Christmas Morning 2020

Good Morning ALL. Happy Christmas one and all. The air is warm outside. The house is quiet as my fingers clack away on the keyboard. Alvin is stretched out on the carpet in the hallway just outside the office door. My daughter, son-in-law and pups are snoozing in “the master suite” (okay perhaps not what you would consider to be a master suite but for me a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom, is pretty master, lol). What a glorious Christmas we are having. The family arrived in the later part of the afternoon on Christmas Eve, that would have been yesterday. We make some snacks, ate some snacks and ate more snacks and more snacks and then decided to open gifts. We always have enough food to feed about 20 people and there are three of us. Likely we should have gone for a walk but it is Christmas and who thinks of exercise when there are presents under the tree and food all over the place. Even before we sat down to open gifts, actually not long after the kids and grandpups arrived – we heard some rustling in the living room. We were busy snacking in the kitchen. Amanda went into the living room and there was the Alvin getting a headstart opening his gifts. He had found one of his gifts that was way back under the tree, without causing disarray to the other gifts or knocking over the tree – he pulled the gift back out onto the middle of the living room and was beginning to tear apart the tissue paper that covered his gift. How he knew that was his gift we will never know. My son-in-law joked that perhaps he knew how to read. What a guy. After we had some goodies, we settled in to watch the Christmas movie “ELF” which is another little story. Steven wanted to watch the movie which I happen to have on DVD in my massive Christmas movie collection. When the kids gave me the new television just before Christmas – we decided to disconnect the DVD player and put it in the basement. We would have had to hook it up which is not a big deal when the light bulb came on and I checked my PVR recordings and voile, I had recorded it. So no need to bring up the DVD player. We chatted and watched the movie. Drank coffee and eggnog. Throughout the movie, someone was whining so much. Not loud but clearly not happy. When the movie was over and we started preparing to open gifts, guess who was the first one to the tree? Three guesses and the first two don’t count. Mr. Alvin. He was so excited. I think with all of the gift opening that we have been doing and the parcels from our friend Val, he is beginning to put two and two together. He definitely understood about the gifts. I will note that he has been going to tree over the past few weeks once I wrapped gifts and we remember when he pulled my son-in-law’s stocking from under the tree and started to open his gifts. Note to self for next year. I made sure that I safely tucked all gifts with food related items and the stockings in a basket in the basement landing until time to open. We certainly were entertained by Alvin. He was frustrated with me at times. What can you do? He, me, we were all super spoiled. The perfect year to be spoiled. I received clothes, books, special pens, several items from my favourite store “Bath & Bodyworks”, chocolates and more chocolates and more chocolates, a hand held blender with more gadgets than I know what to do with and more. Definitely crazy spoiled. My son-in-law received from my daughter one of those projectors for indoors so we did some star gazing for part of the evening. A great night. Merry Christmas.

Well time to head back downstairs and have some coffee. I am going to call my sister and chat. It is beginning to get light outside. Hopefully the sun will shine. We definitely need a walk or two, today.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope that Santa was good to you. Not sure that me and Alvin deserved all the lovely gifts that we received but we are grateful to all those folks who showered us with them this year. We are grateful to have all of you in our lives. Truly, we are blessed.

Have an awesome day. Be safe, go for a walk. We will continue to live our lives with kindness, respect and compassion for all.

Merry Christmas 2020.

Love, Always from Carol & Alvin

Second Half of the NEW YEAR

Good Morning ALL.

This morning I want to say that one of my friends whom I met during my years at Bath & Body Works passed away suddenly on October 7, 2020. There are no words to express my sadness. Sharon was a character so full of love and laughter. She could always make everyone smile and laugh. Her laughter and smile were beyond capturing. We always had fun working together. Sadly my days at BBW ended a few years back but I was always happy to see her when I made it to the store. She had the best hugs and we were always happy to see each other once again. We kept in touch via Facebook, thank goodness for social media. She had more energy than anyone I knew and everyone in the store always remarked in that way. As hard as she worked she did know how to have fun. Every shift that we worked together there was always time for some fun and to catch up on the latest news. Over the years Sharon met with some health issues and I/We were always so relieved when she recovered. Even her children worked at the store after school. Family was so important to her and her friends were her family, too. I know there are a great many folks grieving her loss today, tomorrow and forever. I keep you all in my heart.

