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Meat space

Meat space

Apologies for a really quiet fall. I Have been spending time in the meat space as part of the GREAT DISILLUSIONMENT I have been having with the online world.

Sorry that this is more of a list than a post, but you get what you pay for!


Bringing in the herbs

It has generally been a fairly busy autumn season as Thanksgiving & Halloween are generally chaotic times and then runs smack dab into Christmastide, which is just bonkers. Halloween is also our favourite holiday of the year so we tend to do a LOT at that time of the year.

I had a free night hotel reward I had to use so we headed to Kingston for the weekend to do Fort Fright at Fort Henry. It was only a day trip but it was good to get away and the kids love Fort Fright. Our friends invited us for Thanksgiving so we baked some pies before we left to bring with us on the Monday for dinner.

Our kids really lean into it by going to a local farm for their myriad haunted houses and other activities. We also do the obligatory pumpkin carving night. I love that our teens still are into dressing up in elaborate costumes and heading out to trick-or-treat. Gen-Z is truly amazing and I really like how they are more than happy to savour every moment of their childhoods. That meant we hosted 8 children for dinner before they headed out into the night. Mr. Tucker and I stayed back and handed out candy to the neighbourhood kids and it was a pretty great night.


 

My book-slash-travel-slash-trivia-slash-craft club went to Montreal for a weekend in November. We took the train which is still an absolute treat even for my adult self. We managed to grab a table together so we could chat and it was a relaxing fall ride through the countryside. We booked an Airbnb which was mostly accessible and right in the middle of where we wanted to be. We did all of the requisite Montreal things: lunch at Swartz’s, Bagels from a variety of amazing places, and a fun trip to Notre Dame cathedral for the sound and light show. But also we just chilled out, played games and chatted. It was a lovely weekend with friends.


Ok, we ate a LOT

Mr. Tucker took a 3-day knife-making course in November as well, in which he crafted a blade from a metal ingot, sewed a leather pouch for it, and carved a wood handle as well. It was an intense three days but he ended up with a fantastic Pukka knife that he made with his own hands.

We also did a knit Viking bracelet class at the Tool Library which was super interesting. It was my birthday gift to myself and we both came home with cool bracelets. Hopefully they will host another class in the new year because even though I was slow, I really enjoyed the process.

Mr. Tucker and I did most of our Christmas shopping in October and the beginning of November. This year, instead of buying Advent calendars we made them. They kids actually loved them and asked us to do that again next year. It was just things like lip balms, tea, face masks and stickers but it was fun. Right after Remembrance day, we finished all of the wrapping. Then all that was left was to nab the book-a-day Advent calendars from our local used book store and we were done for the year. I know that this seems INTENSE but December is a chaotic month between my birthday, Christmas parties, school concerts, the Winter Solstice party and Christmas that getting all of the gifts out of the way means I can lean in and enjoy the events…


Pics with Krampus at Coffin Creek


Decorating the tree


Advents

…and events there were! There were two PWHL games we got to end the year with, which was a teaser for January. I was sadly sick in bed on my birthday which was also the evening of The Eldest’s Christmas concert, so I was forced to miss it. We did manage to have cake, so YAY? I did manage to have my monthly dinner with friends from Dragon Boat and we went to the restaurant where my Stepson is chef, which was, as usual, amazing.

The parties were great: we have been having a friend Christmas get-together for around 20 years now and it has become more and more subdued over the years. In the beginning, we used to have these absolute ragers of food and drink where we were up until 6am still chatting. But we’ve become more sleepy in our old age and the party starts and ends earlier. I’m not made about it: it’s kind of lovely to have friends you can age with where you are all on the same page as the years go on. While we were out seeing friends, the kids were baking and decorating 4 dozen cupcakes for The Mission’s Cupcakes4Christmas event. They did an amazing job. I truly love having teenagers. They’re great!


