All Packed up!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Sonia and Annette and Kaleigh and Maddie after a sort of surprise arrival time at least! It was hugs all around and something like "Liar Liar Pants on Fire! " from Sonia regarding our arrival time ! We all had good laughs and looked each other over for signs of aging and new wrinkles..ha-ha!
After a rousing game of stocking stuffers, we opened the rest of our presents and then sat down to a most delicious organic home grown turkey dinner complete with stuffing and gravy and fresh cranberry sauce as well as the prerequisite turnip and brussels! ( Corn for Maddie and Kaleigh)!
The last few days have been delerious with Annette packing many many boxes and with us helping where we could.
Oh my, now the moving truck has arrived and it is at least nine miles long! Holy mackeral! !!!
Annette is pretty excited to get this last part done today. I think she is exhausted more than anything, but as well, she is ready to move on to Halifax for a new life with her fiance Shawn. By the way, the engagement ring is awesome in real life...a beautiful cushion cut solitaire as in the photos from my last post... but more beautiful up close!
She had a nice send off from her current job with warm wishes from all of the staff at all the branches that she worked with while in Victoria. To top it off, she received a lovely call from Atlantic Credit Union to say how they were looking forward to her arrival at work on the 4th of January!
That made her feel so good... me too.

It all seems like a bit of a dream, but I think the reality will really hit when the cleared out basement suite is revealed after the movers are done!
(Seems like the movers forgot to bring the wardrobe boxes, but something will be done to alliviate the problem. )
Ok , looks like the driver found two wardrobe boxes so now they can begin to pack them up and start hauling!
Kaleigh is off to see Sherlock Holmes and Maddie is at a sleep over. The night before we had four girls sleeping over night here!
Last night we watched Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia. She made an excellent Julia Child! Emil dozed off...that is how excited he is about a show centered around cooking!

Now I`ll have to watch this other foodie movie called `Big Night`. It is supposed to have a nice Italian Soundtrack that will make you think of food each time you listen to it!
ok...better see whats up, down in the basement.

I may not be back blogging until vacation is over. Also, I`d appreciate less than average emails, jokes etc while I am away. Thank-you and sorry about Santa Claus being the header for another few weeks!
Happy New Year to Everyone!
"The Creator"

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"The Creator"

Wine and cheese tasting Xmas Party

It was only part of the neighbourhood, but a good laughing bunch of them.. ... no dull moments and lots of joking around. Deb and Ashley did a fine job of hosting this wine and cheese tasting event. Deb did home made crackers and a cheese ball filled with basil and herbs and topped with pine nuts and a sweeter sauce with balsamic maybe... very yummy.

Everyone brought cheese or cheese appies right from Martha Stewart by the looks of some of it. I am not that gourmet ...but maybe some day when I retire!
In the meantime the bay here is loaded with awesome cooks, so we will never go hungry around this part of the world!



Here's the who's who of the neighbourhood... Frances, Ashley in the back, then his wife Deb, and Alissa , our neighbour to the west of us.

An assortment of fine cheeses including a brie topped with red peppers and jalapeno peppers, on the silver tray, homemade crackers on the long tray, a Parmesan and artichoke and spinach dip in the white tray, then various cheeses on the wood tray with pear and fig jam as an accompaniment. Deb also made a fabulous chocolate creme -brule that had a basil flavour in it... understated but delicious!

Frances, ever happy and sweet Alissa


The men of the hood..Emil way back there, Randy, Ashley and Mike..

Recent Photos

Lynn all ready for Christmas with her new "Doo" and her frosty teddy!

This is the house that Kendra dn Mackenzie built!

Here they are... look at those Christmas smiles... Looks like Kendra would like her two front teeth for Christmas!



And last but not least... my Papaya tree! Looky a little waxy flower... is it male or female or both??? It can be ! I've ordered some papaya seeds from Aloha seeds and Herbs... sooooo here I am turning into a papaya farmer...ha-ha!

