Our New Year’s cottagers arrived on December 30th.
I spent the next morning finishing a paper for my online class on Abnormal
Psychology. I started taking the course in October because I plan to apply for
the Master’s in Counseling at St. Paul’s University and I need a few more
Psychology credits in order to fulfill the admission requirements. This paper
was the last assignment of the course – it felt good to have successfully
completed my first online course. I’m excited about pursuing this goal, one
step at a time.
Fr. Simon Lobo came to celebrate Mass for us that evening
and gave a great homily about Our Lady, in honour of the feast of Mary Mother
of God. Mass was followed by a New Year’s Eve party that lasted into the first
day of the new year. Liam stayed up until around 10pm, then asked to go to bed.
I brought him home from the lodge and he fell asleep in about half a second.
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| Making decoration and shakers for the New Year's Eve party |
On January 1st we prepared brunch for the
cottagers, as we had done on Christmas day. After brunch, instead of a visit
from Santa, we were visited by the Three Wise Guys, who also came bearing
gifts.
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| The Three Wise Guys |
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| Not Halloween - Liam just felt like wearing his tiger suit to do crafts that day... |
As per tradition, the Cogan family gathered for dinner on
New Year’s Day, this year at Granny & Grandad’s. Not everyone was present,
but it was the largest gathering of the Cogan clan that I had attended in a
while. The family is growing quickly, with grandkids bringing new partners into
the fold and more great-grandkids on the way.
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| Our 2014 Christmas photo - our smiles hide the anguish we went through to snap this shot! |
The cottagers stayed until Saturday the 3rd.
Since then life has resumed its regular pace. We’ve finally recovered from
being sick (at least one member of the family was sick for about six weeks) and
are hoping to stay healthy for the rest of the winter! Callum turned one on
January 14th and we celebrated with family the following weekend. On
the 23rd I got to go out for dinner with some friends – definitely the
highlight of the week! Today Brendan is busy with the Snow Bowl fundraiser he
organized for Waupoos. Nearly 50 guys have been here throughout the day to play
snow football, eat smoked ribs and pulled pork (prepared by award-winning BBQ
master Danny Gernon!), and watch the Super Bowl. I took the boys out to watch
some of the snow football. I could tell that Liam and James felt very proud to
be hanging out with the guys!
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| My sweet one-year-old |
Now begins February, the dreariest month of the year. We do have a few things to look forward to this month, though. Our family rosary group meets next Sunday, and we’ll have cottagers here the following weekend. I’ve also taken up snowshoeing, since receiving a pair of snowshoes from Brendan for Christmas. We have the perfect venue for it here and I’ve really been enjoying going out. Finding a way to enjoy winter activities makes the season much less tiresome. Although I certainly wouldn’t complain if spring came early this year!
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| Snowshoeing on a sunny morning |