We hosted a wonderfully quiet Winter Solstice party where we drank hot apple cider and made painted wood ornaments, strung dried citrus garlands and tossed our wishes into the fire with our hopes for 2025. It was low key and stress free, which is exactly how I like it. The kids invited friends so we got to share our 25-year-strong tradition with some new folks. It is one of my favourite nights of the year. A peaceful evening of fire, friends, food and introspection.

Naturally, that lead us right into Yuletide. Gone are the people-pleasing years of large dinners with the entire family descending on our home until Mr. Tucker and I were crushed by the weight of expectations, food, and alcohol. In the good way that the pandemic years turned everything on its head, we were happy to not have to host and so when restrictions let up, we…just didn’t host. The kids loved the new low-key Christmas where they didn’t have to dress up and perform like Circus animals for relatives with huge expectations. Shocking to no one: no one invited us to their houses when we stopped hosting. So it was, indeed, a fantastic decision.

Now we have a lovely Christmas Eve with my Dad and his girlfriend and my cousin (and his new partner joined us this year, which was amazing!). We order Chinese food, catch up and have a few drinks. Christmas morning starts late, we unwrap gifts and chill out drinking coffee or tea before Mr. Tucker whips up some crêpes for brunch and then we veg in our PJs and watch movies or shows. This year we watched the very last season of What We Do in the Shadows.

Finally, on Boxing Day my Stepson and his girlfriend come over and Mr. Tucker and my Stepson whipped up a feast before we have drinks and play Euchre. A perfect Christmastide, if I do say so myself.

So now we are smack dab into the Omen Days (intercalary days) or as I like to call them, “the days where we are made of just chocolate and cheese.” It ends with Women’s Little Christmas (or the Epiphany) (which I also wrote about last year). The plan is for the kids to have a NYE sleepover with their friends, a games night with our favourite folks, The Lytles and to generally putter around until school starts on January 6th.


Some last-minute wrapping on Yule Eve

Of course, so many other things have been happening including a bit of a personal renaissance (more about that soon) but it all comes down to this: I had planned to do a lot more in-person activities in 2024 and I DID IT. I had thought I was slacking on this goal but looking back even over the past quarter – I did a lot of stuff out in the Meat Space!

But I am getting ahead of myself…goals from 2024 and a wrap up is soon to come!

Spring has sprung: a life update

Spring has sprung: a life update


I asked Mr. Tucker to buy me this for Winter Solstice & he did!

It’s hard to not think of spring and fall as seasons of transition. Spring still has elements of the winter such as the odd day of snow and fall still has days where the sun is out and it is warm and clear. Summer and winter tend to be more delineated – at least where I live – where winters are snow, darkness and blowing wind & summers are all humidity, long days, and blazing sun. We generally tend to follow the seasons here and mark each one as it transits through the year. I highly recommend books like Mrs. Sharpe’s Traditions for those of you who enjoy Victorian Americana celebrations that fall on the more Christian side of things. It’s full of crafts, poetry and information about the holidays and seasons. I read Winters in the World this year about the seasons in Anglo-Saxon England and it was also a lovely, enlightening read.

After a year of having a broken foot and two surgeries I am eager to get out and about and enjoy the fresh air. Mr. Tucker has fixed up my trike (#bless marrying a man who used to be a bike courier) and we have been going out on walks around the neighbourhood. I hate how much I miss going outside when I am forced to stay inside. Winter is an absolutely tragic season for me because when you have mobility issues it can mean getting stuck inside when it is really icy out. I actually enjoy winter and grew up in the 80s where your parents forced you outside no matter what the temperature was & I also clocked many years skiing. I am seriously thinking of investigating accessible skiing options but I am afraid that like most things for disabled people, it will be cripplingly* expensive.

But it’s spring now! As is our monthly habit, we have done a craft and games night, and because it was March, it was Easter-themed. It was, as usual, amazing. We emailed our orders into Holly’s Hot Chicken (which is great if you need a gluten-free option and/or just like delicious food!) which our friends picked up on their way over, we did some fun Easter crafts & egg decorating and then we played Telestrations. It’s sad to think that in a few short months the eldest two kids in our group are off to university! Until then, we will try and squeeze in as many games nights and pool parties as possible.

