A Trip to Buffalo, U.S. - a New Christmas Tradition for Our Family

Going to the U.S. is only a short 2 hour drive for Canadians living in Toronto

I love our family traditions! There are two of my favourites: number one is our big extended family Christmas dinner get together which has been going on since 1971 originating in Thunder Bay where my maternal grandmother was living at the time.

For our own family, we started this new tradition about two years ago and currently in its third year -

a two day trip to Niagara Falls and |Buffalo with us leaving on Boxing Day!

Our older son bought us this going away trip two years ago and we loved it so much that we requested it for the third time this year.

We stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel at Niagara Falls, USA. for our annual mini holiday.

When the children were young we used to go on skiing holidays around Christmas time and we loved driving trips this time of the year.

The whole family was in the car with the Christmas music playing intermingled with the children's laughter in the back seats.

The hotel offers good amenities.

We passed by pristine winter scenery with festive lights hanging on snow covered houses in the countryside.

It has a nice spacious lobby.

We all have such lovely memories of our trips!

We had a decent continental breakfast with hot food in the morning

Now, the children are grown with each leading independent life living on the own.

 It was nice going on a family trip spending some time together again.

I can always find some nice things at the Duty Free shop

We drove to Niagara Falls and crossed the border to USA via the Queenston Lewiston Bridge, stopping at the duty free shop buying a few gifts at a good discounted price. E. bought a couple of things for his friend and I bought my beauty stuff.

Niagara University, Lewiston, Niagara Falls, USA

Y. and I spent a good part of the afternoon and early evening at the Outlet Shopping Mall, buying toys and other gift items for our grandnieces and nephews for next Christmas.  How about that for early Christmas shopping?

E. had a great time visiting his friend with whom he had dinner. We all enjoyed ourselves!

We walked around the neighbourhood of Centre St. in Lewiston, Niagara Falls

The next day, we had a few minutes to do some sightseeing around the Lewiston area.









 I always enjoy exploring different architectural designs and buildings.

A rectory beside a Roman Catholic church in Lewiston, USA

I

Lewiston is a nice little town. Though we visited Niagara Falls many times, we never stopped at this town.

A cafe on Centre St. in Lewiston

We must stop and stay a little longer to check it out the next time we visit this quaint little town that is so close to our border.

A Roman catholic church on Centre st. Lewiston, USA

A short trip to the States but it is one that we all enjoy. We will try hard to keep this new tradition of ours alive!

R.T.
Lewiston
U.S.A.

Dancing Water - A Tibetan Mystery

At this year's Christmas party in my sister's house, we came across a nice metal bowl sitting on the table by the entrance. My sister came back from an extensive trip to India and Tibet last year and brought with her this metal object as a souvenir.

This copper bowl gracing the hallway to the house is no ordinary object.

The piece is composed of two parts. A copper bowl and a wooden mallet covered in felt.

Eagerly, my sister wanted to demonstrate what this extraordinary metal bowl could do. Carrying this bowl to the kitchen, she filled this it half way with water from the tap. Then she brought it back to the dining room table and demonstrated to us what it could do.












Taking this wooden mallet in her hand, she slowly went around the outer edge of the bowl with this mallet. Gradually as the speed of the movement of the mallet picked up, the water in the bowl started vibrating gently. Then at a certain point, the water started to move faster and faster as if it were dancing!

The young people took turn trying their hands working with the mallet and produced the same result. It was interesting! There was no force or any other special instrument used to cause the water to dance splashing water droplets outside of the bowl.

I did  not understand the science behind this special bowl but it was interesting to see how the water could be moved by a certain frequency created by the mallet rubbing against the metal bowl.

I love learning about new thing and this was an ah ha moment for me!

R.T.
At My Sister's House
Richmond Hill
Ontario

Our Big Fat Family Christmas Dinner, 2016

Christmas dinner at Rosie's house in Richmond Hill, Ontario

I look forward to our big fat family Christmas dinner all year!

The food serving station

 With our all our kids grown, and many are working outside of Ontario, it is not easy coordinating the date for the get together as everyone is home for the holiday at different times.

E. has tried not to miss the Christmas  dinner if he could make it .

This year was great and many out of towners were able to make it to the dinner as it was held on December 25, right on Christmas day.

Philip made it all the way from Hawaii!

Philip came as far as from Hawaii for this family gathering!




















      This joyous annual family celebration is well attended every year for the past forty some years and this year's was no exception!

Our family's annual Christmas dinner has a  history of over forty years!

In laws are invited to the dinner too!

Our family has grown!

The 2016 Christmas dinner get together was attended not only by our siblings, spouses, as well as our grown children, their spouses/ boy friends/ girl friends.

Siblings' boy friend 

This year, we had a few in-laws joining us!

The cousins got together

Dave, Susan and their family played host to this big dinner for the past many years at their condo's party room.

My Sis spent days in advance preparing for the dinner

This year, Rosie hosted it at her spacious home.

 Our annual dinner is also a time to catch up with family members

Hosting a dinner for forty people takes a lot of planning and preparations.

The house glimmered in festive lights

Whichever family hosting this big dinner is brave, with a nerve of steel, and self sacrificial.

 Theodore 's first Christmas!!

I know Rosie, my sister, started really early checking each one off her list it was completed: shopping for food, decorating her house, having her house professionally cleaned and setting her tables almost two weeks before the actual date of the dinner.

Kids' Dining area

Her efforts and the hard work she put into getting this party ready were evident!

 She even managed to host a sit down dinner for 40 with enough chairs for everyone!

