Friday Favourites - 2025 Edition

Some of my favourite things from 2025:

Song - All Too Well (10 minute version) was my top played song on Spotify, but as for new songs it was Golden from K Pop Demon Hunters.

Movie - F1

TV Show - The Summer I Turned Pretty

Book - On Isabella Street

Meal - Le Pre Aux Clercs in Paris - French Onion Soup, Roasted Chicken, Crème Brûlée 

Drink - Sancerre 

New Clothing - White pants from Aritizia, that I later got in black. 

Toronto Moment - Without a doubt it was the Blue Jays’ playoff run, everyone was so invested in the games and it was so exciting to be here.  We went to several games during the regular season and then got tickets for Game 1 of the World Series.  It was amazing. 

Canada Moment - The Blue Jays was really Canada’s moment too, but in addition was the Four Nations Cup back in February.  Canada was feeling a little wounded from Trump’s comments and tariffs and the Four Nations Cup was some great bonding for our country and it was even sweeter that we won it :)

House Thing - (house adjacent), our new car, an electric car to the installation of the charger is part of the house!

Restaurant - Freebird Market, not a “restaurant” but you can get prepared food to take home. Everything is lovely there.

E Thing - He graduated from Grade 8 in June and started high school in September.  He won a couple of awards at graduation and has gotten off to a good start in Grade 9. It has been nice to hear the things his teachers say about him, and see him try new things at school, like design technology and the robotics team. 

Q Thing - Q is a hard worker, and we sometimes don’t give him credit for it, but he loves batting practice, hitting golf balls, putting, his piano lessons, learning violin at school, and working on his reading at school.  He wants to do well and doesn’t mind putting in the work. 

Dave Thing - Dave got his first hole in one on September 5, and we were all there to witness it! We were so excited. 

Memories - Game 1 of the World Series, what a time!! Also the soup cabin at Tremblant and laughing under the Eiffel Tower. 

Merry Christmas from Toronto SAM!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season!  

I sincerely appreciate that you come by here every day or every so often to see what we are up to. I know blogs such as this are not as in fashion as they once were, but I like this way of keeping people updated, sharing a few opinions here and there, and being a little creative. There is a lot coming at you on the internet, so the fact that you’re here means a lot to me.

As we wind down this year and reflect on the good and not-so-good events, I hope you are in a place where you are able to find some enjoyment in spending time with family or stealing a few minutes away for yourself.  If you’re like me, your favourite part of this time of year may be the food so if nothing else, I hope you find something good to eat :)

I’ll be back on Friday and next week with a few end of year posts.

“So be it, I am ready

according to your word.”

Hymn “To a Maid Whose Name Was Mary”

Friday Favourites

I am officially on holiday as of today at 5:00 (although to be honest I’ll probably have to do a bit of work next week) and the kids will be off school. My mom is arriving today and I feel like I turn my full attention to the rest of the things we need to do to get ready for the big day. 

Some neighbours came by this week to bring us some cookies.  They were unable to come to our party but wanted to wish us a Happy Holidays. Not shown is the white snowflake cookie that I had already eaten!

I took a rare opportunity to work from a Starbucks and had my one and only Peppermint Mocha of the season. I like them but it is a treat and I usually just stick with plain coffee.

Q needed a cookie before his piano lesson, he was starving!!! (He said)

E and his class partner made this lovely birdhouse in class, but she didn’t want it so he brought it home.  I said he should paint it.  They did excellent work.

We have finally caught up with Stranger Things.  E had never seen it but since everyone was talking about it he wanted to see it.  We watched all of the past seasons together, good refresher for me and Dave, and even Q got in on the action eventually.  We are ready for the next episode to drop on Christmas Day.  Then the other day E learned to play Eddie’s guitar solo from season 4, Metallica’s Master of Puppets.  He just watched a video and learned it, so talented.

On Wednesday I posted about the books I read this year, click here to see what I chose as my favourite book of the year.

Plans for our weekend include shopping, skiing, baking, wrapping, and the 4th Sunday of Advent. 

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Monthly Musings

 

1. What holidays do you celebrate?

Christmas

2. Scale of 1 to 10 - how into the holidays are you this year? Be honest.

I think I am at an 8 or so.  Buying gifts is always the most stressful but I mostly have that under control. 

3. Favourite thing to make/bake during the holidays?

I like sugar cookies and shortbread. I also like to “make” (or rather warm up in the oven) any kind of puff pastry appetizer, especially sausage rolls.  

4. Favourite holiday movies?

One that I will watch over and over (and we have) is The Grinch (the newest animated one with Benedict Cumberbatch as Grinch) and another one I will never get tired of is White Christmas. 

5. Most random holiday tradition?

Home Alone Night.  I got them from someone I follow on instagram (@Mel_Larson), we order pizza, buy a 2 L bottle of Pepsi, and make ice cream sundaes while we watch Home Alone 1 and 2.

6. Are you hosting for the holidays?

Yes, we hosted a party last weekend and my mom is coming up for Christmas.

7. Favourite way to ring in the New Year?

I love going to a house party, if anyone is hosting, or just hanging out at home, as long as there is good food.

8. Any New Year's Resolutions or Word of the Year?

I haven’t really thought about it too much yet, but I was thinking I should start using OneNote at work instead of my paper notebook.

9. Favourite holiday songs?

There are too many to name, but my current go-to is "DJ Play a Christmas Song" by Cher. It's a banger.

10. Favourite holiday memory?

Christmas Eve church with Silent Night by candlelight.

2025 Books

I love reading but didn't actually read as much this year.  I worked from home from June to early December so my subway reading time was significantly reduced.  But here are the books I read this year:

What I Ate in a Year

Small Things Like These

The Summer Pact

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

Real Ones

The Heart's Invisible Furies

One Perfect Couple

The Secret Keeper

Long Island

One Golden Summer

Sankofa

Like Mother, Like Mother

The Hotel Nantucket

On Isabella Street

Come From Away

The God of the Woods

How to Read a Book

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware (just started today, but will finish in 2025)

I liked most of the books I read but my favourites are:

#3

One Golden Summer

#2 

The Wedding People

#1

On Isabella Street

In all instances the characters are well developed and they have such good conversations with each other. And two of them are Canadian!  

Annual MacDonald Family Drop-In

 It was our favourite weekend of the Christmas season - our annual party where we invite friends and neighbours to drop in for some holiday cheer.  If you can believe it, we had over 100 people join us!!  People started coming around 2:30 and the last person left around 10:00.  

We will serve the first drink and then people are encouraged to help themselves after that. 

Lots of food and we seemed to have just the right amount. 

The kids mostly hang out in the basement so they had a few trays of food down there. 

A good opportunity to get a family photo when we are waiting for guests to arrive.

Dave's parents were here to help out as they always do. 

I took a few photos of the crowd.  Teenagers on their phones, Christmas movie in the background.

Little kids playing mini-sticks hockey.

Lots of mingling.  We were discovering overlapping friend groups throughout the party.

It is a lot of work to put this on, but we love doing it!

And if that wasn't enough excitement for one weekend, we also had Brunch with Santa at the golf club, and a music recital!

Q played Jingle Bells at the recital and E played Sweet Child of Mine. 

We got the house put back together and got to bed at a good time.