Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas Spirit Gathering…

Saturday was a wonderful day…full of good friends, good food, wine and Christmas spirit gathering…Oma invited girlfriend Yvonne, Cariño and I out to The Hermitage to help her with the “felling” and decorating of four tiny Christmas trees…because she is having many little people (one in particular who is very young and very mobile – a Christmas tree simply wouldn’t survive him) for Christmas (as well as a number of dogs – there will be 4 at one point! Six if we can make it out on Christmas Day for dinner!!! We are talking all big dogs too!) – she decided not to have a Christmas tree downstairs, but, instead to have 4 tiny ones upstairs…3 in the windows at the lake-side of the house and 1 in the bathroom.

We arrived after lunch, had a glass of wine for sustenance, and then headed off outside to gather the trees…it was one of those beautiful wintry days…fluffy snow falling, not too cold, everything white, snow covered trees…it is so pretty out where Oma lives! It didn’t take us long to choose trees that probably wouldn’t grow into big ones anyway…one was almost knocked over and the rest were in clusters. We came armed with 2 saws and a set of pruning shears (all that was needed were the pruning shears, really – the biggest tree had a trunk of maybe half an inch!)

Then we went back inside and set the trees into various pots, held upright and “straight” with rocks. We put them into their respective places and began decorating…it was lots of fun...many laugh were had…one of the trees couldn’t support anything, so it had to be tied up with fishing line…Cariño got a little carried away with the guy wires…more guy wires than tree! Oma was cutting them down behind him…so he finally left and went downstairs to make bell ornaments…he really wanted there to be many, many guy wires!

It got dark as we were decorating and in the dark with just the lights on the trees, Christmas spirit began seeping in…they were so pretty...there is something very special about lit and decorated trees in the house…

When the trees were all finished, we headed back downstairs for our pot luck dinner…Oma had made a fruit covered ham that was wonderful (I love fruit and meat), Cariño and I brought a simple fried rice dish and very, very garlicky green beans that we sautéed – 2 buds of garlic for green beans for 4, and Yvonne brought a delicious spicy spaghetti squash and veggie dish…more wine and dinner was fantastic…Oma also made a stollen for desert. Growing up, stolen was always a part of Christmas and the idea of stollen excites me and fills me with Christmassy feelings…but, while I like fruit cooked with meat…I don’t like fruit cakes…I have no idea why!

After dinner, we left Oma’s and carried on to an Open House/Christmas party at our pottery teacher, Carrie’s…what a beautiful place she has too…not far from Oma’s, also up in the Gatineau Hills…they are up on a hill, rock face around the back of their place and apparently a view that goes on forever out the front (it was dark, so we couldn’t see this part). Carrie also has a large pottery studio/class room that is housed in a separate building…we had a nose around it on our way in…wonderful space! Their home is open concept, wood…just beautiful! Carrie had he pottery on display and for sale…I fell in love with one of her bowls and decided I had to have it – so I asked her if I could buy it on the ‘pay forever plan’ – which means that I couldn’t pay for it then, but I “needed” it and I would pay it off over time…she allowed as that was fine! So that is a Christmas present for Cariño and me! I will put up a picture of it…but that will have to be later, because we forgot it in Yvonne’s car!

We left Carries around 11pm – Yvonne drove us home…walked dogs and had no trouble falling asleep!

Today I worked at the book store…was a bit tired, but the day passed quickly…was too tired to make it up to the studio this evening…tomorrow I have an open day and plan on doing some painting…to bed now…

Here are pictures of our lovely tiny trees that brought us all some Christmas spirit!








































































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