Sharon was a lovely, kind, caring, funny, smart, hard-working, gentle, compassionate, human being. A true and wonderful friend to all the souls that she encountered.

She will be missed.

Rest in Peace, my dear friend.

We love you for Always and Forever.

With kindness and respect,

As Always, Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day ……

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 3rd day of February, 2017.

Another winter morning but it does warm up over the course of the day.

Another super quiet morning with Alvin away at his sister’s house.

He comes home tomorrow.

I spoke to my daughter last night and apparently Alvin is trying hard to play with Aspen.

She gets so excited when he signals play-time that she runs around and scares Mr. Alvin, poor old guy.

Perhaps soon they shall get on the same page and actually have fun and not give each other a bit of anxiety.

But they do love each other and that is the important thing.

The playing will come in time.

Practice makes perfect.

I had a great time at the mall last night.

Ran my errands and did a bit of shopping.

Pretty surprised by the amount of people in the mall.

By listening as people passed there were lots from out of town.

I had decided to treat myself to supper at “Freshi’s” in the food court closest to Bath & Body Works, my old haunt.

The gal in front of me placed her order and had turned to the side.

When I was placing my order she turned around when she heard my voice and low and behold it was one of the girls I worked with at Bath & Body Works.

We ended up having our supper together.  She goes to University and works part-time at one of the stores in the mall.

It was great to catch up.

What are the chances of meeting a friend in line for food.

I will take those chances …..

 

Well here we are almost time to hit the trail again.

Friday, though and that is good.

Have a wonderful day.

Special Hello:  Lots of Birthdays today ….. Happy Birthday Everyone.

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 16th day of October, 2015.

YAY, it is another beautiful morning here in Edmonton.

I am really certain that Mr. Alvin thinks it is time to turn the clocks back.

I guess I will be ready for that as he has been waking me up at 3:00 a.m. the past few mornings.

What can you do?

I mean we do not get up then I do manage to get him to lay back down for a little bit …..

What a guy.

So excited for this weekend.

Tomorrow is my Open House for Steeped Tea and looks like there will be lots of people attending followed by dinner and a movie with my pals from BBW.

So excited.

So much in one day ….

Mr. Alvin is going to his sister’s for a sleepover so he will miss all of the company but better he be with his sister.

He would be so excited ……

I am so grateful to have this life …. to be living and breathing and breathing and living my life.

So on this Friday be grateful …..

Somedays we lose it ….. I mean we might yell and scream ….. a good release of stress.

Then we just get back to living our lives.

We are so blessed.

Happy Friday.

Special Hello to: my sister who I am going to SKYPE with on Sunday ….. so excited … what a weekend.

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day …….

Good Morning and Welcome to Sunday the 8th day of February, 2015.

The sun is trying to shine this morning as I type/key these words.

The temperatures are once again beginning to warm after several cold ones.

All in all, our winter has been pretty great.

More warm days than cold.

Alvin is looking out the window checking out the neighbourhood.

Yesterday was a great day for the most part there were a couple of hours later in the afternoon that I could have done without but upon review there will always be something that happens.

Saturday morning we had a birthday party for one of my girl friends.

She was surprised and pleased.

We had a good visit with a trip to Costco after lunch.

The birthday girl was going so my daughter and I went along.

IT WAS BUSY.

Well here I am once again getting ready to go to work.

It kind of seems like I am always going to work ….. guess when you work 6 days a week that would be the case.

Oh well, it is an end to a means.

Well just enough time to finish my coffee before grabbing my coat.

