100, um, 50... ok 35 Things About Me

In lieu of a real post about anything important (AGAIN... I KNOW!), I will distract you with a few useless factoids about myself. I think this makes this the lamest post ever.

1.I love coffee. Black, unsweetened coffee. I’m not picky, and I’m not fancy.
Heck, I’ll even drink it cold.
2.While, I’m not picky about my coffee, I don’t like Starbucks. Ick.
3.Chocolate is my middle name. Or maybe my whole name is just coated in chocolate. (mmm)
4.I’m allergic to red and blue dye. It killed me to open the Twizzlers this Halloween and just SMELL them. Curse that throat swelling.
5.I have an irrational fear of fish. Live ones. They wig me out. I used to have nightmares about them as a kid.
6.I’m Canadian.
7.I have another irrational fear of being rear-ended when slowing down or stopping. (it happened once 2 years ago and I’m still not over it).
8.I like my teeth and my eyes and hate my ass.
9.As much as I’ve tried them, even coated in bacon, I just don’t like Brussel sprouts. Or liver for that matter.
10.I also don’t like sushi or seafood, other than just plain fish.
11.I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
12.When I was 15 I was asked what I was good at, what my “natural gift” was and I couldn’t answer the question. I still can’t.
13.I love to cook but hardly ever follow a recipe.
14.I’m not such a great baker because of #13.
15.I make a roast chicken that would knock your socks off, even if you weren’t wearing any.
16.I’m a better planner than a doer.
17.I wrote an entry in my journal after my first day of high school in grade 9 when I was 14 talking about how cute the spikey haired blonde boy was behind me in geography class. That boy became Hubster 6 years later.
18.Cilantro is my favourite herb. I think I could eat a whole bunch of it alone.
19.I don’t like driving at night. I especially don’t like driving at night in the rain.
20.I absorb a lot of useless information.
21.Unfinished pottery gives me the willies.
22.So do black boards and chalk. (shiver. Ick)
23.I secretly wish I could sing or play violin.
24.Right now, my vacation fantasy is checking into a hotel alone with comfy pjs, good munchies and a stack of books, unplugging the phone and sleeping, reading for about 3 days. Oh, and maybe a facial or massage. Or both thrown in for fun.
25.Once upon a time I was going to be an anthropologist AND be the curator of my own museum (except I suck remembering historical dates). Then I was going to be a pediatrician. And then an obstetrician. And then a midwife. I am none of these things.
26.I sometimes wish I could live like Laura Ingalls.
27.My most favourite movie is Princess Bride.
28.I love to read. Some of my favourite books are Girl of the Limberlost (oh, yeah, I want to be her too sometimes), The Clan of the Cave Bear series and the Outlander Series.
29.One of my best friends is someone I’ve known since I was 11.
30.I love any food that is “pot pied”.
31.I also love Applebee’s Spinach Artichoke dip. (now I want some). It’s like crack for me.
32.I do not own a sweatshirt.
33.I lived in New Zealand for a year. It was a turning point in my life.
34.I suffered from mild eating disorders as a teenager.
35.I love to watch Biggest Loser, House, Fringe and What Not To Wear.

Wishing You...

I'm just hopping on quickly tonight, before we head out the door to ring in the new year with our neighbours to wish all of you a safe and happy 2010. It's hard to believe that 2009 will be over in the matter of a few hours. I don't know how it's possible, but this year seems to have flashed by even faster than last year.

I love the promise of a new year. Shiny new with no blemishes yet; like a blank page, just waiting to be filled in, and this year, we've got some good things coming up. This past year was a challenge for me in many ways, and 2010 won't be without it's challenges, but I feel good about where we are in our lives right now and am looking forward to 2010 more openly and with less trepidation than I have in the past few years.

So, a question: do you set goals/resolutions? If you do, what are your main ones for this year? I'll try to post mine tomorrow.

Whatever you do to ring in the new year, even if it means going to bed at 8:30 (not that I've ever done that... ahem. Oh... um... ok, so maybe once or twice) I hope you have fun.

It's a Wrap

Another holiday over and done with. Weeks of planning, shopping, wrapping, cooking done in a matter of a day. Hours, actually. But it was good, very good this year.

