Thursday morning chit chat . . .

 Its hard to believe that we are already only a few days away from the month of December . . . where has the year flown?  It seems only a few days ago we were in January and here we are . . .  and the year is almost spent.  Is it just me or does time seem to be speeding up?

My mother had the snow tires put on her car last week.   That is not something we even have an option for over here in the UK, although I remember having to do it in past days.  Mom does not drive anymore, but my sister does and as they gave up their car when they moved back East, mom's car comes in very handy.  My mother has always looked after her cars very well and although her car is 12 years old now, it's really quite like a new car as it has hardly been driven and not very far unless you count the year Todd and I went over and we all went to New Brunswick and back.

In talking to my sister yesterday we were trying to figure out an economical way they could make it not so cold down in the basement of my mom's house, which is where they sleep and of course is where the family room and their computers and big television is.  There is electric heat throughout the house, but I don't think it's as effective as another type of heat might be.   She says a lot of cold air comes in around the windows.  We were discussing those 3M kits you used to be able to get that had clear plastic in them which you stick around the windows with double backed tape and then used a hair dryer to tighten and create a vaccum with.    In the old days people would rake all the leaves around to the base of the house and then when it snowed, shovel and layer snow over top of them which created a great insulation.  In most of the houses I lived in the last 15 years or so that I lived in Canada we had wood stoves which kicked off a lot of heat.




















I kind of miss that . . . occasionally when we are outside I will smell woodsmoke and feel very nostalgic about it.   Sometimes though I smell coal fires too, which wasn't something I really smelled before I moved over here.   It is the smell of our housing estate however and something which I associate with Chester.   When we lived down South I missed that smell and so when I do smell it again up here, it brings me an odd sense of comfort.  Funny how something as simple as a smell can do that . . . but somehow it does!

A dear friend sent Mitzie a new toy to play with that she is really enjoying.  It is a red squirrel,, and she already knows it by name.  I have tried to get a photograph of her playing with it, but each time I try it ends up being just a blur because she is playing so hard with it.  Her latest fun thing to do with it is to carry it and knudge it off the backs of my legs as I walk into the kitchen.   It's cute rather than annoying actually.  I do believe however that by the end of the year it's tail will be bare by the amount of tail fur I find in little clumps.   She also likes to defur tennis balls.  She was quite sick yesterday.  We had given her worming tablets as you do several times a year, and for some reason they made her throw up.  Lots of cuddles and loving ensued and she seems perfectly fine today.

Todd was in town yesterday morning and he says that they have set up the Victorian Christmas Village around the town hall again this year.  It was so lovely last year.  Todd says there are even more kiosks this year than last.  I shall have to take myself in with the camera one day so I can share it with you and maybe this year we will buy ourselves a toasted waffle or some such to enjoy out of doors!  It really is quite pretty with it's artificial snow and all . . . perhaps we will go in more towards the evening when the lights look really pretty.



 
(Ambush, by Jack Sorenson)

I've been working on the lesson that I am going to be teaching in Relief Society on Sunday.  I am not really comfortable teaching.  I don't mind giving talks because that is just basically giving a talk and easy to do.  Lessons are a bit harder because you have to try to engage the class in a discussion and think of questions which you could ask them that would encourage a discussion . . . I am always afraid that I will ask guestions and get no response and then I will be nothing more than a babbling fool at the front of the class!!  It is a Christmas Lesson that I am basing on a talk given by President Monson back in the early 1990's on gifts.  I think it is so easy to be distracted at this time of year by all the tinsel and glitter and buzz of the commercial side of Christmas.  I want my lesson to focus on how to bring our minds and hearts back to the other side of it.   It is fun to have Santa Claus and all of the glitz and glamor, but it shouldn't overtake the reality and true heart of what the spirit of Christmas was meant to be . . .  I hope that I can accomplish that!

I have gotten all of my Christmas boxes bar two posted out to Canada now.   Only two more to go.   It gets ever more expensive with each year that passes.  Todd grumbles at the expense and the people at the post office keep telling us we can just send money instead, but it's not the same thing at all . . . oftimes the postage costs more than what is actually in the box, but I cannot let Christmas pass without sending my grandchildren each at least a little something.   I remember how exciting it was when I was a child to get something in the post and so long as I am able to . . .  my grandchildren will get something from me in the post.  I think there should be postal discounts for Grandmothers, don't you?  Fat chance of that ever happening!




I have been fighting a cold all week.  Last night I thought it had gotten the best of me and was coming on, but it seems better this morning.  If I can only get it to hold off until after Sunday I will be happy.  Actually I would like it to hold off until after Christmas if possible, pretty please with sugar on it.  I have a lot on in December and I want to do it with a clear head!  Todd and I both have parts in our Christmas Pageant at the church this year.  We are an Inn Keeper and his wife and we have lines!  We plan on practicing every day so that we will remember them!  Our Ward Activity for December is being based on the One Night in Bethlehem theme and we are going to have the main hall way set up like a Middle Eastern Bazaar with games and such . . . and then inside the chapel we will be putting on a nativity play.  Should be fun!

Well, I have twittered on enough about nothing this morning really so I will close now with a thought for you to carry in your heart through today . . .

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻
(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻ღϠ₡ღ
There is nothing I would not do for those
who are really my friends.
I have no notion of loving people by halves,
it is not my nature..✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.
~Jane Austen  




I'm talking Turkey, Turkey 101 in The English Kitchen today . . .

Have a wonderful Wednesday.  To those of you who will be traveling to be with family for Thanksgiving, safe journies!