Week 93 ended with Merry Christmas - to you and yours - I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
I have to admit, it wasn’t the holiday I imagined I would be having … due to rapidly increasing COVID numbers here again, in the end I opted for safety over going to see family and so for the second year in a row it was a very quiet day. For some reason it felt ‘easier’ last year - Toronto had already been in lockdown since the beginning of November with many other areas in Ontario following suit over the next few weeks, so we all sort of knew well in advance that holiday celebrations weren’t going to be happening. This year though, as recently as less than two weeks ago, I was sure that getting together with family or friends was going to happen. We still had limits around gathering sizes, and a new ‘custom’ of rapid testing before getting together was something being talked about widely,… but no one counted on Omicron. Currently case numbers are more than doubling every 48 hours, with provincial numbers now the highest they’ve been at any time since the pandemic began. Although gatherings weren’t ‘banned’, public health official are literally begging people not to get together with anyone outside of their immediate household…so that left me with me.
As the week ended with Christmas, so do my photos this week. There’s a few photos taken while I was out on my walks during the week, but I saved up all my photos of Christmas decorations to highlight in this post. The photos were taken in different locations (at the lake, here in Toronto, walking around my neighbourhood, in the downtown core, etc.), and at various different times over the month of December so you’ll see snow in some, no snow in others, just like our days and the weather has been.
If this was just a little bit bigger I could have taken it home.
OK - not at all like a sunset at the lake, but still it’s nice to see the colours.
I have no idea how this one little pansy is still here.
I think this is an agave plant, but I have never seen one quite this blue. It was very lovely!
I don’t know about you, but I have to think the owner might have been aware they were now walking around in just a sock???
This one ⬆️ seems to be holding up well but here’s the reality of what a snowperson in Canada actually looks like, when it’s 7C and raining on Christmas Day ⬇️
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by this house in the past 21 months and never before noticed that it’s a designated heritage house. Built in the Tudor Revival style it has steep roofs, large chimneys, coloured-glass windows, and wood and stone details. It belonged to the president of William Neilson Co., one of the largest makers of confectionery in the British Empire.
And now for some Christmas cheer!
I love the reindeer in one of our shopping centres!
It was a super windy night when I was here…you can see how the lights on the tree are not nicely lined up!
A new addition to our Toronto sign - in the last ‘O’ is a pink bandaid - our symbol to ‘get vaccinated’!
Similarly to Macy’s in New York City, Toronto oldest department store also decorates its windows for the holiday season. These next five photos are this year’s windows. Truly an imaginative wonderland!
My neighbourhood tree - now ready for the Christmas season.
In Week 87 I posted a photo of all the little reindeer in the store, just waiting to go out to houses. Well here they are now, decorating many homes in my neighbourhood.
Some good Canadian flair!
This house is iconic in Toronto - and it helps to raise money for our Children’s Hospital.
