the last two weeks of december

(With photos, of course.)

Here’s what happened. First off, I was sorta bummed. I think I’m over that now. I feel much more positive, much less ‘and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on.’ And then…

December 19: My grandma–she of the swan dish–passed away. She was nearly 94 years old and lived independently in her home, without help, until earlier this year. Things went downhill from there, and well, she just got very frail very quickly. A fast decline is what she’d have wanted though; she never wanted to be in a nursing home (though she did spend a couple of months in one prior to her passing). Her services were planned for right after Christmas.

December 21: We hosted my book club’s holiday party. I believe there were 11 adults, plus 7 or 8 young kids in our little house. (Tip: if you have a laundry chute, show it to the kids. Hours of entertainment.) Instead of going all Betty Crocker like I did for our get-together last year, the main course was Papa John’s pizza, coupled with some quickly-stirred-together dip and a few easy desserts. Everyone was satisfied and I was much less stressed. Win! (I took NO pictures. Go me.)

December 23: We had our Christmas at home (us and the cats).

Notice our long-trunked tree?

This worked *really* well at keeping Rusty out of the branches. Between the bells and my leaving the bottom 2.5 feet of branches off the (fake) tree, he mostly left the tree alone, unlike last year. And it wasn’t even *quite* as ugly as I had thought it would be. Especially after my mom suggested I wrap a ribbon around it.

Rusty and Cleo received toys called Pawbreakers. They are compressed balls of catnip.

Rusty opened his with vigor!

December 24: We had Christmas with part of Mr. N’s family.

We ate stuffed pork chops and a ton of other amazing food, YUM.

December 25: We had Christmas with another part of Mr. N’s family, then left from their home and drove up to Winnipeg.

(There was no snow here on Christmas. Just brown.)

December 26: We woke up very early and caught a flight to Ottawa, Ontario. My dad drove several hours to pick us up, then we drove to my grandma’s home city in central NY. We changed our clothes and attended the wake, then stayed at a hotel to attend the mass and burial the following day.

December 27: We attended the mass and burial, then drove several hours back to my parents’ home.

They had snow there, at least!

December 28-30: We had Christmas with my parents and chilled out for a few days.

I sorted and put a bunch of my grandma’s old photos (from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s) in to an album for my mom.

My dad and I made a baked brie with caramelized onions, wrapped in puff pastry. HIGHLY recommend.

Our last day there was foggy in a really pretty way.

December 31: They drove us several hours back to Ottawa, we had dinner, and said goodbye. We fell asleep at about 9:30 PM because we had to get up at 4 for our flight.

January 1: We flew back to Winnipeg, landing at 8:15 AM, where we were greeted by 45 mph winds and blowing snow.

This was cool–our view as we drove in to the snow…

We arrived home before noon.

And THAT is how we spent our holidays. A lot of good mixed with some sadness, some travel and some home time, and finally, a bit of snow. How’d you spend yours?