Hope your Saturday has been productive... I have done Christmas cards all day... more than fifty, so I am tired of them now and still have a few left to do tomorrow am when I am more wide awake! If anyone wants my Christmas letter they will have to research the archives of the bloggy! I think it is mostly there.
Tonight we are off to the neighbours, Deb and Ashley's for a wine a cheese tasting night! How exciting... except mine might be with beer! I have four cheeses and have just printed out labels for them so I ought to get on with the task of figuring out how to show the labels off without obscuring the cheese or heavens forbid, have someone eat the little sign! Ok have a good one and remember 13 days left for Xmas... lots of beautiful jewellery at Kolmels in all price ranges... beautiful earrings , pearls, diamonds , and pendants with all the birthstones... so come on in!
"The Creator"

Christmas Party Friday

Guess who forgot to bring out her camera till the party was nearly over?
Left to right, we have Emil's buddy Wayne, and Sheryl ,Emil, Deb, and Gerry

Deb is taking the photo this time with me next to Wayne.
We had a good gab session, lots o f yummy eats and then a migration over to Mike's place for a few more beers, and some "real" food...natchos and calamari! emil and I window shopped our way down to the BAker Street Inn where we spent the night. Great rooms, if you ever have to hang in town! My sweety treated us to breakfast in the morning, before we returned to or real world of grocery getting and meal planning . I stopped at Safeway, then delivered some PArtylite and finally got home in time to pick Silky up from Randy and Frances' place around noon.
They kept Silky at their doggy spa while we stayed in town.... I am so grateful we have several people who like to watch her now.
Within and hour, Keith and Lura arrived and the fellows got down to working in the basement to get some wiring rerouted and Lura and I fixed the food for dinner... along with Pom martinis..the yummiest drink going ...but we didn't imbibe before the dinner was made.
They stayed the night after some serious hot-tubbing... and by ten thirty the women were counting sheep!
It was a busy but fun weekend... now all the PArtylite and PAmpered chef products are delivered and good progress has been done in the basement...until the power just blipped off on MOnday morning for no reason....
there was a reason, but Emil didn't find it until today...after he purchased a new tool, he says, in fact the purrchase involved a few new tools... Glad that Santa is looking after himself !

"The Creator"

Early Christmas at Lynns

My little trip on Sunday, over to Castlegar,Trail and Frutivale to deliver Pampered Chef products and Partylite turned out to be quite awesome. First of all, it was brilliantly sunny with no snow or ice on the roads,and second of all it was fun to stop in and have littel visits along the way.
First stop was Lori and Lawrence's in the Gar.. the boys were all having a jam session...fun to listen to them as they got wound up with guitars and drums and vocals by LAwrence... made me want to stay awhile and pretend I was a musician! Lori toured me around and showed me her lovely new deck she fisnshed off so beautifully, and then she gave me a tour of her jewellery factory! Wow! Beads and findings of every size, colour and description... just give her a call if you have something custom that needs to be built to match a dress or what ever... very nice work for sure!
Time was at a premium so I continued onto Lynn's where she had lunch and an early Xmas for me! Lynn had my goodie bag all loaded up with Xmas gifdts for silky and myself. Much more organized than me- that is for sure! I'll still be shopping on Dec. 24th!
The next pic is a little teddy bear in his winter sweater... from Co-co- to Silky. Note that Co-co was ready to rip its cute little sweater right off! He was much more interested in it than Silky! Lynn bestowed me with Christmas goodies of every description, too numerous to list, but I love it all and say a big thank-you to her for being so organized! Now I am warm and cozy and digitally ready for everything! Thanks Lynn for being so thoughtful! Also thank-you for the yummy cream of mushroom soup... now that was a tasty thing and tummy warming for a cold winter day.
I made a meatloaf this am and it was a good down home tummy warmer as well for dinner!

