OCTOBER, 2013
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| Back to the arena's and grandson hockey! |
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| 10 year old Ben |
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| Ben's 8 year old brother Matthew |
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| Raising their sticks to celebrate the win |
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Matthew without the gear and with the ever-present
water bottle |
My, my, how all of their skills have improved over the years!
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| Ben and Matthew's 11 year old cousin Sean in net |
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| Nice save! |
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| Shaking hands at the end of the game |
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Back at the house - Sean (middle) and his two friends with Mom Tina
watching, while these 3 do their favourite thing.... |
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| Line up their technology and play games |
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Next day, some of our travelling friends get together at
our new local Peruvian restaurant for dinner, then they
return to our house for a Peruvian dessert |
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The heavily laden with berry bushes in the park next door
keep it colourful until spring when migrating birds come
and visit for a well-deserved feast |
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Mom and I are featured in a newspaper article about
celebrating Oktoberfest at Valley Vista where Mom lives |
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| Son Paul celebrates his 40th at our house |
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Matt and Ben gleefully discover that they are now as
tall or taller than "little Grandma". She has always
been a willing measuring stick to the children. |
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| Ben and Matt with their Dad |
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Our Uruguayan friend Margarita (lower right) visits Toronto,
to see her son Nick and daughter in law Lara (left side)
for a weekend, and we get invited to dinner in their
new apartment in a beautiful old area of Toronto. So much
fun to see Margarita after 3 years! |
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Ben (in orange) and friends about to terrorize the
neighbourhood on Hallowe'en |
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| Ben in full costume |
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| Clever costume Matthew! |
NOVEMBER, 2013
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I treat Mom and her Senior for Seniors companion, Susanne,
out for dinner and a theatre performance of The Vienna Boys Choir.
It was beyond wonderful! |
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| First snowfall, and look at those clouds! |
DECEMBER, 2013
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| Our first family Christmas party with Bob's family on December 1st |
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| A couple of new additions to the Habkirk clan this year |
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| Liam gave me the "hairy eyeball" all evening! |
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Dinner with the Feeney family, another of our adopted families,
in their newly renovated kitchen. |
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| Jeff is a fabulous cook and he took charge while the rest of us played |
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| Left to right: Vivienne, Sophie and Maddy await the feast |
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| Sous chef Jen, does as she's told by Chef Jeff |
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After dinner, Bob and Jeff go outside to their wonderful fireplace
where Sophie cuddles up to Bob and falls asleep |
Back in September, everyone in the family heard from our nephew Craig and his wife Mary, who live in Calgary. Mary had this wonderful idea of a Family Photobomb contest and those of us who agreed to participate, would receive a "friend" in the mail. We were to take photo's of this "friend" in the most creative ways, those of us participating would get to vote, and the top 3 winners would be announced at our family Christmas on December 21st. We all got busy and had a ton of fun. Here are the top three winners, plus a few others, so you can see how silly it got.
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First Prize: Mom, who hasn't driven a car since she lost
her vision 30 years ago, with the alien as her eyes.
She just loved our photo shoot, and you would think
she'd won an Oscar when she was given the most votes. |
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| Second Place: Our grandsons Matthew and Ben |
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3rd place: Brother-in-law Elliot, a typical east coaster who loves
his beer, finds their alien raiding his beer fridge. |
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| Son Steve, Tina and Sean...very cool photoshopping |
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| One of our submissions. Two aliens peering in our friends window. |
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Although one would think this was photoshopped,
this is the real deal (although I believe it to be physically
impossible)....our daughter Rachel, the yoga teacher,
doing her stuff with her little friend. Rachel's husband
did his own yoga routine with the green guy as well....very
impressive. All pics were impressive! |
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One of Mary and Craig's submissions, and definitely one that
should have received top votes..... with Toronto's less than
illustrious mayor, now known all over the world
for un-mayor-like behaviour (crack anyone?).
Mary and Craig called this "Rob Ford's Gang".
Fantastic photoshopping.
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Rachel and Peter, Craig and Mary and Jan and Elliot were not with us to celebrate on that day, however with the use of technology, we were all connected to enjoy Mary's announcement of the winners. Mom just cannot comprehend how she is able to hold a little phone or look at a computer screen and talk to her loved ones. Just think of all the changes she has experienced over 95 years on this earth.
