Holidays – Page 8 – Just An East Coast Girl

Crazy and Fun Christmas Gifts!

I love Christmas! The holiday is over far too quickly and it makes me sad to see people commenting they are putting away Christmas on December 27 or 28th. But every one has there own preference. I just like these special things to last as long as possible.

We were so blessed at Christmas with wonderful thoughtful gifts. I just want to give you a quick snapshot of a few of the fun ones!

So James got a Chemex! Perfect for the coffee connoisseur that he is…

Chemex

And Abby got a green and blue moose…

green moose

because every little dog needs a green moose with a blue beard for a friend!

I got some new Nova Scotia themed story books and Abby & I got sock monkeys!

storybooks

sock monkeys David got Night Vision!

stealth Cam

He’s been curious for a long time what other creatures besides deer are lurking in our backyard at night in the middle of town.

And the coolest thing…

I got a dumpling maker!

The dumpling cube presses out 4 at a time! But honestly David, how am I ever going to perfect my jiaozi making skills if I start using a cube? That just won’t do.

Lots of fun and thoughtful gifts this year!

What a difference a day makes as I sit here this morning blogging with my coffee blogging. Christmas Day and Boxing Day gorgeous warm temps and today everything is white and frozen, windy and cold! But the sky is blue and the sun shines!

Get Your storm chips ready!

Get those shovel’s ready! It’s time to dig out the snowblower and shovels because today Eastern Canada is expected to get the first major snow storm of the season!

And as Frankie Mac Donald would say…get your storm chips ready!

At 10am this morning it started.

And 5 minutes later…

And then this afternoon…snow, ice pellets, rain, ice pellets, snow…

And then rain and ice pellets.

In Bridgewater, I think we faired pretty well. Not a major one after all, just very pretty.

It’s Christmas…My Heart is FULL

It’s Christmas!

I Love this special day with my family.

The kids are all home.

Craziness My parents and my sister and her family here. It is our family tradition and It has been a wonderful day celebrating together.

A beautiful afternoon meant family pics outside, a few minutes on my rocker ( a Christmas gift made by my Daddy), a motorbike ride and enjoying a beautiful sunset.

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And this year…December 25th, there is a Full moon in the night sky. A beautiful conclusion to a wonderful day.

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Christmas is a day of reflection, gratitude, togetherness, cheer, warmth, giving, and goodness. It’s unique for many reasons, one of them being that it happens one day a year. When a full moon occurs, there’s an overwhelming energy that arises. The sun and the moon are in opposite Zodiac signs. And while it proves to be a time of utter charge, it also brings about balance. The solar yang and the lunar yin are congruous.

It makes it even more intriguing that the last full moon we’ll see in 2015 happens to be on one of the most celebratory days of the year. People are enthralled with this idea, perhaps because it’s so spectacular that two big things are coming together. Bizarre and beautiful occurrences take place during full moons. Wonderful things happen on Christmas. The combination of the two is like a treat you never knew you needed until you’re informed of its presence, and suddenly the excitement consumes you.

The December full moon is special because it rises near sunset and then sets close to sunrise. This means that it is the only night in the entire month that the moon stays in the sky for the whole night. And even better is that a full moon on Christmas day hasn’t occurred for 38 years (1977)and the next one won’t appear until 2034.

As I gaze up at the moon tonight my heart is full, I’m so thankful and I’m thinking about family and friends all over the world that are seeing the same moon, and wishing them a wonderful Christmas and may all their dreams and wishes come true in 2016.

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I am so blessed!

In the secret spaces of her heart…

” It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart.” Marjorie Holmes, American writer.

Come & See this Christmas Eve…

It’s Christmas Eve …my favourite!

Tortiere & Yule Log Dinner is a Goode Family Tradition for Christmas Eve. Preparations start early in the morning with the guys finishing off the preparations by doing the Yule Log.

And a nice coffee break treat in the afternoon is Mom’s recipe for Steamed Cranberry Pudding. I think everyone loves these favourites!

The actual meal is always eaten after our Christmas Eve Church. Yum, Tortiere & Yule Log.

