I'm an AUNT!

Hi Everyone!

Here's your note--you can swing on by effie's blog to check out the details!!

She is beautiful! (I've edited and put her name there now too, I was running on only a few hours sleep-teehee!!)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas (a little late!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you had a great Christmas. Mine was fun. I've been playing with a new camera--I'll show you pics soon! (Can't do that here at the library!)

No news on my sister Effie yet! Soon!

An age old question

If the Christmas tree falls in the living room while everyone's asleep, does it make a noise??

See, Monday- Kirk and I went and bought the tree.
Tuesday- Kirk set up the tree, Pol and I put lights on the tree and decorated it.
Tuesday night- tree fell down- Naomi woke up, but the noise she heard couldn't have been the falling of the tree- could it? THAT noise probably woke her, and she heard something else make its final thud (that didn't sound like a tree falling!) And then she heard something that sounded a little like the bell on the kitty-cat's collar!

Wednesday- Naomi found a tree on the floor (not knowing what noise it was that she heard when she woke up at 1:30am), told Kirk. He re-set it up, Naomi and Kirk picked up ornaments, Naomi swept up broken things, and then in the evening Naomi reapplied the lights and garland.

But is there noise when a tree falls? Could the tree have made noise that I heard (and subsequently woke me up)???

Heehee!

My time in Chatham is almost up. I'm going to miss it here...I've gotten used to parking down the street and walking between/around big machines to get to the front door. Thanks again Kirk and Pauline for having me to stay!!!

I'll miss it down here!

Some late-ish wishes

Ah...looking at my calendar I see I've fallen behind!!!

Happy Birthday to--Adam, Heather and belatedly- Jocelyn and Matthew! Hope you had some good parties!

Happy Anniversary to-- Aunt Nancy and Uncle John! (Hope that you had a great day!!)

Some Notes About Caroling

Caroling... I went caroling this weekend. What fun! And what an interesting time it was!

This year I went caroling in London, Ontario. The ~2 feet of snow from the previous weekend had all but melted making the walking a little odd- no tromping through snow!! Some added excitement- I help a flashlight for the guitar-player to read the chords for the songs! (Tracey held an umbrella for a bit!!)

For the first time in a long time I caroled to random strangers (we usually go out at home to our neighbours on the street) and what a time it was!

One house felt like a grand success, and it was our first random "they have lights on and Christmas decorations" stop- a mom and three little kiddies listened.

Next few tries-- not so good, but that didn't stop us from singing as we walked!

Duplexes- difficult to figure out for caroling- must have new plan for next time!

We wowed a lady near the end- and then, as we started late we felt it was time to end (being shortly after 9pm!)

Then it was back to the church to decorate Gingerbread men/women. (Highlights- John Deere Man, huge smiles...lots of fun! Pictures to come!)

Christmas Blogworld Cookie Exchange (ETC!)

Favorite holiday recipes

Well... At our house we always made gingerbread houses when we were growing up, and last year some of my friends and I got together and made a great one-- only problem is, I'm not able to find the recipe I used-- one of my moms-- but I'll post it once I find it!

Special traditions

A special tradition is: Hanging the Christmas cards around the house on string- lining the walls!

Also- while driving to Christmas Eve service we would split up the car/van into two groups and each side would have to count the number of houses decorated with lights on their side. Some years the numbers were HUGE!

Favorite gift to give

Hugs, homemade cookies, a difficult one- figuring out what to make for our $2-5 make-it-gift!

What you wear to "decorate" yourself

I don't really decorate myself all that much- at times I have been caught with antlers on my head, (with a matching shirt to effie!) . Or earings- depending on where they are and where I am- I don't know if I have any festive earings here or not!

Anything else you'd like to tell us about your holiday celebration

Hehe-- I'd like to decorate the big trucks out front with Christmas lights....

I'll be home for Christmas

An Early few Wishes...

Cause I'm not sure whether I'll get to play online this weekend!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

A song...that you all may recognize: (sing with me!)

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Evelyn and Dad!
Happy Birthday tooooo yououou!

And God's blessings too!

Signs, signs, everywhere signs!

Hehe...

I just had to share this one with you-- you can continue singing the song in your head whilst I continue my story-- While walking near "work" (not sure if it was on my way home or not) I noticed this photocopy spot. I don't know about you, but I don't think this sign was very good advertisement!

Copies a slow as... (molassas? in january? flowing up hill?) hehe

What fun signs have you seen lately? I know- everyone's had that email with the funny ones- slap one down here in the comment section.

So I took off my hat, said, "Imagine that! Me working fer you!"

(I like all sorts of music--here's hoping Tracey brings along a few new selections for my car tomorrow-- my driving home from Ottawa and then down to Chatham, and then the trip to Windsor sure got me through a lot of cds...need new, fresh, music!)

Suggestions?

Just call me ...

I've heard many strange renditions of my name in the past:

Neigh-oh my
Nye-oh my
Namomi
Omi
(Elmo)
Na
etc...(We wont go anywhere near how people like to spell my name!) These attempts usually sound like they've got the majority of the right letters in there- but yesterday- that was the strangest yet:

Joan

I guess...if you drop the i and m and read my name backwards (replacing the dropped letters with a j)...but I have no idea how he came up with it! I had even introduced myself as Neigh-oh-me (spelt so you can pronounce it properly!) but somewhere, from trying to read my name off of something I was wearing, not the name-tag, mind you! he managed to decide that my name was Joan. Just Joan

Here in Chatham, I've also had other issues with my name...here at work, my supervisor wants to call me Natalie, my last name was truncated to Klag---who knows what's going on in this crazy town!

(Other than the fact that it's been chilly today (-6, windchill of -13) and I'll have to brush the snow off my car to head home tonight!!)

Playing

I was just thinking. There are all sorts of big machines sitting outside of the house I'm in. (Just out the window, really.) I was thinking it would be funny to string them up with Christmas lights. Not that I'd leave them on the machines, as the light strings might get in the way of the mobility of the machines...but I just think it would be funny to have them all strung up, twinkling.

There's a reason there are lots of big machines out front. They're re-doing the pipes in the street, so that also explains the BIG hole that's outside. I certainly wouldn't want to fall into it! It's rather deep, and wide.

I think this decorating thought came up while I was driving back from Windsor today. What I was initially thinking was I could put up lights on the outside of the house that I'm staying in, but then that changed as I thought of the new neighbours on the street!

I was also enjoying some Beatles in the car today. They are fun to drive to!

Hi to Sharlene! Thanks again for the visit. Sorry to all the other Windsor-ites that I didn't get the chance to see. Hopefully I'll see you sometime soon!

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello