Red, White and GOLD!

We were ready to share in the collective Canadian experience today - watching the gold medal hockey game - wonderful finale for two weeks that have captured our hearts.

I've revelled in these Olympics, loved sharing the moments with Canadians across the country and around the world, all the while struck by the fact that these games could very well be the last Olympics in Canada in my lifetime. I wanted to make it a remember-when-experience for Julia. We've worn our red mittens, sported our Olympic gear, seen the torch twice, sang along with the "I Believe" theme song in the car, oooed and ahhed during the opening ceremonies, cheered with our family in Sarnia for the first home-grown gold medal, and enjoyed many a medal-winning performance after that. This week, I have stayed up long past my bedtime to watch the skating competitions, and beamed as the women's hockey team captured their gold. There was sorrow too with the the news of the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luge athlete and the great loss that Joannie Rochette suffered with the death of her mother.

Along the way my Olympic tears have puzzled Julia --"Why are you crying now?" My sister, Carmel knows why. I don't know if Julia will ever get it, not being a crier herself. I cry because I'm proud to be Canadian, proud to feel part of the experience, proud of all athletes and all their work and dedication. I know that we weren't the only ones crying. (By the way, of course, I'm crying NOW while I am typing this as the Olympic highlight moments are being recapped on CTV.)

This afternoon we got ready to hopefully celebrate the hockey gold, the last gold, the gold that would mean a world Olympic record for gold medals won. Out to the Canada Day bin I went for our decorations so we could deck our halls to match the sea of red and white that we were seeing on the wide shots on the tv.

At first Julia said that she wasn't sure if she liked hockey.

She changed her mind.

Julia wore her CHEER-io t-shirt that we got back in the summer in preparation for the games. It's signed by the Olympic athletes, part of the Paint the Town Red campaign.

We are ready to cheer on our boys.

As we got to the end of the third period - with the 2-1 win within our grasp, Julia was ready to do her outdoor victory run with the flag, just as cousin Jack had done 8 years ago. With one minute to go, we took the flag down off the wall. Then I got the video option on the camera ready with 30 seconds to go -- and then at 20 something seconds to go -- well, it happened. The game was tied. Julia's face says it all. The entire nation, I'm sure, felt it all in the pit of our collective stomachs. She told me "If they don't win, I'll kill myself. I'll stab myself in my hand." She's got her mom's sense of hyperbole, I see.

She decided that we had to be positive.

Even Butterscotch got into the act.

And it worked! Sidney Crosby got his overtime goal, 

Canada got the gold,

and Julia got her run.

The goal is already being compared to Paul Henderson's goal of 1972 - I told Julia this is a moment that she could well remember for the rest of her life. She told me that she was glad that she didn't have to stab her hand.

So as the Olympic closing ceremony is about to begin, no one cares about the hydraulic malfunction of the opening ceremonies. (LOL as the fourth tower made its way up with the help of a clown -- just like the Canadians to poke fun at themselves). The British news reports about these being the "worst games ever" seem silly now. It's been 17 days of great challenges, great sorrow, and great victory. Canadians believed and showed their pride. The moments to come -- Joannie Rocette carrying the flag tonight - more tears for sure. I've loved it all. 

Hoping for a repeat

Tonight was the big game --Team Canada against Team USA -- on home ice --this was the game that has been shown to us in many commercials of late for beer and for Bell as well as in the CTV "I believe" montages -- tonight the nation donned their red apparrel and really had a feeling that tonight was going to be a good night just like the Black-Eyed Peas happily tell us.


We wanted to believe that Team Canada would "do it, and do it, and do it, and do it -- again.


Heavy sigh -- lots of sad Canadian souls this evening -- we were hoping for a repeat of what we saw 8 years ago in Salt Lake City.


In my life time, I've shared two big hockey moments with Canadians of a certain age, moments that are forever etched on the Canadian psyche --one in 1972 in the school gym of Sacred Heart School in Sarnia when we watched Paul Henderson score the big goal.

And the other one was on February 24, 2002. Here it is chronicled in my early days and early style of scrapbooking. I can't get over how young the kids were -- and how young the adults looked.

On the porch of my house on Tugwell in Newmarket.

Roots was designing the Olympic gear then, not HBC --
you can see Noreen and I were big fans of the red sweaters, still are.

We look to the Women's team to bring us the hockey gold.

Hunting for Hearts

Another note to my readers --- oh my -- another blogging post mistake -- the secone one in a week --perhaps I'm getting too old for this carry on -- I inadevertently posted my V-day post on my China blog-- thanks goodness I've good IT support (AKA Lianne). So here's a little blurb on how Julia and I celebrated. I used to long for the romantic celebration of the day -- these last 7 years -- I've loved celebrating it with Julia, the true love of my life.

February can mean the blahs -- but I find that there is something nicer about February than January -- a new semester for me helps shake it up a bit, a short month makes things easier to bear - we are one month closer to June -- and of course, there's Valentine's Day.

