Quiet cottage time

I’m writing this from the cottage while I sip my tea, listen to tunes and watch the snow fall on the frozen lake. My book and mostly-completed crossword wait their turns on the table beside me. What is missing from this idyllic picture is the roaring fire and – more critically – my motivation to figure out where the fire-starting stuff is. I’m rather spoiled in the having-fires-built-for-me department but the gang headed off for a day of skiing at Mont Tremblant bright and early this morning and, for some strange reason, no one bothered to start a fire for me before they left. Oh well. My desire for heat will soon outweigh my laziness.

We’ve been spending our New Year’s Eves with two other families since Nick was barely out of diapers – four 13-year olds and two 11-year olds (two sets of twins in there). In years past we’d gather at the house of the biggest family, put the kids to bed and carry on with the evening celebrations before packing the sleepy bundles into our cars at some point after midnight. A few years ago, the ‘big family’ bought a beautiful cottage in Quebec so now the 12 of us gather here for a few days of outdoor activity – skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, skating, snow fort building and snowball fights – plus lots of indoor fun with music, games, food, drinks and lots of laughter.  We barely see the kids, who spend their time downstairs playing games or watching DVDs after they’ve exhausted themselves in the snow. They wander upstairs occasionally and hover around the kitchen until someone feeds them and then return to their cave.

Although I’ve skied in the past, it’s been a very long time since I’ve done it, I’m not keen on being on the hills in minus 20-something temperatures and I’d need to rent all the equipment, so I’m happy to stay here with Boo (relegated to the downstairs area) and Paco (the feline reason Boo is quarantined).  The alone time is nice after the very social holiday season and it’s a perfect time to reflect on the year that’s passed and look forward to the one about to start.

Well, both my tea and my fingers are getting cold, so I guess I’d better go do something about that fire.

Home for Christmas

When we were growing up in Winnipeg, all our grandparents would sleep over at our house on Christmas Eve and the three kids would sleep on a mattress on the floor of my parents’ bedroom.  We’d wake them up regularly throughout the night to ask whether it was time to get up yet. On Christmas day, after the chaos of gift opening, our cousins and aunt and uncle would arrive for dinner. Christmas was full of anticipation and Santa’s magic and being surrounded by family. When we moved east, there were no relatives to share the day with us and, by that age, Santa wasn’t quite so mysterious. It felt like the magic of Christmas was gone, but then we started new traditions, inviting some of the neighbours over for Christmas dinner and playing Pictionary and Spoons and Trivial Pursuit. We had such a great time together for about 15 years, but as the ‘kids’ started getting married, that tradition fell off too. But then, along came the grandchildren and we got to re-live the magic of Christmas through them. Now, with mom gone and the grandkids all teenagers, it feels like the end of another Christmas era. Having said that, Nick still gets pretty excited about Christmas and managed to keep me awake for much of the night, tiptoeing into my room and whispering, “Mom. Mom! Is it time to get up yet?”  Me: “It’s 2:30 in the morning!”  Nick: “Can we get up now though? I can’t sleep.”  Repeat.

Things didn’t quite work out as planned on Christmas Day though as my sister – who was hosting Christmas dinner – spent nine hours in the Emergency Room with my niece who was being treated for gastroenteritis. Not exactly what we had in mind. There’s a saying I came across several times over the holidays – Things always work out in the end and if they haven’t worked out yet, then it’s not the end.  And, in the end, we had a lovely Christmas dinner and the kids had fun opening their presents, so – in this case at least – the saying seemed to hold true.

The traditional Boxing Day dinner with Ray’s family is a long-running tradition, though it’s also seen some changes over the years. This year there were four generations in attendance, with one-year old Carlie providing much of the evening’s entertainment.

Nick’s main gift from us was the promise to build him a ‘man-cave’ in the basement where he can work out and practice jiu-jitsu and rock climbing. Towards that end, he got climbing grips to build a climbing wall, nunchuks, weights and a wall decal of a large Asian dragon. The design and building of the man-cave should keep the two of them busy for the next couple of months.

Nick and Poppa sitting by the Angel Tree

Ray got quite a surprise when my dad wrapped up the box of childhood memorabilia that we’d put somewhere ‘safe’ rather than risk leaving it in storage when we moved to England. We’d searched high and low for it (except, apparently, in this particular box that my dad discovered in the basement).

Nicole on Christmas Day – made it home just in time for Christmas Dinner (crackers & ginger ale in her case).

Christmas gift opening finally took place after dinner – much to Nick’s relief.

Nick enjoying a romp in the snow pile.

Arrived home to even more snow than there was when we left.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It’s that time of year again. Nick has been weighing and measuring the presents under the tree, comparing them against his wish list and making notes with his predictions. He has categories for “quantitative analysis”, “qualitative observations and possible inferences” and “conclusions and final analysis”.  What can I say? Maybe we should have given him some brothers or sisters to play with.

Nick’s school Christmas/Chanukah concert was today.  I wasn’t able to go, but Ray videotaped the concert band and rock band performances so I got a taste of it. Instead of attending the concert, I spent seven hours on the road.  Driving is really not one of my favourite things to do and today was easily the furthest I’ve ever driven. I rented a car and drove to Peterborough for Sarah’s mom’s funeral. It was heart-breaking watching her three daughters and her granddaughter give their eulogies through their tears, but Sarah was very happy that I was there so I’m very happy that I went.

It’s 24 hours and 20-30 cms of snow later now.  Although the drive to and from work wasn’t too bad, it was nice to get home and be able to look out at the fluffy flakes gently falling while sipping a cup of tea by the fire.

Volunteer connections

It’s been a sad news weekend. First the tragic mass shooting of school children in Connecticut and then, closer to home, my Little Sister’s mom – who was younger than me – died from a massive brain hemorrhage. I became Sarah’s Big Sister 17 years ago, when she was 11 years old.  Four years later, she moved to southern Ontario and then to Vancouver but we’ve kept in touch and see each other whenever we can. She’s like family to me and it’s so sad to see her and her sisters going through this. They haven’t had easy lives.

Last week at my tutoring session my student saw a picture of Einstein and asked me about him. This week, when we arrived at the library, the first thing he said was, “Can we find a book about Einstein?”  How cool is that?  So we read about Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell and Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa and Steve Jobs and a few others. I’d also introduced him to Calvin & Hobbes last week (the comic strip, not the theologian/philosopher) and when we finished our session I gave him a Calvin & Hobbes book that we had a duplicate of and he was so excited – he thanked me at least half a dozen times. I wish my real job was this rewarding.

Nick’s dojo had a family day this weekend with parents allowed to join the class followed by a pot-luck meal.  Ray took jiu-jitsu duty and I tried to get some pictures, which didn’t really turn out because I wasn’t using a flash and they didn’t stay still long enough for me to get a good shot. Still, if you look carefully, you can tell they were having fun.

With Sarah at Christmas last year.

Nick about to take Ray down

Ray had to grab Nick’s belt and spin the knot to the front. This was taken right before they had a serious head-conking episode and Nick went down for the count. He has a nice goose egg above his eye to show for it.

Monkey in the tree. The kids all LOVED this one. They have to climb their way around their partner without touching the ground.

Tree of many memories

We trimmed the tree this weekend.  We don’t have one of those shiny, colour-coordinated, photogenic Christmas trees.  In fact, it’s rare to find any two ornaments that match, but decorating it always brings out the nostalia in me.  There’s my grandmother’s moon angel ornament that I’ve hung every year since I was a little girl; the straw decorations I bought at Stockholm’s outdoor Christmas markets for the mini-tree in my residence room on my first Christmas away from home; the needlepoint Santa that helped me pass the time after I went into premature labour just before the holidays and was confined to bed rest for the next two months; the Santa riding a sea turtle that we bought on our Tall Ship cruise in Aruba; the hand-made ornaments from various younger versions of Nicholas; a real bird’s nest that held baby robins in our back yard, and, new this year, the ornament a friend of mom’s made for us after mom passed away.  And then, of course, we have to add the cranberry and popcorn strings that have become an annual tradition, with Nick and I eating nearly as much popcorn as we string.  Our tree may not make it into any home decorating magazines, but it’s full of Christmas spirit.

Ray had an active social calendar this week. Last Sunday he spent the day hiking in the rain with the Alpine club, Tuesday he got together for dinner with Brad and Yvon, old friends from the insurance industry, Wednesday night he attended a carving club event, Friday afternoon was a Christmas lunch with his other carving group and Friday evening he got a last-minute invite to go virtual indoor golfing with Rob, Murray and Gary (at which point, Heather, Sue and I quickly pulled together a wine-drinking evening of our own).  In a continuation of our lucky streak, Ray won $138 in the 50/50 draw at the Wednesday evening event and then won three small wood carvings at the Friday afternoon gathering.  Maybe it’s time we started buying lottery tickets…

I had a tutoring session Saturday afternoon. It’s so cool watching this kid, who started out as a reluctant reader, transforming into someone who really gets excited about books.  He was thrilled when I told him that we could get him his own library card.  His reading is starting to noticeably improve too as his confidence grows. Last week I assigned him his first ‘homework’ which was to take home a couple of the books I’d brought with me and read them to his two young nieces.  When I picked him up this week, I asked if he’d done the homework and he said, “Yeah, but then every time they saw the books they wanted me to read them again and I had to read both books to them, like, SEVEN times!”  Sometimes I’m smarter than I mean to be.

We had Heather, Murray and Sean over for dinner Saturday night. I suspect there’s probably some social rule stating that you shouldn’t try serving a dish you’ve never made before when you have guests over, but we tossed that rule out the window, with everything from appetizers to dessert completely new. We chose an Asian theme and Ray made a Vietnamese soup and shrimp rolls. I made an Asian-style salad and dessert (coconut ice cream with mango sauce).  We picked out some pre-dinner snacks at the Asian grocery store without really having a clue what they were. Some worked. Some…not so much. We also picked up some sake (Japanese alcoholic drink) and some Chinese beer.   The dinner seemed to go over quite well. We fed the boys first and then we sent them downstairs to watch a zombie movie while we ate. When the movie ended, the six of us played a game of Masterpiece (a game Nick had discovered in England and then received as a parting gift from the friends he’d played it with).  Let’s just say that my lucky streak continued, but Ray’s ended.

Christmas tree