Other than that it has been just watching PWHL games, the Women’s World Hockey & I even got sucked into March Madness, rather unexpectedly when it came on right after a WWH game! I got suckered into buying a subscription to The Sports Network to watch the WWH and so I figured, why not? Well OF COURSE I was hooked and watched the final on Sunday (like almost 19m other people). It was just so fascinating! I don’t know if that means I will end up loving the WNBA but I did enjoy it!

I have such a love/hate relationship with sports, namely, hockey. I grew up loving hockey and watching it. Like many other Canadian families, my brother played it and I went to a few of his games as well. In University I lived in an apartment on top of a pub and my friends & I would regularly win tickets to hockey games as prizes on Trivia Nights. When you are a poor student you enjoy any free entertainment that comes your way! But over the years, my love for the NHL lessened. Size-wise, it is an absolute BEAST with 82 games per season for each of the 32 teams – not including the Stanley Cup. But on top of that, the last game we attended we saw them switch out the ads along the boards on the commercial breaks. That was just wild to me. I had grown up with stories of my uncle remembering when tickets were cheap and you could bring a boxed lunch into Maple Leaf gardens. Don’t get me wrong – I grasp the enormity of putting together a pro sports league it is just a shame when the cheap seats for an NHL game (standing room only) are $50 in the nosebleeds. That is just out of range for many families.

Watching the PWHL play, fill arenas and get more sponsorships is a bit of a bittersweet experience: I want this league to succeed so badly, I want them to get advertising dollars! But it also weirds me out to see a paper towel company sponsor a power play. It’s conflicting to simultaneously want them to succeed but hate the price it will take to make it work. I am not an idiot – we live in a capitalistic society, for better or for worse – and the league can’t run just on Mark Walter’s big bucks alone, in perpetuity**. That said, we’re renewing our tickets for next year.

WELP. The condo still hasn’t sold. Lots of great feedback from the viewings but it’s been up for 2 months. I know that it’s been an average of 90 days for sales of condos lately and I am sure everyone is waiting for the Bank of Canada’s rate cuts*** but I am still impatient. It feels like the path forward for us is riding on this one deadweight to be out of our hands. I’m crossing my fingers that I have a better update soon!

Meanwhile, Mr. Tucker are working on a plan for our lives while we wait for the condo to sell. There is no point sitting around wallowing about things not going according to plan when there is so much living to do. Since spring is here and April is a wee break in-between our children’s birthdays I have asked them to not make a ton of weekend plans so that we can sort some things around the house.

Mt Tucker and I are planning some outdoor chores this month but spring is also a good time to tackle things like going through all of the rooms of your house and making a master plan on what to fix, clean, organize and decorate. We also want to plot out our garden bunkies to take advantage of what may be a very hot, dry summer. The plan is to stay home and have myriad pool parties and friend drop-in days!

We also did manage to catch the solar eclipse yesterday! It was 99% totality here which had to be good enough because we didn’t want to drive an hour south. The kids had the day off so they cleaned the house and watched the eclipse. It was a good day!


*I didn’t intend that pun but I am leaving it because it fits nicely
**I mean, he probably COULD afford it but every parent wants their child to leave the nest
***Kept at at 5% at the announcement this morning. Whomp whomp.

2023 holiday preparations and my birthday

2023 holiday preparations and my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. So because the Wordle is my love language, I told myself that the Wordle of the day would guide my birthday:

So Mr. Tucker made me breakfast that featured bacon!

Last week was a whirlwind of activities with friends and I am constantly grateful for the amazing people I have in my life. I forgot to post tree decorating pics, which happened earlier in the month. Last year one of The Americans* put together all of the pie pieces from the various thrifted Trivial Pursuit games she has and sent all of us our colours to be used in ornaments! They remain – to this day – some of my favourite ornaments.



