Our Message Archive
December 2024
Monday December 23
A poinsettia our neighbour Barb gave us for looking after Luigi while she was in hospital
Last week Ann spent a lot of time making large batches of chili and potato kale soup. The former was taken to an alternative service at the church, eaten by us for dinner, given to the Fram's since Debbie has been ill recently, and taken to the Roadents' Christmas party about which there is more below. The potato kale soup was also eaten by us for dinner and taken to the church Souper Sunday fund-raiser for the Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
A week ago Saturday, I got up early to make a batch of rolls to accompany Ann's chili for the Roadents' pot-luck Christmas party. It was preceded by a walk in Laurie Park, which is the normal starting point for the Roadents rides. About 20 of us walked along the trails to the beach on Grand Lake where we stopped to pay tribute to our friend Gord Kyle. Gord was a close personal friend to many of us as well as being a former president of the Ramblers. We found out about a week before the party that he had scheduled a medically assisted death for that day to alleviate his suffering from cancer. Although it was a sad occasion, we were sure that he would have wanted us to enjoy the day. After the walk, we all went back to Dick's place in Fall River for the pot-luck lunch. Afterwards, Ann went with Erika and Manon to the Ramblers book club while I stayed behind and helped clean up.
There have been several other pre-Christmas social gatherings. A week ago Friday, Ann met Cindy and Vicki for lunch at Ela!, the Greek restaurant in Dartmouth Crossing, to celebrate their birthdays, last Tuesday I went to a gathering at our biking friends Bob and Mary's place while Ann was at a choir practice, and on Saturday we went to a winter solstice gathering of our neighbours at Carl and Roxanne's.
We have also continued to stay active, walking with the Roadents in Shubie Park on Wednesdays and skating twice a week at the RBC Centre, though, now that it is open, we will probably switch to the Emera Oval when the weather is good.
Our house after the storm
(not much power from the solar
panels ☹️)
We had our first major snowstorm of the season on Saturday: about 25 cms when all was said and done. Since then it has been cold and will continue that way for the rest of the week. That, and another 5–10 cms forecast for tomorrow, means that we will have the first white Christmas for quite a long time. Katy, Ben, Andrew and Alex set out this way from Renfrew on Saturday morning but they wisely stopped in Fredericton for the night. They arrived safely at Mona's (Ben's mum) yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday there was a special service at the church featuring a cantata called The Promise of Light by Joel Ramey. The choir, including Ann and Glen, have been practicing it for some time. I went to see it along with our neighbour Roxanne and several of our Rambler friends: Anne, Pamela, Tom, Mary, Manon and Dave. We were all suitably impressed. Afterwards several of us went for coffee and treats at Café Marco Polo.
This morning Ann and I went out to the airport to pick up Morgan and James but, when we got there, we found out that they actually wouldn't be arriving for another hour. We decamped to the Big Stop in Enfield where we had lunch and then returned to pick them up.
Monday December 9
Dave starting a new puzzle
We are now well into the lead up to Christmas and Ann has been incredibly busy. Along with her weekly stint at the food bank, our twice-weekly skates at the RBC Centre, our weekly walks in Shubie Park with the Roadents, and her book club meetings (which also require reading the books), she has baked goodies for the church bake sale, helped set up the church book sale, attended meetings of the church Truth and Reconciliation Committee, gone shopping and out to dinner at Usta with Alice, attended several Christmas concerts and made chili for a church function as well as for our neighbour Barb who arrived home from the hospital earlier this week. No doubt there are also some things that I have forgotten. With the exceptions of the skating and walking and the outings detailed below, I have stayed closer to home.
We have also been doing the requisite Christmas shopping and decorating. There is now a large wreath hanging from the railing of front deck, Ann has put up the Christmas lights, and a tree has been acquired, in the pouring rain, from the lot by the Superstore (the tree farm where we have got one for several years is closed this year) and has now been erected in the corner of our living room, though it is not yet decorated. We have also done some more general winter preparations having snow tires installed on the car and cleaning out the garage so that we can park the car in it when it snows.
I have been watching the World Chess Championship which has been going on over the past couple of weeks. It features the current champion, Ding Liren of China, and an 18-year-old challenger, Gukesh Dommaraju of India. After 12 games, it is all level at 6–6, each player having won two games with the rest drawn. Most of the games have been very exciting. Unfortunately, the match is taking place in Singapore so that the games start at 5 am my time, so I usually only see them after two or three hours of play.
Nova Scotia had a provincial election a week ago Tuesday, called by the incumbent Conservatives in contravention of their own act to fix election dates. Ann and David both worked at the polls which required a few hours of training as well as a 14 hour work day on the day of the election. The result was not to our liking with the Conservatives getting back in with a super-majority which means that they can change the rules of order to their advantage.
A week ago Tuesday we met Kim and Glen for dinner at the Quinn's Arms Pub in Halifax before going to see the Celtic Tenors at the Rebecca Cohn. That was the day we had the snow tires put on the car and they didn't finish by 5 pm as promised, so we were late arriving at the pub. Ann phoned Kim to let her know and she placed a food order for us. We finally arrived at the pub half and hour late and sat down just as our food was placed on the table in front of us.
Last Saturday, Ann and I went to Henry Offman's bar mitzvah. He is the son of Laura, who lived with us for a few months in France in the mid-nineties. We have not seen much of her since she and her family moved back to Halifax from Ontario a few years ago but Ann plays mahjong regularly with her mother, Marilyn. We were honoured to be invited.
This Thursday we met Ingrid, Mike, Kim and Glen at the Resolutes Club for dinner then went to see Frozen at Neptune. I enjoyed the show more than I expected, not being a big fan of musicals. It was well attended with the average age of the audience being much lower than normal.
We are still getting vegetables out of the garden. This evening Ann made a fresh kale salad for dinner and this afternoon I harvested the remainder of our carrots and parsnips before they get irrevocably frozen in the ground. It was already quite difficult to get them out with the top three inches or so of the ground frozen. There is still a bit of broccoli to be harvested as well as some Brussels sprouts.