Dinner

Jer and I had 7 people over for dinner last night: Gordon, Mary, my parents, Brenda, John, and Ayla. It was originally just going to be the four parents, but Brenda, John, and Ayla were here and we thought it would be fun to have them too.

It was a great evening, everyone said how much fun they had. Mary even asked me for a recipe. I made a Tomato and Cheddar Souffle for each person and everyone raved about them. I'd definitely like to do a big dinner again sometime. I've never played hostess before, it's rather enjoyable, especially since we there's a dishwasher here to deal with the bulk of the dishes.

Family Time

Yesterday afternoon my cousin, Brenda, her husband, John, and their daughter, Ayla arrive. It's always so much fun when they're here. Ayla always comes right to me and I'm with her the majority of the time. We read The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas...or in Ayla's case How the Grouch Stole Christmas.

We had a unconventional second Christmas dinner with them, turkey Shepard's pie. It tastes great and it's good way to use up the leftovers.

Earlier in the day I sewed strips to the back of Jer's quilt so it can be hung in the quilt show. I'm pretty excited about having it exhibited. I'm lucky that Jer is so understanding about my taking the quilt away as soon as he's gotten it.

Town Day

Town was strange yesterday: half the stores were closed, and the others were packed. Future shop was scary! The line was halfway to the back of the appliance section. It was a mob scene. Jer got in line while I talked to a friend for a few minutes. I think I stood in line for about 10 seconds with him before we bailed.

We started at the bottom of 5th and wandered our way up one side and down the other. It was a pleasant morning. We found some sales, bought some clothes, well, I bought more than he did. Unfortunately the store with the boots I fell in love with last week was one of the closed ones.

I ran into my aunt and cousin in Winners. They finally got to meet Jer, apparently my aunt has heard a lot about him. Here's to family gossip. ;o)

We almost decided to stay overnight in town to see a movie, but changed our minds and came home instead. A quiet evening was just what we both needed after a hectic town day.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas this year was great. Christmas eve Jer and I went to my folks' house and hung out, ate, and played games. We opened the family game from under the tree. The game was great, you get to be a spy from: Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, or the States. I was Italian: Rosita. My dad won. After much laughter, watching of the animated Grinch, and Christmas story time, Jer headed back to his house.

I slept on the couch, it was terrible! Well worth it though, I was up bright and early for stockings. My parents and I opened our stockings, then presents. We made a BIG mess on the floor: the pile was about three feet high. My cat, Missy crawled in the biggest box and didn't get out, even though my other cat really wanted to get in, poor Flopsy.





Jer came for the end of presents. Finally I can stop hiding his quilt from him. He was really happy with it. I made him wait until the end to open it, I think the wait was more exciting for me than him.

After a huge dinner, we played some more games. Everyone bailed on me in the first game and we ended up playing Pick up Sticks. I know, I know, it sounds lame, but it's actually quite engaging once you get into it.

Quiet and Fun

I spent most of the day working on Christmas stuff at home, until Jer picked me up. I got a lot of stuff done during the day, but I didn't finish until about hour ago, as of this post.

After Jer picked me up we went and walked around on the beach in front of his dad's for probably about an hour. It was a very pleasant way to pass the time. We both got lots of great shots.








Last Teen Night before Christmas break. It was very quiet: just Jethro, Toglia, and I. The three of us played Clue and Careers. It was one of the more fun times I've had actually. It's nice to be able to do stuff like that, it's too hard with lots of kids there. Both ways are good, but last night was more like it was a couple years ago.

1/4 of Party #3

The bits of time I was at Party #3 were fun; it's too bad Greg and I had to take off. Good conversation and beautiful fire. When the wind whipped up the sparks looked almost like fireworks: it was gorgeous!

Teen Night went well, not as many kids as usual though. Unfortunately the school left us some oranges and juice down by the gym, big mistake. The thought was nice, but it created a huge mess. There is a reason we have a strict no food, no drink policy at the school during Teen Night. Ah well, it was very kind of them.

