A Child's Christmas in Wales Blues: Sunday, December 23rd!

Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve, / I want to tie the two arms together, / And walk out of the bank carrying time in bags. -Robert Bly, poet (b. 23 Dec 1926) 

Hi Von Bongen! Thank you for the more than lovely card and heartfelt wishes. Trust you will enjoy the hols with friends and family. Would be great if you could pop by to say hello and have a toast. Let us know and we'll plan accordingly. Fondestos from Lady Dar and Chloë to you, Von Bingen, and we wish you and family a Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year! Cheers, Patrizzio!

  

Image: Wikimedia

Since we have completed most of preparations for Christmas I'm toying with the idea of another ride, although if it transpires, a much shorter outing than one on Friday. Beforehand, I want to wrap a few presents, hidden in various closets, while Lady Dar is still at Oasis and Chloë is still in Sendero. She is coming over, at some point, to make an eggnog cheesecake for dessert for Christmas Day dinner, (at her place), while we will contribute turkey and most of the vegetables! Both Etta and Duke are sleeping, Etta on her favourite chair in Rumpus Room, Duke on a cosy blanket at the foot of our bed. Fire is crackling away so I'm rather comfortable myself.

Happy Christmas Everyone! Best wishes for 2019 With love from Gayle and Derek. x x x Granny, Granddad, Tristan and Grand Dog Whizzy Hello Grand Dog Whizzy and Your Human Minders! What a lovely, lovely picture! Trust all goes well with you. I gather you will have been on your cruise by now. How was it? What are your plans for hols? As I think you know, Lady Dar is flying off to Mexico on New Year's Eve so I guess I'll have to console myself with Wyatt once I'm back from airport in Kelowna! Stay well, Gayle and Derek. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to one and all in Cornwall and Southampton. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

 Good news to share during this Holiday Season!...Merry Christmas!...Joyeux Noel!...Happy New Year!.. Bonne Heureuse Annee 2019 Murielle 🙏❤️

Colleen Teahan Waldron Happy holidays Patriccio please send my love to everyone and everything ♡ Patrick James Dunn Duke sends his Xmas greetings to Clover! Hello Cubanos! Thanks for the phone messagio, Big Al, before leaving on your trip. [Sorry I have not been in touch since then!] What a fabulous Christmas Card, Naughty Elf! Trust all goes well with you two. I gather you will have been back for some time now. How was your stay? Stay well, Marilyn and Big Molly! Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to one and all. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Christmas: Thanks for all the news! Your family is wonderful. We don't know if we are going to Assoyoos,, we cancelled Spirit Ridge. We have a condo by The Sage, but don't have the dates. It is there if we want it. Sande

Hi Rosita!Thanks for forwarding message from Arv/Sandee. At least a few sentences this time! Thanks, even more, of course, for the wonderful, wonderful batch of shortbread! What a delight even if Chloë ate first cookie! Yesterday morning Peter Lighthall, popped by to collect a UPS package we had picked up for him, [He and Lynne were on VI for a week or so.], at their depot on Martin. Brewed him some java and offered him a snort of Wyatt and he was certainly as impressed as we were. Had to kick him out before he wanted a second dram! Chloë arrived a few minutes after him as we had planned to make both borscht and perogies for our traditional, meatless Ukrainian dinner, (As you well know, Mom and Grandma used to do these and more.), after evening church service, Christmas Eve. Said goodbye to Peter and started in on various preparations. Quite pleased with how everything went. Chloë and I worked extremely well together in spite of Lady Dar's snarky comments, from the sidelines. She is treasurer at Oasis and has to work on a financial report so she was kranky to begin with and took her frustration, with Excel, out on us even though she stated it was our operation and she wanted no part of it! Royalty!!!

After we had finished and cleaned up kitchen and made ourselves presentable we went to our neighbour's Open House. Amanda is right next door so we didn't have to worry about drinking and driving. Fairly small gathering of people from where she works at Anderson Veterinary Clinic but it was quite interesting chatting with her friends and co-workers as we hadn't met any of her friends since moving here in 2015. At any rate, we were just about to leave as most of the others had already done so when there was a knock on the door and who should walk in but the former owners of 611 Burns Street!

Karen and Ron Gladys had become quite good friends with Amanda and Gary, (now her ex-husband), and Kayla, their daughter, often baked cookies with Karen. We had only seen Ron for a few minutes when we were looking at the house with our real estate agent and I met Karen, briefly, after we bought the place, as she dropped off a forwarding address for the Scottish Society. She was Treasurer at the time, I believe. Anyway, she is a nurse and she had a contract to work in the United Arab Emirates. They lived there for two years and moved back to Penticton a year or so ago. 

