A Vintage Xmas

Hello there!

I hope you all had a great Xmas. Mine was wonderful and vintage!

On Xmas Eve it was still 61F! In December in Quebec! I saw guys in shorts and ladies in t-shirts...and a lot of sockless folks.

I got raves for my tourtiere (meat pie) and ragout de boulettes (meatball stew). We all had a great time.

 Fog in Montreal

 Gifts! (we forgot to put away the bag of chips...)

It ended up being a running gag.

 3 new friends! I had the snowman in the store a couple of years ago and I always regretted selling it....

It was the first time I've seen the cute soldier. And how adorable is the reindeer?

 The mantle

Needless to say that with the heat we didn't make a fire!

 The village

 This was in my stocking. It comes from Russia.

The bag shows fries and ketchup. These are not fries...

These are stale bread chips with seasonings...you eat them with the ketchup!

It was disgusting! We had a laugh about that!

After all the excitement, it was time for a little

nap!

Be well and I hope to post soon!

Checking the list

Hi there!

We all know that Christmas is as inevitable as taxes and death...It will come no matter what!

Am I ready? Kinda.

95% of gifts are wrapped, stockings are full, cookies baked (mostly).

I am still adjusting to my new oven. It is so good that I have to relearn old stand byes.

My trusted caramel corn recipe flopped. It wasn't crunchy and overall blah.

I tried it again and this time it tasted like meat....how freaky is that? I tasted the popped corn, the brown sugar, the corn syrup...everything tasted the same!

Except the BUTTER! The butter, brand new pound, never frozen, tasted like crap!

I have been cooking for 30 years and I have never had CRAP butter! What's up with that?

With our combined big yaps, word spread around and we gathered 2 other tales of CRAP butter, one with black spots and one with green streaks....How nice!

It seems that Quebec dairy farmers reached their quotas and there is a shortage of butter (hush, hush of course) and that the butter, some of it at least, is being sourced from less than reliable sources....

So a word of advice, keep your receipt and taste your butter before using it. I finally made a third batch but most of it was already spoken for....so there is none left (except the so-so first batch).

I don't think I will have enough time to make some more....

Otherwise the tree is all finished and the village too.

It is the same as when I was a child. It

smells great. Next year I will buy my tree from

the same couple; my Dad has been buying his tree from 

them for 25 years.

I'll finish watching Scrooge and then off to bed I'll go.

You should do the same, so you'll wake up all refreshed!  

Deep Breath please....

So now that the oven is working fine and that Xmas prep is well under way...

The hot water heater decided to spring a leak on Friday night.  I was running like a chicken without a head!

Finally to calm my nerves I wrapped a couple of Xmas gifts and with a clear head I was able to attend to the mess.

I filled buckets, pitchers and bottles and then I brought out the ladder ,closed the breaker and the valves.

When the water stopped it was 11:30 pm.

 This ol'girl was built in 1998.

 It was running from around the valve.

 That didn't stop me from baking the traditional Quebec

meatpies, just in time for Xmas

 Of course the kitchen was a mess after...and I had to bring 

all the dishes down to my Dad's to wash.

In the meantime.....

 Yoda was lounging in the cat grass.

Here's the new hot water heater.

All bright spanking new

 The installation was over at 1:30 pm.

I was to get hot water by 3:00 pm.

Guess what?

NO HOT WATER!!!

it is 10:39 pm and no hot water....

I just want to scream and cry

They are coming back tomorrow.....

Oh My!

You know how it is...the end of November and beginning of December has been....work,home,sleep and a bit of Xmas shopping squeezed in between!

When we moved back in late August Dan was oh so sure that we were going to watch tv late on weekdays since we didn't have to wake up at 4:45 am to catch the train.

Well it isn't exactly going as declared because I fall asleep around 9:30 compared to 10:00 before...oh well!

Dan finished the oven surround and it was declared perfect by the installer! So Thursday I celebrated by baking some Pillsbury pumpkin pie spice cookies that were purchased on deep discount.

The new oven is a dream....I can't wait to really bake.

I was soooo happy it was one of the best days of my life!

I felt handicapped without a working oven.

 Love that the light comes on when you open the door.

On another note....

I went to a church basement vintage sale.

I had no idea what it was...

Well I was sure I died and went to vintage heaven!

 I had no idea this existed in Montreal

Pyrex, Fireking, Tupperware,Glasbake....

ALL VINTAGE!

I was so happy to look at all these treasures.

It was full of vintage lovers....and so glorious.

The sales are held regularly.

I will be there next time!

On a different note....

 Friday night, I went thrifting and spotted the Santa coin bank which I bought rather quickly.

I then went on my merry way, I heard Dan's voice tell me: Are you going to regret

not buying the candles? YES!!!

So I went back in the thrift and told them : I am sorry but I have no choice, I must buy the candles....

And the owner shaved a couple of bucks from them.

Not the cheapest, but since the lot was under $15, I say yes to the joy of

Xmas blowmolds!

We started working on interior Xmas decorations

Blowmolds and Department 56 Original Snow Village and Dickens Village

Win Win decor win!

Sleep tight! 

Getting ready

Last year around this time I was 40% ready for Xmas.....

This year I am...let's say 10% ready.....NOT GOOD

Of course there is the oven situation.....

But we are working through it

and Dan is hard at work on patching the hole.

 These are the new Xmas decorations from my work's lobby.

I am grateful they got rid of the creepy leprechaun/Cirque Du Soleil dolls.

I also spied this cutie blowmold in a shop nearby.

What do you know I have the same!

The oven crapping out on me really threw me off. And I am barely getting used to the situation .

So I am writing a lot of lists and I will prep all my cookie dough and pastry dough during the weekend.

I HOPE!

so that is 3 batches of pie crust dough, 2 batches of ginger bread cookies dough, 1 batch of Xmas sandies ,2 batches of pferffernusse dough...and I will see from there

Stay clam, sleep tight

and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Seen Around

I love posting about interesting things I see while on the road.

Our latest road trip took us to Kingston, Ontario.

Once the capital of the Province of Canada....for just a short time . It remains an important military installation.

The old town (downtown ) is just lovely, quaint and great for unique shopping.

Here are things I saw  there, on the way there and on my way back.

 From the Brockville Goodwill, sad, so sad

 From a Kingston DVD club.

I want one (a blowmold just like this...)

 This machine really cracked us up.

Who knew the Dan meister wood worker extraordinaire had another job on the side?

In Montreal no less....

 Happy lovely mishmash from Gannanoque, Ontario

 Nice sunburst!

 The funny thing is my mother in law had the exact same clock

over the sink in the summer kitchen attached to her RV!

Whatever happened to it?

I don't know!

I bought a tiny gift for Dan, but it is still a secret!

Out with the old

Good morning to all,

here I am in my living room waiting for the oven installer to come knocking.

They said between 8:30 and 12:30.....

Here are some pictures of the old Roy oven.

Here's the door

The oven out of its nest

 And the nest in question.

Now just as the pics were downloading, the oven

tech showed up!

Guess what?

The oven is too small (???) and Dan will have to install a contraption so

they can install the oven...Dad we're coming over for supper!

Size DOES matter lol

!"/$%?&*() not happy!

When in Rome....

Or should I say when in Montreal...

One thing Montrealers do once in a while is go on Mount-Royal (aka The Mountain) and gaze at the city sky line on the Belvedere.

 That is the Big O (Olympic Stadium)

            The Jacques Cartier bridge

 The St-Lawrence river

And little ol' me!

It was a great treat to look at the city i love

but chilly and windy!

Have a great weekend!

What time is it?

Some people seem to think Christmas is just around the corner.....

 Well it is actually but i feel it is too soon for the decorations....

I am loving November

The light is bright

the sky is blue 

and the trees are gorgeous

Those mums put joy in my heart everyday when I see them.

They were removed this afternoon to make way

for some tulip bulbs.

Yay and boo!

I wish they'd stayed longer!

Seen Around

Seems I haven't done one of these posts in a very long time!

Wednesday I went for my annual lung check up and not only I spotted a church basement sale nearby but I found the charity shop I could not locate last year!

Schwing!

I did not buy ANYTHING, but it sure made for a thrifting adventure!

 Yes this is a brand new dragon made of shells.

 This lamp sure would be an ice breaker

 New in box holy trinity clock.

Now I am thinking that they were donated inventory

from a Chinese gift shop

 This sweet casserole did not have any markings

 I would've snapped up this delicious fondue pot if my cupboards

were bare....sigh!

 These tacky glass souvenir mugs always crack me up!

 I knew it was just a matter of time until I saw this in a thrift store.

The chocolate fountain is fun, but how often are you going to use it?

I figure the clean up must be an adventure as well.

 This is something I don't think I could buy in a thrift shop...

Herb tea!

No thank you

The church basement was very cramped with bossy volunteers. I was scared to take pictures....

Oh well

This is just the beginning of the fall bazaar/church basement season!

CHARGE!!!

We DID it!!!

This week it will be 2 months since the move....

We are making the space our own, but it is a slow process. My Dad still has some boxes here and slowly but surely we are bringing them downstairs.

We achieved 2 big, I mean BIG things over the weekend....

First we unpacked the last boxes...

 All GONE!

In less than 2 months! 300 boxes!!!

 I alos had one of those AHA! moments

And (get ready for this) it dawned on me

that I just had too much Pyrex.

(WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?)

I was opening the last boxes and I was choking under the weight of the Pyrex!

I NEVER thought it would happen.

Oh well! I will be keeping a lot but only

my super fave patterns. And that doesn't include those

Verde casseroles....

I spotted this beautiful tree today on Ste-Catherine street.

The yellow leaves against this bright blue sky just make my

heart sing!

Good night folks!