Part of the package we signed up for at our park was an extended concrete pad and a 10x12 shed. Tom and John got to work turning the hollow shell into a new space for Tom to work and play. They have turned this---
With some awesome manpower...
Into this....
Pretty cool. All the comforts of home. If he is bad I will be ordering a futon. Great job guys.
John and Judy joined us for dinner on Christmas Day. The turkey was carved.
And we all ate far too much.
Gifts got opened.
On Boxing Day we headed into Walmart in Lake Wales to replace our 8 year old dumb TV with a new Vizio 42" smart tv. Then to Chili's for dinner. Two can eat for $20.00. Includes an appetizer to share and a wide choice of entré. Great deal.
Today I made a big pot of turkey soup. I took some over to our neighbors and the rest we shared with the Hollinger's tonight for dinner. Turkey left overs are done which will make Tom real happy. He is not a big turkey fan.
Just have to share this picture of my beautiful granddaughter Taylor and her beau Cam. They were skiing at Jasper on Boxing Day. If you remember last year she went sking at Jasper on Boxing Day and broke her ankle. She is proud to report she is intact this time around. Good job Pookeroo.
Tomorrow is another day. Time to get the diet back in gear!!
Love to all. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas also. Take care and until next time. Safe travels.
Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you have a fabulous day. We are missing our kids and grandkids today for sure but know they are all happy and healthy. Twyla, Joe, Jake and Karmen are in Lloydminster spending Christmas with Joe's family. Taylor and Cam had an early Christmas with her family and will spend Christmas with Cam's parents. Jennifer is off today to Thailand for some fun in the sun with a girlfriend. Stuart and Heajin are going to spend time with friends.
Us? We are in Florida enjoying the beautiful weather. We joined John and Judy at their church for the Christmas Eve service again this year. They have a very nice service there. Some beautiful singing voices performing solos.
John and Judy are coming for turkey dinner to our place tonight. The smallest turkey we could find was 15.5 pounds so we will be eating leftovers for awhile. I invited one of our American neighbors to join us. They are lovely people that we got to know last winter and we did not want them to be alone. But they have plans so they will have to help us with left overs...lol
Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you feel all the love that comes with this special day. If you are traveling. - travel safe.
The sale of our house closed on Thursday and we hit the road at 3:00 pm to start our journey south. It was hard to say goodbye to Stuart and Heajin. We stayed with them for the past several days since we moved the furniture out of the house.
We crossed the border at Windsor/Detroit. A quick crossing without much hassle. We drove through some rain, mist and a skiff of snow through Michigan and Ohio. We got as far as Lexington, Kentucky by 1:00 am Friday and pulled into a Walmart parking lot. It was only 27' F. So damn cold. We climbed into the trailer and got a few hours sleep. On the road again in the morning by 7:00 am. Our first night of being homeless and we had to sleep in a Walmart parking lot!!! Lol
The drive through the mountains of Kentucky is always pretty. A bit foggy this morning but still nice.
Moving down into Tennessee the sun starting to shine for the first time and the temperature rose above freezing making for a much nicer drive. The mountains of Tennessee are much higher than in Kentucky and the rock face is a different color.
Traffic was heavy in spots. We hit this in Georgia. Backed up for miles!!
We spent Friday night in a rest stop south of Lake City, Florida. It was about 60' that night so the sleep was much better. We arrived in our resort at 10:30 am on Saturday. A fast trip for sure. We made great time. John and Judy were here to welcome us to our winter home. We got set up and they were so kind as to provide lunch, dinner and drinks to the tired travelers. So wonderful to have our good friends waiting for us.
Today was getting organized and cleaned up after our trip. Get groceries and visit with all our neighbors that dropped by to say hi. Nice to see so many familiar faces again. Looking forward to another fun winter.
Until next time. - safe travels.
This morning we headed to Orillia to pick up Tara. Time to move her farther south to make our departure easier later this week. Of course we had a problem. Seems like a normal situation for us. We took up a bunch of stuff, put out the bedroom slide and got it all put away. Went to hook up the truck and the batteries were completely dead. I guess there was only enough juice to put our the bedroom slide to let me unpack clothes and put the slide back in. Our friend who has looked after her all summer boosted the batteries and we got hooked up and on our way. Thank you Tom and Christine again for keeping our baby on your acreage all summer.
