Here is a picture of our Christmas Tree this year. We bought it from Agram Garden Centre where we have been buying our tree for quite a few years. It was grown in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It was a full tree compared to past years.
Lightroom 6.0
One of my Christmas presents was Adobe Lightroom 6.0, I was using Apple’s Aperture until it was discontinued in April 2015, but was no longer being developed since October 2014. Both are image organizer and photo processors. Last year I posted a photo on January 4th of our family.
Today I edited the photo using the Lightroom develop module and ended up with this version.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all of our family and friends. 2016 will bring another busy year to our family. We headed into Scarborough for the day at G-ma’s and G-pa’s. The day included a game of Rumoli, it started with Claudia, Alex, Auntie Carolyn, Angela and Dylan. Eventually Dylan ran out of chips and Gillian started playing, here she is after a few hands of winning.
Angela and Dylan.
Chloe checking out the neighbourhood, she was particularly excited when Todd pulled up outside.
As always she was good.
Alex was also doing well at the beginning.
Melissa, Todd and Susan.
Mom prepared another great meal, new this year was crawfish. They were pretty good.
Sushi!
This fish was big, the picture doesn’t really show how big it was.
Chloe hanging out with Susan, at one point Chloe was sleeping on her lap and Todd was wedged up against Susan.
There was tako.
There was lots of Sashimi.
Some kamaboko.
Grandma didn’t have any mein for her chow mein, so she used some imposter mein, it was still good.
Kazunoko (herring eggs).
The table is set.
Melissa photobombing someone’s photo of the fish.
It was a great meal!
Uncle Tak Sumi-e Exhibition
The Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in Burnaby, BC will be holding an exhibit titled Sumie by Takao Tanabe between February 13-May 8, 2016.
The Force Awakens
We watched Star Wars IV, V, VI on the weekend in preparation for going to see The Force Awakens (VII). We caught the 15:30 showing at Cineplex Winston Churchill, we lined up at 14:20 with probably 30-40 people in front of us. The theatre was sold out and people were sitting in the front row. It was a good movie, with lots of unanswered questions for number VIII. Here is the Japanese poster.
Afterwards we went out for dinner, our initial stop was Kenzo Ramen on Burnamthorpe Road. However when we got there it was packed and there were probably 10 names on the list ahead of us. Instead we headed to Axia Restaurant on Eglington Avenue. While they don’t have noodles, we ordered a variety of dishes and shared. It was very good and tasty.
Boxing Day!
We headed out to Lori and Dale’s on Boxing Day. Here is Angela with Melissa’s dog Todd. He is so big compared to the last time we saw him.
Alex, Emi, Kaiden, Claudia, Angela and Todd.
Alex, Kaiden and Claudia.
Chloe and Todd.
Kaiden.
Angela and Kaiden.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! Here is our 2015 Christmas photo.
The girls with Chloe.
We attended 4:00 pm mass at the Church on Christmas Eve, so we were able to sleep in on Christmas Day, gone are the days of the girls getting up at 5:00am. This year was a more civilized 7:3oish.
Chloe wearing her ugly Christmas sweater.
Twinsies!
We had Mom and Dad Swan for dinner. Here is Grandma opening her Fitbit. It’s game on to 10,000 steps.
Gillian sizing up her pjs.
The girls playing 5 Crowns with Grandma.
Our first dinner with out new dining room set.
As always, Susan prepared a great turkey dinner that left us all stuffed. With only Mom and Dad coming for dinner, it was supposed to be a modest size turkey. As Gillian tells it, once they got to the Longo’s, the temptation of a large turkey overcame Susan and they took the small turkey out of their cart and loaded up a 26 lb bird.
Mochi
We headed out to Scarborough to make some mochi.
Claudia showing how it’s done.
We’re halfway through our batch. Claudia has been making it for her sisters, the only rule is that if they aren’t up when she is making it, they are out of luck.
Uncle Tak’s Donation
Uncle Tak has donated six pieces of work to the McMaster Museum of Art. They were part of the exhibition that was held there in 2012 as part of the Takao Tanabe: Chronicles of Form and Place exhibition.
The_Initiative
Angela and Claudia (and Gillian before them) are involved with The_Initiative Club at school. It is a social awareness club to help raise awareness of the school community about social issues and to make students more active in and aware of their local and international community.
Angela is one of the co-leaders, here they are with their glove signs they made to help raise donations of winter wear. In the end they had over 1000 pairs of mitts, gloves, hats and scarves. Well done girls!
Chloe wanting her photo taken.
