The Virtual Ward Party

Merry Christmas from Arta
- the picture before I was black and blue...

Being a one-armed typist means there is not much space in my life to do blogging.

Still, I want to keep track of December events, like the Virtual Ward Christmas Party, held Friday December 11.

People were invited to contribute a 15 second (or less) video for the main event, a Christmas Wish from one to all in the ward. I didn’t get a chance to send my 15 seconds.

I wanted to send a 15 second pan-shot of the front of my shoulder and the front of my elbow, which is mostly a mixture of bruises: turquoise, royal blue and some black streaking.

I thought instead of wishing people a Merry Christmas, I could have an Elvis song playing in the background, perhaps “Blue Christmas”.

That wasn’t an idea that I could bring to fruition. Rebecca and Bonnie were unwilling to do the work necessary to pull this one off, so all I could do was go to the party, and listen to others. 

Ashley Truba Anderson slipped over to Wyona’s on December 7 to take the video for the Bates household.  

She told Wyona she had been to her house before, which was a surprise to Wyona. 

"Yes," Ashley said, "during my Young Adult days, I came over here to a fireside hosted by Tonia."

Zoe had a small cake that celebrated both her 36th birthday, and the feast of St. Nicholas, which occur on the same day.

I liked seeing Zoe and her cake at the ward party. 

As well, the videographer of the watd party included “out-takes”, which were hysterical. 

One family with 5 children had a pre-teen run from the back of the room and leap airplane like into the arms rest of the family. 

When that portion of the party was over, Santa Claus arrived, looked into the camera, and told all the children that he had left gifts for each of them in their mailboxes. 

They were to check to see if he got the right houses.

There were a few seconds of silence as children headed to their front doors, and then there was screaming aplenty from all the houses with children, and children returned to the zoom meeting holding up their presents, ripping off the wrapping to see what was there, and then showing others that they had received something they had been wanting. 

There couldn’t have been a better ending to the Bow Valley Ward Zoom Christmas Party.

One of my favourite outtakes involved Marge and Doral Paxman. We had seen the in-take, which was a lovely Merry Christmas greeting from the Paxmans.

The outtake was Doral Paxman standing at the door of the house, and Marge coaching him. He was asking “What am I supposed to say?” 

 “Merry Christmas”, she would answer.

He would ask again, “But what am I supposed to say?”, and she would reply, louder, “Merry Christmas!”. 

I don’t know the Paxman’s that well, but on one other occasion, I have seen Marge’s sense of humour, and the outtake captured it fully.

When I described the scene to Bonnie and Rebecca, they were reminded of this scene from Taxi. 

Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piPz1prPrzs if you wish to see the Taxi version

Arta

Board Games

..larch leaves falling on poplar leaves
...

Before I fell and hurt my arm, so that I can’t play board games, Bonnie and I would spend evenings playing Lost Cities.

The more I played this game, the more power I had to figure out what it is that makes the game work: when to keep cards in my hand, so that my opponent struggles trying to find them in the deck of unused cards.

As well I get a chance at the end of the game to use my adding skills. 

When I was in grade IX, my mother signed me up for a course down at Henderson’s Secretarial College.

Half the morning was spent learning how to type and the other half of the morning was spent learning how to add columns of numbers, perhaps four columns across with numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and several rows deep.

... larch leaves cover the ground in the fall...

I passed the typing course, and while I was spending my mornings there, I also practiced adding, so I must have passed the adding course.

I had no idea that this skill would ever be useful to me.

But now I find I am an expert in calculating the magnitude of my supremacy over my opponent.

Not only can I get higher figures in the columns, but I can add them at a phenomenal rate.

Indeed, I can figure their totals at the same time, even while doing so upside down.

... Douglas Fir tower over the cabin...

I remain surprised that not everyone has this skill.

Rebecca says I am to blame for not giving her the same foundational education.

She is, however, grateful that she was able to go to Beauty School and thus she has exceptional skills of backcombing.

She is hoping to find a place to practice if anyone is wanting to volunteer once we are out of COVID times, when we will be able to see each other face to face (or rather, scalp to brush).

Arta

Good Enough

... view of  Hospital Lake from x-ray lab waiting room ...

Bonnie is the one who has been teaching me about the practice, “good enough”.

This is a concept that sits side by side the idea that something is “not good enough and must be made even better.”

So, what would be good enough, I ask myself.

... walking path around Hospital Lake ...

1. Getting all the right ingredients into  ...the cookie, even if I didn’t add them in the right order or method.

2. Writing a blog post that omits important names, dates, and events.

3. Finding something to watch on Netflix (even if is not ‘the best film ever’).

4. Raking rocks (just to make this clear, there is enough raking to do to keep 10 people raking for a full week on Richard’s lot…. but the work I have done so far is ‘good enough’)

5. Doing some walking every day, even if I can’t get that Fitbit to count every step

... view of Fly Hills from x-ray lab ...

I have been trying out this concept, and it is not that easy to say at the end of an event, “good enough.”

What is NOT good enough is getting a blog post written and then missing the chance to get it up to the blog.

What stops me sometimes, is that I don’t have a picture that is ‘good enough’, or an idea that was fully developed enough, or indeed permission from others to talk about events that involved us both.

For today, this typing is good enough.

Arta

Glass Pioneer Wagon

$2 - the right price

 Moiya delivered food to us on her birthday and when I asked if there had been anything just for her she laughed, went back out to her car and brought in this: a glass replica of a Red River Valley wagon.

There is a lot of happiness with a gift that is just the right price.

Arta

Zoe's 37th birthday in pics

Hi from Tonia!

As the designated photographer of Zoe’s birthday (no one else brought their mobile device), here are the best pics.

It was a wonderful event and Wyona and clan did a great job with food, cake, and Covid safety.

Hugs to all!

Tonia

A note from the one-handed typer:

- wow to the design on the blue blanket -- something I want one of

- I ee food lined both sides of walk-way.  Yum

- nice modelling of family mask wearing

- so many mask models

- gorgeous hand made gingerbread cookies on exterior of bd cake

- Happy bd hat rocks.  love the candles on top

- cute cousin's table

- as usual, your camera rocks, Tonia

Arta

Happy Birthday, Moiya

Happy Birthday, Moiya.

Yesterday, you made bread for us, and put it in the pans for us. All we had to do was bake it.  Who wouldn't want a sister just like you.

Thank you for all of your gifts.

I am hoping you will find joy in the new year ahead.

Happy Birthday, Moiya.

Arta

Homemade Gummy Bears and Dinos

 Naomi and Rhiannon know how to work their mom.  When they find something on-line that they want to buy them come to me with a proposal that buying it for them will allow them to have sibling bonding time.  I fall for it everytime.

So recently, we purchased some silicone gummy bear molds on-line -- they come with eye droppers (think mini turkey baster) for filling the tiny pockets.

They found a recipe online (using jello powder and gelatin) and tried it out but decided while the texture was right, the flavour didn't seem quite strong enough.  Still super fun to eat.  However, Naomi decided to keep them in her room, forgot about them, and a week later found them growing green hair.  

So a new recipe was found that includes citric acid to enhance the flavour of the jello powder, a preservaitive to stop the hair growth, and some corn syrup to enhance texture.  

Dissolve all the ingredients, but try not to boil or stir too much because these creates foam and bubbles.

And voila! Into the fridge to cool and solidify.

Now Naomi has bears in a few different places in the house to see how the preservative works.  Some are staying in the fridge, and there is one on my kitchen window sill.  ?????