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