Welcome Baby Jarmon...

Welcome to the world, Baby Jarmon. Born January 17th, @3:29a.m., 7 pounds 14 ounces, 21 inches long. He's a crier............but absolutely beautiful.

Baby Jarmon's nurseries....

Spent a few hours with my daughter Danielle today. She is expecting a baby boy, Jarmon, which is due the 16th. We worked for more than two hours today unpacking and sorting thru all the baby stuff. Here are the pictures of the lil' man's room................I love the little forest animals, and the decals on the wall. Of course I titled this as Baby Jarmon's nurseries, plural, as I set up a crib at our house. He will have his own little place here at Grammy and Pop-pop's house. Yes I know it is blue...........Danielle doesn't like the traditional blues, but this is at our house, so it doesn't matter.

Baby Shower...........

Today we had Danielle's baby shower. It was such a good time, and she got some really nice things for her baby, Jarmon Adriele, who is due in mid January.

Christmas.........

Our Christmas celebration was great! Plenty of good food, and fabulous company.

Traditions....Tourtiere pie................

I have been up since 7:00 this morning, and am now sitting down for the first time all day. Been busy shopping and baking. Today I made my tourtiere pies. Six of them!! For those of you who don't know what they are...........it is usually a tradition of Quebec heritage to serve these on Christmas or Christmas eve. They are made with beef and/or pork. My family always served these on Christmas eve with homemade baked beans and homemade pickles and relishes. My family doesn't like baked beans, so I have carried on the tradition of having the pies on Christmas eve, along with 50 other appetizers. I brought one of the pies over to my daughter Danielle's place, and I delivered two to my neighbors, Vern and I will have one for dinner tonight, one will go to my sister in laws, and we will have one Christmas eve. I love Christmas...........and all the family traditions!!

Retirement!!

My first day of my new chapter in my life........RETIREMENT!!!! I am sooooo excited, and am sure I will find plenty to keep me busy. Woohoo, and guess what I am doing? Laundry, cleaning the house, and baking of course. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it is Christmas afterall, and I need to get ready for our Christmas eve feast. I've been baking for a week now..............I am almost done, and I will start putting my tins of cookies and fudge together. Once that is done..... I will start cooking for Christmas eve, an endless menu of delicious appetizers. mmmmm Good stuff!!

Get cooking!!

Spent most of the day cooking.............oatmeal cookies, peanut butter chip cookies, peppermint cookies, peanut butter cookies..................it is never ending. I also made some "buck-eyes"....filling of peanut butter, powdered sugar, and rice crispies, dipped in chocolate..........mmmm good! Also dipped some mini ritz peanut butter crackers. This year I did something different, and made up batches of cookie dough, and instead of cooking up all the dough, I rolled each batch into logs, rapped in plastic rap, and will cut and bake them when I am ready. These are just a sampling of the cookies. mmmmmm sooooo good!!