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Calgary, Christmas, daughters, Diana Schwenk, Events, Fairview Shopping Centre, family, friends, Gangnam Style, generosity, Good byes, Hockey, joy, La Vieux Chateau, laughter, living in the moment, love, memories, Montreal, parents, Relationships, Storm
I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich ~ Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford
Following are some Christmas snippets for your reading pleasure. Unfortunately, I was negligent in taking the quality of photos I intended to take and I hope my family will send me the ones they took!
Family
Here’s the thing about family. It’s difficult at times – all those personalities. All those quirks and preferences. And for the most part they never tell you what you want to hear. They’re too busy telling you what they really think! Isn’t that the value of family though? There’s an old saying that goes, “…you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family…” I’ve heard it said with negative connotations … like you’re stuck with them or something. But I think that’s a good thing – through thick and thin they’re in it with you – they’re not going anywhere.
Hockey
I was a proud Aunty at my nephew’s hockey game. His skating and skill have greatly improved in just one year. They didn’t win but the Ref missed an important call and that affected the morale of a team of 8-10 years old. They played with heart though and even have two girls on their team!
Fairview Shopping Centre
If you’re a last-minute shopper like me and Michaela you already know that malls a few days before Christmas are a zoo! But we asked my sister-in-law to drop us off at Fairview so we could do some last-minute shopping. Well we got it done and thank God they fill them malls with chairs so you can sit down with all your packages and rub your temples while you tell yourself it will be different next year! FYI, it’s never different…
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
We spent Christmas Eve at my parent’s place and enjoyed a meal of Rouladen, rote kohl and potatoes. My mom asked me to make a toast before the meal to remember those in our family who aren’t with us anymore. We raised our glasses and thought about those no longer living and those too far away to join us. I looked around the table at my brother, Michael, his wife, Heather, their son Spencer, Heather’s parents, Alice and Horace, my daughter, Michaela and my parents and said, “… you know some people think Christmas is about presents, but I think the best gifts are right around this table, family is better than any gift and I am so glad we’re all together…” Clink, clink…
Christmas Day was hosted by Michael and Heather and we enjoyed turkey with all the trimmings. It’s amazing how hot a house gets when there are 9 people in there and the oven has been on all day! I tell ya, the whole holiday vacation, there was no shortage of food! Michael said a heart-felt toast (almost as good as mine on the previous day wink wink)
Breakfast at La Vieux Chateau
La Vieux Chateau is the favourite, hands-down restaurant in Hawkesbury, Ontario. It’s owned and operated by a local family (awesome people) and Dad likes to treat us to breakfast there. Almost every morning we went into town to have breakfast as a family and I really enjoyed meeting the locals.
The Storm
We weren’t sure if we would make it back to Calgary on the morning of our scheduled flight. Montreal saw a record 48 cm of snow and morning flights had been canceled. But my brother braved the 55 km to my parent’s house to pick us up and bring us to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 6:45pm but we didn’t board until 8:30 and then it was too slippery for the fuel truck to come fill the plane! Ahh eventually we took off and landed 3 hours later than our original landing time. What the heck if we’d left on time I would not have met the coolest 87 year-old lady from Barbados and I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of sitting in the bar with my daughter!
Driving Michaela Home
On the 29th, I drove Michaela back home to Camrose ( a 3 1/2 hour drive) and along the way, as we had become accustomed to eating breakfast out, we stopped at Smitty’s for a breakfast brunch in Red Deer. It’s always hard to take her home and it was wierd the next day how quiet it was at my place. Still I’m grateful for the time we spent together and as I type these words, a smile is tugging at the corners of my mouth as I remember Oma dancing to Gangnam Style in the dining room inspiring Michaela and I to invent very odd and new dance moves to this song.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too and remember it doesn’t matter how little you have, if you have family you are rich.
~ THE HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~
I’d love to hear some of your Christmas snippets, please share them below and Mom the link below is for you!
elizabeth2560 said:
Seems like you had a great time. Love the photos too
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dianasschwenk said:
Thanks Elizabeth!
