Our Family Web Log

We had an even busier than usual Christmas this year, largely due to my determination to connect with some extra relatives which had been out of the picture for a long time. (Ironically, I got hardly any pictures of these extras.) All told, we had a chunk 'o Christmas in seven different places over five or so days!

We started here at home on Christmas afternoon. We Quaker potlucked Christmas eve. We then headed to Ajax where we stayed over night. After Christmas morning breakfast and presents in Ajax, with Gramma (and a phone call to sing the Hippopotamus song to Auntie Anne), we headed out to Dundas to meet up with some odd Middleton's, we extremely rarely see (including one cousin I'd not yet ever met before, and a bathroom -- except for the seriously nostalgic drawing -- never seen before either), for Christmas dinner. We stayed over night in Hamilton and had a second Christmas morning there on Boxing day, with Grammie and Aunty Belle. In the afternoon we drove to Kitchener for a visit with Grampa. Coming back to Hamilton again to stay over night, the next day we congregated with Selena's family and family friends for a big Christmas brunch at the Suggitt's.

It was touch and go at times, but it all worked out quite nicely (I think). And it's continuing to work out nicely, now finally home again, just Selena and I. We left the kids, with their new toys, for a few days with Gramma. (And Grammie had them most of the week leading up to all this.)

So all is Merry until Happy New Year! (Here's all the xmas pics...)

Some (yawn) scenes from Istra's first Christmas Concert, for those interested. The first and last pictures are of Istra's teacher, if you're curious as to her appearance.

I was lucky to be able (with Anne and Sandro, no less) to get to the little gallery space where Noel, and other local artists, were opening a new exhibit. My pictures linked here are not very good quality, but some may be interested to see some of the people and scenes... there's also some more examples of some of the art work here.

A week or so ago I got a strange email from a friend whom I'd not heard from in many years. He was apparently tipping me off regarding the awesome bargains to be had at some chinese web site. I prompt wrote him back thanking him very much for the tip, and expressing my eagerness to accept any and all spam from the few old friends I have lingering out there somewhere. The fellow wrote me back and affirming that yes, this spam certainly has been more effective than even facebook at getting him in touch with everyone in his address book from many years ago. It turns out an old webmail account he used once upon a time was compromised and the spammer used it to send out messages to everyone in the address book. My friend reports about half of them responded in one way or another (if you follow).

Take that, facebook! You're not even as effective as random spammers, as much as you may try to encourage your own special brand of spam which had now addicted half of humanity.

Anyhow, that being said, this weekend we hooked up with someone Selena hadn't sen since high school, and has been in contact with via book-o-face. She and her husband and her daughter (around the same age as Istra, coincidentally) came down from Cambridge and met up with us at the Santa Claus Parade. After the parade (shoulder's aching), we grabbed some yummy food from Gazelle and took it up a block to a small leaf-strewn-park for a little leaf-strewn picnic.

Also, I took pictures of random people at the parade, for bonus points. More interesting (to me) than the floats, you see.

And, on the way home we went by a house right near Istra's school with two chickens running around in the fenced in front yard. Just like Selena's dream!

I've finally put some more pictures from our holiday travels last August online. I hesitated on this particular set, probably because there's so much to say about it. It is hopeless to find the time to even begin to explain the background or describe the scenes portrayed.

In a nutshell, my grandfather bought this land to retire on to many years ago. Some say he was trying to recapture something of his youth, growing up on a farm. He built the farm house seen here, after the original burned down. My granddad died over a dozen years ago. and I hadn't been up to the farm since probably a few years before that. Owned now by an uncle, it has sat mostly unused all these years. The front yard, which I remember as a grassy hill leading down to a creek, is now a forest. The farmhouse, up on the edge of a hill, is barely visible from any direction anymore, ensconced in trees. Yet it remains deep in its grove, a hidden treasure box of memory and curiosity.

Then there's another reclusive uncle building himself a log house way in the far back of the property, barely accessible by anything half resembling a road. But that's yet another long and curious story.