Happy New Year !!

I want to wish each one of you a Happy New Year
And I want to wish you and your family all the best for 2009 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The holidays are over.... nearly.......!

Yup that's me!! quite the getup eh!! I dress in many layers when I go skidooing,and its been so darn cold always in the minus's,except for one day there it rained, what a slippery mess it made, then it snowed and.... snowed......blizzard style.... you would never know we had lost a lot of our snow when it had rained.

Our holidays are almost over my daughter left this morning, we all hate when she leaves, it feels so empty here at home without her and her little cat Freda.But we had lots of fun, lots of laughs, I did lots of shopping with her, we even went shopping for winter tires!! That's a first for me!!

After New Years Day I will begin putting away Christmas..... not my favorite job but it will get done then.I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas !!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

I want to wish each one of you a Merry Christmas !!!!

My daughter arrives in an hour or two and then we declare it CHRISTMAS at our house.
I will be back in a few days

I want to say how much I have enjoyed each and every one of you fellow bloggers , its been a wonderful year getting to know you all.

May Peace and Love be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!
Diane

First Day of Winter!!!!!

These are photo's from my home town,isin't it beautiful here wayyyyyyy up North !!
Today was brutally cold it was minus 37 with a windchill warning of minus 44.
A sunny crystal clear cold winter day,just perfect for the first day of winter.

Jack Frost

We have been having extremely cold weather and Jack Frost has painted our windows !

38 Wonderful Years Together !!!

December 19, 1970
38 Years Ago Tomorrow !!!

I Made 15 Of Them Can you guess What I Made??

Clue number #1


Clue #2
Clue #3





Did ya guess yet???? I am just wondering do my southern friends make pies at Christmas??
I made 15 meat pies that I share with some family members who don't cook but love to eat, we had one for supper tonight with a ceasar salad yummm it was sooo good.I use my Mom's recipe of course!
Don't I look tired here eh!!!
I still had 4 in the oven and 4 more to cook and a sink full of dishes waiting for me, I only do this once a year.
Today we had yet another major snow storm ,at one point it didn't know what to do it was raining ~snowing ~ hailing all at once!!!
I thought our red pines were going to topple over on the house the wind was so bad.

On the lunch hour we went for our usual Timmy coffee at the lake and fed the pigeons, poor little things were waiting for us , when they saw the car pulling into the parking lot they swamped the car , they knew we are going to feed them, there they were eating in the awful cold wind, they said it was minus 44 in the wind, that's cooold my friends,you don't want to expose skin too long it will freeze.How those poor little birds can live outdoors is beyond me.We love feeding them seeds every day its the least we can do for God's creatures.

The Tree !

I took a quick picture of our tree its not the nicest of pictures but I wanted to show you, and I wanted to tell you a funny story too that happened years ago when my daughter and I were decorating the tree together,I came home from work and I was dog tired and of course one look at my beautiful wonderful daughter's hopeful little face you find the energy to do what ever it is you need to get done... right ladies!
I was too tired to pick up an ornament and walk over to the tree so I was just kinda sat there adding the hooks to the ornaments, and I told her she could do it any way she wanted, she of course could not believe her ears as I have a system for decorating the tree its called ~~~~My way or no way!!!~~~ So to be given the allmighty green light was quite a thrill for her, she kept saying Mom are you sure you want ~~ME~~~ to do it?????

Remember now I was bone tired

I said ~~~~(((I want to be the hooker this year just a hooker !!!!!!! !!!)))~~~~~
Well we laughed and giggled ourselves silly over that one... dosen't take much when your that tired I guess to make a funny... LOL!!!

As you can see I have started wrapping but no bows just yet, .. I am slow this year I seem to be in slowmotion.....

I went shopping today and got most of what was on my list, I just need a few more stocking stuffers, my kids adore their stocking, just as much if not more than all the gifts combined. And it has to be in their childhood stocking no other will do plus they have to be hung from my old hutch no where else will do.... they are sentimental my two ((( I love them so)))
Worst than little kids I tell ya!!!!~~Wouldn't have it any other way!!!

AWARDS~~~~~~ and Decorating !!

Smiling Sally gave me an award!!!
The butterfly is so pretty and what it stand for just tickles me pink !!
I always wanted to be~~~ COOL~~~!!!

Before I started blogging I was lurking(( haha)) I went to this blog and that blog to get a feel of blogland, and of course to see the gorgeous crafty blogs , then I got to appreciate the non crafty blogs that we all know and love.
I wanted to be an all craft blog because back then(2 years ago) I had time to craft to my hearts content and I do love making things with my hands like my little Noel Soon Snowmen, those were hand stitched... I did not do them with a sewing ,I have nothing against sewing machines I just love making things with my hands and I take pride in doing what ever the project is.

But I do love to kabits with all you bloggers who just want to incorporate part of your daily lives in your blog, and in doing so we have all respect and enjoy each other's participation, be it daily or weekly or what ever you have time for.
I feel each of you my dear friends have earned this award, you know who you are I visit you every day and I think all of you are the Coolest Blog!!
Please accept this as my token of enjoyment and appreciation.


Today was a busy one for me, I sent my hubby OUT with the MIL I told him not to come back early that I had things to do.
Tell me are you like me ?? I can't do a damn thing with hubby around, today I wanted to put the Christmas lights in the living room big picture window and in the kitchen window, and every year he stand there waiting to help me but all he does is criticize and he loves to argue ( he thrives on arguing )normally I can take it as I am a very very calm person it takes a lot to ruffle my feathers.

