Seasonal letdown

December 29/11.

Now that the Christmas crunch is over, I'm feelin' the letdown, bigtime.
Weird or what?

All the work, rushing around, adrenaline pumping, lack of sleep, fun,

laughs, excitement, visiting, prezzies, Henkell with cousin Kevio,

hot chocolate with sister Carrie, - and then, suddenly BAM! It's over.
Back to reality.

My daughter, Kate, commissioned her friend, Kathleen, to paint a watercolour portrait of her and boyfriend, Damian, as his Christmas gift. It turned out beautifully. Here, they are trying to recreate the pose! So cute.

My son, Max, got lots of cool t-shirts for Christmas, including this gear fab one, from my sister Carrie.

Lee got a new bathrobe from his Mum (my sister, Carrie). Very nice!

This was Auntie Ray's reaction to the robe.

Sam made a poignant toast to those we were missing this Christmas - Mum and Uncle Ev. It was still a fun day, but so sad without them.

The Hannukah bash at Mum and Dad B's condo was also SO much fun. We did something different, with this wild gift exchange. Too tough to explain!

My sister-in-law, Debbie, tried her best to outline the details of this exchange. I didn't understand a word, but in the end, it turned out to be very funny.

My adorable nephew, Adam, ended up with his fave - PEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My bro-in-law, Arlen, had the honour of lighting the first Hannukah candle. Well done Arlen!!

My beautiful niece, Robin, received a gift card, cleverly disguised (by my husband, Sam), in a glasses case! Sneaky.

As for me, (here with my amazing Dad-in-law, Ben), I received a perfect gift for me!

LIFE, The Year in Pictures, plus an Indigo gift card, which I used to buy my new wall calendar for 2012. (Which I'm hoping will be a banner year)!!!

All in all, Hannukah was a blast. Thanks, Deb, for all your work on pulling it together, and to my parents-in-law who hosted the event.

After a much needed day off on the 27th, (which was pretty much spent sleeping and cleaning up the mess of Christmas), I was ready to rock & roll on the 28th with my good pal, Pam Pickard.

She was working that day at her RBC job across from the Eaton Centre, so we met up,

At good old greenjeans for lunch! She had a glass of wine (since she was travelling home by TTC) and I had a Diet Coke (since I was driving). We had a fab gab, catching up on everything. She is an amazing woman and was pretty much on fire as a standup comic during this lunch hour. Wish I'd recorded the conversation so I could play it back again. SOOOOOOOOOOOO funny.

After lunch, she took me to see her office for the first time. Little did I know, she shares her cubicle with Gumby!

Pam has a pretty great view of Old City Hall from her office window!

Took a walk over to the Eaton Centre to get my new wall calendar plus some more vanilla scented body cream from The Body Shop (buy 2, get one free deal - LOVE it!) And we couldn't resist,

one more stop at La Senza for their fabulous 50 percent off sale! I mean, come ONNNNNNNNNNNN!

Nine pairs of sexy panties for 30 bucks??? Can't be beat! And the teddies? Out of this world! Did we buy anything? I'll just let you GUESS!

On the way home, did some more GPS practice, driving like a maniac on highways and biways, not getting lost once, due to the threats from Bossy GPS Broad. She STILL tried to steer me into a cement wall at one point, but I'm on to her tricks now and made it home in one piece,

only to find Max, using his new Christmas gift - some kind of drink hat, where you sip pop out of straws attached to a construction worker's cap. Why? I don't know. But made for a great pic. Never a dull moment, as usual. Maybe Christmas letdown isn't so bad. - Afterall - it's FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAYYYYYY!!!
BRING it ON!!!!

Contents sale over!

July 1/11.

Happy Canada Day!

Got to sleep around 4 a.m., back up at 6:30 a.m. (gak) to get ready for the second sale at Mum's. The last one was the estate sale. This one, contents. We're trying to clear out everything possible so the furniture bank won't have so much to take. (They charge a lot to haul it away).

What do you think of my "sale attire"? (it's been a helluva long time since I wore an apron!!) The dog belongs to a customer who left him outside.

We had a string of special guests at the sale! Carrie answered the door to THIS guy!

Introducing musician extraordinaire Mark Kersey! He's not only a fabulous pianist (playing the piano we're inheriting), but is also a Canadian yo-yo champion, a children's performer (who used to appear on Mr. Dressup as "Mark the repairman"), and worked with Carrie for years in Performers for Literacy. He plays gigs all over the city and is in high demand. Mark sat down, pounded out a couple of beyond phenomenal numbers and managed to knock the socks off the customers in the house. (Luckily for them, we had lots of socks for sale!)

I took Carrie's picture with Mark and his lovely wife, Bonita! (not only is this Canada Day, but it's also Bonita's birthday AND Mark & Bonita's 27-year anniversary! - Have a great day you two!)

