....and more snow....

so - still getting quite a bit of snow - not as much as Ottawa, I guess, but more than we've had by this time of year for several years!

Had a good Christmas - Jame and Julie came out around noon and we had a nice time exchanging gifts and visting with them.  We had lots of treats and as if we didn't have more than enough, Kris brought home a huge tray of cookies and squares from a gal he works with.  We did manage to make a pretty good dint in them.  Traditional turkey dinner with Rick's home made meat pie too.  Lots of leftovers to send back with Jamie and Julie too - which hopefully they enjoyed.

We did hit a couple of stores on Boxing Day - I specifically wanted a purse at Mark's which was marked down from $39 to $16.  I also wanted to get another set of Christmas dishes - I had picked up a set of 16 at Canadian Tire just before Christmas.  I decided I liked them so much, I wanted to get 4 more place settings - but neither the Renfrew or Pembroke store had any more.  I'll try again next year or just order some through Sears as they carry them to  - much more expensive though!!!

So another Christmas in the books and soon another year gone by too - where does the time go????

christmas morning (huh...afternoon) Jamie, Rick and Julie

 

and

 

snow heavy trees on Magnesium Road

 

White Christmas and then some....

Well, we got a big dump of snow over the last couple of days - ensuring that we will, after all, have a nice white Christmas! 

We had our annual potluck lunch at the office yesterday - very nice - LOTS of good food and treats!  There was a nice taco/rice concoction that I will have to get a recipe for!  And to finish off a cranberry cheese cake!  too much food - but all very good. 

After our lunch, I drew up an offer on a house (yup, real estate still carries on) and then a quick stop at the grocery store for our turkey and a few last minute items.  Drive home was nasty with heavy snow and slushy roads - but at least most drivers were adjusting their driving accordingly - we were able to take our time.  In spite the weather and poor  road conditions, I didn't hear of any accidents, so that's good.

We woke up last night around 2:30 to discover the power had gone off.  It's funny, even asleep, we seem to be aware when the power goes off!   The pellet stove needs power to run the auger and fans, so Rick had to shut it down - but it didn't get that cold and the electricity actually came back on in a couple of hours - so not at all  an inconvenience.  When I looked at the Hydro One website it showed lots of folks without power most still during the day, so we were very lucky to only lose it for a couple of hours during the night!

Kris and Rick took turns cleaning the laneway this morning - Rick also did the laneways for a couple of neighbours.  He finds the job sooooo much easier with the Kubota tractor compared with the snow-blower he did it with for years.  I just stay inside and watch!  Here is Kris on the tractor

 

LOTS OF SNOW!!

 

LUCY HAVING A NAP IN COMFORT

 

 

 

We're still looking for someone to take the cat that Kris is looking after at the shop at his work - we'd take her but that would be #6 and I just don't think we can handle six cats.

 

 

this is her - if anyone knows of a home - she's very talkative and friendly - we'll even deliver!



 

 

decorating DONE!

We spent most of the day setting up my Christmas village, the tree in the dining room and the "main" tree in the living room.  Whew!   As usual some of the strings of lights wouldn't work so off to Canadian Tire in Pembroke for some new lights and a few other Christmas-y things.  I think we're done - except for the tidying up.

Had a great visit with our friends Pam and Terry Ellott - they came to town on Wednesday and stayed until Friday when they were off to Sudbury and then home to Elliott Lake.  It's always wonderful to see them.  Thursday evening Pam and I went out to dinner with some other gals who used to work at Timminco Metals - we do try to keep in touch with each other.

I'm now officially on Skype - nice to talk face to face with someone and its FREE too!

I'm shopping around for some hand-made Christmas cards - guess I left it a bit late - I've found several nice ones on ebay, but I doubt if they would arrive in time for me to address and mail out.  I may try some local craft stores to see if I can track some down.

I'm also trying to find a home for a friendly female cat - mostly white with black and orange spots - she's another one of my son's strays that he is feeding at his work, but he is worried for her over the winter.  We're up to 5 cats at the moment and we just don't think we can take in another, so I'm being a bit of a pest trying to find her a good home.  I've even offered to have her spayed if someone will take her in!  Hopefully somebody will step forward.

That's about all that's new - we are sort of busy this week - Rick and I are both taking some courses (we have to keep up our credits to keep our real estate licence) on Wednesday in Pembroke and a couple final inspections later in the week.  I'm showing some houses tomorroe night - so we're busy enough for this time of year, I guess.  Maybe I'll squeeze in some Christmas shopping too!