I was able to convince Mouse to go back to sleep for a few hours after she woke up at 4:50 am, I, however, could not be convinced to go back to sleep. Oh well. We all “got up” at 7:45. The girls were so much fun this year – running around and squealing over the gifts. Delightedly exclaiming after each thing “It’s ‘zactly what I WANTED!”. The only thing that threw Mouse for a loop was a (much needed) metronome for her piano practice. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, and after a bit of explanation she exclaimed “OOOHH! A ticky-tocky thing! It’s ‘zactly what I WANTED!”. Too funny.

We had very few duds, and pretty much all hits this year. The primo toy is Baboo’s Strawberry Shortcake Café, which I bought out of desperation because I had no other ideas. They have both played for hours with this. Mouse loves her Pixos, Chixos. And we got some fun games as well. A winner has been Zingo – a take on Bingo. Baboo calls it ZigZag, but we all know what she means. The pink and purple Wii remotes are also very awesome. The girls love having their own remotes.

We’re not overwhelmed with new stuff and have a few things that will last us all year, which is great. A good balance, I think.

Dinner turned out awesome. I’m definitely getting the turkey down. Delicious. And if you’ve never tried a Butter Braid pastry – you must find a fundraiser to buy it from. Oh yum. They’re good.

Unfortunately, after Christmas shopping was a bit of a bomb, as there was very, very little to choose from, if anything at all. Oh well. And also unfortunately, we sent both of Hubster’s parents home sick. In the middle of a blizzard. Sigh. I’ve since bleached every piece of washable fabric I could get my hands on, including pillows, so hopefully, next time we have company, I won’t feel as guilty if anyone goes home sick.

This week, we’re looking forward to some playdates with friends, chilling out a bit, playing with our new things, and playing in our newly fallen snow. We’ve got plans with some friends for a casual New Year’s Eve, and it’ll be a good end to this interesting year.

The Children Were Nestled..

All snug in their beds. Mostly. I think they’re still awake and probably levitating 6 inches off the mattress with excitement, but the girls are in bed and we’re waiting to be “Santa”. It may take a while, but that’s ok. I remember what it was like to try to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. It was HARD. I'm excited for them. This is so much fun!

We are ready for Christmas. It was nice just having today to relax. We were not running around like crazy. We were able to enjoy today and just relax. We’ve really had an excellent month all truth be told. Every day we’ve done something fun to prepare for Christmas. The chocolate advent calendars in the morning with the little activity cards kept the anticipation at an even keel all month. And it was fun. Nothing seemed really overwhelming. It worked and I’m glad. I feel like I’m going into tomorrow pretty calm and peaceful. I like that.

Today, Hubster had the day off and the girls were absolutely bouncing off the walls with excitement. The day was shaping up to be rainy and cold, so we took that bouncy energy to one of those indoor bounce-house playground things. It was just what Santa ordered. Those girls bounced, slid and ran for 2 hours. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, just puttering around the house, but it was a nice day.

The only sad part is that despite me begging the universe, my poor mother in law is sick. Pretty sick. Bad sore throat and now it’s spreading to her ear. She’s slept most of today and joined us tonight for our traditional finger food Christmas Eve dinner, but she’s still not feeling well. What is it with people getting sick at my house? Good grief!? My Mum got sick here a few weeks ago and last year SHE was the one who was lying at death’s door with a horrible stomach bug. This year it’s my mother in law. I hope she's better by tomorrow.

Anyway, the cookies and milk (with apples, carrots and celery and a bottle of water for the reindeer in case they are hungry and thirsty) are set out for Santa, The Night Before Christmas read, Santa tracked at the NORAD site, cuddles and reassurances that Santa IS coming tonight, kids tucked and retucked into bed and now us grown-ups are just waiting to finish up the Santa duties. I hear crunching in the living room, so I suspect that Hubster and his Dad are making short work of the goodies. At least part of the job is done.

I hope that the magic of Christmas (if you celebrate) is alive in your house tonight. It sure is at ours.

Ready for the Man in Red

We’ve survived crazy week and made it to the weekend in one piece, with the house ready for Christmas and guests. The only souvenir (I cannot spell that word, thank you spell checker) I have from a week of pretty crappy sleep and going 120mph is a weird half cold. I’ve been half sinus congested, kind of tight in the chest, with kind of a cough. Sort of sick but, not really bad and really just bad enough to feel kind of crappy. On the advice of a friend, I’ve been drinking orange juice with cayenne pepper in it, hoping to get this cold moving out of here. Though my nose is starting to drip a bit, mostly I’m just feeling a lot of burning.

