Parties Past and Present

Four o'clock and already the sun is hanging just above the horizon, being quickly pulled down by the dastardly hands of winter. It is a far cry from where it was 6 months, when, instead of pyjamas and hot chocolate, we were dressed in shorts and drinking an icy cold drink. It seems like it was an age ago.

I'm still dragged down by my cold, but on the positive side, Spike is getting better at bringing me a tissue… I should be in pretty good shape by tomorrow - New Years Eve! At least I hope so. Worst comes to worst I'll sit in-state and let everyone else do the work, of which there will be very little since I'm ordering Chinese food for the bulk of the meal.

Yesterday was our 4th year anniversary of retirement, and I didn't even feel well enough to pop open the bottle of bubbles that we had chilling in the fridge. Now that's sick! (not sick in the newfangled slang way that means really good).

I did drag myself out to the grocery store with Carm - I wanted to make sure we had a bag of proper Ruffles chips as I THINK one of my guests likes chips just a bit, but never has them because she is on a constant diet - well! I'm pretty sure New Years Eve will constitute enough reason to have a little cheat! I even got sour cream to make the good old standby chip dip: sour cream & onion soup mix. Hey there 70s!

Speaking of 70s, I remember the feasts that mom would leave Kirsten and a friend when she and dad left for their party. Starting when I was 12 and Kirsten 7 - mom would let me have a friend over (Jackie Porter), and would lay out a table with all manner of junk food. Chips, jello, cheesies, pop and goodness knows what else would adorn the little brown card table set up in the family room.  We'd stagger from the sofa to the card table, little cups of coke or rootbeer sloshing (not on the rug of course). Instead of a booze hangover, I'd feel awful the next day from such awful food and lack of sleep. It became my tradition to overeat and in later years, over drink, to bring in the new year. The food got better, but excess and late nights were still required. It seemed like it might be good luck to feel so rotten the first day of the year - kinda like it was the worst I was going to feel all year, so it was better to just get it over with.

I wonder if I'll wear a party dress tomorrow night? In years past, I've worn all manner of crazy dresses on New Years - old bridesmaids dresses are da bomb. I have a beautiful gold shot-silk dress that I may just dig out of the closet. Or jeans. Or pyjamas. Yea! That's the ticket - I'll make it a pyjama party :-)

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. ~Bill Vaughan

Alight at Night

I’ve been laying low the last few days, fighting a cold that has created a mountain of tissue and nights of loud snoring. I fall asleep with a tissue in my hand and wake up with it still tightly clutched.

Last night I roused myself up out of bed to celebrate of my niece Juliette’s birthday. My family met up at Upper Canada Village to experience the Alight at Night festival that is held every year in December and the first few days of January. The work to create this fantastical wonderland is started the day after thanksgiving (Ernie, one of the park wardens where we camp every summer, is part of this work crew).

We were expecting some lights. I haven’t mentioned it lately, but I LOVE Christmas lights – they may actually be my favourite thing of the season. We were expecting it to be pretty with some lights.

Well… there weren’t some lights… there were 1.2 MILLION lights. They seemed to frost every surface, outline every building, and dangle from every tree. I was beyond happy.

The buildings were wrapped in white lights. The trees were encircled with glittering lights of every colour: white, yellow, red, green blue, multi colour. There were lights on the fences and lights on the street signs. There were lights on the horse wagons and lights on the Ferris wheel. There were even lights on the little train we rode.

There were lights everywhere! It was beyond what I had imagined. Even though I was chilled to the bone, I was happy to be there.

After a brief walk around we got in line for a horse wagon ride. Since we arrived as soon as the gates opened we didn’t have to wait long. The horses took us on a loop of the village, letting us get a glimpse of every building and tree that had been iced with light.

After getting off where we started, we wound our way through lit streets to the Ferris wheel that towered against the sky. Erik (my nephew) thought it should be big enough to touch the moon which was hanging in the sky just over it. Thankfully it wasn’t even close to being that tall... I have no great love of heights (read petrified), but wanted to see the village from the high vantage point, so climbed aboard and clung onto Carm with threats of murder if he rocked the boat. As we got nearer to the top, I couldn’t help but forget my fears as the colourful village lay at my feet. I was clinging too much to get a photo from that height, plus my hands were so cold I figured I might drop my lens cap.

Steaming mugs of hot chocolate warmed our frozen hands, then more walking. More lights. Train ride (2km!). Into the car with its lovely heated seats for the drive home. The family followed us back to our place for a simple meal of frozen pizza (thankfully thawed, although they may have re-frozen on their way down – we were all that cold). Then birthday cake to celebrate Juliette.

All in all a fine day :-) With lights – did I mention the lights?

 

Let us not curse the darkness. Let us kindle little lights. ~Dada Vaswani

Green Christmas

It was a green Christmas this year, with temperatures above zero for the last few days. On Boxing day we had patches of sun, which were a real treat.

Usually on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day we watch the Sound of Music, so after supper (roast beef & yorkshire pudding), I cued up the PVR. I had recorded the movie a few weeks ago and was pleased with my foresight. No so fast Von Trapp… it seems a stage version had replaced the original movie so I was out of luck. I was a tiny bit peeved that Shaw would get their schedule so wrong. That will teach me to verify…

Christmas Day I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed nose - drat. It has been over 4 years since my last cold, but I figure since I've been eating so poorly lately my immune system isn't up to scratch. I soldiered on through our festivities, being careful not to get too close to anyone - do you know how difficult that is!

There were lots of kids this year - some Great nieces and nephews, and my brother's kids. A bunch of cute kids.

We spent the day with Carm's family, then rushed back home to let the dogs out, feed everyone, and rush back to the city to Mom & Dads - a typical busy Christmas Day. Spike came with us to M&D's which he enjoyed immensely - any chance to do a trick and earn a treat (turkey!) is pretty good fun in his mind. Add in all the attention he got from friends Kenda & Ann and he was in heaven. By the time bedtime came around though, he was ready to go home and telling us in no uncertain terms that it was time. The dog may indeed run our lives. (but he is so cute, how can I say no?).

I dragged my camera from place to place but only took a photo of our property to compare against last year.

Do you ever have moments when you wonder "is this it"? After the long story from the other day, this is a short something that tried to capture a moment.

~

"the mashed potatoes are good".

"yes, so is the roast. I don't remember one ever tasting so good."

His voice faded out as he bent his head back down. His fork went in and out of his mouth. She looked around the table; it was all dressed up for Christmas dinner, as if they were having company, but it was just the two of them, like always. She felt like she was caught in some endless loop of triviality; nothing important ever happened. Here she was, in her fifties, (she wondered how that happened), yet nothing had changed for decades. Even the decorations on the table hadn't changed in all those years.

I need some excitement, she thought to herself, pondering what form that might take. A few options popped into her mind: a move to a new locale; going back to school to learn some scintillating topic; her mind stalled. With the realization that there was nothing that appealed to her more than the life she was already living, she lifted her fork to her mouth. I'm the kind of person that doesn't need adventure, she told herself firmly.

"the Yorkshire pudding is the best it's ever been."
 

He raised his eyes to her and nodded, unaware that anything had just happened. Everyday life slipped back around her shoulders like a comforting blanket and she felt normal again.

~