Christmas and New Year's 2008

Christmas tree 2008 :-). It is always so much fun decorating. Each of the kids has their own stash of ornaments built up over the years. A funny; this year one was concerned that when they left, we would have nothing to decorate our tree with :-). This, as we strained our eyes looking for one last untrimmed branch, and packed away the excess that had no tree home.


We had a very peaceful Christmas (by default, since I was still recovering from pneumonia!). Here are a few photos from Christmas morning:

Dickens, intensely focused on his Christmas stocking containing a few doggie treats. Doesn't he remind you of a child??? He also received a few pig ears and a new stuffed animal to cart around. I am presently teaching him to "tidy up" his toys, however I haven't been too consistent and he doesn't quite get it yet.


Our trusty woodstove, for which we are truly thankful! It's true though; weirdly, a couple of times during the Christmas season we STILL put the holiday channel on the TV (you know, the ever-flaming fireplace :-) ... a fire at each end of the family room!


Iain the Rocker Dude with his Christmas guitar. This is an electric guitar that he has been saving up for ... Kev and I were able to contribute and complete the purchase for him for Christmas. He is also wearing an electric guitar rocker hoodie that Claire discovered at WalMart. And Claire's Christmas hat, just because it matched :-).


The true owner of the herringbone hat. Claire, wearing her gift sweater from the Wessel family, that matches her eyes completely and perfectly. It was quite astonishing.


Alison, modeling her Aero Postale bag from Auntie Kim. She's quite thrilled by this, and this morning used it as a book bag for school!


Our turkey dinner, which turned out to perfection (of course, since we had no guests for dinner ;-) ...).

We spent a decidedly lazy Christmas vacation. We now have four "West Wing" addicts in our home, so watched a good chunk of TV. Kev has been trying to interest me in this TV series for YEARS and only this time around did it catch :-).

The only other thing I was personally able to accomplish?

Kevin's socks are DONE. Both of them. Here is sock no. two drying by the woodstove on my homemade sock forms (yes, how fancy sounding -- it's a coat hanger :-) ...). Next sock project will be for Alison, whose first pair are completed, save for casting off sock two, and have gone missing. I have been looking for them since the summer :-(. Hopefully they will turn up as I cast off the second pair.


And lastly, but not least, my Christmas gift from Kevin. He purchased me this:


It's an Ashford drop spindle! And I'm presently making lace-weight yarn on it from his other gift, which was 100% Corriedale roving, custom dyed by Ann-Marie:

I also received lace-weight wool from Claire for Christmas, so I'm about to face my biggest knitting obstacle: my fear of lace knitting :-). I did pick up what seems to be a very easy scarf pattern from Rosehaven Farm Store last week, which I think I'll try first with my handspun. Other fibre news; we borrowed hand cards from Ann-Marie over the holidays and Alison has discovered a special knack for this. I have started spinning Kivu!!!! I'm REALLY looking forward to knitting the first project from one of our own animals.

All in all it was a peaceful Christmas, and because of health reasons it's good we didn't have a whole bunch of family plans ... but I missed family. I would have loved to host a house full! One last piece of news which I may have posted already, but for the life of me can't remember ... our homestudy has been completed and we are now an approved foster home in Prince Edward County! We meet our resource worker this week. Life is busy and full. God is good. Bless you all!

Never mind ...

... it wasn't the flu.

I have pneumonia.

Apparently rice krispie lung is not normal. My doctor yesterday came in, muttering something about these things needing time to clear up on their own (which I know, and which is why I already cancelled my Tuesday appointment), listened to my chest, hopped up, raced out of the room and came back with a mask for me. At least I was there legitimately :-).

Many, many thanks to the happy little red pills that seem to be slowly clearing this up.

We just had the second wave of the three wave snow storm coming up from the States (thanks, Colorodo ... not!). Alison will be late for work this morning because of this ... Keep an eye to the right of the snow blower as you scroll down. Oh yes, there is our Honda. Oops.