Julia got us started with her centre piece.

There were cookies to bake --adapted from Jan's great Christmas cookie recipe.

Even some red hearts -- however, I looked like Lady Macbeth
after rolling out the red dough -- a bit disconcerting.

And then the second annual Heart Hunt.

It is an easy way to make even hunting for toothpaste fun.

Julia was on the hunt for some essentials to take with us to China.

Reading one of the clues.

A treat that was waiting for her --

a little travel make-up case, just like Mama's (and Bryanna)

for health and beauty aids for the trip.

Ella Enchanted was hiding on the window ledge.

One of the clever clues I was crafting at midnight the night

before while watching Olympic highlights.

The big finale - some new PJs for the trip

(Julia's in a growth spurt and lighter easier-to pack pjs from last season are too short).

She loves this silky Wizards of Waverly Place pair. Oh yes, and the Smarties.

I'm struck by how much she looks like Maclean here.

I'm really not used to the big teeth yet.

Hope you all had a great time with your loved ones.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Medals and Tigers and Hearts -- oh my!

A golden moment came later on Valentine's Day when this young man captured the hearts of the country. His performance, his boyish, humble charm, his exceptional performance, and, of course, his loving family -- all the ingredients magical necessary for our country to embrace Alexandre Bilodeau into our collective hearts. I cried everytime CTV did an "I Believe"video montage on Canada's gold medal hero, and it wasn't because of the grammatical error in the song ("I believe in the power of you and I" -- it should be "you and me", but me doesn't rhyme with fly from the previous line -- but I've thought of a way to fix it -- "I believe in the power that's you and I". Okay, okay -- I can hear the collective groan from my readers -- but once an English teacher, always an English teacher. All Alan Frew had to do was call me).

Dear readers - Part 1 of my Valentine's Day entry was inadvertently posted on my China Blog - I blame it on all the chocolate I ate that day. Check out the details of Julia's Hunt for Hearts there - I can't figure out a way to bring it over to this blog without losing it in cyper space.

Julia made a request that after church we went to the Chipican for lunch, a nice treat for Valentine's Day. (For Shauna, this is the equivalent of The Rooster for our family.)

The restaurant is just at the end of our street, a location that has always puzzled me, this restaurant and motel in close by to an established residential area. I guess back in the day, it was out in the wilds of the north end of Sarnia. It's been around for over 60 years -- can you tell from the less-than-politically-correct signage. I had my Gr. 12 Graduation dinner her - it was, and my sister says it still is known for its steaks. We like the great deal for breakfast.

Sara and I - notice the lovely art work behind us - classic.

Carmel's traditional cupcakes - these ones were TITAN size.

A lovely bouquet for Carmel from her Valentine, Ralph.

We spent the afternoon visiting my mom. She was very alert and talkative. We love to see her this way. I was delighted to see her wearing her festive red - always has been one her best colours. When I was little I remember she had this lovely red fine wool dress that had a black patent belt that cinched her tiny waist. There are a few pictures I have etched in my mind with my mom wearing that dress, but this is my favourite.

It was New Year's Eve 1966 - my mother is 12 years younger than I am now -- and looking like a million bucks. Dad is looking pretty dapper too, I must say. I searched for this photo while I was home and showed it to my dad. Carmel said, "Mom looked great in red" to which my dad replied "She looked great in everything." Such a dear response from the man of few words who I'm sure my mother thought didn't pay much attention to what she was wearing. How touched I was to hear that he, her Valentine, had noticed.Sara shares her Valentine with Nana.

Nana reads Julia's message.

What's of particular note with this picture is what Sara and Dad are doing. During our visit my mother pulled out of her sleeve -- literally--a valentine from a secret admirer. Sara and Dad are trying to get to the bottom of that one. The valentine said "You are the coolest!" Mom wasn't going to share any info on this one.

A spin around the room while Katie played the piano.

Carmel shares one of the roses from her bouquet from Ralph with my mom. This was always something Carmel did for Mom when she was home. She'd put the rose on the little altar in her bedroom.

It was such a treat to be home to celebrate Chinese New Year at home in Sarnia with the family. So it kind of felt that we were sympatico with all those in China making the pilgrimage home to their families. Imagine my delight when I saw that Dad had hung the Chinese lanterns that I had bought for the family when I went to China the first time. It was a wonderful welcome home.

Julia was excited to give the hong bao to her cousins -- another first for us. We have an assortment of different designs so she chose a different one for each cousin. The Waterloo cousins received theirs the night before. The kids were delighted to get the unexpected treat - we also celebrated Jack' s confirmation and Katie's 18ths birthday with a little extra in the little red envelopes.

Ralph assembles our Chinese take-out feast! A bit ironic since one of the best lines from his stellar performance the night before in Over the River and Through the Woods was said in response to his grandson eating Chinese food -- "It's like eating cancer."

