Happy New Year

May you all have the most wonderful, magical and blessed 

New Year

in 

2014!

See you in 2014.

Winter Solstice & Merry Christmas!

From this....

to this....

Right on time for winter solstice which I seldom pay attention to, except this day gains in more popularity as weather news item like this.

 I went out early evening on an errand and found it a bit hard to navigate. It was rather icy in places. It was also very wet at the street corners. One has to jump across puddles. I used my walking poles to navigate the sidewalks.

From here on in I'll look forward to the increased daylight hours.

Have a great weekend!

Enjoy your Christmas too!

Our World Tuesday
 

December Sunsets

"The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy."

Psalm 65:8 (NIV)

I captured these photos of the sunset on Monday evening.  

 

Even the hanging telephone wires couldn't dim the beauty of the sky.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday today.

Enjoy your weekend and have a Merry Christmas!

Wordless

Joining Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Party

I'm a bit over due for posting this week. I have been very busy with buying and wrapping some gifts and making preparations for my mother's third move in the facility where she lives. As always things did not go off without a few glitches concerning the move but it is done and she is more or less settled. Now I pray she is going to be okay health wise until we can move her for good to a new facility.  She is eager to get back to where she used to live but because she is already in a facility she is not at the top of the wait list.  If you can remember to say a prayer about her health and about her new place coming up soon that would be wonderful.

Some of the crowd at the Christmas party I attended.  A lot of Asians were represented.

In the meantime, I've also been preparing for Christmas here at home. I posted most of my Christmas cards some weeks back and put up my small decorations around the condo.  I set up my small tree earlier in the week but only just managed to trim the tree on Saturday.  This year it is all in gold tones.

The weather here has warmed up a lot since the cold winds of over a week ago. The bird bath outside had ice in it last week and this week it is back to water.  I'm sure the birds will appreciate it.I can turn my heat off again as it gets a bit too warm inside now.  If I need to take the chill off the air, I can put on the fireplace or cover up.  Of course, I finally covered the vent in my front room which had been blasting very cold air for about 2 weeks. It took a while to move everything from the corner of my living room, tape up the vent with duct tape and heavy duty cardboard, then move everything back in the corner but it is done.  The difference is amazing.

I had a fun time earlier in the week when I went to an annual Christmas party. Apparently this multicultural Christmas Party has been an annual event for about 15 years.  This is the first year I've known about and attended it. I had fun with my friends from Tanzania. It's always nice to experience Christmas through the eyes and delight of children.

The back of the venue.  There were also a lot of people to my right but I didn't capture that section.

I  was able to go with a number of friends from the neighbourhood and sat in the audience with the family from a place near Mwadui, Tanzania.

The little boy was clearly excited about something on stage.  I think it was the Persian dancer.

These beautiful Vietnamese ladies performed two different dances. There were several other performers but most were moving too fast for me to get good photos.

There was free food reflecting a variety of ethnic groups (East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Canadian), cultural entertainment from a number of countries (China, Mongolia, Iran, Vietnam, and Canada), many beautiful door prizes and a Santa with toys for all the children under the age of 9.

A dancer from Mongolia.She danced to a slow song but her movements were lithe and quick.

Of course a Christmas party would not be complete without a visit from Santa and toys for the children. They were excited about that. Santa is behind the tree

The little boy from Tanzania really enjoyed the lady from Persia (Iran) and was grooving to the music.
 I captured this video so I could share it with his parents.

Holiday signage at a local, popular restaurant.

Joining with Our World Tuesday.