27 December 2015
Island Life 27 December 2015
27/12/15 08:13
And so this was Christmas weekend. Actually the weekend was longer for us than those in the US. It started on Wednesday. We discovered that December 23 is, in parts of Newfoundland, known as Tipsy Eve. Tipsy Eve started because during Advent, the weeks leading up to Christmas, drinking was not allowed. Well, after a while as some people had their big Christmas bash, and wine, on Christmas Eve this got pushed back to the 24th. Tipsy Eve came about when some people started their drunken revelries on the Eve of Christmas Eve. As they had no other reason other than they wanted to start drinking sooner, the event became known as Tipsy Eve. It sound odd but, then we have talked about Newfoundlanders before. There’s a lot of odd things.
The next day was Christmas Eve. I had to go to work but the company closes at noon on Christmas Eve. We finished up some projects, secured some things for the holiday week (we’re closed between Christmas and New Years), and got things ready for when we return on the fourth of January. As it turned out everything was sorted out by eleven. I finished up a last few things and then wandered over to talk to my boss. He wasn’t in his office. I found him in his bosses office with the head of engineering and a few others. They were sharing stories and plans both for their time off and the new year. I walked in and asked “What’s shaking?” they looked at me and replied, “We’re all pretty much done here. If you want to take off you can.” Didn’t have to tell me twice. That afternoon we took a few things over to some friends of ours. Among them were a number of Ammonite fossils. (They look like little coiled snail shells. In life each had something that looked like a squid living inside them.) We figured that they could give them to their grandkids. What we didn’t expect was that the grandkids would be there. So I ended up handing them out to the kids, ages something like 4 to 12 or so. That was all fine and good. But then they all insisted in giving me a thank you hug in return. Uh, yeak, OK, not really what I’d bargained on. Those of you that know me know that I’m not 100% comfortable with children, and having a bunch of them hug me was, a bit much. Let’s just say that I checked to make sure I still had my wallet when they were done and leave it at that.
Friday was of course Christmas. We did a few projects around the house, opened presents, Made a couple of Skype calls, and watched the Dr. Who Marathon. Then we went over to Barbara’s for dinner. Lots of family and friends were there and a good time was had by all. Aria, Barb’s great granddaughter was of course the centre of attention. She’s about 18 months old but is walking and talking clearly, not only in words but sentences and concepts. She says please and thank you when appropriate. She’s also engaging in imaginary play. Quite advanced for a year and a half. She played with Barb’s cane, using it as a cane. Then a few minutes later she was pretending it was a microphone and singing into it. For 18 months, I found her high level of cognition very surprising.
The day after Christmas was Boxing Day. We did the normal “get up at dawn and join the mob shopping for bargains” tradition. Except that we didn’t set out until after nine, and we didn’t hit the big box stores where the crowds were, and we didn’t buy lots of stuff. Most didn’t have much that we wanted. At Best Buy we finally got to see an iPad Pro, something I had wanted to see for some time. Then we hit Mark’s Work Warehouse for some pants, but my size was out. So in the end we only got a couple of small things and then headed home.
Sunday was theatre Day. OK , that’s not an actual holiday but we did go to see Merry Christmas George Bailey, which was very enjoyable. they did a good job. We met some friends for the show and then went to their place afterwards for a nosh. We chatted for hours about all sorts of things, and got home quite late.
So that was the big holiday weekend. This week I’m off work. Marsha will be hard at it every day, except for Tuesday of course. We’ll be downtown applying for our passports. But once that is done, I get to play the rest of the day, while Marsha works on Taxes. Neener Neener.
Thought for the holiday season: If you made cookies/cakes/caramel corn/candy over the holidays you can eat as much as you want. You MADE those calories so anything you eat is a zero sum game.
Happy New Year!
Doug & Marsha
PIX Venus at dawn. A squall line at dawn. And then, we got a touch of snow one day. It only lasted a few hours.
The next day was Christmas Eve. I had to go to work but the company closes at noon on Christmas Eve. We finished up some projects, secured some things for the holiday week (we’re closed between Christmas and New Years), and got things ready for when we return on the fourth of January. As it turned out everything was sorted out by eleven. I finished up a last few things and then wandered over to talk to my boss. He wasn’t in his office. I found him in his bosses office with the head of engineering and a few others. They were sharing stories and plans both for their time off and the new year. I walked in and asked “What’s shaking?” they looked at me and replied, “We’re all pretty much done here. If you want to take off you can.” Didn’t have to tell me twice. That afternoon we took a few things over to some friends of ours. Among them were a number of Ammonite fossils. (They look like little coiled snail shells. In life each had something that looked like a squid living inside them.) We figured that they could give them to their grandkids. What we didn’t expect was that the grandkids would be there. So I ended up handing them out to the kids, ages something like 4 to 12 or so. That was all fine and good. But then they all insisted in giving me a thank you hug in return. Uh, yeak, OK, not really what I’d bargained on. Those of you that know me know that I’m not 100% comfortable with children, and having a bunch of them hug me was, a bit much. Let’s just say that I checked to make sure I still had my wallet when they were done and leave it at that.
Friday was of course Christmas. We did a few projects around the house, opened presents, Made a couple of Skype calls, and watched the Dr. Who Marathon. Then we went over to Barbara’s for dinner. Lots of family and friends were there and a good time was had by all. Aria, Barb’s great granddaughter was of course the centre of attention. She’s about 18 months old but is walking and talking clearly, not only in words but sentences and concepts. She says please and thank you when appropriate. She’s also engaging in imaginary play. Quite advanced for a year and a half. She played with Barb’s cane, using it as a cane. Then a few minutes later she was pretending it was a microphone and singing into it. For 18 months, I found her high level of cognition very surprising.
The day after Christmas was Boxing Day. We did the normal “get up at dawn and join the mob shopping for bargains” tradition. Except that we didn’t set out until after nine, and we didn’t hit the big box stores where the crowds were, and we didn’t buy lots of stuff. Most didn’t have much that we wanted. At Best Buy we finally got to see an iPad Pro, something I had wanted to see for some time. Then we hit Mark’s Work Warehouse for some pants, but my size was out. So in the end we only got a couple of small things and then headed home.
Sunday was theatre Day. OK , that’s not an actual holiday but we did go to see Merry Christmas George Bailey, which was very enjoyable. they did a good job. We met some friends for the show and then went to their place afterwards for a nosh. We chatted for hours about all sorts of things, and got home quite late.
So that was the big holiday weekend. This week I’m off work. Marsha will be hard at it every day, except for Tuesday of course. We’ll be downtown applying for our passports. But once that is done, I get to play the rest of the day, while Marsha works on Taxes. Neener Neener.
Thought for the holiday season: If you made cookies/cakes/caramel corn/candy over the holidays you can eat as much as you want. You MADE those calories so anything you eat is a zero sum game.
Happy New Year!
Doug & Marsha
PIX Venus at dawn. A squall line at dawn. And then, we got a touch of snow one day. It only lasted a few hours.