Party #2 (I skipped party #1)

The party at the hall last night was fun. I expected to recognize everyone there, but there were a few unfamiliar faces in amongst the crowd. One turned out to be Rachelle's mum, she seems very cool, I hope I get a chance to talk to her a little more tonight.

The cooks did a great job with the food, lots of vegetarian which isn't always the case. Here's to dinner anarchy! ;o)

Congratulations to the medal winners. It's great that Hornby has such dedicated volunteers; they're a credit to our community.

Parties organized by people other than your usual crowd always generate unexpected conversations with people you make not talk to often. It makes for a good evening.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone tonight in the next holiday party on my list.

All Done!

Phew, I'm beat. Town sure takes it out of you, especially this time of year. I think Islanders get hit harder by seasonal crowds than city people: we just don't have the immunity to it that they have built up.

I managed to get everything done I needed to, except the main reason I went to town. Luckily my parents are going in tomorrow and they'll get it for me. I'm done all my of Christmas shopping and there's still six days left. This is a rare and momentous occasion, probably never to happen again. I do still have two handmade gifts to finish up, but I don't have to shop any more!

We ran in to Doug twice in town and on the ferry. Hornby people seem to gravitate to each other when they're in town. If I see someone I know once, I'm almost guaranteed to see them twice. Last week I ran into Gordon and Mary in Superstore like four times, we'd go opposite ways and still manage to find each other.

We saw Doug at Canadian Tire, he left, but five minutes later he was back to ask Jer about a certain kind of fire extinguisher. The lady beside us told him to get one from the fire department. We had a good laugh about that one. It does lead me to wonder though, if our firefighters don't know where to get fire extinguishers, how are we supposed to know?

I was supposed to go to the kids' Christmas play tonight, but I'm just too beat. It was really, really good last year: Margaret wrote it. Apparently, Margaret wrote this play too, ah well, I'll hear all about it later.

Tonight was also supposed to be Party #1, but again, I just don't have any energy to socialize.

Well, it seems life got in the way again.

Friday night the concert went quite well. The kids were great: Light a Candle is a song everyone should know. I think the best song of the night was the one that the community choir sang with the kids though. It was definitely the one I had the most fun singing. Out choir performed better than I thought we would and everyone said how well we had done. All in all a good night, but not enough community carols were sung.

Kudos to Santa Claus. He did a fantastic job as always.

Saturday Teen night was quiet once again. I like it quiet, it's rather fun. First Savannah, Anthea, Lily, and I played Cranium then the four of us and Jethro played Careers. It's a game made in '71 by the Parker Brothers and it's actually quite fun.

Busy Busy Busy

Well, it's been a few days. Things have been nuts. I'm not really sure what I did on Tuesday (no entry in my calendar), but on Wednesday was quilting all afternoon and then choir.

Things seemed a little shaking, considering our performance is tonight. Eeek. We redeemed ourselves a little Thursday night with an extra practice though.

Thursday was town all day for Christmas shopping and some school/work related appointments. I blew through almost my entire shopping list except for two people and I know what I'm getting them, plus the gifts are on Hornby.

Not only did I get most of my Christmas shopping done I've also figured out what I'm doing school wise. I'm going to take a few online courses just for fun in January and then I'm going to enroll in the Fine Art and Design program at North Island College. I'll do the two year diploma program and possible the extra two years through Emily Carr and NIC.

I'm very excited. I think I've figured it all out.

School confusion

I hate university/college websites, it's impossible to find anything, especially if you're looking for distance classes. I wish there was one website that would tell which school offered which classes, so you didn't have to go to each school's site. You'd think they'd want to make their sites easy to navigate so prospective students would want to go to the school, but no. Bah

Where have all the children gone?

Quiet night tonight. There were only two kids at Teen Night: Jethro and Mackenzie. We ended up chillin' in the trailer until about nine and then Toglia drove Jethro to Farran's. So Kenzie and I left. It was rather nice with just a couple kids, I am wondering where everyone else was though.

This afternoon was nice, I spent the afternoon at my folks' house.

4307

Not all is TGIF

After a nice calm Thursday, Fridays are work day.

First some book keeping at the shop. I was stuck with something, but I called the accountant and she sorted me out. Thank God for professionals.

