And so it begins........

 This photo was taken at 2pm on Tuesday:

Those flipping streamers just kept coming in from the lake.  I shoveled the driveway twice.  I am guessing it will be here to stay now, welcome Winter!

I decided it was a read a book day, and I still had one more book to review for the month.

I posted my review, here in my book review blog.  It was a good book, well worth reading.

So as it's snowing outside, I of course had to make a sweet pepper quiche with salad for supper.  Why is it when its cold outside you fancy a salad, and when it's red hot outside in the middle of summer you fancy a bowl of soup?

Ingredients used for the quiche.  I love the PC brand of Smoke Flavoured Cheddar cheese.

Supper was so good.  The grain salad was from Costco.

Trip to the Post Office

Went to put stamps on the Christmas cards to mail them. Took me forever to remember where I had actually put the cards, only to discover I had three stamps and four cards....LOL

So had to go to the post office to buy a book of stamps, which should last me well into next year.

Of the four cards I mailed, two were in Canada and there is a good chance that will be the last time I am sending them to those folk.  The other two were to family in the UK; I was short an international stamp.

Cost over $18 for a book of six international stamps.  The lady at the post office was telling me that there hasn't been an increase in the price of stamps since before COVID?  I don't remember do you?

Other than immediate family, I would think I am down to giving Christmas cards to a handful of people.  Do you send out a lot of cards?  I think it is a dying trend.

Bonus Redemption Week

 If you're in Canada, you'll know exactly what that title means.  Shopper's Drug Mart are having their "Mega Bonus Redemption Week." The equivalent store in the US is CVS, in the UK, Boots.  We collect points when we shop there or in any other of the Presidents Choice brand stores.  I also have a Presidents Choice Mastercard and earn points on that as well.

You normally get $1 per 1,000 points when you cash them in.  As you can see you can get more for your points during this bonus redemption time which happens at this level once per year around Black Friday time.

I was lucky and had enough points to be able to cash in 130,000 points to get $200 worth of product in the store for free.  A lot of folk cash their points in the electronics, especially Nintendo and PS5's that sort of thing.  I neither want nor do I need that sort of thing, so I just stock up on everyday things.

The key to all of this is that you have to have enough product before the 13% taxes are added.  So I needed to spend $200 before tax, to be able to cash in the points.  I was a bit bummed as I only had one coupon to use and that was for the BOOM CHICKA POP snacks; and that was a buy one get on free.  Still I saved over $6 on those with the coupon, and I'll use the snacks for our get together next week.

You can never have enough toilet paper.  Remember when toilet paper was in short supply during COVID?

So it took me a full hour of going round the store to get all that and tally it all up.  As you can see it added up to $201.07 before the taxes were added.  

After I cashed in my points, I paid $21.91 out of pocket.  We are stocked up on a number of things so all in all, it was a productive 1 1/2 hours, which includes driving time to and from the store.

I came home and flaked out in the chair.......seems I am not fully recovered from this cold!

Did any of you who are in Canada cash in your points?

A huge thank you to Mr. Beaver

Last weekend was reasonably warm so it was an ideal opportunity to decorate the outside of the house for Christmas.  Hubby put up lights, while I put together my two Christmas pots.

As I headed into the forest by the pond to cut some greenery I stumbled upon a felled tree.  It had been chewed and felled by our resident beaver that we have in our pond.  So all the branches I cut were from this felled tree or from other branches from the ground.  I always feel a little guilty cutting my own, but I always make sure I cut them from the back of a tree and don't chop from a tree willy-nilly.

This tub is by the side of the house coming up the footpath:

This one is in front of the window and has lights on it.

I bought all the picks on sale a couple of years ago and use them every year.

I was at a garden centre a week or two ago and saw inserts for up to $100 each.  You can see some here and here. I just can't justify spending that much on inserts.  

Do you make your own arrangements, or buy them?

Two weeks since my last post......

 I know what on earth is going on with me!!

