2015 Day 3 - Greatest gift

I remember that as a young girl, I wanted a Lite Bright...I never, ever got one and I'm not sure why...maybe my parents thought I was too old for it, who knows.

Anyway, when Graeme and I were still dating and he still lived in Saskatoon, he had sent a few gifts and one of them ended up being a lite bright...ti was so fun and surprising that I now had a lite bright.  He had remembered me talking about me wanting one...what a sweet guy, huh?!

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This year, we had another rough day at the pool...but did spend some time down at the beach

2014 Day 4 - Greatest gift

Last year I talked about THE greatest gift of my childhood, but another memorable one was an LP!

Yes, I mean a real record.  It was "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby.  I don't think I knew it was Bing Crosby when I asked for it...I said it was a Christmas album that was white and had a big head in the centre of it.  My mother asked and asked and re-asked if I was sure that was what I wanted...why would a young girl want an album made my an old man?

Well...THIS girl (aka...ME) did AND she listened to it at least a bazillion times....and later on, as a young adult, I got it on tape.  As you can imagine, I now have it on CD and also the movie on DVD.  Even though I have MORE Christmas CDs than any other type of music (and purchase at least 1 new one a year...this year I got about 7)...this album is still my favourite!

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This year, on December 4, I ALSO had a pretty big gift.  For my 50th year, I made a list of things I would like to do to commemorate surviving to this age - this list included several trips (knowing I'd be lucky to even do 1 of them, but expecting none); take classes (never happened); work on health (yay me, I did this); work on scrapbook at least 1 day a week (yay...did that); meet with BFFS to work on scrapbook once a month (yay...achieved)... and many others I didn't get to.

BUT one item on this list was to swim with dolphins...and...guess what...This day, Dec 4, 2014, the day we are to talk about the greatest gift, I got to SWIM WITH DOLPHINS!  I wasn't a bit worried, it was so amazing to be in the pool with 2 dolphins, to pat them, to hold onto their fins for a ride...on and on!

It was the best day ever (well, next to waking up Christmas morning to our precious cat Hobo and this White Christmas CD)!

2013 Day 4 - Greatest gift

The ONE gift that stands out in my mind from my childhood was our 1st cat.

I was in grade 2 and starting to think that maybe this Santa business was a yarn....my brother is 4 years younger than me, so he was still a total believer.  We got up Christmas morning, ran out to the tree to see what Santa brought and there was an open, brown box, with a cookie cooling rack on the top.  We went to look inside, and there was a tiny, fluffy, black kitten laying on a blanket.

I couldn't believe my eyes!  I think I stood there stunned and re-looking into the box to make sure what I was seeing was what I was actually seeing!  Dad was totally against having a pet, even though my mother wanted a cat.  My mother couldn't drive, so I knew that SHE couldn't have got the cat AND my father was so against it, that I "knew"  he didn't do it....so there MUST be a Santa!!  Oh My...what a day!

We named him Hobo and he was the center of our Christmas that year.  We both couldn't leave him alone, poor thing.  My mother would get him and hold him every few hours so he could have a nap away from our crazy playing with him.  I don't remember what we actually asked Santa for that year...it might have been a cat, but I truly ONLY remember that Santa brought us a beautiful little kitten that we all instantly loved!

He had the loudest purr and the softest fur - it was actually black only on the tips and when you patted or brushed him, the underneath layer of fur was a pale grey - and you wouldn't know it to look at him - he looked totally black.  Over the years, he put up with a lot of crap from us.  I dressed him in my doll clothes, I teased him and cuddled with him - he was lovely.  He was the house protector - if he saw any animal walking near the yard, he was right there growling and hissing and all his fur puffed up so he looked 3x his size (lol).

I miss good old Hobo - the Greatest Christmas gift of my childhood! 

Not too many photos were take of dear Hobo, but here he is - not as a kitten (obviously)

Here I am playing with Hobo beside our Christmas tree!  Based on the hair length and shape of glasses, I'm still in Elementary school in this photo