We're expecting the last wave of the storm tonight and Sunday. The warnings from Weather Network have already started clogging my mailbox. To quote Kevin "Who lives in this country?" :-). Truly, I love the snow, but this was a little much. I'm just grateful for the high winds yesterday that blew much of it "away" ... somewhere ...

Happy snow daze to you all (okay, perhaps not our relatives in Georgia and Florida ... just think of what you poor souls are missing way down there :-D ) LOL.

Can I recommend something for keeping last minute Christmas spending in check?

It's foolproof.

The flu.

Blech. I actually have to try to get in to the doctor because although I'm over the acute part of this illness (high fevers, body ache extraodinaire, headaches) I can't seem to shake the breathlessness and exhaustion. Plus my lungs sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies :-) ... you know, snap, crackle, POP!

I managed to do a pathetic job of washing the kitchen floor yesterday ... then had to rest for two hours. Just sad.

My farmer friend Elmer came by yesterday on farm business, took one look at me and suggested I go to the doctors because his wife had pneumonia for six weeks in October, and apparently I bear a strong resemblance to her at that time. I know I don't feel that bad (at least not in the mornings!).

The only small show of productivity in the last week? Below. I've procrastinated these socks for ages because the wool wasn't fingering weight and I wasn't sure how to knit them to the right size. Then I procrastinated even longer because the skein got tangled and I didn't have any interest in the untangling process. Last snow day, I finally took time off from normal chores, and sat and made a centre-pull ball from the skein-mess. It took something over two hours. I'm glad I did though, because in the last week, this is about all I've managed!




It's a very fun pattern to do ... it's called a right twist, and the pattern is a four row pattern. Easy enough that even in my fog I can remember it ;-). The yarn was hand-dyed by my friend Ann-Marie, and Kev saw the skein, loved it and brought it home for me to knit up. Umm ... a couple of years ago. Better late than never! Unfortunately, my correctly-sized needle is missing (along with the socks for Alison I was knitting at the time) so I'm using quite a small needle for this heavier weight wool.

Stuart McLean, CBC's Vinyl Cafe, recorded at the Regent Theatre in Picton, Ontario

Stuart McLean of the Vinyl Cafe (CBC), speaking at the Regent Theatre in Picton on "Downtown Picton"

This is a delightful listen. Listen and learn about our town :-). Story surrounding this; my sister-in-law Kim was down to see Claire in Annie, and she prior to Annie we drove over to the bookstore (mentioned in the audio) ... Vinyl Cafe started and Kim was able to sit in Picton, listening to Stuart McLean ON Picton. Fun!

By the way, the ginger tabby cat's name is Miss Lily, and she is the mascot at Miss Lily's cafe, an awesome new cafe with lots of outlets for laptop computers, plus fair trade coffee and even (hurray) gluten-free desserts!

I love our community.

Finally, we managed a photo!!

Is that not the cutest thing? We have one more photo to get now ... when we go in to the coop at night, after eggs are collected, very often there is a large pile of chickens keeping warm together. If we look very, very carefully ... we can see a little pink nose in the middle of this feather blanket.

Perhaps we should be calling Roger "Rocky" instead, since he thinks he's one of our barred rocks!

Some people have point-and-shoot cameras; we have a point-and-shoot border collie.

The best thing I've done recently is to train Dickens to mouse. Two summers ago it was very dry and we had a huge explosion in the mouse population around our home. He caught on quickly, and, better than a cat mouser, actually learned to mouse on command. "Get the mouse!" said in an urgent voice would send him to the woodpile, or in to the field on a mission that wouldn't stop until he was successful (the wonderful obsessiveness of a border collie).

A few nights ago our garage door was not closed fully early one morning. Outdoor kitty made it in the house and was shooed out quickly. Apparently we had another guest as well!

