I enjoyed spending most of the day relaxing and sorting lego. I was awakened at 8:35 with an appointment booking for tomorrow night at 10:15 for a CT on my ankle. I didn’t mind a bit as that was pretty quick.
I made red lobster biscuits and brought a shrimp ring for New Years seafood night at the kiids
All the Croziers and all the international students and the Knights and Guedes’s made for a big happy crowd.
I took time to watch Migration with Autumn and Sawyer
It was significantly different than Plur1bus that I have been enjoying all day.
I came home early as I was having an allergic reaction. Jeff was as well, burning eyes. We did watch the Times Square countdown though at 10 our time.
I slept a little decently and then headed to the office. Got a lot done today even with taking a lunch at Heid-out with Rosie. I had a chat with Heidi and called Will to come for an interview.
He was so nervous but did get hired to help in the kitchen on a very part time basis. I loved being there for all of that.
Rosie and I had a decent visit. There has been a lot going on out in Meadowbrook what with Jeanne having a bad bout with her COPD and Terry’s dementia and all the other things.
Back at the office, I finished payroll and sent out my invoices. I will take the next two days off.
I did download Age of Mythology and started the tutorial before I got cold and hungry
Back at home, I made some pasta and then watched. I like me, the John Candy documentary. It was well done and very touching. I am now nearly finished The Ballad of Wallis Island which is very odd and charming and a good watch
My maple suddenly let go of all its seed pods . Between that, and the Robin, I am beginning to wonder what season I am in.
I went to the office to work on the Rotary Newsletter until it was time to pick up mom and bring her to a follow up Dr appointment.
Dropped her off and back to the office. Completed the newsletter and got it sent off. Popped over to grab Mom’s prescription and groceries and dropped them off
Stopped and had a bowl of corn and ham chowder which was delicious.
How to k ow where your kid is without tracking them purposefully
I have spent the day in my jammies, blowing my nose, doing laundry, blowing my nose, washing my hands, blowing my nose, doing laundry, sorting Lego and blowing my nose. I hope I feel better tomorrow.
Before:
After:
Still barely half way!
Sawyer help me bring all of his Lego to my place so that I could sort it and send back to him to Toews for building cars and buildings and hopefully I will have found a bunch of sets and completed them as that will be the tricky part
I had an ok sleep last night in the cube bedroom that Gene built the mattress is extremely firm so I did wake up a few times with a need to roll over. Once I was up I enjoyed working on the puzzle with Rae-Anne and thenDeanne who showed up a bit later. Sawyer and I made a plan to go see the SpongeBob show at the movie theatre. We loaded up their totes of Lego pieces for me to sort through and try to build any projects that were in there and return all the General building and car building bits in an organized fashion.
The movie was actually decent and it was a double feature as it opened with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie about the use of AI. It was really good.
SpongeBob was good too, and it was funny to learn in the credits that the voice of the cartoon Flying Dutchman was Mark Hamill. I really did enjoy the movie. It was just funny because all the way along. I thought this is going to make a perfect video game.
When we parked by my place to drop off the Lego and let me take a quick shower there was a robin in the yard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one at this time of year in Cranbrook.
We weren’t back to the house and hung out for a while. Deanne and I finished the puzzle and started another one.
I tried to arrange a ride to the Bungay Bash, but neither Gene nor Ashlée, who are the only non drinkers in the house were interested so off I went. As I was warming up my car, Bejea messaged me to see if I would join her for one at the Fenwick and Baker. I did as it was nice to see her and have a Christmas hug and I was able to let go some of the emotion I was feeling about no one willing to give me a ride three minutes away. It was too far uphill for me to walk and would’ve taken a half an hour to get there and much longer back to my place.
Jess and Jean
I had a very lovely time visiting with my Musician friends. I took a phone call that had someone telling me how much they missed me being involved with summer sounds and the organization in general. There were much love many hugs and some good plans to get together in the future.
I paced myself and had a little food and got home safely.
After getting to bed well after midnight I woke up several times and the last time was when I heard Sawyer on the floor above me just after 5. I finally just got up and went and sat in the living room with my book and a coffee and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I found out when everyone merged there that Sawyer had been told he had to wait until 5 and then he could come into his Moms room and wait until 7 …. He set an alarm for 5, lol.
There was present opening and all the boys were thrilled. It was wonderful to see how generous and thoughtful that Lukas is. He got each of his brothers what they wanted most.