Also, our friends The Cohens invited us over to celebrate Hannukah with them, which meant a lot of delicious latkes and donuts that they made for the occasion. We also got to hang out with their amazing babies, which is also a pleasure. The Cohens have such a lovely, close-knit family that it is such a joy to be around them all. I am grateful for their continued friendship – especially since they also live in the neighbourhood!

It’s funny because my friend’s daughter** married into the Cohen family and we have always stayed relatively close/in touch. It’s strange and beautiful that my babies are now holding/babysitting her babies when I used to hold/babysit her when she was a baby. The circle of life, Simba.



My birthday weekend was pretty great, all told.

Mr. Tucker and I chatted on Thursday evening about how things were looking financially. That came on the heels of him trying to install the microwave above the stove in the condo with a friend of ours…and it not working out. So now we have to find someone who will install it for us. SIGH. Finding someone to do the complete condo renovation was hard enough as it was because it was such a small job, which is why Mr. Tucker just DIY’d it. So now we’ve tripped at the home stretch.

But instead of getting down about it all, we’ve just decided to roll with it, assume he will have to work longer than anticipated, and then we promptly decided to free up some money in our budget for more fun things with the kids this holiday season.

While I am not a person who enjoys receiving gifts, I do enjoy experiences a LOT. So with the stress of this season upon us we made the decision to eat out not once, but TWICE this weekend. We had already planned to go out for all-you-can-eat sushi on Sunday for my birthday but we also went out to a mid-range steakhouse for dinner on Friday before hitting the mall. The Eldest was having a Christmas gift exchange sleepover at a friend’s place the next night so she wanted to grab some gifts.

We had an amazing time Friday night just having a leisurely dinner, hanging out as a family and chatting about our respective weeks. Was it expensive? I think I physically cringed when I saw the bill (don’t tell teenagers that they can order “anything they want.” Especially if your teenagers love lobster). Do I regret it? Not at all. It was a fantastic night, The Eldest got a steal on her friend gifts, we bought the kids Christmas pajamas as well and it was an easy night all around.

Saturday found The Eldest baking cupcakes for our yearly Cupcakes 4 Christmas donation for The Mission’s Christmas dinner. The Youngest spent the evening decorating them, and Mr. Tucker dropped them off bright and early Sunday morning.



While the kitchen was turned into a cupcake factory, I snuck out for an intro pottery class! I share a birthday with one of my closest friends and so three of us decided that we would celebrate together by trying our hands at the pottery wheel. It was…an adventure! While I loved the class – and it flew by so quickly – I feel like I would like more instruction and more skillbuilding that a short one-off class can give. I may look into longer classes next fall.



Our pottery will be fired and glazed and in a few weeks we can pick them up from the store. I am looking forward to it!

Sunday – on my birthday proper – I basically spent the day playing video games, as I requested. For dinner we had AYCE sushi at a (surprisingly great) restaurant near us. The food is good and they have robot servers, which is just charming. It’s less of a relaxing hangout type of dinner and more of a HOW MUCH CAN I GET INTO MY FACEHOLE type of event. I have long learned to not overdo it but my sushi-loving children went overboard and suffered greatly for it. I am still surprised at how much the kids can shove in there, it feels almost like it defies physics.

Back at home, Mr. Tucker and I had a few celebratory birthday drinks while the kids readied themselves for the school week ahead. We haven’t had a lot of time to just sit and BE so it was a lovely way to end a whirlwind of a week and a really great birthday.

Today I am in full planning mode for our Winter Solstice party on the 21st. Since people of all ages and from various places will be joining us after a long hiatus, I want to make it the best one yet. We haven’t had one since 2019 so I am very excited to host one again.

I hope you are all well and I wish for a non-hectic week for all!


*These ones are my Americans. Get your own.
**The daughter is the child of the woman who used to live on the 200 acre farm mentioned in the Wordle link.