Blog Recap, Childhood Memories and Almost Spring!🌼☀️

Hello Friends!

I hope you’ve been having a good winter so far, and if you’re lucky you got to sneak away somewhere warm and sunny. If you did, I think you may have forgotten to bring me? (Whoops!😂)

One thing is for sure–we’ve had WAY too much snow and it just keeps on coming. We’ve even broken a few records for snowfall amounts this winter (trust me, these are not the kinda records you want to break lol). Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms are coming up in BC!! (Bastards😁). I’ve been wanting to call my brother in Vancouver to catch up but I think I’ll wait ’til our deep freeze is over. I just can’t bear to hear about their t-shirt weather while I’m wearing long johns and four layers every time I step outside. Update: I took a risk and called him anyway and they’ve recently got snow. HA! I feel a little better now.

I am SO looking forward to Spring. Who’s with me? I’ve got a Spring Counter on my blog now (and by “now” I mean since last October), so you can count down along with me. 18 days, people! It can’t come soon enough.

I guess you’ve probably noticed a lot of crickets around here lately, hey? I figured it’s about time I shared an update as it has been a couple of months. As most of you know, last year was a pretty crappy one with the loss of my mom and some work/career changes as well. So, after the busy holiday season I finally had some time to kick back, relax, and re-evaluate where I was going and make some changes. One of them is this blog (again).

It was a little over a year ago that I decided to turn my blog into a food blog. I was baking way more than travelling at the time and I’d always wanted a food blog so it seemed like a good idea. But clearly (ie: crickets) it’s not going very well. Ya’ll know I love to bake but I just don’t spend enough time in the kitchen to keep coming up with new recipes. Most of my food blogging friends share several recipes each week whereas I’m lucky if I post one per month. I loved being part of the Recipe Round Up and a big thanks to my friend Kelly ‘Cereal Bar Queen Extraordinaire’ who graciously invited me to join the fun. It encouraged me to share more recipes but I still struggled to keep up.

It also doesn’t help that most people don’t like to bake pie. Pastry can be really finicky and it usually takes a lot of practice before it doesn’t drive you crazy. I’ve been baking pie for years and it still drives me crazy (ha ha). As a result not a lot of people have been trying my recipes– which is the main purpose of having a food blog, really #majorblogfail.

As you can probably tell by my geeky pies, I enjoy designing pies more than anything. But for some reason no one else wants to go to the trouble of putting Darth Vader, Superman or Doc Brown on their pies!!? What is wrong with you people? 😜

So you’ll see a few changes to this blog as I’ll be posting more lifestyle-related content such as travel, local stuff, fun stories (quite a few people have recently told me really they enjoy my stories–who knew?), fitness & sports (I just joined a tennis/squash club at my local gym!) and, of course, loads of nostalgia. Especially anything 80s-related (with or without a geeky pie).

Now that I’ve officially declared this not a (designated) food blog anymore, I can go back to random ramblings and road trip stories now, right? (please say yes). It’s funny because I’ve been wanting to share some of my recent travels but I’ve hesitated because this is supposed to be a food blog haha. Thanks for (hopefully) sticking around, guys. I hope all my foodie friends will still visit, too. Because you know that you can ALWAYS count on me to bring you back in time with my nostalgic pies. No DeLorean required.

Ok, it’s time for my winter recap. I really don’t want to say ‘Holiday’ because that was so long ago now. But since I started writing this post at the end of January (let’s blame my friend Al for going away to NZ for most of February which made me extra busy, shall we? haha) I technically made the cut. You might recall how I feel about Christmas talk (or holiday movies) once January is over. But no more holiday talk after this post, I promise!

You’d better go grab a coffee as you may be here awhile 😁Because you have nothing better to do with your Saturday or Sunday than read my ramblings, right? (here’s where you lie and say “no, no, of course not” haha).

The holidays were a bit tough this year as it was the first one without my parents. Christmas hasn’t really been the same since my dad’s passing a few years ago, especially since he was such a Christmas fanatic. He would go crazy with the decorations and my mom finally had to stop him from buying any more. Our house looked like a Hallmark movie set, it was quite comical. He loved Christmas like no other. And he and my mom always opened up our home to those who didn’t have a place to go for Christmas as well.

In college my friend Al would sometimes find himself alone at Christmas as he couldn’t always get home (the Yukon) but he was always welcome at our house. After the first couple holidays of joining us, he became part of the family. Then he wasn’t allowed to skip our festive dinners even if he wanted to (haha).

So Christmas has been particularly hard since my dad has been gone. I get my love for Christmas from him, most definitely. And with my mom’s recent passing, I just couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit at all this year. While everyone around me was full of Christmas cheer, I just felt alone and uprooted. Like a piece of me was missing.

As anyone who has lost a close family member can relate, the holidays (especially the first few) can be super hard as we cherish the memories of the past and we feel their absence even more.

Fortunately I’ve got many wonderful friends and (extended) family who included me in their holiday festivities this year and made the holidays a lot more bearable. I scored a few invites to Christmas dinners and my cousins organized a holiday potluck at my Aunt’s retirement home which was a lot fun.

