I barbecued the turkey and it was the best we've ever cooked ... I highly recommend this method of cooking the turkey ... man-o-man is it tasty and moist. (and easy to do) The gals cooked up lots of veggies and we had a great meal. Great wine. great conversation ... Christmas in my own home finally ....
One of the best Christmas's ever.
The early pictures in this series are from decorating the house. Vida and I got started on Saturday evening and with Laura arriving the next day we finished up some time Monday and the house looks fantastic. I set up the creche as well which has a LOT of special meaning for me. And there are a couple creche pictures below.
There is a great series of pics in this blog related to the gals opening their present from me. They are all huge Rick Mercer fans and I pulled some strings at the CBC and got him to sign his new book for each of the gals and he personalized each with their name. In addition his publicist sent me up some SWAG to go with it so I had some T-shirts, coffee mugs etc. It is amazing how a little item like a book and some T shirts can be such a big hit. I took some pictures of them with their 'Rick Mercer' grin and doing the 'Rick Mercer' clap ... hilarious .... they were screamingly thrilled.
Also, since I got the country home last May, Vida has been bugging me to buy a PONY since I have close to four acres of land and the barn has one of those half and half doors for horses to stick their heads out ... the trouble is that there is no way to keep an animal at this place especially since I'm only here part time for now and indeed quite some time ... well I was at a charity auction this fall and out-bid a lady for a toy horse rocking chair at silent auction and put it under the tree after everyone went to bed. Quite a surprise for Vida on Christmas morning when she discovered she had a pony under the tree ..... it went over incredibly well. Now Vida lives in Vancouver so the Pony will stay at the country home .... so we now own a pony!!!!
Enjoy and a note to ALL other family and close friends who visit this blog ... send me a CD with your Christmas pictures .... it would be great to see how others in the family spent their Christmas ... and I might also post a few of the better pics.
Merry Christmas to all ...
Dennis
The Christmas tree decorated with lots of presents under the tree. It is nice to have a cathedral ceiling where a taller tree will fit comfortably. The one issue is that from most of the room you can't see the angel at the top of the tree since the beams are in the way.
presents, presents and more presents .... Santa was very good to everybody this year.
Many years ago I used to have our office Christmas party at our house in Richmond Hill and I used a young gal we knew to decorate the house. She made three of these angels for one of these parties and they sat in the basement for years and years ... I rescued them and put them up this year and they worked well in this house.
The windows are two feet deep so we can set up little displays like this in the alcoves ... a nice touch.
Laura and I also decorated downstairs in the Stonehouse ... cedar up and down the staircase and around each window. Laura weaved a red cord through the cedar to add a little colour and I put up twinkle lights.
Downstairs of the Stonehouse ... finally cleaned out with no more clutter ... keeping it like this will be the challenge
The other two angels ended up on the dining room wall ... a nice touch.
My Creche ... the picture below is better
The dining room in the Stonehouse ... had to set up two tables for Christmas day dinner so we ended up moving this one to the living room later in the day.
The Library decorated ..... we added some black Ikea tables so we even have a coffee table ... oh and Lamps ... This room actually sits 9 or 10 comfortably and I can honestly say it is the nicest room I've ever had in our four houses over the years ... comfortable, airy, warm, fairly big but not too big and wide open with the cathedral ceiling ... the fireplace is propane and adds a nice touch as well.
Vida riding her Pony ...
Gangnam Style !!!!!!! She's got the arm wave down but doesn't quite have the hip moves just yet ...
If you pull the pony's ear it makes horse sounds ...
Laura texting her friend ....
Stinky Cheese for breakfast on Christmas Day
Note Ross's pea-meal bacon in the centre of the table ... thanks again Ross.
Christine
Julia
Laura with Rocky
Laura's friend Justin came out to visit as well and of course brought Rocky with him ... that's NOT Rocky with him it is Lucy. Rocky is with Laura.
Simon playing silly bugger
Nadia ... I have a hard time getting good pictures of Nadia but this Christmas was an exception ... maybe because she is getting married on the 5'th??? Love is in the air .....
Simon
I really surprised them by putting all the Rick Mercer books and the SWAG in this box ... they had no idea what they were getting before opening the box ... a complete surprise.
Christine, Vida and Laura playing "Rick Mercer" after getting their book and the SWAG ... note the hats.
Tetukas ... not too bad for a 90 year old.
We set up two table in the living room of the Stonehouse and ate in there ... quite nice.
Jamie's mum ... Marlie
Jamie
Jamie's dad ... Ken
The five gals with their Rick Mercer books ....
For the NON-Canadians who look at this blog ... Rick Mercer has this stupid face that he puts on all the time on his TV show ... Nadia and Laura have it down near perferctly
The famous Rick Mercer clap !!! Are we having fun yet????
The Robert's family ... Ken, Marlie and Jamie
The soon to be Robert's family with Nadia