For the last few days we've had gremlins. Cupboard doors mysteriously open, with things falling out. The dog searching behind our antique radio, where the cats don't fit. Yup, you got it.

Last night I stayed up until 11 (late for me) and as I headed upstairs, locking up, it finally occured to me that there had been a LOT of animal noise ... cats "playing" .... dog chasing ... I stood and watched what I presumed would be the dog chasing the cats ... and discovered instead all three chasing some unseen common target. Yup. A mouse in the house.

This would explain the open cupboard doors, the food falling out as the cats tried to squirm in to find the mouse. It explains the obsession our dog has had with our antique radio.

However, rather than being the crisis this may have been in the past (I have less than fond memories of our home in NJ; mouse traps, mouse "alarms" etc) ... instead, I called Dickens to heel and said, "Dickens, there's a MOUSE in our HOUSE! Get the mouse". I pulled the sofa aside, and he had it in about 8 seconds. I then called him, and told him to take it outside and drop it. And he did! Because he's a wonderful and very useful dog :-). No traps, no poison, no hysteria ... just calm and hyper-focussed border collie obsession. I tell you, I practically threw a party for him when he came back in the house; he knows he did a very good thing.

Here is he is in his "kick back and have a beer" pose. But you still see the glint in his eye ... "Anything else you want me to do? Huh? Huh? Can I find another one?"

Good dog.

On Black Friday in the U.S. ...

Please, let Black Friday stay in the States. We just. don't. want. it. here. 'Nuff said.

In honour of American Thanksgiving, the link to a blog post on "The Purpose of Thanks"

http://tolovehonorandvacuum.blogspot.com/2008/11/thanksful-thursday-purpose-of-saying.html

Sheila's hubby Keith was our kids' pediatrician when we first moved to the area, and Sheila has quite a large speaking ministry. I always enjoy her blog :-). I particularly appreciate this one.

2008 School Photos :-)

Iain, almost 11

Claire, almost 13

Alison, 14.5

The school was kind enough to let us purchase Iain's photographs, despite the fact that we pulled him out at Thanksgiving prior to order date. The frame thing on Alison's photo was much more subtle on the proofs, and we were a little disappointed by the final photos. However, the kids look fine and that's the important part ;-).

And now, a "blast from the past"; all the kiddoes one decade ago:

This morning I was up at o'dark o'clock ... (family stuff mostly)

driving Alison in to the high school. Today her class heads to University of Toronto, where they are participating in a very cool sounding drama workshop. The day culminates with a production of Romeo and Juliet, which is the play they are currently studying. And for this trip, not just any old school bus, but a lovely big Franklin Tours coach! Our drive in was somewhat complicated by the face that we had quite a frost, and do you think I could find even ONE scraper for the windshield??? Nope.

Kev is back to work after a fairly restful "vacation". He did still do some church stuff, and of course, the ever-present "Annie", but on the whole he was able to sleep in to normal hours, do some reading, watch some TV and get some chores done. I'm not sure he was ready to go back today ... Kev, want to comment here?? :-)

Today is ice-skating day for my home educated student. However Iain did not sleep well last night (the first night ever he's been bothered by nightmares) so I've sent him back to bed, and we'll see how the day progresses.

Claire is enjoying some respite this week ... no Annie practices at all prior to Friday night's performance. She's basically enjoying school, protecting her voice, and getting lots of rest. She requested a sleepover with a cast member on Friday night, but her mean parents (both of us) emphatically said "no"! We suggested she wait and have the sleepover on a night where it wasn't quite as essential that she actually have a good night's sleep ;-).

I sold my first two fleeces this week. These were Eddy and Coriander's lamb fleeces, shorn this fall. Thanks, Ann and Michelle! I've actually changed my decision on a lamb based on her fleece. Coriander is staying because her fleece is just yummy and I can't bear the thought of not having her sheared next year. Remember girls, I want constructive criticism back on fleece quality!