And so this is Christmas and what have you done?

I pick up on our many celebrations from where my Christmas letter left off.

This was the crew which helped D cater a Christmas banquet which he does each year in early December. Pictured here are family members as well as C, R and D. The former are long time friends who now reside for part of the year in Sicily, the latter, one of our core gang that travels to Isla with us each year. After guests are all served, we eat together. This years menu was turkey, rosemary garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, gluten-free wild rice and broccoli stuffing, sweet potatoes topped with apple butter and the biggest hit-Mexican street corn. As I am not partial to turkey, it is my one feed for the season.

The very next evening we hosted another dinner party for our small group. The good news here was that everyone brought a dish and I was able to serve leftovers potatoes from the evening before (I dislike wasting food).

Our next Christmas celebration was with our bestie couple friends. We shared plates and lovely wine selections at Passero just off the Commons (pictured here) at the Forks.

Poppa and I were invited to our first French kindergarten sing-a-long. I have to admit that I didn’t know all the words but I was a happy Glamma nonetheless, basking in the glow of this Wee One.

When Christmas weekend was almost upon us, it snowed and snowed and snowed. In fact, this may be the first day without snow unless it is predicted for later today. But this is one of the beautiful reasons why we love living in Winnipeg. Whereas Vancouver and Toronto had nary a flake, we are living in a scene from a snow globe!

The Friday before Christmas we celebrated Grandma Jean’s birthday with Chinese food at her place. Her birthday is actually December 24th but we always try to eek out some special time for her. She typically hosts Christmas day but this year could be talked into dinner at one of her daughter’s homes.

Having renovated their kitchen it was the perfect spot with room for everyone as we gathered around the peninsula for appies and later when we sat down for dinner.

The Wee Ones got to meet their new (second) cousin, being held here by our Boo.

The Frenchman and the irreverent Boo (see Santa message above) hosted us for gift opening and Christmas dinner.

We started with charcuterie on a beautiful board which the Frenchman made himself! Then we went on to an amazing tortiere to reflect his heritage. There was so much butter in the pastry that when we arrived, we thought they were making popcorn!

Our last family Christmas event was yesterday with my siblings and their families. There are so many of us that we assembled at Boo and J’s workplace that was closed for the day. It was perfect in that we had plenty of space with a kids area, dining space and everyone could see when it was time for our gift exchange.

The Wee Ones got to be with even more (second) cousins and were pleased to do so.

This is the youngest on my side of the family. Both D and I are so blessed to be parts of large multi-generational families. The little ones of course make Christmas so very precious.

Kath’s quote: “Another year over, and a new one just begun…” John Lennon

Love never fails.

 

 

 

 

 

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