My cousins tell me I'm not posting often enough so that they are not getting enough family news! So here is my first post of 2008, back in B.C. after three lovely but snowy weeks at home in Quebec with my family. No complaints at all about that holiday: I burned half a cord of wood in the fireplace, sipped tea, read about ten books (some more enjoyable than others) but I have a couple of recommendations for all who ask...and went out to dinner with my darling husband a few times, including for our 23rd anniversary. Niece Audrey had also given Bern a gift certificate for a high-end Aboriginal restaurant in the Byward Market area, called Sweetgrass, and we enjoyed our evening there: Bernie rhapsodized about the appetizer, a very lovely little quail (which he let me taste)...and I learned a little about cooking a green previously unfamiliar to me, escarole.

Some of you will laugh that I am telling about restaurant food...and cooking (New Year's Eve extravaganza at our place included cranberry cheesecake, butter pecan cheesecake, and lots of other treats). Memories are made of good company with something tasty to nosh, no?

But actually, one highlight of the holiday, in a bittersweet kind of way, was to attend a funeral. My aunt Hope, usually known as Babe or Babes to the family, passed away. My cousin Jack and I decided to do the drive to see our cousins and to say goodbye, and we were both very glad we did so. We stayed just one night, at our cousins' homes north of Toronto, and the weather was a bit mushy, but Auntie had a very lovely service to send her off, with a good turn out of family and of area Baha'i friends. The remembrances included stories of Auntie in her younger days, after the passing of Uncle Ray, as a widowed mother with six children and her intrepid spirit and courage in keeping all together. A loving message was read, coming from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada; Hope had been a stalwart member of the Baha'i community since about 1950. The prayers offered were lovely, and we sang her goodbye with "Allah'u'abha" at the gravesite. I remember her hearty laugh and her great cookies and her courage: so much courage. The pictures above are family: cousin Jack, cousin Ray (Hope's son), cousin Ray's wife and Ray's oldest sister (Hope's eldest daughter) Penny. It was a lovely reunion: I think Auntie was probably pretty happy to see it. So there you go, Kyla: I have some pictures of you, too, and I'll send them to your Auntie Penny so you can get them. Thanks for your comment.