After Lynns, I made my way out to Fruitvale to Patti's house up above the curling rink... Her and Ray , whom I went to school with for years have a beautiful home with a nice view of the mountains across the valley. We looked at pics of her kids...all grown up now and it seems like it was only 10 years ago that I babysat their daughter, Cheryl. Now she is Sonia's age and looking all grown up. Time flies by, and although I hadn't even talked to Patti in about 20 years before the grad reunion , it was easy to start chatting again,as though time had stood still. That is the beauty of friendship, it survives.
My drive home was more tiring but I made it before the pitch dark settled in and Emil was waiting for me in order that we could leave to attend Ed and Linda's Christmas party. I could have just as easily gone for a nap , but we did venture across the lake and took in the soiree with a load of people we met at their last party, plus many common friends. By 7 I was ready to come home as was Emil as his back had been sore and was acting up. Thanks Lind and Ed for the enjoyable party.


A little on the dark side, but here is a photo of Emil's buddy's new adventure... building a post and beam cabin on Saturna island. Looks like a lot of back breaking labour, but a labour of love as you can see by the view across the ocean. Nice work Noel!

And here is your laugh for the day... Silky with Uncle Randy getting lots of love and attention. On Friday, our newish neighbours, Randy and Frances agreed to dogsit Silky and look at her royal treatment! She was in bed with them, cozied up in afluffy blanket and given massages... no wonder Silk loves going to Club RandyFaye! Thank-you for being great neighbours and taking her for us. We had a great evening at Emil's HEU staff party. We went all out and got a hotel room that night so we didn't have to drive back home. Just as well, then we both had fun. I'll post some xmas party pics later.

Have a good week... Look it will be Wednesday already, then soon it will be Friday and two more weeks until Christmas! That is fourteen shopping days for women and one day for men ..ha ha--

Say did you hear that Tiger Woods is going to change his name... to Cheetah!
ha-ha!


And one final note...Joyce has returned with new lenses in her eyeballs after having cataracts removed from them in Edmonton... Sounds like she is a new woman! I'll find out on Thursday when we will do a little tour of the gallery and have a little nosh in town.
"The Creator"

Chris and Carolyne and family

Finally, I got organized enough to have my employers, Chris and Carolyne and their two little ones, Mira Belle and Tibo over for dinner. Also, I invited Chelsea, Chris's neice to come along as well. She is in her second year at KSA doing the jewellery course. She brought along some of her most interesting pieces to show, including a very creative spoon entwined in leaves and flowers,and a gorgeous ring
that showed off her skills at stone setting. We are all proud of her high standards.

Nice background of construction, but I thought a family photo was in order!
Carolyne, Chris, Chris's neice, Chelsea, then Tibo and Mira Belle ( kind of hiding behind Tibo)

Just sitting down to dinner...Chris, Tibo and Chelsea

Our starter was a shrimp and crab cocktail for something fancy pancy, foloowed by the squash puree soup in the Whitewater cookbook... waasn't my fav, so I'll stick to my own recipe next time. Emil BBQ'd his rainbow trout steaks.. and they were perfect... so that is almost high heat, laid out on a piece of tinfoil for 22 minutes without looking in the BBQ.
Everyone enjoyed the variety of pyrahi ( get that spelling right) that Lynn so wonderfully helped me make
,and the broccoli/artichoke casserole...a tasty idea for veggies enough to feed a crowd. I still made a dish of carrots and snap peas and that all pretty much was it! At the end we still had room for apple pie and icecream!

I wanted to show them how to play train, so we didn't linger over dinner as much as we normally do.

Little Mira Belle was the grand winner, tho you can see that Tibo is mastering a few skills here, himself!
All in all, it was a pleasant evening.Thank-you,extended family, for joining us for dinner!

"The Creator"

The Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

If you loved Queen, you'll be able to chuckle over this one! The Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody!

