Downtown - Part 2

Here are a few more pictures of things that caught my eye when I was wandering around downtown yesterday.

First time I ever saw a tile like this in the sidewalk at a crosswalk.

A familiar sight around Nathan Phillips Square.

 Santa's log cabin behind City Hall

I walked the Christmas Tree Maze beside Santa's cabin.

Interesting contrast between Church of the Holy Trinity (1847) and the Eaton Centre (1979). 

North end of Dundas Square at Yonge and Dundas - Toronto's wanna-be Times Square.

So glad I went, and so glad to go home to have a nap!

A Few Hours on My Own Downtown

Today I was really in the mood to get out of the house and go wandering around downtown a bit, since I haven't been down there for what seems like a long time. Gerard was already going to watch a movie with Mark, one I wasn't interested in seeing, so I decided to go down on the subway with him and then head out on my own to see what's happening down town these days. Here are some of the things that caught my eye ...

Christmas decorations in the Eaton Centre

 One of the six Christmas window displays
at The Bay at Yonge and Queen

Skating rink at Nathan Phillips Square

Also at Nathan Phillips Square, the Countdown to the Pan American Games

It felt so good and freeing to just wander around down there all by myself. Haven't done that for a long time. It's really not the nicest weather for it right now, but I was bundled up against the cold and enjoyed finding these interesting things.  I have some more pictures to show you tomorrow. 

Emmanuel, God is With Us!

It's December the 27th!  Our kitchen calendar was filled with Christmas events and visits, up until today, that is. The rest of December and into January is almost completely blank. In a few days the tree will come down, the decorations and lights, CD's and candles will be stored away until we need them again. It's all over,...or is it?  What was all that hype and stress and excitement and celebration all about?

We were celebrating the birth of Jesus - Emmanuel. And Emmanuel will always be with us. He cannot be packed away into storage until we decide that it's time to pull Him out again. A song called, "Emmanuel" by Michael Card, has been playing through my head constantly for the last few days.  I can't seem to shake it and so I feel compelled to share it here with you.  I'm not really sure how to insert the link, but if you click on the link under the picture below, you'll get an advertisement.  Just click on "skip the ad" and then you'll get the song.  I'm not sure what the following two lines are all about, so just ignore them.

Michael Card's song Emmanuel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlXM98lRwwI

Michael Card's song, Emmanuel

A sign shall be given a virgin will conceive
A human baby bearing undiminished deity
The glory of the nations a light for all to see
That hope for all who will embrace His warm reality

Emmanuel our God is with us
And if God is with us who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Emmanuel

For all those who live in the shadow of death
A glorious light has dawned
For all those who stumble in the darkness
Behold your light has come

Emmanuel our God is with us
And if God is with us who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Emmanuel

So what will be Your answer? Will You hear the call?
Of Him who did not spare His son but gave Him for us all
On earth there is no power there is no depth or height
That could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ

Emmanuel our God is with us
And if God is with us who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Emmanuel

May you be filled with a sense of His presence, His peace, and His joy. 

Christmas Day 2014

Wow, so much going on here this past week! Lots of church services and family gatherings, with times in between to prepare more food and rest up for the next event.  

On the afternoon of Christmas Day 18 of us from my side of the family gathered in the activity room of my dad and brother Jeff's building. Other members of our family gathered in Eastern Ontario, British Columbia, South Dakota, Arizona, and California. Imagine the crowd if we had all been together in one place! In Stratford we spent time together catching up with each other, sharing a potluck dinner and reading and singing the Christmas story.

Just catching up with each other

 five more were there, but are missing from this picture

For as long as I can remember (probably almost 60 years), our family has had the tradition of gathering near the Christmas tree after Christmas dinner. There my dad reads the story of the birth of Christ from a children's story Bible, At appropriate intervals he'll announce the name of a Christmas carol for us to sing together. We usually dim the ceiling lights and do this all by candlelight and the tree's lights, but lit candles are prohibited in this activity room, so this year we made do; singing "Silent Night" in the brightly neon lit room - oh, well...

 

Opa reading the Christmas story from a children's story Bible

I just love this tradition. Christmas doesn't really feel complete to me without this special time together.  Last year we had this experience with four generations of family members participating!

Christmas story and caroling time

Altogether it was a very special time of family togetherness.  Thank you, Lord!

