It's a New Year...

Please let me begin by wishing you all a very Happy New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a restful holiday as well.  

My holiday certainly did not start off according to plan that’s for sure, and as of today it seems to be following me into 2012.  

I came down with a nasty flu virus on December 23 and it came on unbelievably fast. One minute I had a headache, next I was in bed with a fever and the chills. It didn’t take long before all hell was breaking loose (no pun intended) with round the clock encounters with porcelain and a bedside bucket. I literally thought I was going to die and believe it or not I actually had the flu shot. So much for that eh! On Christmas Day I weighed in 4 pounds lighter but feeling normal again. My entire family waited with bated breath to hear if I would be able to join them all but at the same time wanted me very far away until I was better.    

Christmas Day always seems to go so fast it seems to me. So much build-up and then poof it’s gone. Santa was very good to me as usual and we had tons of fun with my family. We spent Christmas Day at my brother’s home in Toronto. My brother married into a Jewish family and we had the pleasure of having his in-laws join us for dinner. It was so amazing to blend our blessed holiday together with their Hanukah festival of lights.

You should have seen the place all decked out with oh so tacky Christmas and Hanukah ornaments, a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, lights and silver and blue banners. It was such a poignant experience to be together watching the children light the menorah and then have each of them take turns at playing Christmas carols on the piano.  

We drove up to my parent’s home following dinner to spend a couple of days with them. On December 27 my father suffered a heart attack while we sat together in the kitchen having breakfast. It was early and everyone was still in bed sleeping which in hindsight was a blessing.

My previous career provided me with the training to deal with emergencies of this nature and I knew immediately what was happening. Let it suffice to say that the quick action on everyone’s part resulted in my father making it to the hospital in time and he is still with us today. I thank God for that because I know HE always has a hand in everything. I stayed for the remainder of the week to support my Mother and Sister and we even managed to have a bit of fun when it finally started to snow. My husband and I took my sister outside to build a snowman on such a calm and peaceful night. We didn’t exactly build a snowman because I just thought that to be so boring.

Allow me to introduce you to our 2012 polar bear mascot…

On New Year’s Eve we decided to spend some time with him and took our celebrations out to him so he didn’t miss out. Creativity is everywhere my friends why limit yourself to papercrafting.

I am back at home now and the bad stuff just seems to keep coming our way. My husband builds locomotives in London, Ontario for a company known as EMC, Electromotive Corporation. On Monday night he and 420 other employees were locked out by the new owners, namely Caterpillar/Progress Railroad. Contract negotiations broke down because the company wants to slash all union wages by half, eliminate pensions all together and way too many benefits to name. What employee and/or union would allow that to happen? Needless to say we have a very sad situation and what makes it even worse is that my husband has 6 months left to work and is in the position to retire this summer. What will become of that effort now?

Needless to say 2012 hasn’t started off on a good note and I will be praying that everything will be quickly resolved and he can get back to work.
 
Once again I have taken a considerable amount of your time, but it feels good to vent. I wish you all good health, much love and happiness in the coming months and I look forward to sharing my creative side with you along the way.

Thanks for stopping in :)S