Today was christmas eve so it was feeling very much like a holiday.
Our freinds Carol and Kim and Dianes other Bootcamp buddies came buy on a run and dropped off butt sleds for us to use tomorrow. THey were dressed for the day.. but not sure if they were dressed for the weather.. I think it was  below zero (F) this morning !

Diane and I got out for a quick ski in the fields and rivershore trail 

Our friend Tom came over. Tom is one of Gabe’s oldest and   best friends. It was great catching up with him. He’s become a Cooper… He makes wooden barrels, especially for saunas and wood fired hot tubs.… He’s such a great guy.

 

Late afternoon jen, time. nate, hannah, , daryl, avery, martha, andd later deb and ian showed up. We had cheese and oil fondue.. super tasty adn fun to eat !

We even had a meter for the spiceness level of all the sauces.. as soem of these folks have kinda mild spice preferences.. (never could understand that !)

Tasty way to get the holiday started ~

nite all, nite sam

-me

Did soem early pre holiday food shopping today.. whic involved buying a bottle of worcester sauce whcih will probably last us for the next 40 years

speaking of 40 years , I also ran into our old freidns Marian and Jack. DIane and I both worked with Marian about 40 years ago. Marian was a huge he in all the STEM outreach I’ve done over the years. Good to see them doing well !

Mid day I picked up Gabe at the airport.. SO good to see him. He got a new haircut.. ooks good. I dont think i’ve seen his ears since he was a baby !

one surprise for him and the rest of the family.. I bought us a mandolin t plunk around on.. Gabe’s been palyign since may and already sounds so good. He’s playing fok, bluegrass, irish and klezmer.. 

So nice to have Gabe here.. Max shows on THursday,. looking forward to having them both here ! 

We all feel Sam when we’re together. 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

We had a lovely slow day comin back from Montreal.. Hannah and Olivier’s appartment is so cozy. Here’s a painitng that our freind Leyre (Hannah’s sistter in alw) made of Hannah and Olivier.. 

I had fun lookign at the iris picures we took last night. W’ere goign t [print them up as gifts for the kids.. Cool looking.. check out tall the colors in Dianes eyes !  Mine are all the same blue

we headed out in the cold to a nearbie creperie for a lovley brunch

 

Then to Adonis supermarket to stock up on yummy mideleastern and greek food

We are driving Hannah’s cat beck tot eh US.. on the way we stopped by our favorite St Viateur bagels  to stock up.. Long line outside in the frigid air.. but worth the wait !

 

Then back to the us… where the cold and snow awaits !

nice ot be back home 

nite all. nite sam !

-me

Today Diane and I headed up to Montreal with Deb. Hannah and Olivier’s apartment was free… (they just moved to France !).. so we went up to do some  non-shopping.
I was trying to figure out when the last time I was up in Montreal.. I cant think of a time I’ve been up there since the pandemic… is that possible ?!?!  

The drive up was fun.. I enjoyed being a passenger as Deb drove

We walked around for nearly 10 miles !.. We ducked in a few stores but didnt really buy anything

We walked buy Leonard Cohen ‘s house.. always cool to see the place

We were lucky enough to get early dinner reservations at Sushi  Momo  a vegan (!!!) sushi place on St Denis in Downtown. Diane and Deb had been there before and both raved about it.. It was incredible. All threee of us at the Prix Fixe mmenu.. whcih included 16 pieces of chef’s choice vegan sushi.. that allowed such a veriety of stuff. THe tastes and textures we’re amazing.. marinated root vegies became salom shashimi.. seaweed pods became fish roe.  I’m not a big fan of ‘fake meet’ for the sake of people who are missing meet.. but there was nothing fake abotu this. 

We were done with dinner by 6.. so we headed out for anotuer walk around the city on the way back to the aapartment.. It was about 3 degrees F ( -16 C) so we walked quickly to keep warm. We went down to Old Montreal then followed the river back towards Griffentown .. The city was beautifully lit..

We found some cool stores including one that photographed peoples iris’s .. then created art from them. It was so cool.. we couldn’t resist !

Lots of fun stuff to see in this town !

then back to the aprtment to warm up and rest our feet !

Great day in the big city !!!

nite  all, nite  sam 
-me