We're All Ready!

There, we're all ready for our Sinter Klaas day!  Now we're just eagerly awaiting the arrival of our guests.  We've received two, "We're-on-our-way,-see-you-in-about-half-an-hour!" calls already. I'm just listening for slamming car doors announcing their arrivals. The veggie tray and the play dough with rollers and cookie cutters are all ready for them!

veggie tray I put together this morning.

I found and copied this idea, but can't remember from where.

Oh, hear the first group arriving.  Gotta run!

My Sinter Klaas Poem is Ready!

My poem is ready! Finally!  In celebration, I'm sharing this picture of our amaryllis almost in full bloom.  Four large flowers with two buds still opening. Amazing! just watching it grow every day has given me so much joy!  

Tomorrow our children and grandchildren are spending the day at our house.  We will be celebrating Sinter Klaas, a Dutch tradition that is lots of fun.  We have each pulled one name and for that person we buy a small gift or re-gift something.  And then the big deal is to write a poem to accompany the present.  It can be serious, or funny, or silly, or just plain dumb, as long as it is fun.  So, I just finally finished my poem!  So glad! I had given myself the deadline of bedtime tonight.  If the poem wasn't ready, I couldn't go to bed.  So, thankfully, I can now go to bed on time.

You've Got Mail!

It's fun to check for the mail these days.  Instead of the usual financial and other uninteresting mail, we are receiving a Christmas card with notes and sometimes letters in them almost every day!  Love it! It's fun catching up with friends and family. I've  started on our annual letter for the first time in a number of years.  It's coming along, s-l-o-w-l-y.

Christmas greeting cards and letters on our piano

Our small group's 5th Christmas dinner and Kris Kringle gift exchange

One of the nativity sets in our church

Piece by piece we are building up the cozy winter/Christmas atmosphere in our house.  The first things up were our advent star and candles and the lights on the house.  A welcome infusion of light on these short dark days of December. By now the Christmas tree is up and the Christmas CD's are playing, the nativity sets are out, and the top of the piano is filled with Christmas cards. Slowly I'm packing away some of the pictures and other things we have on display the rest of the year to give us some breathing space in the midst of all this extra Christmas clutter.  

We're not into all the commercialism and stress around Christmas. We try to keep things simple and low-key; to separate the gift-giving from the birth of Christ, we celebrate St. Nicholas with little gag gifts and silly poems. For us Christmas is a religious holiday. We've been reading Christmas devotions. The church services are focused on advent - in anticipation of the  celebration of the birth of Christ and how that impacts our daily lives. It's a special time of the year - light in the midst of darkness; a time of hope and joy and light!  

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Walking in a winter wonderland to and from the pool where there were not very many swimmers this morning.

I love the contrast between the geranium inside and the snow outside.

view from the living room window

Contrasts:

Christmas flowers and candles, snowplow and geraniums

Oh, Happy Day!

Today Henry, Oscar and Charlie came to visit us at our house, instead of us going to theirs. This way their house is nice and quiet, allowing Melanie to get some sleep, coming off the night shift. And we enjoy the activity in our house for awhile.  The boys enjoyed some of the new treasures that we bought at last week's rummage sale.

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Enjoying mini muffins and green smoothies at the picnic table

First time anyone has played with the doll and crib in a long time!

See the cat in the basket, sleeping with the baby doll?

We woke up to the amaryllis in full bloom this morning!

Two out of five buds open so far. 

Family Togetherness

After a number of days last week when my tears unpredictably kept surfacing for no apparent reason, I woke up this morning feeling emotionally focused and strong and looking forward to a happy Monday. I optimistically hopped out of bed at 6:30, prepared a blender full of green smoothie (actually it was red today from some beets), had breakfast, and went swimming. On the walk home from the pool I reflected on the past week or so and realized that a lot, some happy and some not-so-happy, has been happening.

It started with a farewell lunch for one of my fellow workers at Toronto City Mission. That event was like a family reunion. A bunch of us,who have since moved on, came back to celebrate Naomi's time at the mission.  It was wonderful seeing everyone again!  

And then we had the Aukema's over at our place for two weekends to visit with their daughter/sister Karen, who was here from China, for a conference in the Toronto area. Food preparation, meals and playing "Settlers of Catan" and "Ticket to Ride" games, and just hanging out, set the stage for sharing precious time together.   

