My First Sober New Year in about 3 Decades....

Holy Cow! This is beyond awesome!

I thought I would share my New Year in pictures.....

Here is our finished gazebo with campfire. We managed to stay outside until about 10pm New Year's Eve, until our fronts were hot and out backsides were freezing....

Here is a little project that I finished yesterday - my Vision Board for 2016. I have never really attempted one seriously before, but it was fun, and I got to use glue and felt pens and scissors, and still feel grownup :)

Here is the Nanaimo River - we walked along the river today, completely hangover free, enjoying the glorious sunshine, a welcome break from the shitty rain.


It was a fitting start to a Sober New Year,

I hope yours was just as good,

love WBxx

Home and Sober for Christmas

Our low-key Charlie Brown Christmas turned into quite the party! Our relaxed celebrations around a campfire attracted more members of the family, friends and neighbours.

The gazebo was packed, people wandered in and out the house, we had a huge pot of Seafood Chowder on the go all day long, and people turned up with armfuls of food.

But very little booze!

My sister-in law surprised me with a basketful of " British goodies" - a DVD of "Last of the Summer Wine", a British newspaper, jars of marmalade......and tea.

Let's have a "spot of tea" she said in a terrible fake British accent....

So that's exactly what we all did. I had pots of tea and coffee, and hot chocolate all day long.

And everyone seemed really happy.

Zero Booze. Optimum Happiness. And a little touch of home.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas too!

WB xx

Christmas by Stealth....

Christmas is usually a non-event in our house. The absence of children, and also the dysfunction of my husband's family has meant that Christmas Day was just an excuse for me to start drinking earlier and continue longer.

But this year is different.

We have decided to ignore the family feuds. You have decided not to join the "official" family gathering, because my sister-in-law, the hostess, has argued with so many members of the family, that half the family is banned from her house.

So we're having the Elliott Family Charlie Brown Unofficial Christmas.

We're not having turkey. We're having wild salmon barbequed on sticks over an open fire, the traditional native way. We're having seafood chowder, bannock, and mugs of hot chocolate around our campfire.

Yes, under my new gazebo (which will be finished really soon)

Even my stepson, who loathes Christmas, due to too many family arguments over the years has got a little enthusiastic.

I am , by stealth, bringing in decorations, a poinsetta here, some tinsel there.....

My stepdaughter send us a video this morning, of her singing 'I'll be Home for Christmas" at the airport, before she boarded the plane.

It's all coming together. For the first time in years, I am excited. 

And the Universe seems to be conspiring with me.

Today it began to snow.

Gazebo, My Dishwasher and The Pineapple Express

I bet you've all been wondering how my Gazebo (aka the Satanic Worship Ring) is coming along, haven't you? Well funny you should ask....not very well.

I am still harbouring romantic notions of sitting round a roaring fire, under the Gazebo, with sparkly fairy lights, and hot chocolate on Christmas Day. With my stepdaughter who is coming home after two years in Taiwan! Yay!

But we shall see. About the gazebo that is. As I have NO CONTROL....

One of the (many) reasons for the slow construction, is the delicate state of our dishwasher. It is my favourite appliance. And we don't have an extra $1200 to blow on a new one, so we (and by "we"  I mean "he", my husband) is manfully attempting "fixes" which seem to work for a while...

My husband can have a bit of a short fuse in these situations, so I usually make myself scarce. But he did require my help and so I obliged.

Well, I'm only a GIRL, and apparently don't know much about "these things", but I did manage to dredge up enough memory of physics classes at school, to know that ELECTRICITY + WATER = VERY BAD THINGS.

Oh dear, too late. Luckily it wasn't too much of a shock, but hair was standing on end, and it didn't help that I started to laugh (after making sure that his heart hadn't stopped, God, I'm not that callous)...and after we had fixed the breaker, and cleaned up the water....we were both in fits of giggles.....

Today, we got hit by our first big windstorm - warm air coming up from Hawaii apparently - and the familiar grey, bleak rainy days of the West Coast are settling in for the next week or so...

But over all, things are good...

The odd fleeting moment, when I catch myself thinking "A glass of wine would be nice about now"...but then I give myself a shake, and it's gone again.....

I know that normal mundane inconveniences in the past, plus the dark winter days, would previously have lead to too much wine, bad temper and over- reactions.

It's much better this way.

WBxx 

PS. I updated my video blog.....its right here.