Winter Solstice 2024

 It is the Winter Solstice, the shortest daylight day of the year in northeast New Brunswick!

The sun will rise at 8:04am and set tonight at 4:34pm and that's when you know it's done with the shorter days. Each day starting tomorrow will gain our time back until the longest day of the year on June 21st, 2025. These six months go by so quickly now!

The good news is that since Bill installed UV lighting in the Chicken Chalet, we get three eggs daily!

As promised with your last visit I will tour you through the finished decorating of this Christmas. Enjoy your visit with me. xXx

I love this little fellow, thank you, Carrie & Mike!

The front of the Chicken Chalet is decorated and as I'm putting this post together from yesterday's photos we are on winter red alert with blowing snow all day long! What a difference a day makes!

The chickens are enjoying the daylight whilst it's here and the warmth of the sun.

The entrance to the woods has some evergreens & poinsettias on the bridge railings.

I made another garland to hang above the window on the outside of the Chicken Chalet and placed red bells in the center. I added a grapevine orb with a poinsettia in the center.

I just love the green garlands and will add those to my winter traditions of decorating!

The other gargoyle is festive & greets you driving in with his red Santa hat, the outer woods from the chicken's outdoor run have large bulbs on them too! Since we go to the chickens several times a day, the decorating has me sing Christmas songs as I approach them.

The front of the house has the wreaths that have been on our windows since the 90s and get refreshed with bulbs & ribbons each year when needed. The front door wreath is made from fresh evergreens, it has an oval shape to it, making it fit into the glass door insert, the oval was not intentional but a happy ending!

The geese are dressed for the festive season too! This spring they will both have a new coat of paint put on them. They too are from the '90s and have always been with us, one is from Ontario and the other lived in Florida for a few years, now both are together & in New Brunswick!

Another grapevine wreath I made this summer is on the front porch, I love the nature around me that I can make into decor!

The wee tree was up but I was feeling that something was still missing...the mice!!

So I brought in a miniature ladder & had some fun with them!

I made these mice so many years ago as Richardon Mice and added the tartan to them and found musical instruments for them in my world travels.

There is only one female mouse & she is grandly dressed in her satin tartan dress with a velvet bodice.

There are two other mice in velvet vests and two squirrels in crocheted accessory tartaned colours.

The squirrels were made years later from The Primitive Gatherings magazine, he is carefully helping with the mercury glass beads!

And the other squirrel is on the bottom of the ladder, they add a whimsical feel to the tree now!

Oh the sound of a saxophone playing, this gives him his own personality!

This Christmas-decorated area is next to the dining room table & I enjoy my time there for coffee, meals, & working, here is where I'm typing this post!

I took this photo yesterday & the day got by me...so it is 4 SLEEPS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

The green feather tree that I made last year sits on the vintage chicken egg crate.

After having the Tannenbaum quilted I didn't want to cut it down to place it in the frame, so I had Bill hang it over the frame for Christmas. It was a full 12 days getting this done!

I had a huge humbling experience at the end of this year.

Aunt Alice our writer in the family, she writes for the National Post newspaper each month with her perspective and experiences of life as a 90-year-old. And this December's article was called Women Of Courage and she wrote about three women in her life with courage I was one of those three women!

Aunt Alice came into my life when I married Bill as she's related to Namama, Bill's late grandma. We would begin writing back in forth, this was before emails & snail mail were used to communicate. 

I still have the letter she wrote me in the 80s telling me that her mother was the oldest living relative in our family & the birth of Mitchell made him the youngest living relative.

As you know reading my posts Mitchell & Nicole have Liam, the newest member of our family and now Aunt Alice is the oldest member of our family. Those two have been connected since his birth.

Aunt Alice has always been involved in our lives and I have admired her through the years as she would travel and then share her experiences in writing for numerous newspapers & magazines, always sending me a postcard! She has been a steady anchor to our family through the years sharing with us many holiday memories and get-togethers as well as a wonderful glamorous winter cruise with Mitchell & Nicholas when they were younger. So many wonderful memories & now to see me through her eyes is so humbling. I love Alice! xXx

But the humbling experience came when she wrote about me and how I reinvent myself, I call it evolving as I age and I'm now a senior also.

If you would like to read the article that Aunt Alice wrote, you can Google  National Post Senior Living Celebrating Women With Courage by Alice Lukcas.

Thank you Aunt Alice for this humbling wonderful article and yes, I am living the dream with the decisions I have made to make my life out east. It's a wonderful life!

Well, thank you for visiting and staying with me until the end of this visit.

I wish you the very best in the Christmas season and the very, very best in the New Year 2025!

Health & Happiness Always!

Merry Christmas!

Cynthia xXx

Christmas Is Coming!

 Christmas is coming so quick & soon it will be in the tail lights again. We're excited for our grandson Liam to have his first Christmas. With the postal strike still on with no end in sight, the parcels are piling up as the other postal services have much higher prices than the 'If it fits, it ships!' boxes filled with this year's Christmas gifts. I hope the strike ends soon.

Liam is on the date mat I made for him after his birth. He's just so sweet and such a happy baby. We love getting our weekly pictures of Liam.

