Hi there
Christmas
is coming again, but that little bit of snow that fell last night has melted
already. Our bones tell us that we are
getting older. We don’t think either of
us creaks very loudly yet, but that may be to come. Still, we are so grateful for our wonderful
lives.
Carolle reached her 75th
birthday this year and John’s present was a dinner with friends and family at
our favorite restaurant--the BluDuby.
Everyone agreed the food was fantastic and the company was great. Carolle has awesome friends. Some came from Nova Scotia, others from Chatham,
Clinton and Goderich, and London, of course.
It was a wonderful afternoon.
Special
times with grandchildren this year.
We were in Houston in May visiting Jacob, Melinda, Lara and Elise. One day Elise took Gramps by the hand and put him on a time out chair. She came back and took Nana’s hand and put her on a time-out chair (one Lara had provided for her) and all 4 of us sat together in time out, looking at the front door. Luckily Jacob took a photo. We are still smiling about this one.
We were in Houston in May visiting Jacob, Melinda, Lara and Elise. One day Elise took Gramps by the hand and put him on a time out chair. She came back and took Nana’s hand and put her on a time-out chair (one Lara had provided for her) and all 4 of us sat together in time out, looking at the front door. Luckily Jacob took a photo. We are still smiling about this one.
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| Nana, Lara, Elise, and Gramps on Time-Out Chairs |
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| Elise and Lara wearing their Blue Jays shirts |
Lara has talents beyond belief. She is quite an artist and has always drawn pictures of things around her. This year she drew pictures of Gramps and Nana and they looked amazingly like us. She has also begun to write stories. My goodness, they have characters, style and plot. Also, she has written some lyrics for a song. She is only 7. Wow.
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| Phebe at Angelos with us. |
Phebe and Carolle were discussing Phebe’s favorite carrot cake one day and decided together that the addition of some coconut to the recipe would be great. Both of them love coconut. So the next preparation of the cake will include coconut and we will let you know how it goes. Phebe is enjoying playing her ukulele and continues composing her own songs.
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| Cordelia at Stratford |
Cordelia has moved into her own apartment and loves it. One week this summer, John invited Cordelia to Stratford to see 2 Shakespearian shows being filmed. Cordelia loves Shakespeare. But, as Cordelia is vegan and restaurant choices are not always good, John asked her to prepare picnics for the two of them. Cordelia made her own pasta for one salad meal and stuffed pastry for another. The meals looked terrific (on Facebook, of course, where John posts many photos of his meals) and John said they were indeed terrific.
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| Paytyn with Veronica, eating her birthday cake |
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| Veronica, Paytyn, and Jodie at Carolle's 75th |
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| Kayla, at Rachael's Birthday Lunch in June |
Watching Kayla with jobs is awesome. She is an admired employee who works her butt off on a job. When she came back from a few months in Regina last year, her previous London employers had a job waiting for her. They tried to encourage her to become a Manager with them. Then when she began planning to go back to Regina, she had a job lined up on the phone with a company who had never seen her. She was working within a couple of days of her arrival in Regina. We feasted all summer on the tomatoes from the 6 plants Kayla planted early in the year and left with us. We are still ripening the last little ones.
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| Matthew, Rachael, Jacob -- one of the rare times all three have been able to get together |
We are hoping/planning to have Christmas dinner at our place again this year and are looking forward to hosting everyone in the family who can make it. We hope you have a Merry Christmas celebration with your family and friends and wish you a Happy New Year in 2016.
with
love and hugs
from
carolle and John
