Smores and Sundresses - A Camping Blog
The Adventures of a Camping Goddess
Do you like to entertain?
We LOVE having friends over for some wine, dinner and a hearty, hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity.
Though sometimes, you don’t feel like making a big dinner, and that’s when grazing on a variety of foods sounds like a better idea. And there’s no right or wrong time of the year for this, either, because you can easily adapt your food variety with seasonal items.
And I KNOW you have that song running through your head now (… and another one gone, and another one gone… another one bites the dust! Ah!)
You’re welcome!
I’m torn between the idea that 2016 went by fast, and that it went by slow. I’m glad it’s over but 2016 was a year of tremendous growth and change for me, and for my family. Changes began at the beginning of the year have really made their mark on me as a person, and for us as a family.
It’s November! By 8:30 this morning, I had all the Halloween decorations down and put away, the costumes washed, dried and put away as well, and although our pumpkins are still outside, that pretty much wraps it up for Halloween 2016!
Our oldest son had to work a few hours at the local pizza place he’s been with for the past two or three years. It was an insane night for him. At first he couldn’t figure out why his father and I were laughing at him about it. Then we explained it’s because pizza is the go-to meal of Halloween. Poor kid, he said it was a nightmare! But he still managed to get out and hang out with his friends for a bit afterward, which makes me happy.
Chatting online has come a long way from chat rooms hosted by Excite, AOL, and instant messaging. Remember the mug avatars? In the Twitter world and blogosphere, maybe you’ve heard the term “Twitter Chat”. Maybe you’ve stumbled across one by accident and wondered what it was all about.
These chats are fast-moving, live chats via Twitter. There is a hashtag for each chat and it’s what connects all the participants in the chat, because the hashtag is in every tweet. For example, The SITSGirls hosts a Twitter chat every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. EST, and their hashtag is #sitsblogging – the theme is all things blogging.
The point of a Twitter chat is to gather a group of like-minded people to spend an hour chatting. They relate and share tips, tricks, aand advice. Sometimes they include contests (these are referred to as a Twitter party). It’s a fantastic way to grow your followers and connect with people.
If you’re sponsoring a Twitter chat, it can help your following grow as well. It can a terrific way to engage with potential clients and customers and get “social” on social media. Think of it as a type of “Meet and Greet” party.
Twitter parties are usually an hour long, and many towns and cities have their own Twitter Hour.
I am lucky that my family and I live not too far away from Ontario’s “wine country”, as I lovingly call it. We live on the Niagara escarpment (known to Hamiltonians as “the mountain”). It was an area formed roughly 450 million years ago, when this area was a shallow, warm sea. Rivers that flowed into this sea carried a lot of sand and clay, which formed sediment layers. These layers care still evident today in various areas of our city.
The geological area is referred to as the Michigan Basin. But it is widely known as the Golden Horseshoe, as it forms a horseshoe shape. Extending from Rochester, New York, up north to Tobermory and the Bruce Peninsula. It scoops under Lake Huron, coming up again on Manitoulin Island. From there, it travels down again in Lake Michigan and into the state of Wisconsin.
The breezes from the Great Lakes blow over the vineyards and bounce off of the escarpment and back again. This gives ample airflow and circulation. Because the lakes are warmer in the winter than they are in the summer, it provides an extended growing season. It keeps the grapes warm well into fall and winter.
I’m not sure if wine tours are still as popular as they once were. When our cousin came to visit with her fiance last weekend, wwe knew we wanted to celebrate my birthday at a winery. I was pushing for Jackson Triggs because it’s my favourite wine. I’m a fan of white, and my husband is a fan of red. I’ve never had a bad bottle of Jackson Triggs.
If you’ve never been on a wine tour, my husband and I both highly recommend them. We never used to appreciate wine when we were younger. One year, my sister-in-law gave us a gift certificate to choose from 5 area wineries, with a bonus free bottle of wine. We didn’t actually go until Valentine’s Day, and we thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.