Boxing Day Snowflake Blues: Wednesday, December 26th!

I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a man who goes around with a little oil can and when he sees a breakdown, offers his help. To me, the man who does that is greater than any holy man in saffron-colored robes. The mechanic with the oilcan: that is my ideal in life. -Baba Amte, social worker and activist (26 Dec 1914-2008) 

Happy Boxing Day from Canada! Thank you for the lovely card. Especially appropriate as we awoke to our first snowfall of the Christmas season! Trust all goes well with you, Lady Di and Patrizzio II. Lady Dar is off to Mexico on New Year's Eve and will spend a week or so in LA in early March so she'll try to give you a call if you are around. Healthy New Year to you both. Cheers, Patrizzio!
 

Happy Boxing Day, Famiglia Anderson! Thank you for the lovely card. Especially appropriate as we awoke to our first snowfall of the Christmas season with both Etta and Duke gazing out the front window at the snowflakes! Trust all goes well. Healthy New Year to you both. Cheers, Patrizzio! 

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Patrick and Corinne.
Much love Tina and Trevor xxx Hi TNT! Trust you have enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and family over the holidays so far. I was up at 7:10 am this morning to feed our starving kittens, made even hungrier by the falling snow! Our first snowfall of the Christmas season with both Etta and Duke gazing out the front window at the snowflakes once they'd eaten! I gather Lady Dar and Chloë will hit a number of Boxing Day sales before we head to the cinema to see Vice with Christian Bale as Dick Cheney.

[Sockeye salmon has risen! Here it is in all its glory...Shannon suggested the area.] Fondestos from Lady Dar to you and both and we wish you a Healthy New Year, Tina and Trevor! Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Christmas Eve with Famiglia Sutherland, Corey, Rebecca, Avery and Ashlynn; Derek and Linda; Christmas morning and Christmas dinner; Boxing Day with Etta and snow!

Dear Patrick and Corinne: I had thought that being retired might mean that the Christmas season would be less frenetic than it has been in the past -- but not so. As usual, I went down a very deep Christmas baking rabbit-hole during the week or so leading up to Christmas Eve (see picture below, which represents only part of Janet's Christmas Kitchen production, 2018).

Thus, I did not quite get all my seasonal greeting messages out before Christmas Day, though as there are 12 Days of Christmas, this isn't really late, is it? (I have to admit that it's not the first time that I've been reassured by that thought!) In any event, thanks for your Christmas greetings, and below is a link to my Christmas blog (just one, rather lengthy posting). You'll see that my August visit to Penticton is mentioned, and there is even a quote from Patrick!  

While an announcer talks about who the next American Idol will be, a man on the street behind her eats from a garbage can. (Hollywood Blvd., May 2007)

Photo: Jeff

We spent Christmas Eve at Karen and Mario's in North Burnaby, the highlight being the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with my identical twin nieces, Rowan and Harlow (born August 25th) who I had only seen once previously, and that very briefly. They are thriving, having close to tripled their low birth weights. (They spent about two weeks in hospital after their birth, though their health was never badly compromised and they never needed help breathing, just feeding).

Trump (fabulist)

Photo: Peter O’Connor

Yesterday, I went to church with my mother in the morning (she was disappointed that her regular church was only having a no-music Christmas service, but we found another one that she has occasionally attended that did not have that deficiency). Despite my lapsed Anglican status, I enjoyed the quiet, contemplative atmosphere, sense of community and well-chosen music. In the evening, we went to Deep Cove for a family gathering at Greg's. Though it is a primarily vegetarian household, they always provide turkey! Hope you had a good Christmas too and hope to see you sooner rather than later in 2019 though it's always difficult to predict how and when our paths may intersect. Happy Hedgehugs! Janet Janet's Christmas Newsletter, 2018
 

Hi Hedgehugs Woman or Twelvetide Lady! Thank you for the newsy message. Sounds as if you were very busy with family. Glad you had a chance to spend more time with Rowan and Harlow and know they are both doing so well. Enjoyed your interesting newsletter and mention made of Pompeii Patrizzio! Continue to be most impressed with your baking! Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Janet, and we wish you and family a Healthy New Year! Cheers,