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve 2015, and it looks like I’m not the only one who is a wee bit excited!! No peeking!!

Merry Christmas From Nova Scotia ~ East Coast Style!

Nothing says East Coast and Christmas more than a great feed of lobster. After all, it’s Lobster season here along the East Coast and it’s time to enjoy our annual Christmas time tradition of Lobster ( a little extra seafood too)

Yes B’y

Christmas shopping is so much fun! Yes B’y she sure is!! lol I especially love finding different and unique gifts. An trip to some of Halifax’s Malls and shops and there are all kinds of interesting possibilities.

We stopped in to one very interesting shop to browse…who doesn’t love chocolate? And this here shop is Newfoundland Chocolate.

It started as little more than a hobby for Christina and Brent, both graduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland and is now a famous Artisian Crafted Chocolate Company.

A bit of “Their story” From the Newfoundland Chocolate company’s website...Boxes weren’t just boxes of chocolates; they proudly displayed iconic scenes of the company’s namesake on the covers and instead of just descriptions of the chocolates inside the box, there were maps of Newfoundland and Labrador. For example, a chocolate wouldn’t just be a chocolate with blueberries, it would be a chocolate featuring incredible Newfoundland blueberries and would be named after, where else, but the blueberry capital of Newfoundland – Brigus.

The bars would feature those iconic jellybean houses that dot the streets of St. John’s with their colour and character. The pan rolled beads of chocolate would be Newfoundland Chocolate Beach Pebbles and when it came time to name the Easter Bunnies, well they just had to be Joey, Danny and Clyde after some of Newfoundland’s most famous or infamous Premiers. And, when terms of endearment were chosen for the valentine’s day bars, they wouldn’t say, ‘be mine’, they’d say ‘Me Duckie’ and ‘Some Sweet’.

Everything about the Newfoundland Chocolate Company would be a celebration of not only delicious artisan crafted chocolate but of the culture, beauty and charm of Newfoundland. Brent and Christina’s vision was to bring Newfoundland and Labrador to the world by making the best, most delicious, most artistically crafted and beautiful chocolates around.

Such a cool store! So if you haven’t found the perfect gift or stocking stuffer for someone…maybe treat them to some nice chocolate…Yum, it’s delicious and FUN even for a Saturday mid morning treat this time of year!

Yes B’y!!

The Reindeer Cam

Oh how I wish there was such a thing when my kids were growing up!

I was browsing the internet and came across this site. So cool. You can watch Santa looking after his reindeer getting ready for the big night. It’s less than a week a way…

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It’s Friday and I made a new munchie snack for watching Christmas movies and specials this weekend.

It’s called Reindeer Chow.

1 WEEK til CHRISTMAS! Have a great weekend.

Beautiful Windows

I love a nice evening walk. And this time of year it’s so much fun especially to walk along city streets…oh how I miss that!! So, in my case it’s small town.

My small town stores have beautiful window displays for Christmas!

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So pretty!! I may have to try to get to the city to window shop.

Just a drive, a walk and a little shopping

After all the rain yesterday, today was gorgeous!! Blue skies and not too chilly. My youngest son was around this morning so we grabbed a Tim’s, headed to Mahone Bay, parked the car, and walked to some of our favourite shops. We spent an hour or so browsing and picking up a few things.

It was just what I needed today!

I Can’t Believe we haven’t had any snow yet!!!

Hmmmm…..I wonder if we’ll have a white Christmas this year?

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Not that I am wishing for a lot of snow. We had so much last year and it lasted a long time, so I am not wishing for a lot of snow and I am kinda happy that we haven’t had any yet.

BUT… I do like snow for Christmas and today is December 15 and with 10 days until Christmas Day it really doesn’t look like snow in the forecast. At least any amount that will stay.

Today in the Maritimes…in New Brunswick 10-20cm snow, most of Nova Scotia 30-40mm rain, there’s ice pellets and high winds and a real mix bag of weather. I guess it’s good that here in Bridgewater it’s wind and rain.

Looking back a couple years to 2013…we had a nasty mess on Dec 15 when we just arrived home from China for Christmas vacay and needed to get things decorated.

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