BUT my nerves are still raw and frayed from all the health traumas we have had lately ( that still not finished either) and I can't take much more......., I am on my last nerve and its stretched beyond all limits so it was better to tell him to go shopping and I gave him a small list then do the lights all by myself.!!(((( do you do that??))))

I put up the lights, it looked gorgeous,what a rotten stinking job that is to do.... its so finiky,
I was tired after, then my son comes into the living room and says MOM you didn't leave the male end of the plug in, you did it backwards.!!!!! OMG!!!!!

He told me I would have to start it over, I said~~ listen here~~ if I take it out of the window its going to stay bare, in no way shape or form am I putting that back.... and I would still probably do it backwards.... dammit.... (( They should sell lights with instructions for dummy's who are not electrically inclined!! LOL!! I know it sounds so stupid but I never remember which end to save for the plug in~~~~~~~ I just go for it....... sigh......))
My son is wonderful he said Mom dont panic give me an extension cord and then he fixed it!!! Happy Days!!

Then I made myself a tea to calm down and take a little breather, then I did a load of laundry and looked at the kitchen window and went to town on it, ((I didn't screw that one up)).God loves me he knows I am trying my darndest!!

I just love the look of lights in windows it so festive and soft looking!!

I did our Christmas tree on the weekend, its my first artificial tree, but what a beauty it is, we bought it because you have to touch it to realize its not real that's how gorgeous it is!

Its 6 and a half feet of gorgeousness!!! (Is that a word?)
It went up like a charm and then I slowly added all my favorite ornaments, I use all glass ones, some are new, some are very old ,some are sentimental,some were given to me.

I love birds in my tree every year I add a few new birds, one year I made hundreds of cardinals(yes by hand) and I just loved it nothing else but cardinals in that tree, my kids didn't like it ,they wanted what they call a real tree and I know they meant with Christmas ornaments.

I will post pictures soon to show you, my son has a fancy dancy camera and he is the pro with a camera certainly not me when it comes to taking pictures like that.
Its starting to look a lot like Christmas at my house!!!
These pictures are of Christmas's past.That gorgeous manger scene my MIL gave me when I was first married, it was in the family for many years before that, I have added pieces since, some are sooo very old, luckily I have been able to find my beloved Fontanini by going to yard sales or estate sales.My children love this manger scene.So do I!!

Last year Mom passed away December 16th we didn't have much of a Christmas because I was with her night and day and I am trying so hard to make it up to them this year.

Today I opened a small box marked Christmas .... oh my.......
Near Mom's hospital bed I had set up a little tiny Christmas tree it even had lights in it, and my wonderful sister in law gave Mom a glass tea light that looked like a tall candle decorated with holly and instead of a real flame tea light she had put one of those lights that needs a battery instead and looks just like a candle... we left it on at night beside her bed for her to see the soft glow of the candle, I dont think she saw it, but I sure did, and when I opened that small box today there it was to flood my memories of her in bed so sick and in pain,no matter how hard you try not to remember the bad parts... something so simple as a candle tea light will bring it all back in a rush of emotions.Its so painful to remember all that.I would rather remember the wonderful things , those memories hold me together like glue.I keep them close to my heart.



Take a close look at that Santa below..... look like anyone you might know?????
Ho Ho Ho!!!

Noel Soon !!!

I AM BACK!!
Its been a hellish few weeks with me being on pins and needles,but it seems to be behind me now,I just have to keep a close eye on both hubby and MIL and monitor their blood sugar.Both seem to be more stable.
My Aunt Irene's funeral was on Monday, it was so sad, at the end of the service her 4 girls got up and sang Good Night Irene to their mother as their last goodbye, there wasen't a dry eye in the chapel.
I seem to be loosing my family one person at a time.I just hope the year 2009 is better because 2008 was not very kind at all.

Every year I have a little tradition that signifies Christmas is comming soon, in my family we call it Noel Soon !!
And every year I make something for my kids and send it to them, this year its my daughter who lives away from home, so I make up a box of some fun edible goodies plus her Noel Soon surprise.
This year it was a challenge to make it because of everything that has been happening.So in between hospital visits and seizures and funerals I made this, I am sure all of you know what I mean when I say I stole 10 minutes here and half an hour there, finally it got made over the space of 2 weeks. and here it is TADAA!!

What do you think ?? ~~~The body is filled with beans !!
I told my daughter don't get them wet or they will sprout! (LOL!!)
They turned out so gosh darn cute I wanted to keep them, don't ask me for the pattern there isin't any, I just made it up as I went along I just eye balled it as so to speak.
Of course I sent some goodies for her little cat Freda but what she really loves were all the ribbons that I used to wrap everything.Cats are like kids they will play with the tissue and the boxes the gift came in first !!

I forgot to mention that my daughter went to Amsterdam last week and Zurich Switzerland, she said it was just beautiful, so many people on bicycles,and one thing she noticed that unlike we Canadians who will have their coffee on the go , the Europeans take time to sit down at a Coffee Shop and have their Koffee, they enjoy the time to do it properly.



Thank you so much for the kind words my dear friends, it means a lot to know that you all care.
Diane