And I’m praying to any god that will listen that I DO NOT pass this onto Josh’s folks who are visiting here this week. I don’t think I can deal with guilt of sending more family members home sicker than dogs.

However, school is done for 2 weeks. The presents are bought, wrapped, shipped if required and neatly tucked under the tree. Baking done and delivered to teachers, friends, neighbors. Santa has been visited and has received “the list”. Cards are sent. Groceries bought, turkey procured. Family safely arrived. We’ve even had a dusting of snow which thrills the girls to no end, so all in all, things are ready for Christmas. I’m sure that something last minute will come up, but for now, I’m happy to just enjoy this time.

It’s nice to know that some things have gone well, when other things – I’m glaring in your direction mortgage company and bank… are not going so well. To say that I’m frustrated, is well, a bit of an understatement. I guess it means my holiday spirit is being tempered by real life, to a degree. However…..

My mantra is “peace and joy, peace and joy”. Breathe in, breathe out, even if it means through gritted teeth some of the time.

Perpetually Dropping Balls

Wow. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without posting before. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say, I’m sure I did… but….but…. (insert excuse here).

Things have been busy here. My folks arrived shortly after Thanksgiving weekend and well, when you get my Mum and I together, chances are we’re going to be hectic. It’s amazing how much we can cram into a week. This time, I had her help me decorate for the holidays. Our pathetic 15 year old decorations were starting to look at little sad, so we cooked up a theme and got down to work, shopping, planning and arranging and then futzing. We’re good at that. All in all it looks good. I kept the old stuff I love, got some new things and it all looks very festive and sparkly and festive.

We did a lot of running around, baking, shopping, talking, card addressing and then of course, there was still school and piano and Pilates and meals and LIFE that had to be squeezed in all of that. It was wonderful having them here, and maybe it was because of everything that’s happened over the last few months, but this time seemed so precious to me, even though my Mum gets sick 9.9 times out of 10 when she comes and my Dad ends up stuck with the girls many times so my Mum and I can talk and shop and putter around. It wasn’t a hugely exciting visit; it was mostly just day to day living when they were here, but I’m grateful for everything they do for me, for us and love watching them with the girls. They’re heading down to Sunnyville and for the first time in a long time I don’t know when I’m going to see them again. It may not be until my brother’s wedding next August and that just makes me immeasurably sad.

The girls started their Advent calendars, what I like to refer to as the “Christmas chocolate vitamin”, bound to fortify us through the holidays. Hmmm, maybe they should make that for adults with a little “fortification” tucked inside? Nothing gets those girls out of bed in the morning faster than the thought of chocolate before breakfast.

When unpacking the Christmas decorations, I discovered an Advent “mitten/hat” string that I found on sale last year, so I decided to write up little cards with “something Christmasy to do” each day on it. The girls each take a turn pulling out a card and we read it and then later incorporate it into our day. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but it’s kind of turned out to be harder than I thought. Some ideas have been easy/obvious and with having a few functions coming up I’ve been able to fill in those days easily. We’ve baked cookies, done crafts, decorated the tree and gone to see Disney on Ice (a special treat with my Mum also known as “the skating Princesses”). I’ve also had the “watch a show” or “read a book” card in there. I made a list of possibilities, but it’s been hard to schedule a whole month of these as I’m not always sure of the timing. And well, being so busy, there were a few times I forgot to put cards in. Which resulted in much panic in the morning… “but MOM! There’s NO CARD! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO???!!!” Oh boy. Some days I’m scrambling to come up with something while the girls watch me expectantly… waiting for something brilliant to happen after I write it down and tuck it into the appropriate mitten or hat before their very eyes.

I’ve made no pretense that it’s anyone other than me writing on the card and we’re not pushing the “Santa” thing for this. They know it’s me and that I’ve dropped the ball a few times. I’m hoping that it will all just roll into a fun memory and maybe a tradition and they’ll just causally forget that I’m somewhat unorganized.

And we’re getting ready for a very busy week, cos hooo boy. We need one of those! (weave sarcasm thickly in there). We’ve got Baboo’s class brunch and our own holiday party tomorrow, I’m having breakfast with a friend on Sunday and finishing the baking, I’m helping a friend with a cake, we’re going to see Santa, I’m participating in Baboo’s class, we’ve got carols ‘n cookies at Mouse’s class, the school Christmas party and Josh’s folks coming next weekend. And that’s just the stuff I remember! Whew!