After the shop, a quick stop home for Jer to pack and me to make some dinner.

Jer left for his fire course in town and drop me at Teen Night. Unfortunately, shortly before Greg was due to arrive I noticed that all the food, even veggies, and spritzers left from last week were gone. The kids seemed fine with no chips, but it was a total bummer.

Happier news for tomorrow I hope.

10179

Thursday, the day of rest.

Ahh, Thursday. It is always much appreciated after a long Wednesday. There is nothing on the calendar and Jer has fire practice. What can be better than a whole day to yourself.

I started the day by finishing the scarf I'm knitting for my dad...well I ran out of wool, it's almost the same thing.

After knitting time was over I went for a walk around the point. The view always surprises me anew each time I go out there. It was just me, my camera, and some birds.










Along the way I stopped to admire Gordon's tribute to Jerry Pethick. It's a beautiful piece. He built it on the site of Jerry's studio, using wood from the old building.

I generally wasted the rest of the day, except for starting a poster for the Recreation Mt. Washington day in January. I received a call from Bonita this afternoon: she's going to be away, so I'm mostly organizing it now.

10221

Today is brought to you by the word Looooong...

Phew, today was a tough one. I had to be at Room-to-Grow to supervise Teen Tutoring at 9:30AM, next comes quilting, and finally, choir. All of this takes me from 9:30AM to 9:30PM. That is one heck of a day.

Teen Tutoring was a washout today, I was all alone. Teen Tutoring used to be huge when I went. What could be better than a day off from commuting and school? Now, if I'm lucky two kids show up. Ah, well, there's always next week.

Quilting was a total blast! I got my quilt layered and I'm ready to quilt. Rachelle was supposed to go though, and she didn't make it. I hope she comes next week.

And last but not least, choir. Things were a little shaky tonight, well they went alright, but with our concert next week, it was a definitely an eye opener.

Stupid hot tub isn't working. It turned off randomly last night. Before it turned off water was getting warm though! We will find an electrician and it will work soon.

Hot Tub Day!

Today we filled up the hot tub, Thanks to John for cleaning it. The pump and heater are running as I type. I think the water's getting warmer and am convinced that all is well and I'll be soaking tomorrow, but Jer's not convinced yet.

We're definitely having a hot tub party soon.

Finally a little warmth in my poor toes.

Winter Amusements

I read something in a book by Bill Bryson today, "...which [is] worse, to lead a life so boring that you are easily enchanted or a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored." (The Lost Continent Pg. 59)

We went to the Christmas fair on Denman the other day with Doug and Rachelle, not only was the fair good, but there was excited in both directions. On the way there a woman in a mini hit a parked car on the big hill. She could either avoid the sand truck or the car. The four of us helped push her back onto the road, but she didn't make it off Denman because of car damage.

The Denman fair is much bigger than ours and it's nice to see different items for sale than the same old on Hornby. We all bought some really nice things. I managed to score gifts for hard to buy for people! I also ran into some friends that I haven't seen in awhile. It was great, I hope to go next year.

The snow was magical, although it did cause some more excitement coming home. I'd been told by a friend from Denman to go the back way and we did, but had some trouble getting up one of the hills. It was a little scary, but Doug is a great driver and we made it home fine. Missed the ferry by about ten mins though.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Rachelle organized a surprise birthday party for Doug at Pete and Judith's today. She quickly whispered minimal details to me yesterday after Jer and I dropped off Doug and his truck.

The party was a ton of fun. There were some people there that I don't normally spend much time with, it was great to get to know them better.

All evening Elaine was saying "lets go tobogganing." Finally at around 9:30 PM a bunch of us went out. It was so much fun! I haven't been sledding on Annie's Hill since I was a kid. There wasn't much snow, but we got in some great runs and some snowball fights. Thanks for the old snow pants Pete.

The blog thing came up this evening, Pete just started one and he was quite excited about it. I had started one devoted to the Social Climbers quite some ago, but didn't keep it up. So this is my second attempt.

Here's to friends, parties, snow, and toboggans.