Our festivities actually started on the 21st as we celebrated the Winter Solstice with our friends Charles and Laura. We enjoyed a lovely meal at their place on the longest night of the year.
Then it was a short hop to Christmas eve. We stopped in to visit Frank and Laurie, and Cooper, of course. They had a pile of people arriving as we were leaving so it was going to be a party for sure. We were on our way to the VanGaals for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. We are so fortunate to be included each year. Numbers were slightly down this year but a wonderful time was had by all. Delicious food, good wine, and great company. While we didn't have a tree, they were more than happy to share theirs with a couple of homeless people! Doesn't really get any better than that (next week I'll post a photo of the gift that Brenda and I received).
We headed back to town later in the evening. When we got up in the morning, we collected everything we needed to cook a delicious Christmas dinner at another friends home. But first it was back to the VanGaals for brunch. They were the happy recipients of four lovely sized lobsters and called to see if we were interested in sharing them. Really, you had to ask??? So off we went to enjoy what we all decided might just be a new Christmas morning tradition. They weren't expecting any of the kids to arrive till afternoon so like us, they were alone. Needless to say, it was a splendid morning. I texted Patti and told her what we were having and she said that was "just mean!"
After brunch, we made our way over to Blooming Point. Our friends Jens and Linda and the two of us were planning to go out for dinner on Christmas day, but there was only one place that we could find that would be open and it was horribly expensive (and I've since heard from someone who was there, that the meal wasn't very good). So we picked up everything we needed and brought it with us to cook a nice dinner. It was such a treat to have a whole kitchen to ourselves and have someone to enjoy our efforts.
Boxing day was fairly quiet, although I did work at one of my stores, taking down Christmas cards and putting up Valentines - welcome to the world of retail! I had three stores to do and only three days to do it so I started early.
On the Saturday between Christmas and New Years, Brenda came into town and picked up Meg and I and we went to the market. After touring around there, we dropped of Meg and the two of us went out to Fort Augustus. We spent a very productive afternoon making turkey pot pies with her left over Christmas bird. I helped chop veggies and fill pies until we had quite a collection to go into the freezer. You know what they say, many hands make light work.
We had a deadline as we were going into town to a concert at the Guild. We picked up Amanda and then Meg when we got to town and took a tour around the Brighton aree to view the Christmas lights before heading to the show. Another great evening with good friends.
The next thing was New Years Eve. I had found some lamb shanks at the store over the holidays so I suggested to Brenda that I could bring them out and cook them at her place. She was okay with that. So we left early afternoon and arrived to put them in the oven and get everything ready for another nice supper. Lloyd had to work on New Years Eve so he left after supper. I stayed as there were a number of people invited over for nibbles later in the evening.
There were 11 of us altogether to usher in the new year. At one point, early in the evening, we were watching youtube and saw the fireworks display last year in London, England. (I called Patti and suggested to her that perhaps we should be there for new years eve next year - she agreed that this could possibly be arranged.) Another great evening with good friends. I stayed over and Lloyd came and picked me up in the morning.
Lloyd and I had planned to attend several levees in town on New Years Day but it started snowing in the morning and kept up pretty much all day. Several of those we planned to attend were cancelled. By late afternoon it had eased off and the plows were out clearing the streets. We checked online and found that the levee at the Old Dublin Pub was on from 5:00 to 8:00. Lloyd had to work that night but we could go for a little while. We arrived shortly after 5:00 and the place was already hopping. The kitchen wasn't open but the bar was and we were treated to a complimentary bowl of delicious seafood chowder. People just kept streaming in and we were glad we had arrived early enough to get a table. There was a live band playing cover tunes and they were really good. We would have absolutely stayed till 8:00 if Lloyd hadn't had to work.
As we walked back to our temporary accommodations, we were treated to some beautiful snowy scenes, which were sadly missing on Christmas. It figures, we had snow really early on that stayed around and then left just in time for Christmas. But it's back so now we can just settle in to enjoy the winter.
Lloyd has one week left to work before he retires and then he's off to Viet Nam. His last day to work is January 11th and then he's away on the 16th. He's getting pretty excited about it and already has his back pack ready to to. It should be an interesting time for him - and for me, all alone in the big city!
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