Next special guest? My friend, Pam Deacon-Pickard. We met a few years back at Fern Resort in Orillia and became pals immediately. It was great to see her and catch up, (and we even ended up roping her into helping to wrap glassware and china for a couple of buyers!) Thanks Pam!

For her trouble, we told her to choose some books to take home. Among her picks - two Young & Restless anniversary books! (one for her, one for her Mother!)

(My Mum was a huge Y & R fan too and would love to know someone else will enjoy these special commemorative books). Too bad Victor Newman didn't drop by to autograph them!

Carrie's son, Lee, the hard-working garage sale king, was back in action with us again, lugging things here, there and everywhere, helping anyone who needed to get heavy items to their car.

Two MORE special guests! My sister-in-law, Debbie and her handsome son, Justin surprised us by dropping by! We told them to take what they like from the sale at the "family rate," (free!) - and Justin was also asked to cart some heavy boxes to my car. Team work!

Next? A visit from Tien, the gardener. She and her husband, John, have been taking care of Mum's lawn, and garden for years. They always did a wonderful job!

Carrie borrowed Tien's hat for this shot! - Thanks Tien and John for all your hard work. We'll miss you!

The above special guest is Hank. He is a chestnut tree! (Mum named him Hank after a guy she went to school with named Hank Chestnut!) Years ago, Mum's huge, beautiful front yard tree was hit by lightening and destroyed! The city had to cut it up into pieces and take it away. Later, they returned and planted a tiny chestnut tree to replace the big one. Mum fretted away over that little tree for years, because it never grew very much, but this year - (after Mum's passing), he suddenly decided to flourish! Now, he's taller than Carrie!

And our final special guests made their way out of a massive plastic bag of stuffed animals. These two puppets, (appropriately named "Giraffe" and "Panda") were part of Lee's old collection.

As a master of puppetry and voice work, (after so many years on Polka Dot Door), Carrie spent countless hours doing funny voices for Lee when he was a little boy. She's always been quite the entertaining Mum who has an amazing way of making little kids laugh with her crazy puppet antics! She wanted to say one more goodbye to these two little characters. Adios Amigos! Thanks for the memories!

Once the sale wrapped up, we put more stuff on the lawn for the taking. The rest has been boxed up for Goodwill and other charities. Will be back again on Saturday and Sunday to continue the never-ending process of cleaning out and closing down the house.

In the meantime, Carrie met the new owner of Mum's place! He stopped by the day before the sale to take some house measurements. His name is Dang!

I wasn't there when he arrived, but Carrie was, and took his picture for the blog! (he must have wondered what the heck was going on!)

Welcome to the neighbourhood Dang! Hope you'll be as happy in this lovely house as Mum was for nearly 30 years!

(So, wait, hang on, just a cotton-pickin' minute. Lemme get this straight Dang. - YOU'RE taking over the hidey hole????????? - Yikes! - Gak - Egad!)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! - It can't BEEEEEEEEEE! I will have no life!!!!!!!!

Father's Day!

June 19/11.

After all the frantic craziness of the estate sale, it was great to have a relaxing day with family. We drove north to Bobcaygeon where Sam's brother, Neil, and his wife, Carolyn, have a beautiful house on Pigeon Lake.

On the two hour drive to Bobcaygeon. Gorgeous day, stunning lake
It was a day to celebrate the Dads!

My Dad-in-law, Ben, brother-in-law, Neil and husband, Sam, having a fun Father's Day!
"Captain Neil" decided to show off his boating skills to Kate, me, Debbie and his daughter, Jenny.

Take off, eh?

Can't even remember the last time I was on a motor boat.

It was a blast going super-fast! (why did I bother doing my hair??) - As Regis Philbin would say, "It's outta CONTROL!!"

Kate enjoying the ride

Meanwhile, back on dry land, Max chillin' in the "sleepy swing" with some music

Mum & Dad waiting on the shore for us to get back

Ha ha! (that's my attempt to laugh in the face of breast cancer) - Bring out the bathing suit!

My bro-in-law, Neil, is not only a boater, but a master at the barbeque!

Jenny & Deb awaiting the barbeque lunch!

All ready now! Burgers, spicy sausages and chicken burgers with all the trimmings plus salads! Delish! First barbeque of the season!

My sister-in-law, Carolyn, always puts on such an incredible spread. We all enjoyed it!

Our attempt to recreate the "Sittin' on the dock of the bay" shot from LAST Father's Day. (pretty good ladies! - and Sam, who took the pic)

The only other visitors of the day - 11 Canada geese!

Before we knew it, the afternoon had flown by and it was time to say so long and head back to the city.

Here's my favourite tree on the lake. Such a beautiful spot. Thanks, Carolyn and Neil, for making it such a memorable Father's Day and giving us the gift of a relaxing family afternoon! Love you!