I hope that you had an awesome weekend.

One thing I learned from someone who did not provide great customer service (it was not Costco) that I will continue to be the best that I can be.

Man when you are the customer and someone does not know their job …. yikes …. very stressful ….. depending on what their job is …..

I will know as much about what I do and sell that I possibly can.

Special Hello to: all those who work in the service industry …. customer service is so important.

Always, Carol and Alvin

 

Thought for the day….

Well here it is Monday, June 11th, 2012.

The skies are filled with dark blue clouds but on the southern horizon the sky appears to be clear.

Perhaps we shall have sunshine yet today.

Although we do/did need the moisture …. we always appreciate the sunshine.

I had a great day yesterday.

Worked at Bath & BodyWorks.  Met so many cool people.

I love working at that store.

Working in retail is a total 360 compared to working in an office.

So off today to the office.

I have such an interesting life ….. everyday is different.

My Alvin is curled up small on his ottoman under the window.

He always needs/wants to be in the same room as me.

I love that ….

Well for this day …. I just wanted to point out that we all have very interesting and different lives compared to one another.

Listen to each other’s stories and remember your own.

Each story fills us with wonder, gladness, interest, sometimes sadness and life.

So have a great day and listen to the stories.

We are all stories.

Special Hello to:  all those folks that are surrounded by sunshine …. pass it along….. (thank you).

Have a great day.

Always, Carol and Mr. Alvin

Thought for the day…..

Happy Monday, March 5th, 2012 …..

On my way home from BBW yesterday late afternoon the air was filled with huge wet snowflakes.

It continued to snow for several hours and it appears for most of the night.

Funny how we have received more snow in the last couple of snowfalls than all winter.

Wow, it is March ….can you believe it?

I hope that you are having a grand day thus far.

My day is going great …..

Alvin slept pretty much till 4:40 which is great for him before “needing” to get up.

So on this fantastic Monday morning I wish you joy, laughter and abundance.

Have a blessed day everyone.

Special Hello:  Happy Birthday Aunt Lorraine, I hope you have a great day.

Always, Carol and Alvin

P.S. thank you to all those people who take the time to read my blog…..

Thought for the day……

Wow, welcome to DAY   ” 777″  which represents the number of days that Alvin and I have been together.

Isn’t that crazy!  Seems like only yesterday that he came to live with me and then again it feels like we have been together forever.

I think that we should be celebrating …… that is a long time ….. a great deal of days and nights….

We actually did celebrate a bit early …. we both got “hair cuts” …. me on Friday and Al yesterday.

Both way shorter.

I do not know about Alvin but I feel so much lighter and younger.

My hair was past the half way point on my back ( I have not had my hair that long since I was 17-18 ).

Today is Monday, February 20th, 2012 and it is FAMILY DAY.

Celebrated all across this wonderful country of ours.

I am over the moon as I am blessed to have today off from both of my jobs.

Yesterday I worked from 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at BBW …..

We were as I would like to call us: the “Fairy GodMother Effect”  …… wave your wand and voila.

Only the “voila” took us four hours of “sweating” to accomplish…

But everything looks brand new again….

I am so happy that the sky is blue and the sun is shining for my last day before heading back to my office job.

Oh, I have one more story to share with you.

Yesterday as I noted we had to be at work extra early and I got to the mall about 6:30 a.m.

I parked the car and went on my way to work.

Unbeknownst to me …..

When I arrived back to the car after work which was about 3:40 p.m. …. from a distance I noticed that the driver’s window appeared to be open, wide open.

My heart was in my stomach.

OMG, what happened.

I had not considered for one moment that someone might have broken the window.

As I neared the car and confirmed that the window was open, my heart sank.

It had been snowing off and on for part of the day.

Luckily for me ….. there was only a little snow inside the car.

I quickly closed the window and began to wipe up the snow.