I also got together with a few friends’ for a coffee or a festive drink which was a nice distraction. They didn’t want me sitting at home alone as poor Billy was working lots, especially right before Christmas. I really appreciated their thoughtfulness, especially since they’re so busy with their own families during the holidays. The fact that they made time for me (or at least reached out to check on me) really says a lot about what wonderful friends they are. I’m so grateful and blessed ❤️

This was Billy’s first Christmas without his mom, too (our moms’ passed within the same week) so it was a tough holiday for him as well. We got to spend a little time together over the holidays– once we were both less busy with work, anyway.

I also got to see a couple of my oldest high school friends, too. My friend Ed lives in Montreal but he’s got family in Ottawa so he always comes home for Christmas. So he, myself, and our friend Kathryn got together for a night out. We had such a blast! Can you believe we’ve been friends since we were teenagers??!!! (um….a “few” years ago haha).

Even though the holidays were quite busy, thankfully, I did still think about my parents a lot over Christmas. Especially since Christmas was always HUGE in our family. If you knew my dad, you’d know that Christmas could never be boring at our house.

Christmas Eve was always my favourite night of the whole year. We always went out for dinner (usually to the Chinese Buffet restaurant) and then we’d decorate the tree, watch christmas movies, and eat all (and I mean ALL) of the Christmas candy.

Sometimes we were forced (because ya’ll know how much I hate pictures) to do a photo shoot by the Christmas Tree in silly christmas outfits that our grandmother gave us (groan!).

We didn’t have a fireplace to sit by on Christmas Eve but luckily my dad and I found a way around that. hehe I can’t help but laugh at this photo, too funny.

In case ya’ll didn’t know, I might have gotten the kooky gene from my dad— although I haven’t done a DNA test so this hasn’t been confirmed. My Dad sure loved to ham it up and it usually didn’t take me long to join him.

On Christmas morning, my brother and I couldn’t wait to wake our parents up to see what Santa had brought us. Since I’ve always loved dogs, this was one of my most favourite Christmases ever. It’s Snoopy!!!

We always had tons of family and friends over for a party on Christmas night. This lovely lass is my Aunt Colleen who’s like my second mom and one of the most fun, sweetest people you’ll ever meet. She’s my dad’s older sister and she’s a lot like him in many ways (except her jokes are a little less corny haha). I love her to bits.

My Uncle Wayney (RIP), my dad’s younger brother, always came over for Christmas. This was the last Christmas before he passed away. He was the best uncle one could ask for and he was always quite the character! My brother and I miss him dearly.

I came across this old photo of my parents celebrating one of their first Christmas’s as a newly-married couple. I was too young to remember this photo being taken and didn’t even know about it until I randomly found it in my mom’s things last summer.

I have never really thought that my brother looks like my dad all that much but man does he ever look like him in this photo. He’s almost a spitting image…holy cow!! If you know my brother, you’ll probably agree.

Going through all the old photos has been hard but it’s helping me remember the good times with my family while growing up. I also take comfort in knowing that I had my parents a lot longer than some people do. It’s never easy, but I can’t imagine losing a parent when you’re a young kid. Luckily I have an older brother and we have each other to lean on and share memories of our parents. I don’t know what I’d do if I was an only child…

Whatever you do, do not show this photo to my brother. He claimed he hated his little sis when we were kids but I dunno, this sorta looks like evidence to the contrary to me. hehe

Also, my brother and I sold our parents’ house RIGHT before Christmas (the closing date was mid-December) so having to clear out all our parents’ stuff and say goodbye to our childhood home just before the holidays was probably a lot harder than, say, the middle of August. Particularly since my dad always had the house decked out in decorations and colourful lights. Walking away from the house for the very last time and seeing the house so empty, dark and void of life certainly didn’t make it any easier.

To finish off my holiday recap I wanted to share this pie I made in honour of my parents. I used to bring this Cranberry Apple Streusel pie to our family dinner every Christmas and my parents, who rarely strayed from the classic faves (like regular apple pie), really loved this new combo when I first made them try it. So I baked this yummy pie to share with Billy and a few friends over the holidays. We thoroughly enjoyed it while remembering my parents. A pie tribute, if you will.

Ok, enough about nostalgia and holidays….it’s March already!!! If you made it through this sappy recap post, thanks so much for reading. I know most people who read my blog are close friends, family, baking pals or acquaintances, so I like to share a bit of my personal life with you—on top of my travel stories or geeky pies. Writing about the memories of my parents’ isn’t easy but it’s all part of the grieving process. And if this post can somehow help others who are going through the loss of a parent, then even better. Just remember, you aren’t alone. Suddenly becoming parentless isn’t easy but being surrounded by amazing people who care for you sure does help.

Seeing that it is March now, that means Spring really is just around the corner 🌻🌷. Even better? DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME starts next week!! Yep, mark your calenders everyone, it’s next Sunday (March 10th). Sure, we lose an hour of sleep, which—I know– sucks, but it’ll be lighter for an extra hour in the evening—a good trade off if you ask me. To celebrate, I’ll have to come up with a fun pie theme. Until then, here’s last years’ Ode to Daylight Saving Pie :

Thanks again for reading, folks. I’ll be back soon with a fun travel story (yahoo) but I’ll leave you now with a few questions: (Please feel free to answer in comments).

1. Have you lost one (or both) of your parents and if so, how do you cope with holidays and special occasions?
2. Are you excited for daylight saving time or are you all for abolishing DST? More importantly, got any ideas for a Daylight Savings pie? (All ideas welcome and appreciated).
3. Will you still come back to visit even if I’m not sharing food/recipes as often? (I sure hope so).

Dana xo

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