My favourite and most useful item from Rae-Anne is my new cross body cell phone holder. I wish I’d had it at Disney and even in Europe
Around 9 I made breakfast burritos and they were a big hit. It’s fun to come up with something new each year.
The rest of the day was spent visiting and puzzling. Deanne and I worked on one and then realized we would have to move it for dinner so I went home and grabbed my puzzle table. Moving what we’d done was challenging but later in the evening I worked on getting it restored to where we’d left off and then some.
After stopping at home, I picked up Mom and brought her for dinner. I had invited my acquaintance Bob as he was going to be alone and he was already there when I returned. He handled the crowd well and I appreciated that Bill Sat and visited with him when I was otherwise occupied. Dinner was amazing and I did the dishes after before Lukas came with me to take GG (mom) home. She has a great time and is much more her usual self. I forgot to take a picture of the cat figurine that I brought her from Greece.
It was a very Merry Christmas and I am more impressed with the individual personalities of each of these boys as they grow. The world is lucky to have them.
I was up way too early due to going to bed early. I packed and got ready before heading to the office. Once there, I worked on past years of tax returns for clients until it was time to be done for a few days. I did finish my advent puzzle before I left
I popped home and got all the food for Christmas breakfast and my belongings to stay for a few days.
I found out that Gene finished his 1001 level 2 firefighter certification so of course I had to give him his present right away. He loved it. It now sits on a shelf with a special bear from 2007 that his grandad gave his grandma, the deer that he got a couple years ago, his deceased Uncle Travis’s helmet and the Fluevogs I bought him.
Roger opened the gift from his Mom. She has severe dementia but was part of buying a guitar for him as this is the third one in his lifetime from her (& his Dad when alive). It was a touching moment
We all had an amazing ham and scalloped potato dinner and I brought dessert.
Then it was off to Bill and Deanne’s church service. I nearly had an anxiety attack due to my past experience there. I was disfellowshipped back in the day for leaving Bill and not long ago had a memory recalled of being sent to cultish training. This was not a safe space for me to be in and I vowed not to be there again. I was glad when I talked to Rae later that she didn’t want to either. There are so many better options.
I drove Bill and Deanne around to look at lights and chase Santa. It was fun and we even arrived back to fireworks.
We all hung out for the evening and are promised to be awakened early via trombone.
I ended the evening by having a really good talk with Bill about me not wanting to go to that church anymore and he was cool about it.
He shared this great shot of me and my grandsons from the other day. I love it
I didn’t get out to do any mummering today, but I did get a good deal of work done in a casual manner and then stopped at Fenwick and Baker for some food and had a nice visit with several people. I also invited Bob to come to our family dinner because I couldn’t bear that he was going to be alone completely.
My footsteps next to Daryl‘s made me laugh today 
Robbies costume was great especially the shoes
I’m still feeling the effects of a sore throat so I didn’t dare go visit Jeanne in the hospital. She has chosen to go home on meds and I worry because she has lung issues and when she gets a cold of any kind, it’s pretty serious. I love my cousin very much and I wish that I could’ve gone to see her today, but I’m not gonna bring any extra germs around her.
I have a bit of a sore throat today and my breathing has been heavier the last few days. I really hope I’m not getting sick. I was glad that my two Lego orders arrived today. The one that was Jenna’s Christmas present and one that was for Lukas for his birthday and another one for Christmas. After work, I stopped to give him his birthday one as he turned 16 last Saturday. It was a box of six packages of random Formula One cars, and he seemed to enjoy putting them together very much and the fact that they worked very well.
I sat and worked on a puzzle in the kitchen. I had a small visit before coming home. I’m just a little worn out, but I did take the time to put together my gift with purchase, which is a beautiful gingerbread train.
It is nice to have a bit of Christmas going on in my home
At 5:38 am I felt a little poke in my side and it was time to get up. After breakfast, Gwen couldn’t wait to do the days puzzle. She was pretty good at it for just turned 4. I had them get dressed and I did Emmy’s hair.
