They're talking about a white Christmas from coast to coast.

The folks in Vancouver are in shock, I think!

The year DD was born 1983, I delivered gifts to neighbours in my shirt-sleeves. No this year!

Happy to report that Nova Scotia is operational again -- as a matter of fact, the sun is shining and the winds are fairly calm.

Both AirCanada and WestJet have added lots of additional flights today to try to get people out of Halifax before the next storm hits tomorrow afternoon. Sure hope santa has good tires and chains on the reindeer this year.

Actually, our local forecast is calling for rain on Christmas Day. I hate rain for Christmas but it will be difficult to melt this much snow in one day anyway.

Finally able to check in from very, very snowy Nanaimo, BC. 30 cm predicted! I was enroute from 4 AM yesterday morning until 7 PM last night - that's 10 PM body time. Then I went for dinner at my DD's!

I sure am lucky to get here. Lots of folks are still in the Vancouver airport after so many flights cancelled. Right now, nothing is moving at all in or out today so there will be some very sad folks for Christmas.

I plan to stay here at my daughter's house overnight and enjoy Christmas Dinner and Santa in the morning. We are goiing to have brunch "en famille" tomorrow so it will be just lovely! I am so glad to be here.

Wishing you and your families and friends a loving Christmas!

Although we've had a fair amount of snow, it's currently raining. Yuck!

Anyway, just thought I'd drop in and say Merry Christmas (or Seasons Greetings, or Happy Hanukkah, depending on what/if you celebrate).

Hope your day is filled with much joy . . .

Hope Santa brought you what you wanted. Have a wonderful day.

HOPE YOU ALL HAD A MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


We had lovely sunshine all day; a wonderful time with friends, and a delightful dinner. Hope all our fellow CANADIANS are blessed with good health, and peace, and safety this week and for the coming new year!!!

ROSEBUD

This chinook will make me crazy. It is too warm too fast.
Its 12 degrees here now, and everything is icy and melting.
argh
I got Wii fit for Christmas and will hook it up this afternoon and give reports the next few days.
Also lost a bit of weight in spite of a little chocolate binge and some exhaustion, which usually affects my eating for the worse.
Ok, time to get back on track

webgirl, you are doing what you need to do to get back to health and happiness. It really is too bad that we can only pick friends and not family, but sometimes you just have to let them go.
I've had a very up and down relationship with my sister over the years, (its on an up right now, she really came thru for my parents recently, so I wasn't alone in caring for them) and there are times I have barely spoken to her for a year. I keep in touch more for my nephews sake than anything during those times.
But I have not had the lack of family support you describe. BUT, it sounds like you have learned to build support systems around them, and thats great, because we all need support, however we get it.
Best wishes to you in the new year, and yes, you can do it.

I haven't had a Capon since my late Grandmother cooked one years ago. I got the recipe for Grandma's stuffing and hopefully everything will go well today. The In-laws are coming for this meal. We will be eating it for lunch.

I haven't had much sleep so after they leave I may have a nap.

No for the weather, Its extremely windy here. The rain seems to have stopped for the most part but the wind is really rattling the house. Its getting colder too.

I just want to you all to know that I am leaving tomorrow for Windsor to spend a few days with my Aunt. She does not have a computer and our lap top is not working, so if the library is open I will check in from there but if not I will post when I return. Weather wise that iwill be on the first.

LMB

Well the in-laws called they are not coming. My son isn't home either so its just DH and I to eat a 17 lb stuffed capon, and my DH doesn't like chicken so I will be eating this bird for a long time. Its a good thing that its on my meal plan. I think I will be taking some with me on my trip to Windsor.

It's really windy here too. In fact the electricity flickering is what woke me this morning.

Our last Christmas get-together is today in London. Does anyone remember what it was like last Sunday? We didn't go anywhere! So we're trying again today.

Then two more sleeps and we're going south for a week. I'm a little nervous. I don't need to add vacation weight to my holiday weight.

oohh to bad about the in-laws not coming. All that prep work for just a regular meal! Most of our snow is gone, the sump pumps are churning away a couple of times every hour. It is supposed to freeze up later today!
The wind is quite wicked. I was out with the dog, it just went through me.
back to work tomorrow. I start 5 days off on Wednesday tho. ahhh

CDNWEBGURL1 ~ I'm sorry for all the troubles you are having right now; but you are NOT ALONE in them, trust me. Only a few in my family socialize or keep in contact as they should and could in our family. On top of that, we live very far apart, and that doesn't help matters any. I sent out cards to them all and some friends as well; I do my part to keep in touch, but it isn't always returned, so we have developed our own family of friends network instead.

I am so grateful for the few that I am close to, esp the friends that I feel comfortable around: we had them here for dinner at Christmas and had a nice, simple dinner. This year, I downsized and bought only a few small, quality gifts; I think the company was worth far more than any gifts for us ...

We sent a small grab bag home with our guests, which they loved: with just things that cost $1 or $2 each at the local bargain, department store. I picked up a lovely gift basket for only $5.00 (spa gifts and all new) at a local Christmas sale and the recipient loved it! It was full of lavender bath stuff in a lovely new basket with fancy clear wrap and all. There are bargains to be had out there; we picked up many sale items and saved big; and these small things were just as appreciated as any others.

I know what you mean about the scary return to work; my sister was very ill and went through that same situation. They started her at 2 hours a day, and she has worked her way back up to four x 10 hour days and is doing very well now, although I'm sure it wasn't always easy for her either. I have been there in the past too, as in the eighties and nineties, there were lots of layoffs.

I found myself a couple of nice outfits and started with that. Go through your closet and make up the best two or three outfits you can and rotate them each day. My mother always taught me to pick pieces that would mix and match in the same color scheme to make more outfits ie colorful tops, long vests and skirts, matching slacks, and so forth.

You know there are lots of people here that have been through what you are going through, but now are doing better. We have all been through lean years, and illness, and working and not working and working again. There are ways to be thriftier, until things return to normal again.

If you want to PM me, I would be glad to share some ideas with you that have gotten us thru some tough times in the past. I'd be more than glad to share; and actually did in another thread over the holidays with a lady whose hours were cut back at work recently. EZMONEY even suggested that I write a book about it ... heck, maybe I should.

Anyways, you can do this; I know you can ... one step-at-a-time; one day-at-a-time!!!

We woke up to a wild blizzard this morning and it has just started to slow down in the last hour. Snow with howling north-easterly winds and that will create a lot of jobs over the next day or so. Hope you all have better weather than us; take good care ROSEBUD