Patrizzio! Hello Clan Durston et al! Trust everyone enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and family over the holidays so far. Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to one and all and we wish everyone a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio! Dear Patrick and Corinne Thanks so much for the Xmas wishes - hope your Xmas was warm and happy. All the best to you and your family in the new year! luv Louise and Henry. Hello Sun City-ites! Thank you for the New Year's wishes. We did celebrate a wonderful Christmas. Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Louise, and Henryk, and we wish you both a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Merry Christmas Patrick and Corinne! I hope you had a wonderful day and now you can enjoy the next few days before the New Years celebrations begin!
Lots of love, Ariane, Douglas, Damian and Corben  Hello Kamloopians All! Thank you for the Christmas and New Year's wishes, as well, of course, for the wonderful pictures and cards, both in the mail and online, and your newsy Xmas letter. What a wonderful time you must have had in Kenya! I'm very impressed with what I assume is a water tank! On another matter, I will be driving Lady Dar to Kelowna on New Year's Eve as she is flying to Puerto Vallarta, staying north of there for two months and then a week or so in LA to see our new great-granddaughter, all going well to be born in late February! Perhaps we'll have a chance to see each other as I'm hoping to visit Sun Peaks when TNT are over. If Chloë can get away perhaps we can snowshoe while you folk zip down the slopes!  Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Ariane, Doug, Damian and Corben, and we wish you all a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!

I have so many sentimental memories of the love you extended to Jan and the difference you made in her life and mine.  I am glad to hear of your holiday celebration. I would love to be trekking to your Scotch cabinet as we carry the conversation into the late hours of the evening.

I had Christmas Eve eve in Medicine Hat watching my granddaughters take part in the family service and not really avoiding maudlin feelings of remembrance of my last Christmas with Jan. Now of course there are new friends, new people with whom to share the creeping effects of old age. I think the world of you guys. I love Corinne and Chloe for the beautiful and amazing women they are. Take good care off them Patrick. And Happy New Year to you all. Lots of love to all. Jim

Hello Dearest Zircon! Thank you for the heartfelt message and lovely comments, seemingly made in spite of advanced, creeping old age! You do need many treks to my malt cabinet my friend! Speaking of Memory Lane, a friend in the hiking group, Sandy, lived in Cochrane and had a close friend, Susan, visiting over the pre-Christmas season. We met her at another friend's Open House and I discovered this connection in chatting over the course of the evening. At any rate, Susan is hoping to move to the Okanagan, at some point, and is interested in house-sitting for us next September/October while we are in Europe, travelling with Flamin' and Sarge. This would give her an opportunity to scope things out and it would certainly be a tremendous help to us with feline care. Chloë would certainly look after Etta and Duke but she is so busy with work that she wouldn't be around much of the time. 

Anyway I told them we met you at the ice-cream parlour and they knew it immediately! Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Zircon, and we wish you and all your family a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Ragin' Bull with Sandy, left, and Susan, right; Lady Dar guarding malt cabinet on Christmas Eve; Etta "devouring" her catnip fish, Christmas morning; Chloë's dinner table, new shelves and tree; Part of her living room with new couch and our barley twist lamp which Lady Dar wanted rid of. Looks just great in this space. Stocking stuffer palm tree which can also plug into Chloë's computer so that she can dream of Mexico while her Mom is there! Ceramic tree is from Clara and Dusty!

Season's Greetings and many Thanks for the lovely cards throughout the year
You continue to be such thoughtful folks Wishing you both a New year filled with Peace,...Laughter ...good Health and Countless Blessings and to never find yourselves out of your favorite wine...😂😂🙏❤️ Elle Hi Santa Barbara! Thank you for the heartfelt wishes, (especially the one about wine!), and pleased you enjoy the cards. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you, Murielle, and we wish you and all your family a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Pat, Thanks for the newsy email! Must say I always enjoy your ‘word smithing’ – your stories are a real word painting – and regularly access your blog to see how your life progresses in the northern hemisphere. The Christmas period here has been much less hectic than previous years – much more enjoyable I have to say.

Christmas Eve saw us at our annual catch up with good friends Angie and Graham from Tina’s teaching days; it’s rather lovely that they consider us part of their extended family and always include us in their family celebrations. Sadly though this year has been a bit of a bummer for them with the sudden death of Graham’s dear old Dad and then with Graham himself having to undergo emergency open heart surgery for a valve replacement. All good now – but a real wakeup call as Graham like Sarge was a reasonably fit, healthy bloke.

Christmas Day was lunch at our house with Kirsty and Chris and my Mum – and K&C’s two black Labradors Tess and Holly. We had hoped to lunch outside but after cocktails under the rear pergola we decided it was too hot (35C and rising) and moved back inside into the air conditioning. As you can imagine, with Tina catering lunch was pretty special; I won’t go into details about the menu but as chief dish washer loader I can attest to perfectly clean plates arriving back in the kitchen – and no they hadn’t been licked clean by the dogs – as a matter of fact the dogs didn’t get a look in although I did notice Mum sneaking Tessa (nearly 15 years old so older than Mum in human years) a piece of ham fat!