                       

Our guests Karen and Robert

and John and Anna

Anna and I prepared a double batch of sweet and sour meatballs so they could have half for their family dinner together at our house and Gerard and I took the other half to our small group gathering. 

Then on Monday I got back to a number of projects I was working on; coordinating volunteers for serving coffee at church for the month of December, sending out e-mails regarding our small group and our Bible Reading Group.  Phone calls and e-mails were going back and forth. I was loving it! But then I started making mistakes in the schedules because I was working on too many things at once. E-mails had to be corrected and re-sent.  And I was in tears.  I used to be able to do this!  And now I can't multitask like this anymore. So disappointing!

I decided to take a break from the scheduling to check some blogs I follow.  And there it was in "Second Verse", a blog I've been following for a few years now - a guest post by her sister sharing with readers that Alicia has died. More tears. Alicia was a fellow blogger sharing her cancer journey. I had seen it coming, but it was still really emotional for me to lose a fellow traveler.  Some reassurance from Gerard and some talking with the Lord eventually helped put things back into perspective again. 

Anna helping with meal prep

And then there were also lots of happy things. We had an appointment with our oncologist and it was good news once again!  My blood test was fine. Everything else looks fine, so.."See you in three months." In the meantime he'll schedule my first MRI in one-and-a-half years! to check whether the cancer is still stable. 

We attended a benefit Christmas concert for NeighbourLink, met with our small group, and enjoyed a "child-friendly meal and Christmas church service. And on Thursday I was allowed to go swimming again- after a month's break because of my cataract surgery.  Yay! It feels so good to swim again! And it feels so good to participate in one social event after another like this.

John and Anna visiting for a second time.

By now Karen is back in China and it's just the two of us here at home. Even though I really enjoy the busyness, it's also good to slow down for a while again. I've started reading a really good book called, "One Child" by Torey Hayden.  I think I've shared with you most of the highlights of our week.  So now I'm off to read my book for awhile. Talk to you later...

Almost Open!

Planted on November 20th, this amaryllis plant has grown a lot in 16 days!  It's about to burst open into full bloom.  So exciting to follow it's growth every day!

amaryllis bud

Comfort Food

We've enjoyed four repeat Thanksgiving dinners by pulling frozen turkey and cranberry sauce left overs from the freezer, adding sweet potatoes and peas or broccoli. Comfort food tastes so good on cold days. It's that time of year. We've switched from eating mostly cold salads and wraps with raw vegetables to enjoying more substantial meals like casseroles and soups with home baked bread or muffins. Winter food! So comforting and satisfying!

Our last meal of Thanksgiving dinner left overs

It's Advent - The Lights are Up!

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, so that's when we flip the switch for the outside lights. We usually hang them on a warm day in November. I'm always up on the ladder and Gerard prepares the lights and holds the ladder for stability. However, this year, for the first time, I got dizzy when I tilted my head back to see the edge of the roof above me, on the peak above our living room. I very reluctantly came down the ladder because I didn't dare to stay up there.   

Robert to the Rescue!

Gerard tried to soothe my disappointment by suggesting we put the ladder and lights away for now and figure out a new way to decorate our house, But the lit up peak is my favourite part of the lights! It just won't be the same without them. Gerard had already put up our advent star and the lights along the straight eaves trough, and I was still trying to figure out a way to get the lights on the peak. 

And then there came nephew Robert, to the rescue!  John, Anna and Robert visited this weekend to spend time with (daughter/sister) Karen, who is here from China, staying at our house for a few days before and after a conference in the Toronto area. When Robert heard our story he agreed to help with the lights. Here's Robert, hanging the icicle lights on the peak. Thank you so much, Robert! 

See? It just wouldn't have looked the same without the peak lit up. We also have advent candles. There are five  lights on the candelabras in the windows. We add a candle every Sunday of advent (turn the light bulb) until the last one gets lit on Christmas Day.

The bright light over to the left is our advent star.  I copied this tradition from my Oma Geleynse, who hung a star in her living room window for advent every year.  Traditions and memories add to the richness of the season.  I love the lights! They light up the darkness of the short days in December.  Reminds me of Jesus saying, "I am the Light of the world."