This was part of last nights entertainment
I had Emmy help me break down all my Lego boxes and we fit them in one big Lego bag. Gwen thought the parts bags were the best and finally helped us put them into bags for recycling
Danika called that there were police roadblocks outside the trailer park and they couldn’t get in to pick up the girls for church. apparently something ‘spicy’ was going on and they had the tracker dog out. I wandered outside but there was only silence. That was when I remembered that I thought I’d heard a gun shot. I am so used to hearing random fireworks going off around here that didn’t even click. I texted Tracey and she said yes she had heard something as well. Ran offered us to get out and go to her place for safety, but I felt that unless they came around to tell us to shelter in place it must have been targeted and we were not in danger.
Malcolm dropped Danika and Thea at church and then around 11 was finally able to get in and pick up the girls. I proceeded to get myself ready to get on with the day as I was going to be meeting them at 1:30 for Santa Photos.
I was on the phone with Randy who wanted to make plans to meet for coffee when there was a knock on the door. It was an RCMP member and I laughed and said oh I would’ve expected you a few hours ago. He asked if I had seen anything and did I have a security camera which of course reminded me that I do and I started playing clips from around 9 o’clock when he said the incident had occurred and my camera caught at 9:06 3 different gunshots. He was very happy to learn this and did a quick recorded interview with me and then sent me a link to upload the recordings. I asked him what had happened and he said that someone was very angry at another person and was shooting, but I don’t believe anyone was hurt. I’m going to guess it was a domestic.
I did meet Randy at Starbucks and we had a nice visit as much as he is an enamoured of me and seems like a nice man. I think we’re a little bit too different. He’s a morning person not much into technology has a very simple life, but would love to go on a road trip with me. I have to think about that. It seems a little bit hasty to make a decision, but I did agree to go out for dinner with him while he is in town.
From there, I met at the mall for Santa pictures although Thea wouldn’t join Emmy and Gwen with me I did manage to get a little picture with her in the end. I can’t wait for Danika to send me some of the pictures when she gets the USB set up at home.
I headed off to superstore and used the gift card that I was given by a client to buy the rest of the groceries that I needed for Christmas breakfast and some Lego sets for myself as well as some 50% off Christmas lights and an inflatable Christmas tree. It was all covered by the gift card and was a lovely treat. I dropped the groceries off at home and then met the rest of the family at Santa, who had a good chuckle that I was there for the second time that day. Following the pictures, I was invited to join them all for the Crozier/Guedes Christmas dinner. I went back to superstore and I had exactly enough left on the card to cover buying a big Caesar salad to bring. Dinner was wonderful and I had stopped at home to pick up the Baja Rosa and black Sambuca to create volcano shots to share and they were a big hit.
I’m heading to bed early for me as I have been up for a very long time and had a great deal of excitement today
I started the beautiful day by dropping off a card and two poinsettias to Mike at Fenwick & Baker. Next was a quick stop to see if Lukas was around for a birthday hug but he wasn’t. I did let him know that his present was arriving on Monday
Danika and Malcolm dropped off Miss Emelia and Miss Gwendolyn. This will be the first sleepover for Gwen at my place. Emmy loved the necklace I got her on the ship. I think Gwen didn’t love the feel of hers around her neck
We spent a great deal of time sorting everything in the Tickle Trunk. There’s a great amount of kinder toy parts and it was fun to build a bunch of them and bag them in ziplocks. Emmy was very taken with my old book and will be taking it home with her
I made cupcakes and Emmy gave Gwen a facial with a mask she brought
The flip phone was a very interesting relic to both of them
At one point Gwen asked where the squirrel coconut was. I shall forever think of acorns that way
After dinner was more spa time. Emmy had also brought eye treatments. I love that Gwen’s favourite toys here are the wee plastic toaster, coffee maker and food processor that Rae and Ash played with when they were little.
Gwen went to sleep easily with 4 repeats of Blackbird by the Beatles
Emmy and I cast my vacation pictures to the TV and checked out some fun times together. She also went to bed as soon as she was asked.
It was lovely to go out for lunch at Bryxx to say goodbye to Layla as today was her last at CFEK.
I dropped off lip balms at the hospital cast clinic and a Williams gin for Dave before tucking into a lot of payroll runs.
When the day was done I headed to F&B and hung out with Dave, Mark, Heather and Mike, Dean, and a new guy that was visiting, Randy.
Small weird world he lives in the same complex that my mom used to live in in Ocean Park
We hit it off very well and he asked for my number and asked if he could take me out for dinner as he’s here for another 10 days. I did say yes and tomorrow we are to make a plan. That was a lovely surprise.
