Christmas in the Sault 2006

It was off to Sault St. Maria, Ontario this holiday season to spend a very relaxing and fattening few days with the Bruno Clan and all those associated with them.
We were thrilled to find everyone doing so well.
Not much had changed in Sault since we had visited last in April. In fact including the very unusual weather...No snow for Christmas in the Sault this year. The temperatures were very mild...Upwards of 5 degrees C, that's like 40 degrees F to the American readers.

Just because there was no snow did not stop the long standing tradition of a Christmas sleigh ride at the Mocking Bird Farm. It was changed to a "Hay Ride" to accommodate the lack of fluffy white precipitation. Christina, Laura, Anglia, Jason, Marlo, Patricia, Donald, Nancy, Ihor, Emily, and the two newest additions Alexandra and Ivan enjoyed a fun ride around a very large Christmas Tree Farm. We even had a chance to pet a cow, some goats, a sheep, some chickens, a dog, and some cats.
Christmas Eve dinner consisted of enough food to cause an obesity epidemic in a 3rd world country. 20 relatives where shoe horned into the basement (I call this the working part of an Italian Home. If your invited to an Italians home and they don't take you downstairs[which is where you will find a second kitchen, cool room, and many wonderful foods], they probably don't really like you all that much and are just trying to be nice) of Uncle Mike and Aunt Madaline's home(Zeo and Zea). What a fun night. Getting reacquainted with everyone. Angela had come up with some Christmas games for everyone to play, and the little guy above was one of the prizes for Laura who was able to correctly answer the most Christmas questions. Laura also made some wonderful Chocolate hazelnut wontons, not so Italian, but hey they were still very good.

Vic was out working in the garden...This is in December!!! I was shocked at the amount of fresh lettuce and radicchio he harvested. Oh, yeah he also killed a couple of shrews or mice, or moles we aren't sure which. One thing I am sure of is Vic is pretty damn fast for a guy his age or even my age. Those poor vermin didn't stand a chance.