Happy Hanukkah! (Day 1)

I tried to give an update yesterday but was unable to log into Blogger. Some technical glitch, no doubt.

I am feeling much better. I've been dragging my butt around since last week and yesterday I finally had a surge of energy and ran around tidying up, decorating the tree, paying bills, etc. Whilst surfing the Internet for something or other, I stumbled upon a latke recipe and thought, "Oh yeah, at sundown, it's Hanukkah!". I found an adapted recipe that uses a fraction of the oil and substitutes a sweet potato for a regular potato. I realized we had everything in the house but the sour cream so as Skip was heading to the grocery store, I added it to the shopping list. They turned out great! I was so proud of my self - actually making latkes for my first time. Personally, I do not adhere to the tenets of any faith, but I certainly enjoying the traditions and especially the cuisine of any faith or ethnic group. I just realized I broke every Jewish dietary law (aside from not keeping a Kosher kitchen) by serving pork chops with the latkes. It was kind of nice and gave me an opportunity to think about my Jewish friends who would also be eating latkes last night for dinner - WITHOUT the pork chops of course - LOL.

After dinner, Skip and I met friends, Nancy and Rick at a church in a neighbouring town to attend a wonderful concert of Christmas music performed by the Foothills Brass. They played some lovely arrangements of some standard and not-so-standard Christmas tunes. There was also a sing-along near the end of each 'set'. Skip and I actually arrived 1/2 hr. early because I screwed up the start time so we walked 3 doors over and had a power-visit with Skip's former neighbour, Joan Grignon. After the show we trouped downstairs and enjoyed the 'church lady' treats awaiting us - shortbread cookies, chocolate delights, peanut butter and chocolate treats, etc. etc. We bid farewell to Nancy and Rick and headed home so I could finish packing for my trip to visit my sister today.

This morning, I got up early and got on the road a little before 9am (after the usual u-turn after my first attempt to go back to the house to get something I had forgotten). I purposely did not have any tea at breakfast (Earl Grey decaf) so I would be able to drive all the way to the service centre near Cambridge without a comfort stop. I ended up having to stop 3 times before arriving at my final destination because I drank a litre of water while I was driving.

After lunch Valerie and I drove to Country Yarns, a very neat and tidy yarn shop on the way into Sarnia. There was a good assortment of yarns, sundries and patterns. I bought a very cute pattern to make a knitted snowman. We then dropped in on my niece, Ana, and I met their new dog - a weimerarner - named Oscar. We had a visit with Alex (age 4) and Melisa (age 12). We brought Ben (age 10) home with us so he could attend his activities club at the school next door at 6pm.

Valerie has tons of Knitter's magazines that I will be perusing during my visit. Perhaps I'll see some patterns I'll want to scan.