Since the party was winding down we invited them next door, if interested, to see kitchen, etc., so they, along with Amanda and Kayla, and a friend, Steve, [He is quite a character as he is a very accomplished rally car driver and navigator, racing on ice as well. Apparently his younger brother is a millionaire, crazy, fearless stunt man so adrenaline must run in the family!], came over and we continued to visit for an hour or so. They really liked the changes and it was terrific to be able to learn, in greater detail, what they had done to house in the seven or so years that they had lived here. After Amanda, Kayla and Steve said goodnight, we continued chatting and learned a great good deal more about the two of them and their "backstory", so to speak. This is a third marriage for both of them so lots to tell. 

They now live in a condo near the Penticton Golf Course and Ron often golfs with Peter. Karen is back at PGH, quite involved, from the nursing/OR perspective,  with the planning/organizing of the new tower. Quite a day, overall, so we fell into bed after we wished them goodnight.

We have completed most of preparations for Christmas but I had to cut up three butternut squash for Lady Dar once she was back from Oasis. Had planned to wrap a few presents, hidden in various closets, while Lady Dar was still at Oasis and Chloë wasn't around. She is coming over tomorrow, at some point, to make here cornbread dressing and an eggnog cheesecake for dessert for Christmas Day dinner, (at her place), while we will contribute turkey and most of the vegetables!  Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to one and all in Falcon and Winnipeg and Petawawa. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pics: Perogy/borscht production and Duke wrapping presents! Ron, Amanda and Karen; Lady Dar and Steve; Dinner at Sendero: three grandchildren; Flamin' and Lady Dar planning our trip to Europe next September; Saying goodnight to Sarge!

Hello Cubanos! Thanks for the phone messagio, Big Al, before leaving on your trip. [Sorry I have not been in touch since then!] What a fabulous Christmas Card, Naughty Elf! Trust all goes well with you two. I gather you will have been back for some time now. How was your stay? Busy last few days for us. Lady Dar was out running errands and I riding, this past Friday, when friend, Pamela, popped by, to leave such an unexpected and wonderful, wonderful gift! The BC SPCA called shortly after we were both home to say that the cat food we had ordered was in so I opened the front door to go to the MarriageMobile to collect the crunchies, as place wouldn't be open again until the 27th, and discovered Santa's Helper had been by. A lovely plant holder containing a bottle of Wyatt, a whiskey distilled by Legend, on Naramata Road. A simply delicious drop as we were to discover later. We were out for dinner that evening, up at Sendero where Flamin' and Sarge were visiting their son Corey and daughter-in-law, Rebecca. F/S were grand-parenting four children, two from Kamloops that they'd brought from there. They will spend Christmas in Kamloops so had come to Penticton to bring gifts and visit for a day or two before returning as their two other children and families live there.

At any rate it was a fairly early evening as F/S were quite tired having dealt with the Fearsome Four all day so we wished them a Happy Christmas and drove back home. Once there, lit the fire and cracked the Wyatt. Lady Dar was most impressed, as was I, so we had quite a romantic evening, snuggled on couch, lights out, gazing into embers and sipping Wyatt! Stay well, Marilyn and Big Molly! Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to one and all. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Friday, December 28^th will be our annual Homecoming Snowshoe.  If you have family home for the holidays or friends visiting, consider bringing them along for a snowshoe.  We will endeavor to keep it fairly mild.  Plans are to begin at the Snowflake parking lot.  If some want to make it a bit more challenging than others, there is terrain for them, too. We will: -meet at 0900 at Home Hardware north parking lot in Penticton (0840 at IGA in Summerland).

-carpool and drive to the Snowflake parking lot -enjoy a few hours of

snowshoeing and socializing. -decide on a location for debriefing and refreshment -head for the warmth of home.

You might want to bring along some of your leftover Christmas baking or some warm liquid to share around. I have a couple of old pairs of snowshoes if someone needs to borrow.  Just let me know. Please make sure you have winter clothes suitable for the weather.  It is important, especially if you bring a guest who is new to snowshoeing. I’d appreciate it very much if you could let me know if you are coming along, and how many. The next outing should bring us back to Thursdays….. January 6^th Happy New Year to all.  See you soon. Jim