purple room vents: SLOW BUT SURE

Well we had a quiet but lovely time. Xmas eve it was just the three of us. We exchanged all our gifts. I got a beautiful pendant of Morano glass from Monte and a skookum warm blanket from Ange that has my name all over it!!! I love it. Plus she gave me a bunch of my fave candy, all sorts, bridge mix, wintergreen lifesavers, Coca Cola tic tacs, orange tic tacs, two bags of smarties. Delicious!!!!! We had snacks and spinach dip and we sat around and visited and stared at our sad decrepit thing that was claiming to be our xmas tree.

Xmas day was a cooking day, my fave. I had made the stuffing the day before. So turkey went in, in my wok, everything else got cooked and dinner was on the table by six. And it was eaten by six ten. And Ange and Monte had that kitchen clean by six thirty. And I mean clean...right down to the last item. What a treat that was. By after suppertime my butt was at the end of it's rope!!!

The next day was clean the house and get the rest of the guest room done. You may remember the picture of that mess in there. Well I cleaned it up and I have put a picture below. I also made a couple of apres turkey shepherd's pies for dinner the next night with Stan and Antonia. Prep prep prep!!! It makes the day of a lot easier.

They arrived around five o'clock the next day. It was so good to see them....and their dog, a very hyper dog. They had to keep her on a leash the whole time in the house.

People and their dogs are so funny and I don't mean that in a mean way. Everyone has such different ideas on how to manage their dogs.

They had taken their dog, some kind of doodle, to a trainer. The trainer, not Antonia, had come up with the idea, (their dog has a problem of jumping up on people) that to teach the dog not to jump up, you do some kind of hand gesture and say firmly 'paws on the ground, paws on the ground, paws on the ground". Good grief! Clearly it wasn't working and poor Antonia was very consistent about saying it each time. I suggested she shorten it. Maybe say pog!! pog!! Or....NO, DOWN, NO, DOWN!!!!! I don't know. I don't think paws on the ground was going to ever work. Fortunately the dog is very lovable!

All in all it was a lovely visit. Those two are a couple of my fave people to have here and they don't live all that far away. They are welcome any time for as long as they would like.

Monte isn't well. Not sick. I think he is at the end of the currant medication goodness. It needs to either be increased or changed and for that you need a psychiatrist. The Dr. he is so fortunate to be seeing is away til after the New Year. He is completely unable to go to Vancouver right now. As a result our New Years visit is postponed. Monte doesn't read this blog so I can say that I am so so so disappointed. I was so looking forward to being at April's. I feel so at home there.

But you know this is exactly what I signed up for here in Port Alberni. Monte really is so fragile mentally. I don't know how much he really needs me but I saw what happened when he didn't have someone looking out for him. Anyway I so hope that a med change will make the difference.

And now its time to clean the breakfast stuff. I made a massive pot of delicious turkey soup which is going to become our dinner tonite. I have lots of Texas toast garlic bread left over from our meatloaf dinner last night so an easy food night. And I am going to eat, not sharing, a bit of my bridge mix!!!!

So as my title said, this blog has become slow but for sure. I don't think I will ever quit!!! Take care everyone and I hope you had a merry xmas and lets choose to have an amazing New year no matter what it throws at us. (I may eat those words before it's over!!) Yayaya..2023!!! TTYL

"Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you." John C. Maxwell