Merry Christmas to the Shed-Headz Nation! My first task of the Christmas Season was setting up our outdoor holiday lights. After years of dealing with frustratingly unreliable hardware store lights, last year I purchased and set up Govee Permanent Holiday lights. This year all that was required was changing the schedule from white light dusk to dawn to turn on "Christmas Present" at dusk, change over to white lights at 1am and turn off at dawn.

The Greenhouse is still standing strong after a multitude of wind storms so far in December!

Annual tradition of Holiday movies, my classics include Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 1 & 2, and Die Hard.

Tibb's Eve steaks, a couple brew and 90's Dance Music!

The boys helping Sandy with her gift wrapping!

A Christmas Eve miracle, the boys napping right next to each other for the very first time since Scooter arrived back in October!

Christmas Day arrived bringing a forecasted snow storm with it. Snow changed to rain a little earlier than expected here in Torbay so accumulation was just 16cm with about 10mm rain soaking it in place.

With gifts open and Turkey in the oven it was time to head outside and tackle the wet heavy mess while it was still raining.

Once again my trusty Honda 9/28 got the job done with ease leaving only the decks and basement stairwell to clear by hand.

The continuing rain did a fine job of clearing away the ruminants of slush in the driveway which will prevent ice build-up as our guests arrive for supper.

With weather finally clearing Sandra and I set up our outdoor propane burner. This boils the pot a lot faster than our electric range and keeps boil over mess and steam outside.

As always, Sandra's cooked dinner with all the fixings was absolutely outstanding!

Boxing day was nice and relaxing in our house again this year. With another storm forecast for this evening we spent the day relaxing and enjoying leftovers. Sandra boiled out the turkey carcass and made an epic pot of turkey soup which as always turned out amazing.

One of my holiday favourites starts by mixing a little cranberry jelly with miracle whip for an epic turkey and/or turkey & dressing sandwich.

After supper the next storm arrived and was forecast to dump 15-20cm.

However as with the Christmas Day storm the system changed over to rain early leaving us with just 12cm on the ground and another 15mm of rain on top of it.

After getting the driveway cleared we cooked up a dandy breakfast of homemade applewood smoked bacon, eggs, and epic hash browns made from leftover potato & salt meat from our Christmas Day dinner!

A couple days later I bagged up our leftover turkey soup in meal size portions, stood the bags upright and froze them.

While frozen, I vacuum sealed them in our new sealer which will keep the leftovers fresh for many months in the freezer.

Before we knew it New Years Eve arrived!

We were happy to host our Pool Family again this year and we decided to make it even more memorable with some fireworks.

It's been quite awhile since I lit fireworks so I was really looking forward to this! I mounted all of the individual units to a piece of board with glue & screws, while the cake's were spread out over three 2x6's and glued in place.

We had a great night playing Rummoli on the Rummoli Board I made a few years ago, with lots of stories, food and drinks shared all night long!

At midnight Sandy & Tash manned "Big Wally", a revolving light and air siren my father put together over 40 years ago, while Rod and I set off the fireworks!

All in all it was a fantastic evening enjoyed by all!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a prosperous new year to all!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith