Chat-a-Thon 2017-18 Thread!

[SnowFlakey]

Good Morning! Ive been really busy lately, so havent been around much. But this morning im doing laundry and my PC is near the laundry room so here i am. Spent a great day with 2 of my grandchildren. We baked 2 kinds of cookies, well actually my GD did everything and i just supervised, which was great! The cookies turned out fantastic. And then last night we went to hockey for my oldest GS. The freaking arena was so cold, i froze my buns off even though i had boots, winter coat, tuque, scarf and mitts! the things we do for our grandchildren. And today our other GS is playing hockey late this afternoon in the same arena, so we are going again!

I dont know about the rest of Canada, but here in QC Nov and beginning of DEc is fund-raising time in various organizations for the kids. Each year i encourage the kids we know who ask us. So far this year i bought a cheese basket with 5 different exotic cheeses, 2 full size jars of fancy jellies; something that is called Pain Partiger which is sliced bread, raisin bread and donuts ( i bought the jelly & cream donuts which are to die for); Tortier (even though i make my own); Buche de Noel, (cappuchini flavour) and a oranges. I got the donuts yesterday and the rest of the stuff is coming next week.

[Lynn49]

Lol...I remember those days when our kids were young! We were on a cul-de-sac of young families...we all bought from each others kids! It was such fun! Not as much food as you, @SnowFlakey , but cards, wrapping papers for all occassions, calendars...good ol' days.

[walkonby]

Just a hello to catch up on some back posts.
Sounds like you had lots going on with your Grandkids @SnowFlakey , all good fun interactions too. @Lynn49 that meme of the Elf On the shelf relieving himself at the bar....oh my goodness, so chuckle worthy!
Our Leafs experienced the weirdest game tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The first 3 goals scored were against the Leafs and were flukes off of our own guys...so down 3-0 .
Then Spezza gets his own weird goal when the puck ricocheted off the side of their goalie's helmet!
We ended up tying it 3-3, but then lost in the shootout.
Entertaining game all the same.

[Lynn49]

Good morning!

Oh, I hate shoot-outs, @walkonby ! For a team sport it doesn't seem fair for one player to blow it and lose a game for his team. It's like a player not making a field-goal to lose a game. I get that if a shoot out or field goal in on all the players for putting one player in that position, but still.....I liked hockey as it wax always played in the olden days.

19 days, 12 hours until CHRISTMAS!!

[walkonby]

Absolutely agree with that @Lynn49 . DH and I also dread the shootouts. They are ridiculous. This was the very first Leafs shootout game this season btw.

Around 3 a.m. I had gotten 4 solid hours of sleep, so it was clearly time to get busy in the kitchen! ha ha
I am being sarcastic, but if I'm going to be lying in bed staring at the ceiling I'd rather not.

Despite that....I had the genius idea of making my Christmas bread stuffing all up, filling 2 of those stretchy net bags, tying the ends off and wrapping tightly in cling wrap, then into where else? The freezer!
Yep, now on the 23rd or 24th I'll let them thaw in the fridge, then simply insert one of them into the cavity of the turkey ( oh THAT is another whole rant about what I paid today for a bird! ) and the second stuffing bag......unsure atm.
I have a single large frozen turkey breast that I " could " turn into a stuffed roll thingy?


o.k. for those if you who have been accustomed to paying .99 - $1.29 a pound for your festive Butterball birds, or in the past as I did for many years .79 - .99 for the utility ones......hang onto your giblets!
I checked out WM, NF and Metro this morning....GULP! )

WM had only 5-7 kg Butterballs.....almost all of them were barely over 5 kg. @ roughly $23.00 each. The only large birds were another brand OR stuffed.
NF had 2 options $44.00 for the 5 - 7 kg or $55.00 for the 7 - 9 kg.
In the end I got my bird FREE....but I had to sacrifice 570 of my Air Miles to get it.
Yep...at Metro a roughly 16 pound bird ( very close to $3.00 a pound! ) cost us $48.54
Insanity!

[Lynn49]

Absolutely agree with that @Lynn49 . DH and I also dread the shootouts. They are ridiculous. This was the very first Leafs shootout game this season btw.

Around 3 a.m. I had gotten 4 solid hours of sleep, so it was clearly time to get busy in the kitchen! ha ha
I am being sarcastic, but if I'm going to be lying in bed staring at the ceiling I'd rather not.

