soeurs du jour

yo, who da man?

 

this man, and his brother, moved away this week.  

all the way to montreal.

two hours away from bubbie.

i am a wreck.

we had a very nice near years eve planned.  cocktails at A.'s sister, dinner with old friends, stopping at a friend's bar on the way home.  couldn't do it.  i am exhausted from the twenty plus hours of driving, the babies moving and the holidays have left my blood pressure not so good.  i have to remind myself that i am not the healthiest and occasionally, just occasionally, i have to listen to my body. so we stayed home for new years eve. A. convinced me to forget about going out, called and cancelled everything, ran to the store just before closing and bought two gorgeous rib steaks, and here we sit.  steak, salad and wine.

just like every other canadian, 

watching the world junior hockey championship

canada vs usa

yo, who da man?

this was an amazing hockey game.  canada won.

final score was 7 - 4.

the announcer just said:

"ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed the greatest hockey game every played"

who says that in hockey country unless it's true?

there was not a fancy party, bar, restaurant, or home in this country 

without a television broadcasting this game.

and the best

this series is being played here in ottawa 

and there are happy snoopy dances happening all over town.

three of our kids have tickets to the semi final game

and will watch canada play!!!

just now, fireworks in the park near our house.  

gotta love a freezing cold country that 

embraces a winter sport.

happy new year everyone. 

margie xoxo

new years eve

take those tender tootsies, and dance your heart out!!

find some tango fire

happy new year

xoxo

margie and kath

Zoom zoom

I feel like I've been riding in a fast car.  Zooming along.

The holidays are speeding by but happily we're not done just yet.

BB and I are back on the road tonight to visit with my god daughter who lives over 4,000 miles away in Dawson City, Yukon but this week is less than 50 miles from my house visiting her grandparents along with her mom & dad, sisters & brother.  I haven't seen her in four years, she is eight.

Wednesday is BB's birthday and something else, I can't think what right now*.   Another road trip will take us to a Thai restaurant in Oakville to celebrate with his sister & brother-in-law. 

Thursday, I am not leaving the house.   I'll be coming around to visit all your blogs and read about your holidays.   I've missed you.

*Happy New Year!

xo

Kath

 

The first photo is a "happy accident", pop over to Robin's today, she has invited us all to share links of favourite photos that weren't exactly what we intended but turned out better than we could have imagined.  I took mine last Sunday in Toronto, we were in an intersection when I spotted this car, I framed the shot and then traffic moved and so did we, blurring the shot.

casino, no al

the day started out quietly, with coffee and knitting.

 

granny loves the casino, so nothing would do but we head out to the 

fabulous fallsview casino resort in niagara.

the ice along the falls, beautiful.

then at the casino everything went crazy, life spun out of control for the family.

but here we are soeurs du jour, blogging together, staying together, one for all and all for one, and that's the way it played out when.....the police were called.

you see, youngest son, al,  is four weeks shy of his 19th birthday. nonetheless he is a resourceful boy who has a slightly altered driver's license for, you know, university and escorting his 90 year old grandmother to the casino.

the fake ID didn't make it past the high tech security scanner, apparently this  ID never caused a problem in a bar, but a casino is a different story and the law is the law, the police were called.

six of us altogether, four of us dealing with the police because granny ran ahead with the granddaughter and was busy with the one armed bandits.  thank goodness, because during the debriefing at dinner she was adamant that she would have straightened the police out by playing the "90 year old" card claiming that the grandson was her attendant and she needed him for assistance.  yeah right, okay granny. they were gonna believe that!  you were the one who ran ahead.

trespass notices were issued to both the son and to the mother who was advised by the security guard that she should revisit her parenting skills, the granny was asked to leave with the criminals, photos were taken of the trespassers and in the middle of everything, well, we have recreated the scene for your viewing pleasure.

the police officer inadvertently crowded margie causing her to throw her weight on her stroke weakened leg, and she fell, taking the red velvet casino rope with her in a crash and clatter. (don't kath's floors look great?)

yup fell.  thank g*d the aforementioned underaged son leapt into action and caught her before her head hit the ground.  saving the day and his mommy.  

as we were leaving fallsview casino mall, the daughter scored a great deal on a new leather jacket because no matter what, we could still shop!  we weren't banned from the stores, just from the casino.  

we went out for dinner, drank some wine, came home and added a bunch more lights to the house, just to keep up with the neighbours.

happy holidays, margie and kath

xoxo

charley's christmas

xo margie

Love Christmas

We're having the best time and hope you are too!

xo

Kath & margie

all night long

A, just woke me up with a phone call.  he and his daughter left here at seven last evening and just arrived in london ontario at 5:30 a.m.  ten and half hours for a six hour drive. he is worried about our drive today.  we are heading off to kath's as soon as i can round up the bakery workers.

i heard louie leave around 2:00 a.m.  the bakery is an all night long operation.  the challenge is to get a double bake of bread, that means twice as much bread as usual, out the door, onto trucks and into stores, hotels and restaurants asap.

that means all hands on deck, al is just walking out the door now, at 5:30 a.m. to pick up his cousin yoni to go in and help slice bread.  

the girls, sarah and julz, and i will get the house in order and organize the cargo.  we will pack water and snacks, warm clothes in case we are stranded on the highway, pooh pooh, g*d forbid.

the gifts for kath, BB, granny and my kids are packed and ready to go.  ipods are charged and loaded.  the little dvd player is charged so someone can watch a movie.  blankets and pillows for the all night bakers to have a snooze on the way.  charley, i expect, will sleep on my knee.

we are looking at a long long day of driving, slow and easy.  

i'll call you when we arrive.

xo xo  margie

Guest Post by Granny

I had phoned Granny this morning to see how she was doing as we had planned that she would finish up the baking.   I left for work before she was awake.  She laughed and said "I don't have time to talk."   I knew she had something up her sleeve.  

I saw the note and said, "What's this?"  

She said, "Oh that's my blog for today."

It says:

Happy Holiday, Love Granny

Arrived 9:00 a.m., made coffee, had an egg & toast.

9:30 started cooking.

Bottle caps on tight, no handy pinchers.

10:15 - 30 butter tarts, hope they are up to standard.

Now for date squares.

Phone call from the Boss - 10:25

Date squares in the oven - tarts out

12:00 - 30 butter tarts - Date Squares - 48 shortbread

Dishes done.

 Now you know where we get it.

xo

Kath

happy channukah

and for the softies in the crowd, there is a new puppy..

A.'s sister kathy has a new pup named joey

happy holidays

xo margie

Happy Holidays

We're basically ready.  There's still a little fluffing and folding to be done.   There are presents to wrap and more almond bark to make.   Apparently I made the very special disappearing kind of almond bark because there is very little left.   And of course the driveway needs to be shovelled again, but that's it.  Anything that doesn't get done between now and then isn't going to make or break the holiday.   I've enjoyed getting ready and now I'm ready to have some fun and take in every moment.  Margie is busy getting ready for her long trek to my house on Tuesday.   Take some time today to sit a bit and relax like this little bird who perched on our Christmas tree yesterday before we brought it in.

Have a wonderful day.

xo 

Kath & margie.