at a Blue Jays game and we put on our annual outdoor extravaganza at school.

July was the highlight month of the year for our family. We took a trip of a lifetime. My sister and her family from Calgary and my two daughters and their families and my husband and I travelled to Italy to celebrate the union of our son, B, and his beautiful Iranian bride, Az. We travelled for the first 11 days visiting places like Venice, Florence, Bologna and Lucca and then we all met in Assisi where the actual wedding took place. After three days in Assisi we made one more stop in Rome before flying back home.

In August I was able to open up the cottage and spent about 5 weeks there off and on. My husband and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary and I had another birthday.

September brought a new school year and my last first day of school. My husband had been coaching a small group of boys from our extended family to get them ready for this year’s cross country team and they were all entered into the Railpath Community Run. In fact there were 11 of us from the family that ran that day. I was happy to do 5k without stopping in 45 minutes. At least I wasn’t the slowest person on the course. The boys did really well and some of them walked away with some prizes.

October was another busy month with a lot of milestone birthdays. My husband turned 65, my dad 90, my son-in-law 40 and Winnie celebrated her 1st birthday. I also organized and ran my last book fair school. We raised the largest sum of money ever. I now I have the fun job of buying books and supplies for the library and classrooms.

As you can see I am the shortest of the three sisters.

In November my oldest daughter, A, celebrated her 37th birthday. Where has the time gone? My younger daughter, Winnie and I attended the Royal Winter Fair and I, along with five other teachers took 59 students on a three day overnight winter camp in the Kawarthas.

In December my Dad moved from his apartment to the retirement home across the road. We held our annual craft night at school, held a Christmas concert and had our staff party at a local restaurant. Christmas was a three day affair; one day in Hamilton, another in Toronto and the third in Oshawa. On the 30th of the month we celebrated the birthdays of our twins who are now 35. As my principal and friend M would say ‘Carol you’re old!’

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So as you can see there were lots of bright moments in 2016 for me and the Cormier family. Wishing you all a bright, happy, healthy and prosperous 2017.

Cheers!

A Busy Week

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….a lot of driving, twice to Oshawa and twice to Hamilton

Since Christmas Eve we have been constantly on the go. This year we celebrated Christmas Eve in Hamilton and on Christmas Day we celebrated some more here at home. No turkey this year, another first.

On the 27th I drove to Oshawa to bring my Dad his Christmas presents from my family. In the move a few weeks earlier he lost the remote control for his radio/CD player and he had to unplug the machine every time he wanted to turn it off or change the CD. Our daughters, A & J picked up a new remote control from a store downtown close to where they work. Dad was so happy to finally be able to play his music properly.

Two days later we drove out to Oshawa again but this time the whole family went to celebrate with Dad. There were 11 of us and because his new apartment is so small we all met in the library of the retirement home. After opening presents we headed out to the restaurant to enjoy a meal together. Today my sister sent me a few more photos that I can share with you.

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Yesterday we were back in Hamilton to celebrate the birthdays of our twins. Our son, unfortunately, is not celebrating here in Canada but is with his new family in Iran. From his photos and messages it sounds like he’s having a great time. Our daughter opened her house for yet another celebration in less than a week. Our good friends A and W, who were unable to join us this year on Christmas Eve, made the trek to Hamilton as well. It was a lovely time with family and friends. Very low key and relaxed and of course the baby stole the spotlight again.

The Perfect Gift

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Mama Cormier

…..besides being with family over tshe holidays

I know that in a previous post I declared that presents weren’t important to me and that family was everything. Despite that sincere sentiment I did have some very thoughtful and welcome gifts given to me this year.

Anything to do with art is always most appreciated. This Christmas my secret Santa gifted me a five drawer rolling organizer and a desktop marker organizer. Hopefully this will help me get my supplies neatly organized and free up my work table so that I can actually create some art. She also gave me a new set of Pigma pens and artist’s hand soap. My son in London sent me paper and a beautiful set of pencil crayons.

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Last year my husband gave me a very nice camera, a Panasonic Lumix, DMC-GF7 and for my birthday he gave me a macro lens to go with it. Unfortunately the camera has so many features that I frequently get lost trying to use it. My brother-in-law who is very proficient with all types of cameras, confirmed that I had a very fine camera. When he was here in October he gave me a quick lesson on how to use some of the features. As soon as he left the camera malfunctioned. No one seemed to know what was wrong with the camera. When my brother-in-law returned in November he brought me one of his old zoom lenses that he no longer uses and that fit my camera. The problem with the camera, however, had not been resolved at that point so we couldn’t try it out.

Eventually we found someone who knew how to solve the problem. It turned out to be a quick fix. Now I have a working camera with two amazing lenses and I still don’t know how to use them. Voila….the perfect present arrived. My husband enrolled me in two camera classes. The first class takes place in January and I will learn all about the ins and outs of my camera and the second class in February will teach me how to get the most out of my camera and how to use the camera in some creative ways. I can’t wait.

