It’s Monday again. Wonderfully not windy. I started my car to see if I could get all the ice off the windshield. Success! The ice was about 1 1/2 inches thick. It took over an hour for the ice to get soft enough to clear off. I can now safely drive again. I am not going out till next Tuesday, but at least it’s done. January is a cold month as is February so not expecting any more freezing rain. Yay! I have developed an allergy to something. My forehead is itchy and bumps are present. I cannot think what it is. I haven’t changed anything. I do have some hydrocortisone cream, so will try that. If not I will pick up some allergy meds.  I am down to doing two jobs over the next day or two. One vacuum then mop the floors. We are not doing anything for New Years. It’s only so I can start the new year with a clean house. As I get my finances, my cupboard stock and new meds in order a clean house will be a bonus. Someone walked off with my phone charger cord on Christmas Day. Thankfu...

 Well, today being -15C with a windchill of -27, it was a great day to clean up from Christmas. I had a long winters sleep (Unlike the nights before of no sleep), I had energy to burn. I took down all but one decoration. Dusted, cleaned everything up, put extra food in the freezer and then read. I do need to take everything out of the Christmas closet and reorganize. That will happen in the next couple of days. I dusted and did a general clean though. Tonight we are to hit windchills of -36C (-40 C and -40F are the same temperature) so you know it’s cold. It will warm up a bit in a few days, but then we will get more freezing rain . Can’t win for losing up here in the Wild prairie of Canada . I read one of Jan Karon, Mitford Series books. Actual the first book. I have read the series many times. They are good books. I will now change to the quilt books series I am also reading. I downloaded a bunch of free books that I will intersperse with the other two series. This is the first ...

 For another year. All our celebrations were yesterday. Today was cleanup day. I got the kitchen, bathroom and my bedroom cleaned. Most decorations are down and put away. Only have the tree to do and a couple of breakables. Managed to have a nap also. We had turkey, roast beef, ham, mashed potatoes, baby beans, pomegranate salad, buns, cheese and crackers, stuffing, chips and dip, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, Saskatoon pie and cookies. We had fifteen people here. Fun, noisy, games, teasing and good conversations. she Who Must Be Obeyed made Christmas jam for everyone. We will do it all again next year with a twist. Ours won’t be on Christmas Day. It will be on Boxing Day. There will be a whole lot more people as more cousins will attend. I think we might have to rent the golf course banquet room for the day. Which means, The Golfer will want me to cook it all, then bring it all there to be heated up. He will then insist that we clean the kitchen, the banquet room and the washroo...

 Merry Christmas! May your days be filled with family, fun, friends and good hospitality. Jean

 What’s a gal to do? In my case laundry. Also, cut my bangs. Can you tell I bored? So tired of the snow and wind already. Now they say another Alberta Clipper for Monday/ Tuesday. Then another one Christmas Day. Yikes!  Today they are going to give a good clean out to the parking lot. I hope they also make the sidewalks more available. They did yay. It would have been nice if they put some sand down.  Jean

 Wednesday to late Thursday, we had a blizzard. Pretty much the whole province was shut down, even into today. No school yesterday nor today.  This gives the kids 18 days off for Christmas Break. I got myself into a muddle by looking at new couches and chairs online. I found some I liked and decided to order them. Then, I talked to the Golfer. He does not want my present couches for his basement. That man is stubborn. I had already ordered them and just needed to go to the store today to finalize the deal. They were going to deliver the couch and recliner on Monday. Then I talked to She Who Must Be Obeyed. She was not any help. She herself was in a quandary over what she was sending to the dump. I got off the phone, thought about it. Decided other deals will come along at the right time, so I cancelled the order. Yay me, I am a few $$$ richer.  Now it’s time to get ready for Christmas. I shampooed the recliner love seat. It looks much better. I will put a quilt on the sea...

 We started out at +4C then went to +6C. It was beautiful till the wind picked up. Then it started to rain. We are now at 0C - 32F. The rain is now freezing rain and soon the sidewalks will be covered in ice as will the dog park. By Thursday morning we will be down to -30C with a windchill of -40C. -40C and -40F are where the temperatures meet. We get a good amount of snow out of this Alberta Clipper. Late on Thursday another clipper will start to come through raising the temperatures then lots of snow and temperatures falling on late Friday, with another clipper coming through on Saturday. We are told we are stuck in this pattern for at least till Christmas if not beyond. Oh joy!

