Saturday 23 December 2006

Nicholas & Natasha

My beautiful son and his even more beautiful new wife had a Christmas Open House last night.

Last Christmas these guys got engaged. We thought maybe a little too quickly but unfortunately these things are beyond a parent's control. The wedding was going to be October 2006. Again, a little to quick for this Momma. Then came a phone call on Saturday, March 11th. The wedding was going to be in two weeks because they were getting transfered to Calgary! My world was spinning (AGAIN!). In hind sight it was all OK and right, but then...there were so many things that were not right. My Mom was in Florida. My sister and her family were in Florida as well. As you have read previously our family is very important. This was a monumental step in my baby's life that would not be celebrated the way I wanted it to be. This was just 8 months after my Dad had died, just 3 months after David's surgery. I'm afraid I really wasn't much help to these guys. But they pulled it off! A full blown, beautiful gowns & tuxes, flowers & food wedding. There were still lots of our awesome family there to celebrate with us. Unbelievable. It was very emotional knowing that they would be heading off to Calgary a few days later. Nicholas excited about being off on a new and prosperous career with Moore's and Natasha kicking and screaming all the way. I don't blame her. I would absolutely hate leaving my Hamilton. Vacations are wonderful but my roots are right here. I was really worried about the possibility of them settling down out there, having babies and never having the opportunity to be a grandparent to my grandkids like my parents so perfectly were to theirs. As fate would have it, Nicholas took an opportunity to work for Edward Jones and they ended up coming back home for good in August. They have a beautiful little house within walking distance of us. Instead of grand children I am the proud Gramma of a funny looking dashound/jack russell/welsh terrier with an enormous head. His name is Spencer. He is badly misbehaved but he is also the sweetest little thing.

Last night at the open house I was so proud of the beautifully decorated, cozy home that the kids have made for themselves. They are settling in for a long, fabulous life together.

Merry, merry first Christmas to my baby and his beautiful wife. xoxoxoxoxoxox

Friday 22 December 2006

Christmas Baking

I swear, I am actually sick of CHOCOLATE! I would have never believed that this could be.

For those of you who do not know me very well, I have to admit I'm kind of an 'all or nothing' sort of chick. You see, I have never been one to do the 'baking cookies' thing at Christmas. I have heard of it but I have never really taken part. This year I found some awesome sounding cookie recipes on the net. Oh ya, I am also very anal retentive and usually organize myself to the extreme. I think that was a trait I got from my Mom. She used to make a detailed list (times and everything) to do her housework. Funny thing, the list took so long to make there was no time to really do any housework. I'm just like her! So I entered all of the ingredients for each of the 12 kinds of cookies I was prepared to make. I sorted the ingredients so I had a beautiful shopping list. I figured I might as well buy all of the ingredients because if I happened to actually have any of these already in the house it surely wouldn't be in the mass quantities I needed.

Off I went with my shopping list. I hit the bulk food store first. I needed something like 100 squares of chocolate, pounds and pounds of nuts, assorted sugars, 43 caramels and on, and on...the first store cost me like $85.00. Holy Crap this was going to be expensive! I stopped at the dollar store because I was gonna need a lot of cookie tins to give this crap away! I got 3 Christmas tins, 6 Christmas plates and 3 Christmas bowls, another $10.00.

I was meeting Cindy and Aeron to go and see Happy Feet before my culinary skills could be put to use. They said they would come back to my house to help. That would be fun.

I stopped at Sobey's on the way home to pick up the peanut butter, butter, cream cheese and on and on...that bill came to another sixty bucks! These better be frickin good cookies. My other thought was...there's no turning back now!

Well Cindy and Aeron lasted a couple of hours. That was pretty good. But I still had mounds of ingredients to plow through.

You have to understand that we have a relatively small Town House. There were cookies EVERYWHERE!!

Then came Sunday, I just had to finish this project. Unfortunately I left the sugar cookies to the last batch. You see, these are the only cookies that actually had to be decorated. I had spent a total of 10 hours standing in the kitchen when these damn things came out of the oven. Do you think I cared that the snot coloured icing and the putrid pink/red icing was nicely slathered on these things. I just pushed the pretty little sparkles on so they would stick! UG!

David cried out from the Family Room. He hadn't eaten a proper meal in two days. There was no room for anything anywhere but cookies. I ended up making 544 of these things. Then I had to figure out who in there right mind would take these things off my hands. I packaged them up in their little tins, plates and bowls. They did look pretty. I figured it out and each cookie ended up costing .30 each! I could go to Walmart and buy 100 cookies for $5.99... BUT.. I would miss the experience.

Maybe I could just make a few less next year, but, probably not.

Thursday 21 December 2006

Families




I have to say that the past three years have probably been the worst three years I will ever have in my entire life, no matter how long I live. My Dad got sick in the fall of 2004. He was diagnosed with cancer of the esophogus in September. He passed away in July 2005. David was diagnosed with cancer of the kidney in November 2005. He had his kidney removed December 28th 2005. The deep terror I felt for this entire time is finally ebbing. I'm sure it will never quite go away. Every time we have a follow-up CT for David a little bit of that terror surfaces but nothing like that dark, dark miserable time. What I do remember, and what has become a strength is the love of our families. During 2005 all the "I love you's", all the thoughts and prayers, all the support, all the phone calls and emails.. it all felt like a warm blanket. That's the closest I can come to explain how very important it was to me.

I was speaking to a friend today who has recently lost his Grampa. We were talking about the fact that even though you are experiencing a great loss it seems to bring families closer.

I am very lucky to have a huge wonderful family and I love each and every one of them very, very much.

I'm not sure I have ever been able to thank my family enough for that warm blanket that was such comfort during that horrible time, but... that's what families are for!

Wednesday 20 December 2006

David

This is my bestest friend. We love, we live and we laugh. He believes in me. He thinks he's so tough but really isn't so much. We've gone through hell and back. I love him tons.

Why I am here...

My Mom started blogging a year or so ago. I was so impressed with her courage to share her moments in such a public forum. It didn't take long for her blogs to become a very important part of the beginning of my day. I felt with each blog she posted I knew her just a little bit better. What a wonderful medium. So, for my children, (and anyone else who may take precious time out of their day) I intend to share some of my life learned wisdom. Enjoy.