Easing into 2019

Hello dear imaginary readers, I am slow to do this but none the less, Happy New Year! If you follow me on instagram you know that what ever virus I had in November and December decided to take a good hold of me right before Christmas. I was not going to let it slow me down!

KB’s daughter teased me about forgetting to move the Benylin carton...totally forgot it was there! As you know we only get “the whole crew” every other year, me being me I want the holidays to be perfect for everyone. I made waaayyyyyy too many cookies, had to make a second batch of nuts and bolts which led to a conversation with TLOMIL. My guy had been out visiting people with out me, walking in the door as I was mixing the ingredients for nuts and bolts in my big roasting pan. Next thing you know he is weighing in as to how other people he had seen on his tour that day make their nuts and bolts. “Ya know Jill, so and so, and so and so use a cookie sheet to bake their nuts and bolts, why don’t you?” My response was simply that I wasn’t taught to make them that way. In alllll his wisdom his response was “doesn’t mean that yours is the best way, you should try it”. TLOMIL just doesn’t get it. I mean seriously, Christmas is all about tradition to me, no way I am going to change the way I make my nuts and bolts! I will continue to make them the way my Grandmother taught my Mom and my Mom taught me, haha! You choose, is that tradition or being stubborn, can you guess which TLOMIL thought? My decision was to have a sip of my rum and eggnog and set the timer for the first stir.

Our holidays ended on January 6, the last day we had visitors. I believe we were all ready to head back to routine and what ever the heck normalcy is, though we enjoyed our visit with our traveling Aussie who we had last encountered in London, England almost two years ago. My how time flies! I like to set what for our crew is a formal Christmas table, not stuffy but certainly more formal that our usual nice dinner table. This year I chose to forfeit the table in the name of the game. What game you ask? Euchre, what started off as kind, gentle, lets remind you how to play game. Some how, not sure exactly when turned into cut throat, teasing, boastful winner kind of games. No way was I going to break up the laughs, the flow of the table - heck the Christmas cheer that was going on. So Christmas dinner turned into a buffet served on the island and placemats on the table - all to be cleared quickly so the games could resume. I have to say that in my mind, even though I felt like crap, this was one of our best Christmas’ in years.

We found things under the tree that had never been there before!

In the 5 years that we have had Ollie he has never before hung around under the tree! No idea why the change, but it was cute. Love our little weirdo rescue. There was snuggles with the Scott.

A trip to the Big Smoke to see Come From Away, which we all loved; followed by dinner at the Kit Kat. What a fantastic day, then for some of us off to a Maple Leafs game. It was a different holiday, more adult which I guess is a good thing as our baby, Teach turns 26 next week. How the heck did that happen!

I finally went to the Doc and ended up on antibiotics and am feeling like I am out of the woods at long last. While our traveling Aussie and her trusty Book keeper were visiting they asked what plans we each had for the New Year. In front of real live people I announced that 2019 is the year of Jillie, to get lean and strong and healthy. For me to learn that what I need or want can come before what needs, no can, be done for others. So far I have taken two of these,

apparently such a rare sighting that it warranted having a photo taken hahah. Thanks for the evidence LLB .

I knew I wanted to get back to writing but the juices just weren’t flowing, ya know what I mean? Today while driving home after dropping TLOMIL off at the train I found myself putting this post together in my thoughts. It was time - it is time. Time to ease on into 2019, taking time for me, time with TLOMIL. This year will bring so many new adventures to our whole crew, a wedding, travel and next career steps for many of us. We will ease into it, meet the challenges head on - goodness know they will rear their little heads; we will grow - I will grow and will continue to take baby steps off the tightrope.

Cheers, dear imaginary readers!