 Well, some other people have invited themselves to my suite for Christmas. I think we are up to twenty people if not more. I guess lots of people are not going away and not getting together with anyone. I need to hear from daughter, she is going to invite a friend and his sons for Christmas. Good thing we planned for a large crowd. It will be fun. I will need to set up one if not two extra tables. Games we will need more of. It’s getting fun. I did the rest of the grocery shopping today… or so I thought. We will need some more items and snacks. Oh and more chairs. Today is cloudy but nice. -15C no windchill. Should have gone for a long walk. Oakley moseyed around the dog park for a long time sniffing and peeing and looking at everything. We will need to do one more walk will make it longer. Jean xxx

 My back was bothering me so I needed a (another) rest day. I will be so happy when it feels good.  I have to get busy this week and do a good housecleaning along with shampooing both couches.  I now have 15 or 17 people coming for dinner. We all seem to think of someone else who we need to come. I will set up another table  which should seat six and then the dining table will sit six. The kids can lounge on the couches to eat. Good thing we will have enough food. Lots of pre planning was done.  Mr. Oakley chose to lay by my side all day. Then when it was time to go out he just had to have a big play before. What a goof. He is such a sweet dog.  I moved the pencil tree to be in front of the window. Can’t up load the picture though. Jean xxx

 We have been real cold up here in the boonies. -28C windchill -40 C. Too cold for man nor beast. We will survive, we always do. There was a water main break on north Main in Winnipeg yesterday. What a mess. I feel thankful for the guys who had to fix it, but feeling bad for them working outside in this weather. They just now opened north main. It’s a gonna be mighty slippery.  Was to go out with daughter and granddaughter. Didn’t pan out. Granddaughter stayed at a friends last night and didn’t get in touch with us till late this morning. We were to go to a garden centre to see the trees and decor. Then out to a hockey game. Then out for dinner. Guess that tradition will wait till next year. It was too cold anyway. That’s about all the news today. Jean xxx

 -13C windchill -23C sunny. Wind to drop this afternoon.  Going to be a great walking day. In my rush to get Christmas ready, I realized I had over bought gifts. So what’s a gal to do? I now have four out of eight birthday gifts for next year. Yay. I decided to not make goodies for Christmas. Reasons are that the men and daughter are on strict diets due to health issues that go back a few generations on both sides of the family. They are working out lots, eating clean and sensible. The grands are all into sports so watching their intake of junk. Our Christmas dinner will be turkey, roast beef, ham (I want rid of it), lots of vegetables, salads and fruit. Easy peasy. Jean xxx

 I am disappointed to think that all the warm weather is now gone from our not too distant memories. We haven’t had only brief moments of sunshine. For the past few winters it’s been dreary, cloudy and dark with snow everyday. Not big dumps just 1-3 inches every day. It’s gonna be a long one. The moon was big a few nights ago. I even took a picture through my window. Blogger won’t let me download it. Rats! I went to the city today. Got four jugs of water then wanted to go south of the city to go to some garden centres. I needed a plant pot. I found the perfect one. It is one that more than likely is to be used for a succulent garden. I am using it for my snake plant. Oakley knocks it over at least once a week so something bigger and heavier was needed.  Yesterday would have been G and my 49th wedding anniversary. It’s coming on 15 years since he passed away. I still miss him and probably always will. We had a short dating time, if you want to call it that. We met July 1st and ...

The month from Hell. Pardon the language. On another blog I see a woman who is  having a bad December. It reminds me of ours. Dec. 4th we got married. We would have been married 49 years this year Dec. 6th Gs dad died - same year. He couldn’t come to our wedding. G was gone all week to his dads funeral Dec. 10th - same year my SIL died.  My brother was devastated. We made it through by the grace of God. He looked after us all.  We had Christmas together all of us. Fast forward to 1997 Dec. 17th My MIL passed away. That year was hard as well. God was faithful again.  December 2010: G and I took an overnight trip to Calgary for some business. We had a wonderful Christmas that year, not knowing it would be Gs last. January 10, 2011: G passed away. God was there though it was hard to see Him at the time. 2019  We had four deaths that year with my BIL passing away on the 13th. God again was good. Many people lose family close to Christmas. Just be very aware God is t...