Afterwards I cleaned off the windows and as I was about to get into the car to head home …. a young man wearing a bright yellow jacket came toward me.

In bold black letters:  S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y.

My heart sank temporarily …..

What now?

I found out that he was in fact my “ANGEL” in disguise of a construction security guard.

He told me that he had got to work about 6:40 a.m. that morning and when he happened to glance over to where the car was parked it appeared that the back window was out and then he noticed the drivers window.

Thinking it had been either vandalized or perhaps a stolen vehicle …. he wandered over (it was very close by).

He found the driver’s window to be wide open and the back window was closed.

He told me that at this point he did not know if it had was stolen or not.

So when he saw me ….. he was relieved.

Talk about luck ……. on the first day that we have had snow in a long while ….. and only a little bit got inside the car …..

Talk about luck ….. that this particular young man took the time to come and check the car…. and then

Talk about luck ….. when he watched the car all day long until I got there.

I am so blessed …… when I told the kids about what happened ….. well you see it is their car ….. they were surprised and relieved.

So on this Family Day …. I am feeling more than great …… I have the best family, friends and also blessed with the kindness of strangers.

Really what more can a person ask for ……

Time to go as Amanda is on her way over and we are going to work on some jewelry today.

I also want to bake some banana muffins or perhaps a loaf….

Have a great day everyone.

Special Hello: to all of the families out there …… remember families can be of all configurations …… Happy Family Day!

 

Always, Carol and Mr. Alvin ……. together forever ……. 🙂

Thought for the day…..

Well here we are, and welcome to Monday, February 13th, 2012.

I hope that you all had an amazing weekend.

I had a great weekend.

Friday night off (from BBW), and then I worked the Fragrance Event (launch of Pink Chiffon) on Saturday, and then yesterday afternoon.

The new fragrance is absolutely lovely….(All sorts of lovely fruits in the top notes like peach and pear. Apple blossom and jasmine in the mid notes followed by  chiffon musk, creamy coconut and sandalwood (to name a few) in the dry notes).

In between I did laundry, bit of house cleaning, had coffee with “G” and also with Amanda AND,  gave Mr. Alvin a much deserved and needed bath.

Such sad news about the passing of Whitney Houston.  She will be missed.  I was listening to some of the special programming about her last night and she did have an amazing voice.

One of my all time favourite songs was sung by Whitney and written by Dolly Parton.  “I will always love you” …… such a beautiful song (words and melody).

I pray that her daughter Bobby Christina will always be surrounded by love and great memories of her Mom.

Make sure that you always leave friends and loved ones on a good note ….. saying “I love you” ….. in fact, we should always leave everyone we meet each day on good terms.

Always on a positive note.

I hope that you all have a great day …. take care …..

Special Hello to:  I would ask you on this day to take the time to say Hello to people.  A simple hello and smile could mean the world to someone who might be feeling alone or troubled.

Always, Carol and Alvin ….

Thought for the day……

Good Monday Morning ….. Happy December 5th, 2011.

Wow, really …. December 5th.

Where did December 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th go?

I know that I worked yesterday at BBW and had a great day.

Met lots of wonderful people.

I love working there ….. always get to meet new people.

I learn so much about myself through these conversations.

I feel like a kid in a candy store ….. meeting all these folks.

From the babies to the elders …. I get to meet them all.

Funny, how you can get to know so much about someone by a quick chat in a store.

Anyway, I challenge or rather invite you to get to know someone new today.

Whether it is someone that you work with …. that you really do not know.

Or someone new …..

I love meeting people and I believe that it is good for the soul.

Definitely good for your heart and head.

Keeps you thinking and interesting.

So go forth and chat up a storm.

Please ……..

Have a marvellous, spectacular, amazing Monday.

Special Hello to: ALL THE PEOPLE THAT I KNOW …… that would be you, of course you and most definitely you.

Always, Carol

Merry Christmas ……..

P.S. I apologize for not posting some photos on my blog.  They are coming….