The year was 1972 and I remember my brother was going to see Led Zeppelin, the coolest band on earth. Led Zeppelin rolled through my hometown of Montreal that year and I wanted to go. Of course I was only 8 years old so that was out of the question. My brother and his friends went and I thought he was the luckiest guy on earth. I remember when my brother brought the LP home, I scanned it from front to back and I loved every single song on the album, especially “Stairway to Heaven”. I envisioned Robert Plant on stage, dressed in white with a giant stairway behind him leading to “some place in the big sky” while he sang “and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.” Don’t forget Jimmy page – the coolest guitarist ever. My memory might be sketchy but I recall asking my brother, when he got home from the concert, if Robert Plant was dressed in white! President Obama honoured the legendary band at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors along with Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Guy, Natalia Makarova and David Letterman. Ann and Nancy Wilson did a tribute to Led Zeppelin by performing “Stairway to Heaven.” This has to be the most beautiful tribute ever to a group of talented legendary musicians. Can’t imagine the pressure of performing this song in front of the President and Led Zeppelin. The guitarist was under no pressure either. Funny thing – I showed my husband the video and he said he always thought they were a bunch of long-haired hippies! Maybe but talented hippies! Enjoy below – from the days when you had to have talent to be famous!
Now if you got here thinking you would see naked old men, I’m sorry to have disappointed you. Vintage balls as in Vintage Christmas balls. I saw in “
There is really no recipe involved – this is something I throw together on a whim and depending on what night I’m simmering this soup, you will taste something different every time. To start off – whenever I buy one of those pre-cooked chickens in the grocery store for a quick meal, I always take the carcass, freezer bag it and throw it in the freezer. I do the same thing with the turkey carcass at Christmas. I never feel like chicken or turkey soup just after I’ve finished eating the meat, I freeze it for later. This past weekend, Monday and today, the stomach flu has spread like wildflower through our house. Tonight we were all just beginning to get our appetite back and we felt like soup. In the freezer I had a frozen chicken carcass and voila – homemade chicken soup. Below the steps:
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Christmas. Christmas to me is a celebration, a celebration of life and new beginnings. Celebration of Jesus’ birth, sharing his love for us to one another and let’s not forget peace on earth. I love giving gifts, especially to see a child’s face light up upon receiving a gift they’ve been waiting for. I love hanging around the house with my family watching Christmas movies, new ones and oldies. This is why it’s hard for me to admit that at times I can hardly wait until Christmas is over. I hate consumerism, hate shopping malls, hate waiting in lineups to see fake Santa (thankfully I don’t do this anymore), hate when people run me over with buggies while I’m shopping and don’t even bother to apologize. I have this peaceful, lovely Christmas in my head and then I get out of my house into reality and everything annoys me. I try not to spend too much time in the shopping malls, I write everything I need and fast speed through the stores and get everything in one day.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a blog about my hockey team. As most of you know I play hockey once a week with a women’s league. I started last September, never played hockey before and the last time I skated probably was when I was 10 years old. It was a challenge and pretty intimidating at first. My husband and children talked me into playing and at first I thought I needed to have my head read as I have enough to do with the boys and their hockey. For some unknown reason I accepted the challenge, I think it might have something to do with the fact that as little girl I wanted to play a sport, not any sport in particular, just wanted to be part of a team. Never happened, too many things going on in my parents’ life. My husband kept telling me that once I got the skills out of the way, like skating without falling down, puck handling and passing, he figured I’d be a decent hockey player. Last year I spent most of the year trying to not get killed on the ice, being in the right position and hearing the whistle when I was off side! Being severely hearing impaired it’s pretty tough to do. This is the part of my personality that I think my husband understood when he said I could be a decent hockey player. After I got over the initial couple of games and feeling completely out of my league,the battle started. Ever since I can remember when life presents a challenge and my first reaction is to back away, something inside me snaps and I go to battle. The earliest recollection of the “battle and never let them see you sweat” thing happened, I think I was between the age of 7 or 8 years old. I say this because my parents separated and divorced when I was 8 and at the time of this memory my father was still living with us. There was this kid on my block and I still remember his name – Allan. Red haired freckle faced little bastard, he constantly said mean things to me, told me how ugly I was, made fun of me in front of the kids on a daily basis. Even though he scared me, anger overcame my fear and I would usually come up with some kind of comeback. This was the never let them see you sweat thinking. One day he got physical and it took me by surprise. I just got away from him and went home. Funny thing back then, I never thought to tell my parents. That night I went to bed and that’s when the battle syndrome started, I went over in my head what I could of done, what I should of done and imagined that he hit me and how I handled it. I played this in my mind until I once again met Allan on the battlefield. Like usual I ignored him but he couldn’t just be a nice kid and play, he started the name calling again and then he hit me. I don’t even remember what went down, I just remember standing there with my hands balled into a fist and he was running screaming for his mother. A good soldier doesn’t wait for the enemy to re-group, so off I went… His mother showed up at our house and it turned out my father knew everything and saw from our living room window the whole show of Allan hitting me and me standing up for myself. He essentially told Allan’s mother what he thought of her and her son and told her to get off his property. He closed the door and told me he was proud of me for standing up for myself and he didn’t think I’d have any more problems with Allan. I often wonder if Allan got the better of me if my father would of intervened or let me learn my lesson!
MOMWHEARINGLOSS 