He walked me over to the theater, where I was meeting others to see Johnny Reid’s Christmas show as he was on the way to the hockey game with the guys
Johnny was fantastic and I very much enjoyed the show
Today I had several interesting clients in my office
Today I enjoyed the Christmas carols at Rotary lunch
Today I contemplated a client referral from the firm I used to work for
Today I picked up Bejea and went to F&B for something to eat and had a nice visit with my friends there, many of whom are taking off in different directions for Christmas. So long Michelle!
Today my ankle aches and I am anxious about what is to come but grateful that I was able to get a phone consultation with my surgeon for the 30th
Today I’m still feeling the impact of spending so many hours at the hospital yesterday. It is not the best place for an empath.
Today started fairly normal until I tried to book Mom a doctors appointment and was told to take her to the emergency. I reached out to Rae to see if she was available. She discern that the urgent care was taking people in fairly quickly this morning so I went and picked up Mom at 10:30 and brought her to urgent care where after a full intake with bail sitting there to keep her company if I had to leave, we found out that I needed to take her to emergency.
I brought her up there and settled her in with Bill at her side and headed back to the office to try to get some work done. He had to leave by 12:30 so at quarter after 12 I headed up to the hospital to switch him out and end up staying with her until dropping her off at home just before five.
Her feet are very swollen up and she has a UTI as I suspected. I put her prescriptions in to Safeway before I dropped her off., and then headed to my massage appointment at 5:15.
I was very emotional because it is hard for an empath to spend a day in the emergency room. Ashley did an OK job of taking away some of the anxiety.
After my massage, I picked up mom’s prescriptions and drop them off to her at her apartment before heading to Verna’s to make lip balm. I wanted to take some to the people at the hospital who once again have helped out. It turned out to be an incredible group of ladies who I enjoy, and we had a good visit.
Trudy needed a ride home and I was happy to oblige and ended up having a nice scotch with Dave and Tom and a good visit before heading home.
All in all, my friends helped make today a better day than it started out
Started off my day with errands. Picked up pills and shop for Mom, and stopped to give Diana her 60th birthday gift
Daryl scared me with his shirt
I went to meet the daughter of a woman from Kimberley who was delivering a Lego botanical that I bought. She told me she would be in black Ford F150 at Rick’s Meats. When I arrived there were 4 vehicles of that type in the very small parking lot. After securing my package another one drove in!!!
After work I headed to meet up with the Core Heritage Consulting perps for a Christmas party. Brett had invited me to join them with an event Jill had planned. I had no idea there was an archery place in Cranbrook underneath the Chamber of Commerce. We had a lot of fun for an hour and a half and then headed to Encore for pizza and drinks and good visit. It was a fun night all around 
I can’t seem to get to sleep without purging the information I got today by email. The report from the radiologist came up to say that my fibula fracture has not healed properly. I am going to wait two days to hear from my surgeon and if I do not in that time, then I will call her.
Today was relatively mild, rainy, and extremely windy come evening.
It was a heavy payroll day, and I also took on a new client out of Trail. Bejea reached out late afternoon, and I picked her up to go hang out at the Heidout for a little bit.
Came home to watch a season of Loot  and built my Lego frame, which I put one of my Picasso museum postcard in for now.
I puttered I doors and then went out to do a swack of yard work. I only have along the fence line left. The raspberries and Hollyhocks and willow have all been pruned and bagged. I also found my Christmas flamingo lights.
I connected my Apple TV account to my new TV and began enjoying Season 2 of Palm Royale.
At 8:30 I went and parked at the office and walked over just in time for the CPKC Holiday to arrive. the evening was fun with performance by the Bare Naked Ladies. Jim Creeggan was unable to be there so Ed Robertson’s son played bass. He was good and they had everyone singing along.
I came home and finally used the vanilla foot masks that Rae gave me in Florida
I went to my office mid afternoon and built the Japanese Maple that Doug gave me. I put the Christmas songs on blast and had a lovely time.
From there I headed to the arena for 50/50 at the Bucks vs Bandits game. We lost but I had a good time
Lallah gave me some home made cranberry sauce which I look forward to sharing at Christmas
I have circled back to add that I am sad for my friend, Julie, She lost her Mom today and I am sure it is a mixed blessing as her Mom has been struggling for a while. it is sad to lose another ‘Mom’ that helped me get through my teens alive
triumphgal 