Sophie's Story

I was going to write about why New Year's is my favourite holiday. Then I read over the column I wrote last year and realised that I had covered that territory already. It must be an occupational hazard. When you write once a week for nearly a year and a half you will eventually repeat yourself unless you keep track of what you are doing. Last year I talked about what we are going to graze on. We are having grazing food again, but slightly healthier grazing food. I'm making homemade chicken nuggets, a cheese ball and tuna dip. We got a small veggie tray and a small cheese and cracker tray. I have my usual bottle of Asti wine. I also talked about my hope that we would be adopting a kitten soon. Colby has spent his first Christmas with us. He did all right except that this morning he chewed through a small cord on my Christmas tree lights. Fortunately I can splice the wire and save the lights. Carrie will be spending New Year's Eve with her friends. I never imagined l

At the beginning of the year C and I do some planning for the new year. We make a budget, we talk about things we would like to do the following year. An example of this would be painting a room or places or things we would like to see. We also discuss major purchases we'd like to make and when the best time would be to buy these items and how they will be paid for. We organize the items in order of priority from necessity to luxury. The priority list is subject to change depending on things that happen during the year. In 2009 we planned to buy an elliptical and a big screen TV they were down on the list as luxuries. This changed when C was diagnosed with mild liver disease and advised to lose weight and keep it off. Both items went to the top of the list. (It's much more fun to use the elliptical if you can watch something good on TV.) The following are a few items I would like to buy in 2010 along with why I want them. Dishwasher-- I would like to buy this as soon as possibl

My well made plans for Christmas Day fell apart late on Christmas Eve when we got a panicked phone call from Denise, the oldest of my step-children. She had to work and was planning on leaving Nic, her two year old son, with her mother who got called in to work unexpectedly. Could Nic come over and stay the night? Carrie and her sister Carmen would take care of them. (Carmen, by the way is not her real name, she has long dark hair and dark eyes and reminds me of the tempestuous gypsy from Bizet's opera.) I had some misgivings, but agreed as Denise was desperate. We don't see Nic much. Denise has an older daughter as well and is very busy working. I was afraid that Nic would be frightened at being left with people he didn't know. I was right, a half hour later Terri dropped off a sobbing Nic who tried to cling to her, She pried him off and handed him to Carmen and took off. Carrie and Carmen got him interested in a toy and some cookies and he settled down. He slept wit

It looks like C and I will be alone on Christmas Eve. This is not unusual as my step-children usually spend the holiday with their mother. I feel sorry for kids these days. It used to be that you didn't have to make decisions like this until you were married and had to decide which set of parents any given holiday would be spent with. With divorce being so common kids have to make these choices at a younger age. It's worse if you are married. Depending on how many parents have remarried there can be up to two sets of in-laws instead of just one set. That's another discussion for another time. I have to work Christmas Eve. The store usually closes at four in the afternoon so it is a short day for me. When I get home I'll have a little time to relax before we eat what is our traditional dinner, Chicken Parmesan. I'm not sure when this became our traditional meal. It's easy to make which is good since I'm usually working on Christmas Eve. After we've e

December is not my favourite month. I know I'm not alone in this,I bet most retail workers and United States Postal Service employees share this dislike. This is supposed to be a time of year for joy. Peace on earth good will to others. Not for me. December for me is 27 days of being overwhelmed punctuated by the occasional good day. I feel like I'm running at top speed, getting very little done and not enjoying any of it. We do have a tree purchased at a local nursery. The tree is in a stand and in water. It has lights on it no other decorations. The decoration are all in boxes scattered over the living room. We were going to put them up on Sunday, but it took more than an hour to get the tree up. C wasn't feeling well and went to bed. I could have put them up by myself except that we got an eight foot tree this year and I can't reach the top. I also prefer it to be family activity. Yesterday evening two young men from C's church dropped off a plate of Chris

Nearly every year for as long as I can remember I've been making or helping to make Christmas cookies. I can't even really remember when I started doing this. When I was younger there was a full array of treats to be baked cut out decorated sugar cookies, Russian teacakes, dipped pretzels, cracker peanut butter sandwiches dipped in chocolate, chocolate mint bars and for a few years,fudge. As the years went by the list became smaller. Now all that I make is cut out sugar cookies and the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kiss in the middle. Last year I did this alone. I still had fun and the cookies got baked, but it is more fun when you have someone else to help. This year I got it. Mariah, I call her my daughter-in-law as she is married to my stepson, expressed an interest in helping me this year. She's never baked anything except the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies. We set up a Saturday that both of us had off. I asked her and Jake if there wer

I was paging through the mountain of catalogs I get this time of year. I had already found a few gifts and a few things that I bought for myself when I happened upon "The Elf on the Shelf". The Elf on the Shelf is a tradition started by a woman to answer a question her children asked, "How does Santa really know if we are being naughty or nice?" The answer came in a small elf that arrives around Thanksgiving. He watched what the children did and would report back to Santa each night. He would come back in the morning perched in a new spot for the children to find. There are two rules. The children couldn't touch the elf, so he wouldn't lose his power to go back to the North Pole and he can't talk to the children only Santa and the adults. He would, of course,be happy to listen to the children if they wanted to talk to him. I liked the little guy and I'm always on the lookout for a Christmas tradition that we could start. It's easier for young

I stayed up way too late the other night. We were flipping through the TV channels to see what was on when we landed on VH1. I haven't watched VH1 in a long time. I think that last time I watched it they were still playing music videos most of the time. Now they have shows and movies with musical themes. The show we stopped on was 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s. I grew up in the 80s. (Yes, that is dating myself, isn't it?) I was anti social back then (some would say I still am) and spent most of my free time reading books and listening to the radio. I spent my Saturday afternoon listening to America's Top 40. A lot of the time I had the chart memorized. Needless to say we stayed tuned in to VH1. When C changed the channel during a commercial break I loudly protested and kept it up until he changed it back. I wanted to hear the Weather Girls sing 'It's Raining Men'. By the time he finally changed it it was too late. They had already moved on to t