Happy Holidays! Introducing A New Christmas Card!

Here we are again! It's hard to believe that the holidays are upon us!

This is my newest holiday card. It features a watercolour I did of the Christmas tree farm that we've visited annually for the past several years. It's such a lovely family tradition to go and cut our own tree down. And, of course, I had to include Meeko on the card! I also have a French version of this card. It's also available as an ungreeted note card.



I currently have a lovely sale on. I'm offering 30% off everything in my shop: original watercolour paintings, note cards, holiday cards, prints, books and bookmarks. The discount will be added as soon as you put something in the cart. No coupon is required. The sales ends at midnight EST on December 2, 2019.

It's not the first time that I've featured Meeko on my cards. He's also on this sweet holiday card I did last year.

And here he is again on an everyday note card which I did a few years ago! What can I say? He's a handsome and willing painting subject.

I hope you'll have a peek at my shop while my sale is still on.

And please accept warm greetings from Meeko and me. We wish you lovely holidays surrounded by family and friends.

🌲🎄🐕🎄🌲

The Christmas Tree

Our annual trek to a tree farm near Sorel, Quebec about an hour from where we live.

My husband and my youngest daughter Chloé on their way. An excited Meeko in the lead.

A gorgeous but very cold day. -13C (12F)

Me and Meeko (photo by Emma)

Beautiful milkweed.

Chloé makes a valiant plea for the Charlie Brown tree.

Meeko with Emma (photo by Emma)

The one! We walked through three fields of the plantation to find it.

Sisters. 

Best to sit for long jobs.

When is this tree-cutting part over?

Crazy how early the sun starts dipping in the sky this time of year.

Last view of the tree farm as we drive away. See you next year!

Peace and Joy

December always seems to go by at high speed. There is so much effort expended preparing for one day. I meant to post more often but 'whoosh', the month flew by.

We have tried to keep things simpler this year. We put out less decorations. (The photo shows a simple but beautiful candle arrangement Chloé made for our table, with our tree in the background.) We bought less things although the pile of gifts under the tree still seemed monumental. We have shifted our traditions over the years as our family changes. We still eat tourtière on Christmas Eve to honour my husband's Quebec traditions although I now make both traditional meat and vegetarian tourtière as Emma is a vegetarian.

In honour of my anglophone traditions, we open our gifts on Christmas morning. In Quebec, it is more common to open gifts just after midnight on Christmas Eve.

We used to have a turkey dinner on Christmas Day which is what I always ate growing up. But cooking a turkey for a family of four, actually three since Emma doesn't eat it, made less and less sense.

The past couple of years, we have eaten 'raclette', a traditional Swiss meal. No Swiss heritage here but it works for us. We put out plates of potatoes, cheese, vegetables (this year--green beans, asparagus and cauliflower), pickles, cured meats and marinated tofu.  We sit around our round kitchen table right beside our Christmas tree. We light a fire in our fireplace. Each person chooses and cooks exactly what they want on a small communal raclette grill. We cook, we eat, we chat. It is perfect.

I hope you are enjoying your holidays whatever your traditions.  May you find pockets of peace and joy in all of the bustle. I won't be posting again until the New Year so I will take this moment to thank you for your friendship and to wish you all a beautiful new year!

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I am having a Boxing Day Sale in my Etsy Shop. I am offering 20% off all purchases (prints, cards and original paintings) when you use the coupon code BOXINGDAY. It is effective now until midnight on December 29th. All orders will be mailed during the first week of January.

To Cut, To Cut The Christmas Tree

Yesterday, despite the very cold weather, we ventured on our annual Christmas tree cutting expedition. This is a family tradition that extends to my own childhood. The tree farm we have gone to for the past three years is about an hour's drive from home. This farm actually sell cut trees at a location very near to our house but somehow going to a lot isn't the same as choosing your own tree in the middle of a snow-covered field.

Meeko is always very excited to go anywhere in the car even if he doesn't know where he is going to end up. A tree farm is much better than the vet!

This is Emma and Chloé standing in front of our chosen tree just before it was cut. It was so cold that they actually went back to the car and let Mama and Papa Lumberjack cut it down. There are many goofy photos of the junior lumberjacks that I would have loved to have included but unfortunately I was not given permission.

Here's the tree with its lights on. That's my job. Chloé and Emma then added the decorations. (If you squint a little, you can see one of Geninne's beautiful bird prints on the wall to the left of the tree. We have five of them in our family room.)

Even Meeko is getting excited about Christmas. Actually, I'm not sure he was all that joyful about having reindeer antlers on his head but he was a very good sport about it.

There was a lovely snowfall last night as we were decorating our tree. It's amazing how a little snow makes everything feel more Christmassy. For those of you living in places where snowflakes are rare or non-existant, I'll try to share more snowy photos in the days ahead. Good luck with all of your holiday preparations.

Snow-covered clematis seed heads in our garden last night