Happy New Year! It’s 2023!

Welcome to 2023!!

We greeted the new year in style, with friends and explosives, of course.

It felt so mild and warm at -18C/0F after being in the -40’s for a while. As the cakes of fireworks were being planted in the snow, the northern lights peaked out a bit through the trees. The sky was oddly clear and the stars bright, which usually only happens when it is colder than this.

And then, at 4 minutes before the New Year, the wicks were lit!

We had a nice Christmas. Since I had taken some days off earlier in December to travel to Ontario, I only took the statuatory holidays off and worked a few days between the holidays.

Here are a few Christmas highlights in photos:

An afternoon tea with friends before Christmas:

We haven’t had a real tree since living in Nova Scotia. Our house is just so small, and the woodstove is just so close. We’ve had a little tree on our kitchen table every year. Jeff put up the outdoor lights early this year and the beauty of Christmas and lights made me really start missing having a tree. I found a full height (~7ft) artificial tree (not as flammable as a dry real one by the stove) that is super narrow. A pencil tree I think it was called! Just 23 inches across. I LOVE it! Narrow, not in the way, prelit, and just beautiful!

With the cold snap, usually every day we dim and full of ice fog. Which just makes Christmas lights extra beautiful.

Jeff’s outdoor decorations and 5 inflatables won us second prize in the town’s decoration contest!!

We were invited to our friends for Christmas dinner. I made buns and a pumpkin pie and we boiled up carrots for the big feast.

We had our turkey on Boxing Day. That turkey was so big, we had left overs for days, and then there was enough white turkey meat left over that Jeff made NINE turkey pies for the freezer!!

Now that the temperature is warmer, we’ve had some nice longer walks at night with Hank. I had been purposely walking during the day to avoid night time walks – I forgot how beautiful they are!

I wish all of you the best in 2023. I mean the very best – tea with friends, beautiful lights, cozy nights, comfort stretching adventures, and maybe some explosives!