One year ago today... Saddness was overwhelming

One year ago today, was a very sad day indeed! December 28th, 2005, my Mother, Aleida Martha Limbertie died very suddenly at Mount Sinai Hospital. We all do miss her very much, and a big gapping hole is in our lives. She leaves behind many wonderful memories, and I hope now that this very difficult year of morning has now passed, that I can reflect on many more of the happy times, and not only her very tragic and ultra dramatic last weeks in the hospitals… Tonight I had a nice dinner with Ineke and Robert and the kids at a local French restaurant, and we toasted our glass of wine to mom, and her wonderful life!! We miss you mom !!!

Christmas Jammin'

Caroline and I had a great time last night Jammin' away, me on keyboards and as you can see in the picture, Caro on Guitar... She is a great song writter, and she taught me some of the songs she is working on ... later on, of her friends dropped over... also on guitar, and she is really good.. a great teacher and mentor for Caroline! No doubt Caroline will become really good on guitar with a friend like that to hang out with... !!

Christmas has come and gone...

Christmas Day I spent with Ineke in Toronto in the morning and Maya and her family in Kitchener in the evening.. it was a wonderful day! It is possible to have a happy and joyful Christmas even though the two people we spent our hole lifes with on Christmas Day were not there for the first time... of course I missed Mom and Dad... but thank god I have such great sisters.. so life does go on !!!

( Click here to see more pictures from this day)

Christmas comes early...

Yesterday, Saturday December 23, we celebrated Christmas all together as a family at my place. Melinda and her family are leaving on Christmas day for vacation to Jamaica, so this was the only soulution to all get together. I had set up a really nice buffet and everyone arrived around 1:30pm.. and stayed till about 5:30pm... it was a great Limbertie traditional Christmas, reflecting on the fact that this was the first one ever without BOTH our parents !


On Monday, Christmas Day, I go to Ineke's for Christmas Brunch, and then in the afternoon drive to Kitchener, to spend Christmas dinner with Maya and her family. ( a shot from above, with the giant heep of wrapping paper in the middle of the room... )
Click here to see more pictures from this day..

Christmas in Niagara Falls...

This week I have been playing with the Niagara Symphony. I have been driving up and down to Niagara Falls ( 130km from Toronto) since Wednesday. I love playing with Niagara Symphony because I get to see and hang out with Valerie Sylvester. Valerie and I have been friends since we were 6 years old. We grew up going on long walks down in the valley in Don Mills, and going to Greenland Public school. Acually she hung out more with Melinda, but we have lots of home movies that dad made with us on our outside adventures! And later in life, we played for many years together in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra... and now she is the Concert Master of the Niagara Symphony !

( in this picture I standing at the falls with Paul, one of the trumpet players of the orchestra, who grabbed a lift with me to Niagara Falls.. )

Last night before getting to the concert, I dropped by Niagara Falls to take a look. Yuup still there in all its glory ! It was very nice to see again !


( click on any photo to enlarge.. )

Its amazing that thousands of people fly, drive, bus for thousands of miles from all over the world to see Niagara Falls, and here is just in the back door step of Toronto. We have been playing an all Christmas program, and I sure am in the mood now! between playing the Christmas show with Holly Cole two weeks ago, till now with the Niagara Symphony... www.niagarasymphony.org

I really need all this joy, as its a very hard time for me and my sisters... coming up the one year anniversary of my Mom's death... ( she died on December 28th.. )

Last Minute Gig again !

Yesterday, Friday, I played with the Toronto Symphony again, in a performance with Jazz Singer - Holly Cole. It was great fun to play, and nice to hear a new artist.

Holly Cole is a great Jazz singer, and as it turns out has won several awards, including a JUNO for best Jazz artist... the program was a totally Jazzy Christmas one, and she performed to a totally sold out Roy Thompson Hall.

Boy these days are getting more surprizing lately... I wonder what will show up at the last minute next week ??????