Despite that....I had the genius idea of making my Christmas bread stuffing all up, filling 2 of those stretchy net bags, tying the ends off and wrapping tightly in cling wrap, then into where else? The freezer!
Yep, now on the 23rd or 24th I'll let them thaw in the fridge, then simply insert one of them into the cavity of the turkey ( oh THAT is another whole rant about what I paid today for a bird! ) and the second stuffing bag......unsure atm.
I have a single large frozen turkey breast that I " could " turn into a stuffed roll thingy?


o.k. for those if you who have been accustomed to paying .99 - $1.29 a pound for your festive Butterball birds, or in the past as I did for many years .79 - .99 for the utility ones......hang onto your giblets!
I checked out WM, NF and Metro this morning....GULP! )

WM had only 5-7 kg Butterballs.....almost all of them were barely over 5 kg. @ roughly $23.00 each. The only large birds were another brand OR stuffed.
NF had 2 options $44.00 for the 5 - 7 kg or $55.00 for the 7 - 9 kg.
In the end I got my bird FREE....but I had to sacrifice 570 of my Air Miles to get it.
Yep...at Metro a roughly 16 pound bird ( very close to $3.00 a pound! ) cost us $48.54
Insanity!

OMGOSH!! The price of those birds!! The kids usually pick up non-frozen ones at PC and now I'm wondering if they'll even be available when the time comes! I may warn them this year.

As to preparing dressing ahead of time, we usually make it the day before, put it into our smaller crockpot thingy and put it into the fridge until the next day when we bring it over and slow cook it at the kids' house. I lay a couple of slices of bread over the top to prevent it from getting toooo crispy on top. Honestly I don't find a big difference from when I used to stuff a bird with it...tons of sage and poultry seasoning, onions and bacon seem to do the trick either way and it's so much neater to retrieve from the crockpot than a bird, hahaha!!
I did enjoy the whole process once upon a time, though....the kids do the bird now, usually roasting it although they did do the deep fry thing a couple of times, a waste of oil I'd say, so they quit doing that.

I can't WAIT to be there again this year...present unwrapping ONE AT A TIME so that each can be appreciated...lots of mimosas...games, dinner and finally dessert. It'll be such fun, always is with the 5 of us!!!

What about everyone else? Stuffed bird? Fresh? Frozen?...please don't say pre-stuffed.....it can never be as good as what Walks and I dream up! Haha!!

Wrapped some gifts today, dang that Costco paper is so beautiful but so heavy! I felt I'd spoil the pretty patterns if I did any fancy Japanese folding wraps that I do so they're pretty just the way they are. I did use my Cricut to make tags, though! Love that they're reversible!

Well...keep at it, everyone!

[GoJays]

Too dark? Tough. That's how I roll

[GoJays]

[GoJays]

[flemeth]

Good morning everyone . Hope you all had a great weekend .

[Lynn49]

Good morning!

Had a nightmare, woke to a splitting headache, so here I am. I hope the coffee and tylenol help, as well as the nap I'll likely take in the afternoon.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

[danger_dan]

morning all.
rainy and dreary out there.

[Natalka]

Hello from the Dome of Arctic Air!

We have been lucky with temps in the minus single digits, nights in low minus teens the past week.
Today, a shocker with -37 wind-chill, temp -25. Only going up a few degrees.
Warmup promised of -5 by Wed. We have some snow, not lots.
@Lynn49 Sure hope you are doing better!

Milan was over here two evenings last week, so I got much more info on our nephew's wedding, and the family gathering the next day.
He was able to not encounter his former bullies, brothers of the bride...
He did have a blast meeting cousins he hadn't seen for a long time, some with new babies. He liked that his cousins' kids called him 'uncle' in Ukrainian (they are second cousins, but it's their way).
It was his first time meeting two cousins from Cleveland as adults. My husband's brother came, too, but not his wife. So my husband spent most of his time with his three brothers, not often they are all together.

I watched the ceremony online, it was lovely. It was concelebrated by the parish priest (a family friend), and the groom's uncle.

Just so very very sad I couldn't be at these events. The groom's mom sent home food and sweets for me Sunday.

On to me, and us. Generally, things are crap, sorry to say - for both of us. Husband is at times barely moving himself, but he will still look after me. However, some things have gone to the wayside, which is not good.
Had a phone appointment with my rheumatologist, she suggested perhaps looking into a facility for me - I changed that subject quickly!
I also had a phone appt with my orthopod the same day, he is way too busy since I last saw him, so he is handing my care to a younger colleague - who called me several days later, looked at my last x-rays from 2019 and reminded me (!) that both knees were shot, there is absolutely nothing between the bones... More info on that all as I get it...

No Christmas excitement here, since the men don't care, I can't do anything and we are literally poor. Boo-boo...

I have read back all the past pages. Nice to see all your news and busy-ness.

Take care,. Hugs for you all!

[Natalka]

[Natalka]

I love this, my very happy just married nephew, Mario, and his bride

Zoom in