December 21, 2013
Since Mom moved into the retirement residence, we have been celebrating Christmas in the party room there. This year, following major renovations to their home, Steve and Tina offered up their home for the party. The reno's made it the most fantastic place for a party. Mom was wandering around in total comfort, laughing, singing and loving every moment with her family. We all had a wonderful time! Thank you Steve and Tina!!
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| Pretty evident Mom is having a terrific time |
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| Tina, in their gorgeous new kitchen |
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| Steve snacking before the crowd arrives |
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| Grandma and grandson having a chat |
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My brother Wayne, with his two grandaughter's, Alex (left)
and Madison |
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| Alex and Madison's big brother (and soccer star), Sam |
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| Wayne and Ev's son's Kevin (left) and Brian (father of Sam, Madison and Alex) |
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| The dining room looks beautiful |
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Technology brings us all together. That is daughter Rachel
peeking at us through Bob's iPhone from their home in Victoria, with their
dogs in the background. |
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| Sister Jan on Sean's iPad, from Miramichi, New Brunswick |
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| Nephew Craig in Calgary |
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Bob brings Mom, Rachel and Peter, and Craig
and Mary together via technology, as Mom receives
her little trophy for first prize. |
Mary revealed our "friend" for 2014 and everyone is excited for the photo competition. Let the games begin!
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| The family, minus seventeen who couldn't be with us. |
Leaving Steve and Tina's, we found the driveway was slick with thick ice and it was raining. The major highways and streets were fine, however as we approached Mom's retirement residence, exploding hydro transformers lit up the night sky in an eery green, and when we arrived, discovered generators powered the hallway lights and heating for the building, with no lighting in the apartments. We left Mom with the attendants who were putting her to bed, and a trusty flashlight to guide her way, should she get up in the middle of the night. By morning, their power was back on while thousands of people in the province were facing cold and dark days and nights.
December 22 - Our neighbourhood devastation from the ice storm
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| The view from our bedroom window |
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| That's our car beside the tree |
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| See how close the branch came? |
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Toronto lost 20% of it's canopy and over
300,000 were without heat and hydro. |
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| Leaves captured in ice |
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| Bob under the icicles taking a pic of me and me of him. |
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Emergency vehicles in front of our house checking
for downed "live" hydro wires. We were fortunate on our street.
There were none. |
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| Eerie beauty of ice on trees in the early morning sun |
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| Almost every street in Toronto is blocked by police tape |
Christmas morning
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| Dear and silly friend Yves with equally silly Bob |
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Yves sitting on Santa's lap before he opens his Christmas
stocking. Can you believe that this guy is a very respected
RCMP officer |
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...and me and my lovely friend Linda about to open
our Santa stockings |
Later that morning, I get a call that Mom has been sent to the ER at the local hospital. The diagnosis was cellulitis, a staph infection that can be very, very dangerous situation. How this little 95 year old woman overcomes these situations, I'll never know. She is a miracle woman! She was released, put on antibiotics and began her recovery at her home.
When I arrive home that evening, I discover that Yves, Linda and Bob have prepared the Christmas feast, and we sit down to a wonderful evening of friendship.
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Linda and I go out for an evening walk to
admire the beauty of the homes and the quiet of
the street |
Boxing Day family gathering at our house
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| Left to right: Marcin, Jenn, Tina, Linda, Yves and Matthew |
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| Left to right: Ben, Paul, Matthew and Maggie |
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| Ben, masking his identity |
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Jenn and Marcin invite us out for dinner with Jenn's friend
Linda and we go to our local Peruvian restaurant. They
are still talking about the experience. |
Walking home from Pisco, we discover the clean-up crew cutting the tree.
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Do you know what this is on our family room window? The
first time it happened, I was doing yoga sun salutations. As I was
folding forward, I saw a bird flying through the school yard
behind our house, and heading straight to the house. With
my head at my knees, I heard a loud bang, popped up, and
saw a peregrine falcon on the ground, shaking it's head. My instinct
was to run outside and perform my usual CPR; probably not
a good idea. He jumped up on our picnic table and flew away
This is the imprint his dusty feathers made on the window...a perfect image of
the body and the wings. It happened again last week; either it's the same
bird whose brain is addled enough he doesn't get it, or it's a new one.
I have added a glass sun catcher to the window, to hopefully prevent
the death of a most magnificent bird. |
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Tina, Sean and Bob following another exciting
and successful hockey game. Good job Sean! |
