... and suddenly...

In the midst of Holiday preparations of making lists, wrapping gifts, putting up lights and mistle toe ~ one phone call from my brother brings it all to a screeching halt. His oldest child has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

... and suddenly... all we thought mattered starts to disintegrate without a second thought. Suddenly our existence becomes our family, and our family becomes why we exist. We pull together no matter what the price, not matter the distance. Positive thinking and prayers (thanks aunties) get us through the days, games and beverages :) get us through the long evenings.

It's been a long few days but yesterday was the longest. She had her operation yesterday and today she rests, healing.

Her little brother said to me yesterday:
Little R - "Do you know who makes the snow?"
Me - "Jack Frost?"
Little R - "No. God. Do you know who makes the rain?"
Me - "No?..."
Little R - "God. Do you know who makes the mud?"
Me (answering very proudly) - "God?"
Little R - "No. Jesus makes the mud. I like to play in the mud."

Little R makes me smile :)

Good night little girl. See you tomorrow...

Oh the festivities

I haven't blogged in so long, I almost forgot my password. Not to mention all of the other things I am trying to remember right now... I know we are all there. The knitters of the world frantically trying to finish projects that we promise ourselves, 'next year I'll start earlier'. Also, not to mention, the projects we are doing to distract ourselves from the reality of our knitting crisis, like:

Painting a bathroom - complete.
Making first ever batch of jelly - complete.
Making ginger bread cookie ornaments - complete.
Buying new decorations - in progress...

Thus begins the items of - in progress.

Since we last spoke:
Little C's Christmas concert. Was awesome and he sung his little heart out and was soo sincere when he sung Noel. Remember in music class when your teacher would tell you to annunciate every single syllable, so your mouth would open really wide and even the hearing impaired would be able to read your lips? Well, he obviously takes those instructions to heart. It made his night when he was chosen to hold a candle. His little smile through the mouthing of the words made our night :)

Mr. Harley experienced his first snowfall. He was so confused - "Do I eat it? Do I run in it? It's cold! I'm not peeing out here in this! What the heck is this stuff? This doesn't smell like bubbles. I don't like bubbles either." Ok, he really didn't say all that, but his eyes told all.

My honey helped me make my first batch of jelly. He cut up all the peppers and we ended up with a lovely Jalapeno Pepper cracker jelly. It's very nice actually. And if, just maybe, I get all my knitting done in the next few days HAAAAA HAAAA AHHHH AHH Haaaaa... We'll make a batch of Cranberry Apple jelly mmmmmmmm.

Here is the batch...

Made gingerbread cookie decorations. Highly NOT recommended. Make batter. Wait (refrigerate 2 hrs). Roll out. Wait (cook and cool). Make icing, and outline cookies. Wait (till outline dries aprox. 2 hrs). Fill in with some details. Wait (till dries). Fill in more details. Wait (till dries). So, the snowmen do not have faces - takes to darn long... Faceless snowmen - I think that's ok. They do taste yummy - the more we Wait, the less snowmen there seem to be... Here's a little peek.


And how could I possibly forget to mention the letter to little C from Santa (seen at right above cookies). He was so pleased when Santa motioned he knows C has been a good boy. Thanks Santa and many thanks to Canada Post (wink).

On the knitting front... oh, I can't manage to talk about it.... starting to get pains in chest... can't -go - on...

Dog News

I know it's a little difficult to read this article, but I can't link to the site as you need a subscription - but I thought it was so cute I had to scan it.

It's an article featuring a canine campaign for dog clothing by a Toronto company called Dogfather & Co. They are placing their billboards in high doggy traffic areas - dog parks, etc.

The top billboard in this article says, "Get one before that bitch down the block does."

The second one says, "Does this make my but look fat?"

Too cute!

Apparently the billboards have been stolen...