Still Christmas....

It is still Christmas for several more days yet, so I am not behind on my blogging. (Je blog, tu blog, nous bloggons, vous bloggez)  However, being as it is going to be 2010 in a few hours, I felt that I should get going and have Christmas 2010 completed. Yvan came home on the Monday before Christmas; we picked him up at Wyoming where the train makes a quick stop. As it was past supper, he wanted his mummy to make him "egg in a basket", two of them. Thursday was busy; we had a late lunch en famille, then Mike and Yvan went out.  I headed out about three o'clock to head to St. Matthew's Florence for my first service.  All three were lovely. A couple of the men from Florence always put on a small display of fireworks after the service and though it was still twilight by the time we all got out of the church, the fireworks were visible and effective.  All the kids, previously only in the state of "wired up",  immediately went into Warp Drive.
Next was Dresden and I finally get to take the "cute angels" from off of the altar, and put them over the nativity scene.  I have managed to keep them there for the last few years (only after Christmas, mind you1) And why are they ever on the altar you ask?  Because I am not the rector and have not chosen this hill to die on, thank you.  At Dresden, I pick up the peanut brittle made fresh that day from one parishioner and the cranberry pecan pie that will go to my sister's house for dinner the next day.
Finally, Aughrim-- up near Alvinston, in the middle of a cornfield and a lovely service by candle light.  By the third service I can no longer sing the preface for the Eucharist and am barely speaking, but that's ok, the music is very good and the representatives from Dulce Jubilo do a great job, as they also did in Florence.

I manage to get back home by ten o'clock, make a Camembert in puff pastry and get over to Sylvia's to meet Mike and Yvan as the folks from Christ Church, Petrolia slide in to finish the night with a party and Syl's homemade clam chowder.
This is this years version of "the tree".  As Mike and I were putting it up, we wondered to one another if this were to be the last Christmas in this house.  At any rate, when we put it down, we will be looking over the decorations and letting deciding which to put in the garage sale.  None of the ones that are on the tree, for certain, as we are at the stage that we no longer need to put on boxes of ornaments; we have collected enough singles that each bear a memory.  A ball labeled KIM, because no decorators seem to make one that reads YVAN.  An angel that my mother made for me and a Styrofoam, glitter and pipe cleaner 'inky pinky spider' that Yvan and I made when he was young.  My generously proportioned ballerina-angel is also a favourite, not to mention a pomegranate and an acorn hand blown ornaments from my parents tree--apparently some of the few things that one could get post war-time.   
We got up around nine on Christmas morning as we were all so tired from the previous evening.  We took a long time to open our presents and declared ourselves to be well satisfied with our gifts.  In the fall, when I asked Yvan what he looked forward to most at Christmas, he replied: "Christmas breakfast".  So once again, the pea-meal bacon was cooked on the barbecue, the eggs poached, the muffins toasted and the hollandaise sauce prepared.  Eggs Benedict for all...

We have always sat in the same chairs at Christmas; it seems that we do habits so well-- and this year's picture of Yvan opening his gifts is similar to last year's and the year before and the year.....ever since the year when we moved the tree upstairs.  Around the second millennium. Yvan loved his Swiss army brand back pack.  And me, my new camera.

Christmas Day, we went to my sister's house for dinner.  We had the usual great meal.  Sister Frieda flew back from her vacation in Cayo Coco, Cuba on Christmas Eve, and drove from Toronto on Christmas morning.
We did not have Christmas Card weather this year, but the roads were safe for traveling.  We also had our FEZ, Benjamin and his partner, Rhonda join us for Christmas dinner.