We got to Milton Heights campground where we will keep her for a few days. This gets us past Toronto. Nice not to have to deal with the 400/401 when it is time to leave. They let us park right at the entrance, on concrete and headed in the right direction. Perfect spot. But guess what? The batteries are dead again and we could not raise the trailer. The park maintance man gave us another boost.
We unhooked and headed back to Stuart's for the evening. Seems strange to be homeless!!!
I guess tomorrow we go buy a couple new batteries. So the fun begins again!! Not sure rv'ing is all that is cracked up to be!
Friday was the big move day. Stuart arrived at 11:00 am with the Budget truck. It took a couple of hours to load. Then the drive to his house and a couple hours to unload. A lot of our furniture we are giving to him so the next move will not be as tough. We got all our goodies packed into the spare room in their basement and his shed. We got our spare bed set up in his spare bedroom so he now has a place for guests ... Like us!
We had to take the truck back to Newmarket and Stu had his car there. So Tom and I rode in the back of the truck. Tom stood all the way. Said it was like riding the subway in Toronto. There is a hatch that opens from the cab in to the truck. So when we got to the rental place Heajin got out of the passenger side. Tom and I climbed through the hatch and out the passenger door...lol. Like a clown car. How many people can climb out of the passenger seat of a two seater...?? Big fine if we got caught.
Stuart and Heajin took us out for a lovely dinner at The Keg to put a delicious finish to a hard day. We still have to go back to the house this week to pick up the last of our Florida things and clean the house. I refuse to leave a dirty house for the next people. I have to vacum up the tracks we made moving on Friday. Everything else has even cleaned out, washed and ready for the purchaser.
This morning it took a crane to get everyone out of bed. Lots of sore muscles and backs. Tom and Stuart worked on getting his garage organized while Haejin and I braved the Christmas shopping traffic in Barrie to pick up a few things. What a zoo!!!
Stuart and Haejin made this ladder ball game for us as a Christmas gift. Pretty cool. We will have lots of fun with this next summer. In the meantime they get to store that for us also...lol
Tonight we are off to Holland Landing for dinner with our friends Dave and Helen. It may be the last time we see them until spring unless Helen can talk Dave into heading for Florida again this winter for a while.
Tomorrow is moving day and this is what showed up this morning. Yesterday there was no snow to be seen but today was a different story.
Snowed all day. Thankfully Tom gave my favorite snow shovel to Stuart so I could not help move this snow. He had to do it all by himself. That will teach him to give stuff away too quickly. Anyway tomorrow is the day we move all our furniture and more boxes up to Stuart's to store in his basement for the next 18 months. The weather forecast says that this snow should all melt over the weekend. Here's hoping!!
Had a lovely surprise this evening. Helen Tsang who used to live next door And her son Nick dropped by for a visit. Nick was just a little guy when they moved in fresh from Hong Kong way back in 1991. He is a licensed pharmacist now but has decided he wants to be a doctor. So he headed back to school. He has two more years of medical school to go in Brisbane, Australia. He is home to visit his parents for Christmas. It was very nice to see them both.
Tomorrow should be fun!!
Twyla messaged me some pictures from Jake's birthday. Being they are so far away it is nice that technology allows me to be part of it.
Jake and one pal are trying out the ice while waiting for the rest of his friends to arrive. Joe is in the background with the quad at the fire pit.
After the skating it was beef on a bun, veggies, chips and dip. They did leave room for birthday cake.
Looks like he made a pretty good haul on the gifts.
Then it was back on the ice to wear off the cake before a Bon fire. Sounds like it was a success. Can't believe he is 12!! Twyla says he is eating her out of house and home. Look out for that big growth spurt that is not far away.
Wishing our grandson Jake a very happy birthday. He turned 12 yesterday. Boy the years are flying by.