"The Creator"

Pancho Chief Pytahee Maker

All ready with aher PAnchos Apron, Lynn became the CEO of rolling out the dough

This is just after she threw the piece of dough in the air like a pizza

Dilgently making them all the same size

Some of the finished product.
If you haven't experienced a Russian food called Pytahee,I'd say you are missing out on a great down home comfort food. They are tasty little yeast dough babies filled with various fillings . Typically, Russian people always use vegetables and also Dry cottage cheese mixed with an egg. Vegetables can be kidney beans mashed with some butter, peas, beets, squash or pumpkin, potatoe and cottage cheese, or potatoe and yellow cheddar cheese or sourcrout drained and fried a little drier. You don't want the veggies to be too moist or the dough won't pinch together. Being that we are meatasaurs, we have developed a few of our own fillings and being adventuresome, I even filled some with black beans seasoned with a Victoria Epicurian spice called Pueblo Bean. Also, as I had some Indian Dal left over, I filled a dozen with that yummy curry mixture. The problem was that the dough exploded the filling out the sides of most of those, but they were still tatsy little morsels. A lovely old friend of ours named Lucy, told me about a yummy filling made with fried onions and chopped bacon. Yummy! I never looked back!These are a "Must have"! My girls love those best!
My practical mother, decided to invent a filling of hamburger fried with onions and mashed in with the potatoes to satisfy Walter, her hubby, who was inclined to eat more meat than veggies. This is another one I always make, but this time I used ground pork... mmmmmm...even better! So like empanadas, samosas, or English Pasties, these little filled treats can be a good side dish or a main meal. Serve them up with melted butter and sour cream... light of course.


"The Creator"

Successful Party!

Leah and her new cutey baby


Sharon and Diane checking out the desert table

Sue checking out the Partylite

Patti and Alissa

Our Happy Guests! Sheryl, Jean,Janice and Deb

The two J's in the kitchen!

Sandy and Chris

My little Wontons filled with Indian Dahl with beans and corn added to it.

My big helpers in the kitchen, Correna and Joyce!

"The Creator"

Frosty Morning!

Very white out there! poor Silky nearly slid right off the front step!

"The Creator"

Baby Bums!

Also called Apricots, these Italian cookies are fussy to make but spectacular to display and very yummy to eat ...and on Sunday, they will be on the desert tray!


They start out as little balls that you roll and bake. Next, you carve a tiny hole in the bottom of each cookie. Then the fussy part. One cookie is filled with Vanilla pudding, the other with chocolate pudding and then you stick the two together to form the apricot.


Once together, you make a little mixture of marachino cherry juice and a dab of red food colouring and a shot of whiskey . Then you dip the the apricots into
the juice and roll then in sugar for the finishing touch.

Yes, the one on the right looks a little poopy... just the chocolate pudding overrun.

Here they are ready to be frozen until the big PArty. Are you coming? Did you let me know?
I hope to see everyone on Sunday at 1:00...bring cash or credit card for some Xmas shopping with Pampered Chef and Partylite Candles.
"The Creator"

Happy Late Birthday Joyce!

Lynn and Joyce and I gathered in Castlegar at Elements Grill for a light lunch and then yummy carrot cake ( Nadine's Recipe) that LYnn made, for desert.
We got to see some more of Lynn's fabulous trip photos... she was the ham of the Mazatlan party! We blabbed away while we ate and caught up on everyone's families and then it was cake time!



I'd be happy for that recipe sometime, Lynn, or Nadine. It was very delicious for sure! The food was excellent at the Element Grill, so well worth the venture to a new dining place!
We emerged to the rain pelting down , threatening snow, but of course it was warm enough that it just kept on raining. I stopped by to Joyce's to see her photos of her recent birthday trip to Kamloops. Well, those little grandkids are so sweet, and the baby , of course is the heart breaker with her big hazel eyes!

After a brief nap on the couch, Emil and I cleaned up and drove over to Pete and Elli's . It was her and Pete's 65th birthday, so they held a little neighbourhood party with most of the neighbours! Everyone chatted about Christmas coming so soon, and the news of the vacant lot next to us being sold...

Have a great Sunday! I am getting ready for my Pampered Chef Party..look out , it is going to be a blast...so come on over for it!


"The Creator"