End of another Year and a Wedding Anniversary

My computer was at my son's for updating (he has high-speed) and needed some housekeeping and maintenance as it was slowing down--with dial-up internet , the last thing I need is a slow computer, so that's why I'm late with Christmas posting.

We had a lovely, busy Christmas, and I can't believe I forgot to take pictures!!! All but one family of kids came home on Christmas Eve, I went to church for "Midnight Mass" at 5 pm (since the priest has to drive 35 miles, we have the service early). Then picked up Daughter #1 and Granddaughter #1 from the Greyhound, which was 30 min. late because the driver forgot his travel mug at the donut shop and went back to get it.

On Christmas Day, I got up at about 6 am to put on the turkey. There were sleeping bodies everywhere, on every couch and spare bed--they had played board games till 2 am. The last family arrived at noon, I forgot to put on the potatoes to boil (which I had peeled at 7 am after the turkey was in the oven), but it was OK because I make a big roaster of stuffing outside the turkey, and a huge pan of sour cabbage rolls, and a huge pan of Nalysnyky (A Ukrainian dish of tiny crepes filled with cottage cheese, all bubbly in a sauce made with sweet cream fried in butter and lots of dill and onions) Everyone enjoyed the dinner.

One of the main topics of conversation was, of course, the wedding.

I had asked the kids if they thought I could make the wedding cake to save them some money, so I made sample frostings for Christmas. I baked devil's food cakes, filled them with cherry jam laced with cherry brandy, sprinkled some brandy on the cakes, then frosted one with chocolate ganache (which didn't glaze as smoothly as I would have liked--will have to practice to get the temperature just right for pouring), and which tasted very good, and the other with fondant icing, which went on beautifully, but didn't taste as good.

Then we divvied up the baking and made up their care packages of samples of about 20 different kinds of Christmas baking favorites. We visited and ate and ate and ate, then we nibbled some more.

Half the kids went home in the evening, the other half stayed over till the next day. On Saturday I got the church ready for Mass on Sunday. Then I took the girls who had come on the Greyhound back home to the city. Got home at about 8 pm. Relax, relax, knit on a lovely shawl for my cousin's wife, in Germany, who sent me another 3 balls of beautiful sock yarn for Christmas. I'm also swatching for my daughter's wedding shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia.

So my knitting priorities for early 2010 have already developed: 2 wedding shawls, one for Aug. and one for Sept., a gift shawl, a baby shawl for a baby due end of Feb., and a baby gift for a baby due any time now. And the kids would really like new sweaters for next Christmas, and now the granddaughters are asking for hand-knit socks for Christmas.

Tomorrow I need to start on the basement kitchen--the suspended ceiling, as the cabinets are ready and waiting to be installed. Need SIL the plumber to do some plumbing before the cabinets come in, and the electrician to run the line for the hood fan. After the Christmas decorations are packed away, I plan on painting the Kitchen, living room and hallway ceiling (all one surface with no breaks), but I need to smell the ceiling paint (which has to be oil-based)
to see if I might have to wait till summer for that part. Then it's back to painting walls and deciding on floor coverings for the other parts of the house: hardwood or carpet, did the pros and cons and it's pretty equal.

Tomorrow it's our 44th Wedding Anniversary. I wish I could have got better definition on the old picture, but it doesn't really matter, since you'll likely believe me if I say we look a little more weathered than in that picture

There was a blizzard that day, but we still drove around town beeping the horn. Our wedding dinner was at my parents' house, with only immediate family, since I didn't have the heart to burden my parents with the cost of a wedding, and I was supporting myself through university, and DH was saving for a house, so we couldn't afford one either. No regrets about that. My dress cost an atrocious $50, and the flowers about the same. I made the pillbox hat with a little veil, and bought satin shoes for $10.

Our wedding night was spent at my in-laws', who had the courtesy of giving us an hour before they came home from visiting with my parents. Our apartment had already been leased, but the previous tenants didn't have their stuff moved out because of the weather.

Until next time: Happy New Year: Good health, prosperity, love , and all that other good stuff.

On a positive note: The days are getting longer!!

Curiosity, Pain, Patience and Joy

I would like to share a real Christmas story with you. I know the next few days will be hectic, so I might not have time to post. Almost 20 years ago I wrote short, mostly humorous articles for our local country newspaper. This was the story I published that Christmas:

1953 seems like so long ago, yet just like yesterday. We were a young immigrant family escaping post-war Europe, where the reconstruction was slow to take place. The immigration posters had painted a pretty picture of the vast new land called Canada: "Land for Everyone--Streets Paved With Gold!"--such were the promises.

Guided by the beacon of a bright new future, we went off across the sea: my parents and we two little girls. We left behind our ancestry, our relatives, and poverty.




 


Dad settled us on a small homestead near Cold Lake. Our first home was a granary with no insulation, one small window, a plywood door and a mattress on the floor. A full quarter of the room was taken by our steamer trunk which held clothes, linens and mementos of our homeland. I remember vividly the paradox of the barrel stove burning red-hot while ice formed on the bare wooden floor.

Having arrived in late fall, we had little time and fewer resources to prepare for winter. There was no way we could have envisioned the severity of the northern Canadian winter that was to come.We had had wonderful European customs of home baking and decorations which were newly home-made each year: walnuts painted gold and silver and candy wrapped in tissue paper. Now we had no oven and no utensils (only one cooking pot). But we had oh-so-much pride! I do not ever remember feeling that we were hard up. We spent that winter in the granary while Papa picked up casual work and learned the language.

Never did I think that the Christkindl (Christmas Child) would overlook our house on Christmas Eve. Stepping retrospectively into my parents' shoes, I can almost experience what they went through knowing that there would be no gifts that year. As if by a miracle, the local hotel needed a chambermaid for a few days. My mother, Mama, left us to go to work for the very first time in my life. I remember that terrible feeling to this very day, as I waved good-bye to her, knowing that we children were home alone.
Not long before Christmas--the weather had been very severe--my sister and I had cabin fever. We decided we would play dress-up and hide-and-peek in the trunk. Upon opening the mysterious trunk, we found--OH JOY!--a pair of wonderful, soft, teddy bears. We began to play, and Mama walked in.

She blanched as if she had been struck. Mama was generally a very gentle person, but she grabbed the bears away roughly and stuffed them into the trunk. We expected a spanking, or a scolding, but instead, we watched our brave, strong mother collapse onto the mattress in uncontrollable sobs.

The bears were our one and only Christmas surprise. There wouldn't even be a tree.

Mama collected herself and never mentioned the incident. It wasn't until years later, that I realized that, in our innocent curiosity we had deprived ourselves of two great pleasures: our own surprise and our parents' parental bliss as Mama and Papa vicariously participated in our joy.
To this day I have never again shown any curiosity about presents. I don't squeeze, poke, rattle or sniff. I'm perfectly content to wait for the fullness of the special occasion.

PS: About that long ago Christmas: the bears had new hand-knit toques, scarves and sweaters on that Eve--Mama's eyes did sparkle!


Mama, the culprits, the bears and a new Baby Brother born in 1954, after we moved to Edmonton.


In the first picture above, of us in front of the granary, the little toddler is the son of a neighbor.

Until Next time: A very Merry Christmas, the Peace of the Lord, and a Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year from our house to yours.

I AM A WOMAN OF MY WORD

In my last post I promised an early catch-up of everything, complete with lots of pictures. Well, I am a woman of my word--only later. When I returned from Vegreville I realized how much I still had to do before Christmas. Knitting is definitely on the back burner, except for the last pair of Christmas socks. I don't allow myself to check the blogs in the morning, and by evening I'm too tired to upload pictures. By the middle of the week I should have the kitchen/dining room finished except for the baseboards and crown mouldings. I am now doing one recipe of Christmas treats each evening, or I'll never get done--and my kids would just die (or at least be terribly disappointed) if they didn't get their annual CARE package. Yesterday I did a double recipe of shortbread and tonight I did the gingerbread men.
But I do have a couple of pictures to hopefully help all my loyal readers be patient with me--tidbits, you might say:
The End of an Era
Just before I went to teen-age-sit my granddaughters, I brought Mom home to bake Christmas cookies "Vanillekipferl", a traditional Austrian Christmas delight. It was so difficult. It took three of us to help her get into the truck--she forgot how to hold on and climb up. Suffice it to say, with all kinds of assistance, and coaching she barely made it. When we arrived home, she climbed 6 out of 7 stairs and on the 7th, she forgot how to step up, and became quite obstinate "I don't want to". Well, we coaxed her up. The cookie-baking was fine--actually, it was wonderful. Then when we had to return to the Nursing Home, she wouldn't go down the stairs--she was afraid . DH put an arm around her, and I put an arm around her other side, each step was an ordeal. Climbing up into the truck was even worse than the first time, since she was agitated and tired by this time. So, this is her last trip home. The Nursing Home has cancelled the Family Christmas Party due to the H1N1 threat, so we have to visit her individually, since large groups visiting are also vetoed for the same reason. This picture is a good memory and a sad one, too.















I finished my nephew's kilt hose. Those skinny legs are not my nephew's. They're mine. Too bad the picture isn't more detailed--blame the model or the photographer. Now if the camera were orange, and had a loader on it, Kubota Man would be able to take great shots.














Till next time: If you can't see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.

Panic!!!

Today is my last day at my daughter's--so I'm just doing a bit of housekeeping--got to leave the place as good (at least) as I found it. Now I'm thinking about what I need to do when I get home tomorrow.

IT'S DEC.3 tomorrow. 3 weeks till Christmas! No baking done!!! I need to finish the painting and tiling and grouting in the kitchen (heh, heh, I spelled grouting "grounting"--a hybrid between grouting and grunting--maybe that new word is more on the mark). The new cupboards for the downstairs kitchen are arriving in the next 2 or 3 weeks--I haven't done the suspended ceiling yet. AAAgh.

Did I say, no baking done?

Relax, Sigrun. Take a deep breath. Go to bed early, set the alarm and start early each day. Call the cabinet representative, and tell them you wouldn't mind at all if the cabinets were installed after Christmas. The stove and fridge are already there and functional.

Tomorrow I will leave here, and go for groceries--they have the best, well-priced supermarket here in Vegreville--great produce. Rush home to the farm--hug Kubota Man ♥♥♥, admire my tiles, unpack the perishables--rush to Lamont, visit Mom in the Nursing Home ♥ by 12:30 or 1:00. Teach Religion to my First Grade Catechism class at 2:30. Pick up a pizza. Go home, hug Kubota Man some more♥♥♥, admire the tiles some more, put away the rest of the groceries, and relax while planning the next day. It will all come together. I have faith. I will ask for help (which is very hard for me to do.)

I had a hard moment, really missing KM, while I was waiting for my granddaughter to get off work at 10 pm. Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams of You" came on the radio. Boo, hoo. And by the time we got home it was too late to call him.

Talk to you soon, from home, with some pictures. ☺☺☺(these little guys are happy faces: hold ALT while hitting #1 on the number pad. Voilà: a happy face.) For the ♥'s, hold down ALT and hit #3 on the number pad. For this little character ☻, it's ALT and #2.