We could all sit, talk and enjoy the dinner in a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere.

The little cousins played and got to know each other

There were more than delicious and a variety of good food served for appetizers, dinner and desserts.

Kids have their space for eating and playing 

When guests arrived at her house, and after dinner, regardless of their age, they could all find something to do and had fun at the party.

Dance Area

 

There were kids' zone, eating and playing area, and a dance room included!

Bingo - one of the after dinner entertainments

The one thing I am immensely proud of our great annual family gathering is that we could have a fantastic time without anybody getting drunk.
.
We did have after dinner entertainment and games in which guests could take part.

Our Mom and others had fun playing Bingo

For the older folks, Margaret, from Ottawa was in charge of the bingo game after dinner. Our Mom and other guests liked the game.

Bingo! Richie was excited and so were we!

" Are you sure you won? I thought I bingo first>"

There was a lot of excitement when Richie BINGO at the game!

Santa and his little helpers came all the way from the North Pole delighting everyone.

Trevor and Mom

Santa appeared, delivered the gifts and the little ones having a ball tearing open their gifts.

The cousins played the Gift Stealing Game

The older cousins carried on with their tradition, exchanging their gifts playing a gift stealing game.

Wishing J. the best as he heads to Europe!

 I bought gifts for people but I forgot bringing a gift for this specific game therefore I didn't play.

 But it was fun watching others playing. I must remember to bring a gift for this game next year.

Second round of eating and celebrating - dessert time!

There was another round of eating when Susan, Wendy, Mikaella and Rosie brought in their desserts.

The board game we played was a fun one

For the young people, E. brought a party game called Codename and taught his cousins how to play it.

I am usually not a board game person as I don't have the patience to sit for hours and play. 

But this time I was able to play this game after spending less than five minutes learning about the rules.

Lia, Mikaela and I formed a girls' team and we played against the guys team made up of Eric, Mark and Dave. Sean and Jordan were the Spy Masters for the teams.  

A family picture with Mom

It was a really fun party game and we all had a great time guessing the pictures with the clue words given by the spy masters!

Thanks, Rosie and Kelvin for hosting and giving us such great opportunity to meet with other family members. It was a fabulous dinner party creating precious memories for all of us!







R.T.
Christmas Dinner Celebration
Dec 25, 2016
Richmond Hill
Ontario

P.S, I wish Y. was here!

Soaking up the Christmas Spirit on the Last Evening of the Toronto's Christmas Market

Last Night of  the Toronto Christmas Market, 2016

A visit to the Toronto Christmas Market is becoming a part of our Christmas tradition in Toronto.

Various crafts and homemade stuff were on sale at the market

However, with all the busy preparations we have to do and a few dinners we have been invited, we did not have time to visit the market until last night - the very last day of the market.

A Merry- go- round for the kids

We were hoping that E. would come and join us at this event. Unfortunately, he has so much to do that he could not make it. I really don't understand the American way of holiday for their employees.

Visitors enjoyed free performance throughout the day

E. told us that he would be home for the holiday, yet when he is home, the company still expects him to be working from home.

With the cell phone, internet and email technology, companies can reach their employees and executives 24/7 any day of the year. From what I have observed, when can a senior employee/ executive have a real quiet and relaxing time free from their daily task in our modern society when they can be reached any time of the day.


It was too bad that E. couldn't join us but we drove down to the Distillery District  by ourselves.

It was a 40 minute wait for us to get inside

It was not too bad finding a parking spot. Wow! There was a huge lineup with people waiting to get into the market, all the way around the block!

We were here before and we never saw such a line up in the previous years.


We joined the crowd, lined up patiently and waited in the cold for more than 40 minutes before we reached the gate. We found out the reason for this long wait - security!

Security was beefed up at the entrance

Instead of having the entrance wide open like it was before, this year, the front entrance gates were closed to the public with security cruisers parked in front of the gates to deter/ prevent any possible violent attacks against the visitors inside the market.







There was only the one side gate opened with the market staff allowing only two or three visitors going in at a time. Security precaution was the reason for holding up the line.

It was sad to see the recent attack in Berlin's Christmas Market having a direct impact on the security procedures in our Toronto Christmas market. But this is the reality of life in our current situation.

Torontonians came out in droves to the market

We are a global village interconnected to each others in the world whether we like it or not. Whatever happens in one country has a ripple effect on the other.

We were glad to see that our Toronto Christmas spirit has not been dampened by other world tragic events.

Torontonians were out in droves on this last night of the Toronto's Christmas Market, strolling around on the cobbled stone covered streets, visiting the various stalls, enjoying the food and activities, and themselves.






There were many photo ops places set up for pictures and selfies.

One of the many photo ops spots at the 2016 Toronto Christmas Market

Visitors to the market also loved the numerous stalls selling different new creative and delicious food enticing them to try their creations.

People were willing to wait for new creative food served at the market

There were long line ups everywhere for these creative food!

At one particular food stall, customers placed their orders, paid in full and were told to come back an hour later to get their food!














Surprisingly, many were willing to do just that!

We ordered our herbal tea, relaxed, and soaked  up the festive atmosphere.

We sang along with the carolers

We, along with many others, sang along with the carolers.

Who could resist freshly home made style bake goods?

We could not resist the aroma coming out from the bakery, and lined up for the delicious home bake goods and pastries.

A great evening out at the market during this festive season.

 It was a fantastic night out to enjoy the Christmas season!
















We will be back again for the 2017 Toronto Christmas Market,
 if God's willing!

R.T.
Toronto Christmas Market
Distillery District