Well I am sick, AGAIN.  Not sure which small grandchild gave it too me this time, but I have narrowed it down to the two boys who live down the road!!!  One is coughing up a storm and one has a green snotty nose.....SIGH!

Then I was back at the dentist just over a week ago, as the tooth I had filled back in September was giving me so much pain whenever anything hot or cold touched it.  So she refilled it with a medicated temporary filling and I have to go back in January to see if it has settled down.

Now as I write this, it has settled down, BUT, for how long who knows.  What I do know if it flares up again it's being pulled, so I will have no back molars, either top or bottom on my left hand side.

I have been busy setting up the house for Christmas.  I am hosting a get together on December 2nd, so needed to get things ready a little earlier than normal.

When I went to put up the tree, only 2 strings of lights were working:

Now I will say that tree owed us nothing.  We had swapped out our old tree with son and his wife for their smaller tree five years ago.  So it was a few years old.

So we ended up going to Canadian Tire and getting this tree:

It's this tree from Canadian Tire.  Now it is 7 feet tall which is a bit big, but it is quite narrow in width which I like, as it has to go into a small space.  I was not happy paying $300, so it had better last us the rest of our days!!

I have gone with a red and gold theme this year.

I have just posted some more book reviews, as I have been busy reading as had no energy to do most things.  It took me a couple of days to sort out the Christmas tree and hubby assembled it for me......that is so unlike me.

Anyhow, I am going to sit down after lunch and prep some more posts, so you should be hearing more from me, fingers, toes and everything crossed.

Another stage in life..........

We're entering another stage in our lives.  To be honest, we have been preparing for this for a number of years, but now we're on the final countdown to hubby retiring.

In fact we are around 325 days until his last day of work, give or take a week or two either side of the September 2024 expected retirement day.  The leaving date is not fixed in stone yet, and won't be until probably next April/May.  There are a number of factors in play with this, and it's mainly to do with banked hours and vacation pay.  

One of hubby's co-workers retired last year in October and got paid through to the end of the year, as he had banked hours and vacation pay owing.  Both hubby and I think this is a good idea, and we may as well get health benefits until the end of the year.  

That is something we have to look into, as I won't be 65 for another four years after hubby retires so I will have to pay for all medications out of our own pocket.  Hubby's will be covered; less $100 yearly payment, by the Government.

Looking at the graphic above, I feel we are the people not pictured there, there should be another person, between the far right one and the second to the far right.

One thing I think we all probably think about is how much time do we have left on this earth?  When doing a financial plan they plan it with an expected life expectancy of 90.  So I guess we are two thirds through our life expectancy.

Bit of an odd post, but something I was thinking about today.

Regarding, hubby's false tooth having a hole in it, we have no idea how it happened.  It cost hubby $250 though to have it replaced as he has used the $2,000 we can spend on dentists this year through our insurance.  Never have we ever used all the money allocated in a year for a dentist in all the years we have been in Canada.  Also, the dentist waived his fee.  The price at dentists has shot through the roof.  I hope that one day, the government will cover dental visits for seniors.

Answering some questions..........

 from this past week.

Both Linda and JJ, asked if there was a link to the auction site.  It does have a site, BUT they do not ship, you have to pick up: King of the North Auction (kotnauction.com)

Cheryl, mentioned the price of the chicken in Costco was only $5 USD, which is more or less around the same price as $7.99 CDN with the exchange.

Re: the dentist.  I am so sorry other people have had to go through the same as I have.  My mouth is feeling a lot better so that's good.  BUT, hubby has now been back and forward on another issue with his denture plate.  He has had to get a tooth replaced on his denture as it had a hole in it????  I have never heard of that happening before?  Have you?

We are still waiting to hear back regarding the pension.  No idea how long that will take?

I have read and posted a review here of the book, "Room, by Emma Donoghue.

This week seems to have flown by again.  Is it me, but the older you get the faster the days fly by?  

Trying a new recipe tonight for dessert.  Got this book from the Auction Site:

It's such a lovely looking book.  I have a number of recipes tagged that I would like to try.  If I were one of those people who had to have "coffee table" books, this one would be on the top!!