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artsifrtsy said:
Sounds like a great holiday except for all those metric measurements – snow in cms – I’m so confused:)
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dianasschwenk said:
haha well 48 cm sounds way more ominous than 19.2 inches!
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artsifrtsy said:
It sure does! Not that 19 inches is anything to sneeze at.
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elizabeth2560 said:
Ahh… metric…
Having just spent four weeks in the UK ….I cannot understand why some countries are still stuck back in the complicated imperial system.
Metric is so much easier x 10 x10 x10
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dianasschwenk said:
We switched when I was in grade 7ish. At the time I wasn’t a happy camper but it’s all good now!
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artsifrtsy said:
The thing that trips up us yanks (an probably Brits) is conversion of everything we currently use. 1.09 qts., 2.2 lbs., none of them are easy 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
We did it in Canada – it can be done! But man took me some years to get used to it…
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artsifrtsy said:
When I was in school they made a valiant effort here, that’s when they added metric measurements to all of our products. We were all learning the conversions, the public just wouldn’t make the move. We’re stubborn like that.
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dianasschwenk said:
oh they let you choose there, I see, interesting hahaha!
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elizabeth2560 said:
Agreed, but once the conversion takes place you stop thinking in the old system and it becomes much easier.
Ah well … it remains one way that the US is behind us I suppose. 🙂 🙂
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mindfuldiary said:
You know those chairs in malls are for “poor-men-dragged-along” and elderly folks?! 😀 Nice to meet another last minute shopper….every year on 23rd I run in stores like a ticinkg bomb is chasing me. You’re so right, family is all that matters! Sounds and looks like you’ve had some really great time.
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dianasschwenk said:
Why should men and seniors get all the seating??? We had an awesome time – I loved every minute!
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stuffitellmysister said:
Love the photos and the stories, too!
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dianasschwenk said:
Thanks it was a great time!
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mrs fringe said:
Sounds like it was an amazing holiday, so glad to see this! 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
It was fun and in talking to others at work, snow storm and all, I probably had the best holiday of all!
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this is lemonade said:
Sounds like a vibrant and eventful holiday time with your family. Since you mentioned Oma dancing to Gangnam Style in the dining room, I keep hearing the guy singing Opa Gangnam Style lol 😛
Family is priceless. There is never enough time and it’s always all over much too soon. Glad you made many happy memories to finish off 2012.
Here’s to a wonderful 2013 to you and yours xx
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dianasschwenk said:
I’m told Opa is brother in Korean and my brother kept singing opa gangbang style! LOL
Happy 2013 to you too!
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Wyrd Smythe said:
I think the expression goes, You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. Or someething like that.
Sweet toast! (And she says she isn’t lyrical!)
48 cm… well, that’s like less than an inch, isn’t it? 😐
You stopped at Smitty’s for breakfast? So sorry I wasn’t home!!
Sounds like you have a lovely Christmas! Happy New Year!!
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dianasschwenk said:
19.2 inches! 😉
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Wyrd Smythe said:
Oh, you Canadians and your metric humor (which you probably spell humour)! You can’t fool me, those little centi-thingies are tiny! You probably mean 1.92 inches or even 0.192 inches, right? 😆 😆
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dianasschwenk said:
yeah something like that! LOL love your humoUr!
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Wyrd Smythe said:
“There is no ‘I’ in humour!”
But there is a “U”! 😀
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dianasschwenk said:
🙂
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cyclingrandma said:
Glad all went well with your trip there and back. Lovely stories and photos.
Happy 2013!
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dianasschwenk said:
Thanks Lisa and same to you!
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bodhisattvaintraining said:
sounds like a lovely time Diana 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
It was wonderful – thank you!
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Louise G. said:
ok — not sure what the ‘it always gets better’ refers to 🙂 I meant to write (it’s early!) — it’s always different — lol not even sure what that means, but I do love your photos, and your toast was perfect!
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dianasschwenk said:
thanks LOL what is never different is that I always ‘last minute shop’!
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Louise G. said:
Love this — FYI — it always gets better 🙂
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