Welcome to our family year end!

I hope this letter-like summary finds you well! If you received our family Christmas card, there’s the five of us smiling and healthy standing in a snowy scene beside the Red River, with the University of Manitoba campus in the background. It was Christian and Marie-Hélène’s idea, thought up on weekend morning dog walks with Cedric, William and Enzo. We’re so pleased with how it turned out! Thanks to a tripod and the iPhone technology that captures a photo like a mini movie, Enzo looks like a very cooperative beagle. Captured in time is Marie-Hélène in grade 11, Cedric in grade 7 and William in grade 6.

Winter

The year begins in winter… skating on the river and scenes indoors. It’s the hum of routine: suppers twice a week with Christian’s mom and games together. Sometimes there’s a dash of excitement with the visit of a family member on Christian’s side, or a new game added to the mix.

Spring

The months leading to summer were memorable for the earliest pool set-up so far (May 10) and for smoke in the air. When my sister Anna came to Winnipeg, she took a picture from her plane window, showing its distinct layer in the sky. Bubble tea now features as an occasional treat since we found a favorite local spot in 2024.

Summer

The warmest months in Winnipeg are also the most activity-filled ones for us. There are school-end parties of course, but also little celebrations like a 20th anniversary of an official “I do”, less formal meet-ups that are so much easier in biking weather, and the annual tradition of picking strawberries together.

Marking the season for its novelty was a trip to Alberta for our family’s week-long stay with my sister and Luke. I summarized the visit in another blog post, but here is this picture that looks as though we inserted ourselves into a computer background.

In our own province, summer brings weekend road trips to the beach and everyone gets a little bit tanned before school starts again.

Fall

As leaves are on the cusp of changing colour and school begins anew for Christian and the kids, my schooling ended with a thesis defence on a random Wednesday afternoon. Change rippled through the months as Christian’s mom’s age (this year she turned 88!) precipitated the choice to move her into supportive housing. As we awaited a spot to open up, we helped pack up her condo and sent the fine china to interested family members.

The pool stayed in our yard until October 4th when it was put away. This year, for the first time, Christian and I bought passes to the city’s indoor ones where we now have a habit of going on Friday nights.

It’s not yet winter as I write, but the city has a fresh blanket of snow. A tray of eggs, pounds of butter and bags of sugar and flour are all calling me to the kitchen… I hope that wherever you are you can share in something delicious and good people to eat it with! And with best wishes from our family to you, here’s a summer sunset view from Christian’s mom’s condo!

Cheers to 2026!

I love year-end retrospectives, and so, joining in like a guest unafraid of water at a pool party, here’s mine!

I read about thirty books this year, some from a list of classics, including La Cousine Bette and Desperate Characters, and some specific self-help books including The Highly Sensitive Person, The Actor’s Life and The Business of Being a Writer. Some books went together, like Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of the author. I got immersed in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle in March but came up for air after the first two books and decided not to plunge back in. I stuck a toe in graphic novels, including Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Light reads included Theft by Finding and Brunch is Hell. Because I liked Carol Shield’s advice on writing, I read Stone Diaries. I liked Sally Mann’s book Hold Still, a choice influenced by Austin Kleon’s advice. University course subjects lead me to read Halfbreed by Maria Campbell and a collection of biographies on and writings by Nellie McClung.

On a whim I like to take out cookbooks at the library. These included How to Cook a Wolf, Six Seasons, Love and Lemons, My Kitchen Year, and Repertoire. I follow a menu plan for the year that is flexible enough to allow for new recipes and improvements, like when Jessica Battaliana’s Pork Saltimbocca surpassed all previous Chicken Saltimbocca attempts. And we’d probably adopt Jeanine Donofrio’s Vegan Carrot Waffles forever were it not our son’s aversion to carrots even in their sneakiest form. Food 52’s Fasoolya Khadra was deceptively delicious. We also liked their Rosy Chicken paired with Joy of Cooking Baked Polenta. Another delight was Cauliflower Ragu from Six Seasons. I’ve upped my salad repertoire thanks to the New York Times list of 101 Simple Salads of which the in-season peaches and tomato salad is a tasty memory. An August brunch stands out for its Plum Poppy-Seed Muffins and Mushroom and Shallot Quiche. Deb Perelman is a go-to for so many good recipes. Marie-Hélène’s birthday supper request was her Everyday Meatballs with fresh pasta. The Ice Cream Cake Roll was an impressive birthday dessert. Fresh strawberries still make Strawberry Shortcake one of my favourite desserts. In the summer we make Tomato Corn Pie. Around Christian’s birthday, we look forward to Butter Chicken. His favourite dessert is an Apple Crisp without oatmeal in the topping.

Still-young children make for a lot of nights in, but we did try out The Mitchell Block, Passero, and Nuburger at the Common on dates out. On weekends we’ll make a treat of a drink and Netflix. After watching Mindhunter, Rectify, Charité, Halt and Catch Fire, Ozark, Better Call Saul, the rest of Suits and most of Fargo, we’re looking forward to new seasons! On regular television Life in Pieces makes us laugh the most.

And you? Do you have any recommendations?