Speaking of Mum (95 in February 2019) I’m not sure whether you knew that she is now in a nursing home (eerily the same one Dad was in and even more eerie his room – although it has been refurbished to the point where Mum didn’t recognise it as Dad’s room); she had a fall at home and fractured her shoulder so went from being a completely independent elderly lady living in her own home to a nursing home resident requiring - initially - high care. After many months she seemed to be getting some of her independence back ( and I was seriously beginning to second guess myself about being too quick to take her out of home) when she had another fall and fractured her wrist. She has steadily gone downhill since then; fortunately she is still pretty sharp and recognises everybody although her short term memory is deserting her reasonably quickly. I try to get in to see her 3-4 times a week and every time I go in she is concerned about my health! Once a mother always a mother!

Christmas Day afternoon we all (minus the dogs as Anne is a bit frightened by larger dogs) went over to the farm to see Don and Anne and their girls for an hour. They had had the whole extended family (20 or so bodies) for lunch so when we got there they were pretty much chilling out!

Christmas night saw us at Bree and Mark’s for more eating! We got there around 6:00pm and left about 10:00. A bit of a cool change had come in so we were able to sit outside for a drink and chat before moving inside to escape the mossies that arrived as soon as the sun went down! As I had a fair bit of driving to do over the day – I had decided to stick to soft drinks all day – felt a bit of a party pooper but it’s just not worth the risk.

On Boxing Day our good friends Pauline and Terry and Pete and Sue came to our house with their over lefts from Christmas Day. Tina started what now has become part of our Christmas tradition several years ago – I find it one of the most enjoyable parts of Christmas as we have all been friends for many, many years and thoroughly enjoy each other’s company. As a bonus Kirsty popped in unannounced – she hadn’t seen P&T, P&S for many years so spent several hours catching up!

I’m not sure whether you knew that Kirsty and Chris are back in Adelaide? They sold the MacDonald’s store in Swan Hill for some obscene amount, have bought a beautiful home right on the beach at West Beach and are living the life of Riley! As a matter of fact, Tina and I have just spent three weeks looking after the house and dogs while they have been in Sri Lanka – tough gig!

Well my friend that is about it from a very warm Adelaide (41C forecast for today). Please pass on our love to Corinne and Chloe (and Ayn and the boys when you see them). Ooroo for now Trevor PS: Tina is off to Peru on the 3^rd of January and I’m coming to Sun Peaks again on the 16^th – I did note that you will be by yourself for a few weeks so maybe when can arrange a catch up. Gregg and Franchesca are hoping to come to the ski hill at some time while I’m there as well.

[Christina Tassell 51 years and counting!] Hi Trevorino and Teens! Before I forget, Congratulations, [I saw the posting on Facebook but somehow didn't have time to comment!], on your 51st! Must say that you both look far, far younger than the walls behind you! Guess the expensive menu makes up for the ambience or was that taken in your latest remodeling job! Anyway, wonderful picture and wonderful, wonderful celebratory event. Hip Hip Hooray!!! Think I had mentioned we were off to see Vice yesterday. Christian Bale did a superb job of portraying Dick Cheney. Extremely, extremely interesting, filmically speaking, and the subject matter makes one's blood boil, at least mine. Analogous to what Trump is now doing to the environment, international relations, etc., although Cheney, as Vice-President, was almost invisible for this part of his political life and certainly far more terribly, cold-bloodily Machiavellian, easily manipulating a weak-willed Bush in his single-minded pursuit of absolute power. 
 
Have had a number of lovely messages from Ariane and mentioned to her that perhaps we'll have a chance to see each other as I'm hoping to visit Sun Peaks when you both are there. Will try to dovetail it with Grogg and Lurch should that be possible. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you Domestic Blissers, and we wish you and all your family a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Patrick, Thank you for newsy letter. The old room of the photograph was in the tasting area and has a very interesting history. If you look carefully at the walls the writing indicates numbers, as when the sheep were ready for shearing they were brought into that cottage and the shearer then wrote their tally on the walls which have been beautifully kept! The glass walled room in next photo is the restaurant proper. Just a quick question did the tree that Corinne and I planted survive? We are not looking forward to today as the temperature is due to rise to 45C 😡😡😡 Warmest Tina

Hi Sheep-Shearer Woman! Pleased to hear that you are sweltering way at the beach while we are huddled in front of the fire! Restaurant and food looked wonderful. Unfortunately tree you and Lady Dar planted didn't survive the heat of the summer after you put it in front garden, in spite of careful watering. In large part, because of this "casualty" Lady Dar has moved to more xeriscape friendly plants and shrubs which seem to be doing extremely well. Fondestos from her and Chloë to you, Teens, and Trevorino, and we wish you and family a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio! Pic Fireplace keeping us warm. Duke is stretched out on the shower mat on heated floor in our bathroom and Etta had burrowed deep inside Lady Dar's closet where she's made a cosy "nest"!

Hope you enjoy all days of the holidays. JT Hi JT! Thank you for the heartfelt wishes. Trust you enjoyed the hols with friends and family. Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Joanne, and we wish you and family a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!