The weather is crazy, we got our first snow then a couple of days later the temp went up & melted all the snow! Now it's cold & windy but sunny, the sun is wonderful to see but deceiving with the wind gusts. Brrr

I got busy with making fresh evergreen garland!

But first, I needed to bring the huge wreath back to life for the front of the Eel River Apartment. It was one of the finds from the November auction!

Rexton placed herself in the spare garland that I was using to add to the wreath, for more fullness. She is quite the little helper. lol

This will be her 10th Christmas with us and she turns into a kitten again when the decorations come out!

I had to say goodbye to the Crows in the Corn as Christmas migrated through the house.

 

And hung Christmas Stockings in its place to keep the area warm from the cold garden doors that lead to the summer sunporch. The draft stopper I made last year, at the bottom of the door,  is helpful with the winter drafts too. Donnie, my friend Jocelyne's husband made me a rocking horse this year! I just love it & will put a finish on him when I decide what's best for him, paint or wood stain?

Margaret Ann's Christmas cactus is in bloom! I was willed her plants when she died & her daughter said 'Mom wants them to stay alive & knows I will kill them, they are for you.' I think fondly of her and have had her plants for 25 years now. Wow, where does time go?

This is the monster plant that grew up the walls, it has its offspring all through the house now. It was a plant gifted to me by June, my friend Elizabeth's sister back in 2009. June wanted the flower pot, not the plant that came in it and I was making outdoor flower boxes but I didn't put it outdoors I kept it indoors.

Staying cozy inside!

When you see blankets on the floor you know to walk over them, not on them! Bridget has her tongue out whenever she is relaxed. She's in front of the firebox warming herself.

Or she's on the antique sofa by the firebox. lol

Rexton has taken to sitting on Bill whenever he sits down. Bill is still in a lot of pain in his shoulder the x-ray & MRI show it's in bad shape and is separated & torn in two places. He now waits for the surgeon to call with an operation date.

Sweet dreams Bridget Loree. xXx

Here is the wreath, Francis & Bill installed it high up for all to see. I'm so pleased with how it turned out, Bill spray-painted the old bulbs with metallic car paint to make them shine again. The snowman & reindeer are all stitched and ready to greet tenants and guests as they enter the apartment.

The evergreen garland is made up of two kinds of evergreen cedar & balsam, making the front foyer smell so heavenly in the process!

This was my first time making garland, I used jute rope & florist wire to hold everything together.

I wanted to make a garland for the whole fence but that would have been a week's worth of full days, the fence is huge!

Bill helped by bringing in the old aluminum table that was used in our racing days for car repairs & I used a chair & hallway to send the finished garland on its way down the hall. 

The fence pieces are 7ft high & 10ft long, and the garland looks so good on the fence!

Bill helped me hang it as it was so heavy and both entry sides of the fence were done!

It doesn't look like much garland but believe me there's a lot there!

The entrance to our laneway! 

I'm so happy I did this garland and I think it will be a tradition of mine each year forward!

Keeping with the outdoor decorating...

Bill decorated the Chicken Chalet with large outdoor bulbs, and I made a wreath for the gate, what fun!

With it being cold I used the stove more, and I made another roasting pan of cabbage rolls. I enjoy eating them with all the memories of my childhood flooding in.

Bridget in her Elf costume this year.

Baxter in the Elf costume this year & did his chest ever grow thick, I could hardly get the velcro to meet to close it! I'll be looking for a larger Christmas costume in the sales after Christmas!

This is such a cute outfit on them & they get so jealous of the other wearing it! lol

Bridget looks like a Teddy Bear in it!

Bill having a serious chat with them & their behaviour, Santa Paws is coming. lol

This Christmas is not the same as others as it's an alternate Christmas with the kids. No huge tree in the great room, just a small one in the bay window this year.

All the decorations on this tree are homemade by me or others & antique mercury glass beaded garland. See the St. Nicholas head? Bill cross-stitched that for me back in his tool-and-die days in the 80s. xXx I love the memories.

Bill ordered Paper Whites for me to watch them bloom for Christmas, I put these ones with my gifted Jim Shore Santas, so festive!

The other Paper Whites are on the other side of the Christmas tree, see the Christmas card that I received on Halloween Day? I thank the Pickett Family for sending it early as it is the only card this year! Merry Christmas!

The blooms have started!

Another view of the wee Christmas tree.

I have wanted to do this Tannebaum quilt of Edyta Sitar's for a few years & Elizabeth talked me into it with Laundry Basket Quilts doing it in 12 days! Wow, it was a full 12 days!

And here it is! I used the Christmas Stocking Quilt as my design wall each day. Rose, the village longarm quilter has it now & when it returns Bill will install it in the picture from the great room mezzanine. I'll post photos of more Christmas decorating for you when that happens.

The crow is in her Christmas dress & the flannel reindeer has joined her along with my Christmas doll from 1965, her mama squeaker no longer works but the red/white outfit gives a Christmas feel, and the pom-poms are plastic, not a doll for cuddling maybe that's why it's in good condition. lol

The old highchair is an auction item we bid on last summer, I love wooden items.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit, so sorry for not posting sooner but life does have a way of taking away time that has double wings these days.

Thank you and I wish you the very best this Christmas Season! 

Wishing you Health & Happiness.

Cynthia xXx