Well, there it was … gone. The last two weeks went by pretty quick … this time of year usually does – the Christmas rush, the week before New Year’s Day. What with the Omicron and COVID-19 pandemic exploding into new record case numbers a lot of usual events were minimized or cancelled all together. The World Junior Hockey championship was cancelled, New Year’s Eve celebrations were cancelled (for the most part), gatherings in private homes were reduced to 10 people – restrictions that we have had to deal with almost the last two years. Kelly and I got our booster shots – we are now completely vaxxed (until someone decides that a fourth shot is necessary) – but we have cancelled our vacations plans. We were supposed to be going to Mexico in a week’s time but with all the uncertainty about travel restrictions we figured it wasn’t worth the risk. So we’ll probably wait until next December to go somewhere. The weather has been pretty good lately – it was 10 degrees Celsius New Year’s Eve – and we haven’t hardly had any snow in December. That will change this week – a couple of inches of snow and freezing rain last night – and the temperatures will be well below the freezing mark for the next couple of months. Oh, the leaf bagging count? It ended up at 90 bags of leaves😊 The birds have become regulars at the feeding station in our back yard – the blue jays and cardinals seem to alternate days … the doves, pigeons, sparrows, and a couple of woodpeckers show up almost every day. A crow dropped in this morning for the first time. At first when we let Doug the Dog out the birds would scatter, now they don’t pay any attention to him 😊. For Christmas supper we had the traditional Steak, Shrimp, and Scallops (with asparagus and brussel sprouts); for New Year’s dinner I made a traditional Quebecois Tourtiere (with beets and brussel sprouts)😊 We have had homemade soups, Cream of Broccoli and Cream of Cauliflower; different Mexican dishes – pork enchiladas and chicken enchiladas verdes; pastas and casseroles; lots of great home cooked meals!! On the Netflix front we watched more Christmas movies – some good, most bad – we caught up on the first eight episodes of ‘Yellow Stone’, have to wait for the last ones as they get posted every Sunday night; and started watching ‘Mind Hunter’ on Netflix – a series about how the FBI started to hunt serial killers in the ‘80’s. I binge watched ‘Mar Del Plastico’ – a Spanish crime / mystery series about serial killers, sex trafficking, and drug gangs in Southern Spain – a little cheesy at first, but it keeps you guessing – more twists than a bag of pretzels! 😊. Season 3 of ‘Undercover’ starts next week – a Belgian crime series – the first two seasons were excellent. On to golf … nothing yet – and I’m really, really getting tired of hearing about Tiger Woods’ recovery from his car accident last year; let’s face it – he caused the crash by breaking the speed limit by 40 mph; and he never got charged or fined!! NFL football is in it’s seventeenth week … the less said about the Seahawks the better ☹ Wilson will probably be somewhere else next year … but I’ll still be a ‘Hawks fan 😊 In hockey Seattle Kraken still in last place in their division –Maple Leafs in third place and looking good 😊 Got to go … probably watch Seattle get beat by Detroit in the NFL … have a great and safe week … we will see you in a bit!!