Friday, December 31, 2021

Friday Favourites - 2021 Edition

 Some of my favourite things from 2021:

Song - Kiss Me More - Doja Cat ft. SZA

Movie - Promising Young Woman (with honourable mention to The Mitchells vs. the Machines)

TV Show - Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix). We are full on F1 fans now.

Book - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderak

YouTube videoHot Ones with Dan Levy

Meal - Lobster Roll at Capt. Kat's Lobster Shack in Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia

Drink - Whispering Angel Rosé

New Clothing - New Balance sneakers

Toronto Moment - Two of our major sports teams had to play in borrowed cities for part of 2020 and into 2021.  The Raptors were in Florida and the Blue Jays were in Florida and then Buffalo.  The city welcomed both of them back home finally this year and it was so great!  I know people are still critical of having people in arenas/stadiums but having those teams back here felt great to me. 

Canada Moment - We really got it together for the vaccine distribution and knocked it out of the park.  It was a slow start but once we got going, people stood in line, made their appointments, and got it done.  Sure, there are some dissenters out there, but as of this week we are over 87% for fully vaccinated individuals over age 12, with those 5 to 12 showing up for their shots too.  We didn't make it political, despite a few best efforts from the Conservative party, and it has paid off.

House Thing - We didn't do much with the house this year but we did get new windows and a new side door.  Our house had original windows in it and in 2016 we replaced most of them; this year we did the remaining windows, so no more frost on the inside of the windows when it gets below zero. 

New Restaurant - Nodo. Not exactly a new restaurant but I had two amazing meals there this year in their outdoor seating space and it was lovely.  

E Thing - In September when the kids went back to school we figured that E was getting too old to attend the YMCA before and after school programs (not that they aren't great but there were less kids his age) so we decided that he should walk to and from school each day.  He has a watch so he knows how much time he has before the bell rings, he meets up with several of his friends to walk with, and it gives him some independence. He has never once complained about walking, even in the rain or cold.  If you know E, he can be a bit scatterbrained and this was why I was worried about him walking, but he has done really well and I am proud of him!

Q Thing - Having sat beside Q for much of Junior Kindergarten online learning, I realized that if he is going to do something, it sort of needs to be his idea.  Although he still does lots of block building at school, his writing and drawing has improved, and he is learning lots of French.  He's done well being in an actual classroom.

Dave Thing - Dave finally joined a golf club this year and it has been great.  For a few years he has hemmed and hawed over getting a membership and trying to decide which one to join, but he made his choice and signed up.  He got out a bunch of times, met some new people, and enjoyed the club atmosphere (as much as he could given there are still several Covid restrictions).  I got to golf with him one and a half times there (we got rained out the second time) and we got to eat on the patio several times.

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Monthly Musings

 


Linking up for one more Monthly Musings of 2021 with Holly and Patty.

1. Favourite moments of 2021?
See my recap of 2021 highlights from Tuesday's post.

2. Favourite vacations/trips of 2021?
Haha, that's a joke right? We went on one trip so it's easy to pick that one!  Even if it had been one of several, it would still have been our favourite.  Click here to see our trip to Nova Scotia in September.

3. Do you make New Years Resolutions? Do you want to share yours?
I usually do try to set some goals for the year ahead, but I haven't sat down to think about this yet. I will post about my resolutions next week.

4. Did you have a word/phrase for 2021? Do you have one for 2022?
The phrase in my head about midway through 2021 was "the world is about to turn" from a hymn. Vaccines were being rolled out and things were getting back to normal.  I'm not sure what I think about 2022 yet. 

5. Favourite fashion trend from 2021?
The fashion questions always stump me, what were the trends anyway?  Matching your mask to your outfit?

6. Favourite phase of 2021?
Summer when we could golf, camp, swim, host visitors, and eat on patios.

7. Biggest surprise of 2021?
Vaccines for the kids over 5.  We knew it was coming but glad we could get that first dose in before Christmas. 

8. Stay in or go out for New Years?
Go out to a friend's place, preferably one where I can walk home from.

9. Stay up to midnight or crash early?
We typically try to make it to midnight, but if we are just at home then I don't feel the need to stay up.

10. New Year's Day - football, stay in bed, or binge and chill?
Movies, reading, and tidying up from Christmas. 

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

2021 - Year in Review

Looking back over the year that was 2021

January
We enjoyed the snow

And our fire pit (where we slowly burned our Christmas tree)

We did a few weeks of online school

February
We did lots of winter hiking.


Ski hills finally opened!

We skated on the neighbourhood rink.

March
We made Lenten pretzels on Zoom with the Children's Church

We met Dave's parents for a hike and tailgate birthday party for Dave's 40th.

We got a Peloton.

April
We celebrated Easter.


Dave and I got our COVID vaccines (first dose in April, second dose in June, boosters in December)

We watched some baseball on our backyard projector screen.

Dave set up a golf net in the backyard.

We continued with online school.

May
We walked around our neighbourhood, with treats as the end goal.

We celebrated Mother's Day

Did some biking on the Lakeshore.


Played at High Park


June
I celebrated my 40th birthday.


We finished out the school year at home (and picked up their leftover things at school one day).

We celebrated Father's Day at Henderson Brewery.

I got a paddle board and enjoyed the Humber River.


July

We camped at Algonquin.


And dropped E off for his first overnight camp experience.


Hung out in Muskoka


My mom visited!


August
Dave and I golfed.


We camped at Arrowhead.


Q and I paddle boarded.


My Dad visited.


We spent a cottage weekend at Jack Lake with friends.


Dave's sister was here.


We went to a live sporting event - welcome back Blue Jays!


September
We camped at the Pinery.


The kids went back to school (in person!).


We traveled to Nova Scotia to visit family and go to a wedding.




Q turned 5. 


And we celebrated at a Blue Jays game.


October

We did some fall hiking.



And walked in the city.


E turned 10 and we finally let him play Fortnite (headset required).


And we celebrated with a visit to the CN Tower.


We went trick-or-treating.


November
I visited Timmins and went underground.


We visited Sarnia.


We went to a Marlies hockey game.


The kids got their first COVID vaccine!


December
We visited with Santa at the mall.


Dave and I went to some Christmas parties.


We had our annual Christmas party for neighbours and friends.

My parents joined us for Christmas!


At the end of last year's recap I said I hoped that 2021 would bring more family visits and trips outside of our province.  In 2022, I'm hoping we get to leave the country!