Enjoying some soup -- and on all day was, as you can see, the HD big screen with CTV thrilling us with all the Olympic programming. Let me just say a little something about HD -- it's practically 3D -- Fantastic!

Julia helps Carmel select her Chinese lucky fortune using our lucky bamboo sticks. This is Carmel's year - the year of the tiger. Not the best of years for my Tiger friends -- hoping they can turn it around.

Could Family Day Weekend have been any better - so many wonderful things to celebrate and enjoy with the Devine clan? Hoping it's the beginning of more time together through out the year.

We believe

What a wonderful way to start family weekend - Julia and I were able to get to Waterloo to celebrate Jack's confirmation.

oh - yeah and the Olympics too.

Of course, after being part of two torch runs in December

Julia and I were very excited to see the opening ceremonies.

And to see the cousins.

And together for the evening, we believed.

We felt part of all the torch had come to mean

during its journey across Canada.

We were 6 of the 23 million Canadians who tuned into watch some of the big event.

We cheered as teams from China and Ireland and of course, Canada came into the stadum,

we were solemn as we watched the team from Georgia make their brave walk,

we oooed and ahhhed over the spectacular visual effects, and

held our collective breath when the torch mechanism experienced

some technical difficulties.

An Olympic hug with Maggie, sporting my Olympic gear.

Julia and the newly confirmed Elmo share a moment.
We captured these moments on the TV -
big cheers for our Canadian athletes.

Julia exclaimed when she saw them coming in,
"Hey, they are wearing my hat!"

She was right -- she does have the Canada toque.
And she will wear it proudly in three weeks while we are in China--

weather permitting, of course.

Elmo and Julia didn't last the full ceremony,

but you can see in the green ball

that Butterscotch was doing her Olympic run around the floor.

We look forward to believing with the rest of the country

all that our Olympic athletes will do us proud.

Ina and Ama - a homage to Julia and Julie REVISED

NOTE TO MY LOYAL READERS - it seems that I feel asleep while preparing this post the other night -- and ended up posting my draft rather than saving it to be edited. That's why there were blanks, and missing photos, and abcdefg ?????

After seeing the movie Julia and Julie, I felt hungry and inspired to tackle some new recipes. My blogging pals have taken to chronicling their culinary adventures so here was my chance.

The occasion was ladies group dinner that I was hosting this month. I usually try something different -- I had decided that the entree was going to be Shauna's Prefect Winter Stew, the appetiser was going to be Lianne's amuse bouche from the summer and dessert was going to come from the new cookbook that came my way at Chistmas.

The recipe is French Apple Tart.

Here's what inspired me on the left and what I produced on the right.

I was overjoyed when I discovered that Lianne had drawn my name for Christmas and secretly hoped that I would be getting the book as a gift, as I had made it very clear how much I loved it. And the Christmas wish came true as not only did I get the lovely cookbook, I got two important staples that Ina Garten swears by -- kosher salt and good olive oil.
Ina wrote in the intro to the recipe that this "might be [her] all-time favourite dessert. It's the simple essence of sweet apples and crisp pastry with no distractions." Sounded easy enough. And then there were signs telling me this was the right recipe to try.

I could tell she loved this recipe because she's even making it on the front cover of the book. And she said I could use frozen puff pastry instead of making the crest --- win-win I thought.

And it was easy -- -but I discovered afterwards, when the crust didn't work that I had bought phyllo instead of puffed pastry. So that changed things ---crust wise --- It looked and smelled great -- and tasted great once you got past the layers of parchment paper pastry.

The pastry looked like a Gr. 7 or 8's aged paper assignment for history class -- you know the ones when the kids age the paper with tea bags and then burn the edges -- I hate it when these crumbling assignments get handed in -- imagine my dismay when I saw that this is what I was going to be serving my guests.

But that's the good thing about this ladies group -- you can experiment and not worry too much when something doesn't work out. I'm happy to say that the appetiser, entree and salad courses were successful -- 3 out of 4 is Level 3 in my books. Gives me something to shoot for next time.

So lesson learned -- note to self -- look for puffed pastry. Read the labels. Carefully.

Night Vision

Julia went with what I refer to as "her Aurora family" for her second ski trip of the season. They tagged along on another friend's school trip for great group rate for family and friends.

Alyse and Julia had demonstrated that their ski a few weeks ago at Snow Valley, sporting the new gear they got for Christmas.


But Friday's adventure was special -- Julia was going night skiing.

When the option was presented to her, she was interested, but worried how she'd manage going down the hill with a flashlight in hand. "Good thing I ski without poles," she said.

Guy is having a great season --

and a cheap one at that -- Snow Valley offers a deal to all those who turn 50 during the skiing season -- they get their ski pass for $5.oo. Can't beat that deal with a stick as Moe says.

Here's the veiw for the chair lift -- gosh it seems high to me.

Moe and Alyse prepare for their run.

Julia's view of her skis.