SNAP THAT

The year 2022 is closing out and the new year is being ushered in.  I want to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year! I've been thinking about a new theme word for 2023.  My thoughts have been mulling around new beginnings. Fancy words like commencement   and  recrudescence  were considered but didn't quite do it for me.  (Commencement means both “the ceremony of conferring degrees or granting diplomas at the end of the academic year” and also “an act or instance of  commencing ; beginning,” reflecting an earlier use of the word. It comes from the Latin  cominitiāre  (“to begin”). Recrudescence means “breaking out afresh or into renewed activity.” As the Latin root suggests, this word was first used in medical contexts to describe a  recurrence  of symptoms after a period of  remission , but it later took on a more rosy sense referring to the revival of something good.) I'm still dealing with activities from years past including 2022.  So new beginnings doesn&#

Each year many of us take stock of the year just passed and reflect on where we spent our energies. We also make a few plans about what we'd like to do in the coming year. Some make resolutions, some set goals, some simply choose a word to guide them through the year.  I haven't set any resolutions since my early 20s when I was still in university. I stopped setting them after I realized I wasn't very good at keeping them for more than a few weeks. Over a decade ago I started setting goals in various areas of life (physical, spiritual, financial etc.) and at the end of the year I would take stock of what I was able to accomplish. This system worked very well for me. Then I heard about people selecting a word for the year and I thought it sounded like a good idea. At the time I think I was also under a lot of time constraints due to my dear late mom's growing health needs and challenges. Setting a word for my intentions for the year worked well enough though I think it&#

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, I hope this post finds you well and in good health and that you didn't suffer at all or too much during the wind, snow storms and flooding that I've heard about on the news over the past week or so. Mother Nature really packed a punch! Thankfully my household escaped relatively unscathed. We did get several snowstorms within a few days just before Christmas, and again just after Christmas.  The heating system was not able to keep the house warm for a few days so it was very cold but we survived. The lead up to Christmas was nice. This year I was prepared early and had the tree and decorations up at the end of November. Christmas cards were mailed and gifts wrapped in early December. These days I don't have quite so many gifts to wrap because we lost a few loved ones over the years and have fewer small children to consider.  However not all my time was spent on preparations. I was able to get together with several friends and one family mem

A very Merry Christmas   to all of you!  I wish you a safe and happy Christmas. 🎄🎄🎄 Image credit here  Please visit again soon 🙏🙏🙏

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, Vancouver has been experiencing a cold snap this past few days and we also had a lot of snow over a few different days.  Today and yesterday were super cold. I went out Monday and had a good long walk home. On my way back I snapped the baubles on the outdoor trees. I think they look lovely and brighten the otherwise bare branches and gray sky.  We had a fairly large amount of snowfall overnight Sunday so you can see a large amount of snow on the sidewalks. Monday night the snow began falling again and we woke up to the patio trees and furniture heavy laden.  I didn't go out today because I knew it would be quite chaotic today on the roads and it is hit or miss as to whether the stores are open. In fact I went to a shop in the neighbourhood on Sunday night and when I got there I discovered it had closed an hour early.  This is what many businesses do during times of storm. It helps everyone to get home safely.  I hope to go food shopping on Wednesd

Hello and welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we hope that 4 questions help you to blog, meet people and think about things in general.      Let's talk about the countdown to Christmas or Chanukah or both! 1. What was the countdown to the holidays like for you as a child?  Special projects at school.. at home.. with friends?      Was a big deal made of the month in your family or town?  What does your countdown look like now? Christmas season was always super busy for kids. We not only had Christmas programs at school to rehearse and prepare for but we also had Christmas programs at church to rehearse for the congregation. December was a nice, celebratory month in my town but I don't recall big and ostentatious Christmas displays. It was a small town after all and most people who decorated did so modestly. We children looked forward to getting the presents under the tree each year and to having a feast at Christmas dinner and all kind of snack foods through

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, I hope December is going well for you and your loved ones. Things have been rather hectic for me in this month as I prepare for Christmas and try to get a lot of other business out of the way as well. I'm sure most of you can relate. Soon the big day will be here and until then I am trying to get together with as many friends and family as I can before Christmas arrives. The actual Christmas Day will be a quiet affair with me making some kind of dinner, probably our traditional turkey dinner since we just had ham earlier this week. Jonah is working a lot this month and only has Christmas Day off so our first Christmas together will be rather limited. My local brother will be able to join us for dinner. My nephew will host in-laws from Europe so I won't see him for awhile. We made a point of getting together a week or so ago and we had a nice visit out at the university. Today I want to share the beautiful light display from the Festival of Lig