Since my husband and I are foodies the other gifts that are always most appreciated are items of food. This year I received homemade tomato sauce, chill sauce, relishes, jams and a variety of condiments and spices. Of course chocolates are always present in our stockings and under the tree. I love dark chocolate and anything filled with marzipan. p1020167

The last gift that was very special was a beautiful Pandora leather bracelet with a silver charm with our granddaughter’s initial. This was also from my husband.

As nice as all these things were I still find time with my loved ones the most precious gift of all. Today we travelled as a family to visit my father in Oshawa. Eleven of us went to his new apartment in the retirement home. His wife is very ill at the moment so he showed off his new place quickly and then gave us a tour of the facility. Everything is very new and beautifully decorated for the holidays. We ended up visiting in the library on the main floor. We were the only ones in there. It was the perfect spot where our granddaughter could run around, look at the fish tank and play with the soft decorations and remote controls. For the adults there were comfy chairs and a fire place where we could visit and talk. After opening a few gifts we headed over to the restaurant where we enjoyed a family meal together.

After describing all the fantastic gifts I received this Christmas I’d have to say that having my granddaughter wiggle out of her mother’s arms to run over and hug me today was my most ‘perfect’ gift.

Did you have a perfect gift or a special moment to share this holiday season?

My Favourites

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….decorations that is

Over the years I have collected hundreds of Christmas ornaments and decorations. Some were gifted to me, many were handmade by my friends, my students, my children and by me. Every year I usually purchase one special ornament that catches my eye.

As my children grew up, moved out and started their own Christmas traditions I gave them some of my ornaments that had special meanings for them. I still have more decorations than I can possibly put on the tree, especially now as I buy smaller trees. This year I carefully chose ornaments that brought back wonderful memories.

Here are a few of my favourites:

A Christmas First For Me

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….the weather continues to hover above freezing and it’s almost the end of December

Today was our last official Christmas party with the extended family. I woke up early to put the turkey roll in the oven and then I started to clean up from the previous two days. Presents had to be put away, the table needed to be reset, the bathroom needed a touch up and a few more presents needed to be wrapped.

I don’t know why I always find more things to clean when I have a short time line to get things done. I think because people were arriving in the afternoon I felt that any grime I had missed would show up more in the day light. So I started to wash the glass ware and wipe down the shelves in the kitchen.

The weather has been so warm that the spiders have been unusually active and I noticed more webs between the windows and the window screens. I took down the screens in the kitchen and bathroom and started to clean them and I knocked the spiders onto the deck outside. I also took down the patio door screen to clean it but because it is so large I took it outside and leaned it up against the deck rail to wipe it down. As I was doing this I realized that I was outside in my nightgown with a sweater and bare feet. It was so mild that I wasn’t the least bit cold. I can honestly say that I’ve never gone barefoot outside on the 26th of December in Toronto before today.

It hindsight it might not have been a very wise thing to do. You see I’ve been suffering with a head cold and laryngitis for the last three days and I may have made it worse. As I write this I’m drinking my Neo Citran and I hope that it will relieve me of my headache and stuffy nose. I’m sure a good night’s sleep and no more pressure to entertain for a few days will help. Oh did I mention that on the 30th my twins will be celebrating their birthday? My son is here from London, England so we’ll probably have another family get together on Wednesday.

As much as I love Christmas and having family get togethers I’m glad for a few days of rest. The temperature also looks likes it’s dropping a bit so there won’t be anymore trips outside in bare feet.

Cheers!

Christmas Delights

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…while many of you are busy preparing for Christmas dinner I’m having a little down time

Our big Christmas celebration took place last night on Christmas Eve. My husband has long enjoyed the German tradition of opening gifts on the 24th since we first met 42 years ago. Now that our children are grown and have significant others we only prepare Christmas dinner every other year and this is that year. Later today we will be driving to Hamilton to enjoy a dinner prepared my daughter and her husband.

I thought I would take this time to share some of the highlights of this years Christmas season. As many of you know I’m a teacher librarian/art teacher. I essentially teach every student in the school for library and I have four classes that I do art with.

The week before Christmas I started receiving gifts from students and their families. There’s always one gift that stands out for me and this one brought a huge smile to my face and I couldn’t wait to share it with my colleagues and friends.

One of my grade one students brought me a small box that he had clearly wrapped himself and very proudly handed it to me. When I unwrapped the paper I discovered that the box was from Juicy Couture. When I read the name out loud, T very quickly declared that the box had nothing to do with what was inside. When I opened the lid I couldn’t help but smile for inside the box lay an angel that he had clearly made himself.

He used masking tape, paper and marker to create this little gem. Today it sits prominently on my Christmas tree, just below our angel tree topper. Aren’t kids wonderful?