We put our house on the market at the end of September. Since that time we have had over 50 showings. To start with we would leave when there was a showing. Even ate my soup in the parking lot at the community center one day as they called and gave us 20 minutes notice right at lunch time. Some days there were 3 or 4 showings and we got tired of having to leave. So we stopped.
It was awful living in a fish bowl. Having people tramping through your home every day. Having to keep everything so neat and tidy. Tom said "can't leave anything behind not even foot prints". It was pretty stressful.
We finally received an offer that was acceptable and the deal is done. Closing date is Dec 18. So now the packing, sorting and tossing out has begun. We have over 21 years of accumulation here. We have spent over 1/3 of our lives in this house. I guess we have really skewed the average haven't we. Yikes!!! I hope the new owners enjoy themselves here as much as we have. It has been a damned fine 21 years.
We will be storing everything that doesn't go to Florida for the winter in Stuart's basement. Good thing they bought a house recently!! We took a load of boxes and lawn furniture up today and got it all stowed away. Also the vette went up to spend the winter in his garage. Next will be more boxes and furniture to go. Last will be whatever we are taking south with us. Exciting!!
Our neighbors are all sad that we are leaving. Some even threatened to try scare away any potential buyers. The people next door said they would become the awful drunken Russians so no one would buy and we would have to stay. We will miss our neighbors for sure. Even Frank (but that is another story).
Twyla sent this picture of Karmen and her horse. What a beautiful Grand!! She is a sweetheart for sure. We love her to pieces.
We attended the Remembrance Day Service Sunday morning. A bit unsettling to see this on the Main Street of our town:
With the deaths of our two soldiers recently, on home soil, I guess they were not taking any chances. I saw three heavily armed swat police and there were likely more plus the police helicopter over head. This is not our norm and I hope to god it doesn't become so.
The service was poorly attended again this year. It is sad that so few come out to pay tribute to our veterans past and those that are currently serving in our armed forces. There were more in the parade then were watching.
Lots of cadets, firemen, police officers, veterans, knights of Columbus, Boy Scouts, etc.
Every year there are fewer of the WWII vets but those that can still come out. They get to ride on the vintage jeeps.
It was a cold and windy day. We were glad to get home and warm up. Then it was outside to rake up more leaves. Still more to come down but I think we are nearing the end. It is a good reason to be outside though. When you are working it doesn't feel so cold.
The Hollinger's arrived Sunday afternoon for a visit. We have not seen them since August so it was great to visit and get caught up. They are feeling the cold and are ready to start their trip south in a few days.
This morning we headed out for a 2 1/2 mile walk after breakfast to get the blood flowing before they headed for home. We will see them in Florida in a months time. Safe travels guys. Get the resort all warmed up for us. See you again soon.
Halloween was a bust here this year. The weather did not cooperate for the trick and treaters. It was rainy and cold. We had only 38 kids. Normally we get close to a hundred. There is a ton of chocolate left over. I am thinking that I may have to bury it in the back yard to keep from eating it. Let the squirrels get the big butt!!!
I did get this picture from a friend on Facebook that I had to share. These two are so damn cute. Might be Tom and I in a few years time enjoying the sunny south. Too adorable!!!
Saturday we woke up to our first snow of the season. Nice big flakes that melted when they hit so no accumulation. But a reminder that time is getting short until we head south. Still wearing my sandals. Not giving up yet. Stu and Heajin came for dinner . I had a big pot of Guinness stew to warm us up.
Today it is only about 6C but the sun is shining which makes life so much better. We got all the leaves raked and bagged. Still lots to come down. Wish they would all just blow next door!!
Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. Until next time - safe travels.
It is a sad state of affairs when our soldiers are killed on Canadian soil. This is just wrong!! They should be safe when they come home. We honor their memories and their commitment to our country. RIP gentlemen.
When the mason jars come out you know fall is here. We planted a half dozen cherry tomato plants last spring and had our fill of the delicious little guys all summer long. But the weather is turning colder and there has been frost overnight. There were lots of tomatoes left on the plants but they were all still green. Not one to waste anything I had my tomato assistant (Tom) pick them all for me.
Last night I chopped them all up, along with a bunch a onions and let them stew overnight. This morning I turned this:
Into this:
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