All in all, I feel very much like Moose in the one of our favourite Christmas stories “Moosteltoe”. “Check, check, triple check! Oh good golly, this moose was jolly! It was so simple, so easy, so….. ok, so not so perfectly perfect!”. But we’re having fun anyway.

And here is where I will pull some bloggy smoke and mirrors to cover the little I have to say and the even shorter amount of time I have to say it … So I’m going to share some links to some fun stuff….

I heard these guys on the radio earlier this week and have been mesmerized by them ever since. They’re singing is INCREDIBLE and their Christmas CanCan song cracks us all up over here. You can preview their music on their website and download their albums as well. Go and check out ‘Straight No Chaser’…

Also, this great blog has been started some of the best bloggers I’ve read. I’m looking forward to following their weight loss progress and am already feeling inspired (what? Again? Ha) to get back into the game myself. Go check out Five Full Plates.

Happy Thanksgiving... yesterday

It’s 4 am on “Black Friday” and I am not awake because I’m going shopping. Gawd no. I’ll avoid that like the plague, thankyouverymuch.

No, Mouse woke up at about 1 this morning. I’d thought it was Baboo, who still wakes up most nights at least once, but it wasn’t. Poor Mouse had thrown up. After I’d gotten her cleaned up and settled back down, I stayed awake for a bit, waiting to see if this would be a one shot deal or not. I was fearing we were in for another round of rota virus, like we had the Thanksgiving before last, but it wasn’t.

But she seems fine and though I did doze a bit, I still couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up to make a cup of bedtime tea and while I was down stairs and waiting for the water to boil, I’d wash Mouse’s sheets (they’re not any better now than they were a few hours ago) and finish this post. I’d started it yesterday, but the day got away from me and it sat unfinished, as things happen sometimes. And here I am.

So, Turkey Day. If you had to work, I’m sorry. You’d have thought that we’ve all worked hard enough to turn this damn economy around to deserve one freaking day off to be with those we love and care about. I was so sad to hear from my friends how many of their family members had to work on Thanksgiving and to see how upset they were. However, whether you were home or at work, I hope you had a pleasant and peaceful day.

It was Thanksgiving, that holiday that’s more American than America and though we’ve lived in the States for over 10 years now and fully understand the sacred significance and generalized traditions, we did not cook a turkey. (does that mean we are going to be deported?) It’s not that we don’t LIKE turkey, we do. And I think I’m getting pretty good at cooking them. But well, we just HAD turkey when we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with my folks and brother in October, and then I’ll be cooking another turkey when Hubsters’ folks come for Christmas next month, so to have turkey 3 months in a row, just seems like overkill to me.

Nope, no turkey; we had barbequed steak, mashed potatoes and veggies instead. However, we could not give up the homemade pumpkin pie (made with pumpkin from our Halloween pie pumpkins) with hand whipped cream. We’re not total barbarians! It was ALL delicious!

Today, maybe I’ll make turkey pot pie or something with the leftovers from our last turkey because anything “pot pied” is sublime in my eyes and mouth. And I’ll consider that using up our ‘leftovers’. Ha.

We did not watch football, or put up Christmas decorations or even visit with anyone. Wednesday night, we shampooed our family room carpets, so right now our couch and tv are crammed into our kitchen area. So while the carpets were drying, we stayed in our pajamas until 11 am. We watched cartoons and part of the Macy’s parade. We danced with the dancers and shouted out every time we saw a float we liked. Then we squealed over all the things we have no intention of buying while looking at the Black Friday fliers. I took the girls Christmas card photo and we all just kind of hung around all day. The weather was cold and rainy and nasty, but we were cozy and happy.

It wasn’t fancy, or ‘traditional’, but we were together and I’m very thankful for that.

If you’re shopping today… I hope things go well and I feel the urge to say stay safe/be careful. I certainly hope no one dies this year while trying to get a bargain. No deal is worth that. I so don’t get that frenzy.

On a separate note, yesterday was my 1 year blog-iversary. One year ago yesterday, the 26th of November, I started this blog. And though I haven’t accomplished all my goals, I’ve done a few. I’m still teaching Pilates, have jumped into the site ads and am still plugging away at it. I’m still not sure where it’s going, but it’s an outlet for me and a record that one day, I hope I’m happy to have.

Here is a link to my first post.

And here is a link to last year’s Thanksgiving post.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to change the laundry over, find a way to get the smell of vomit out of my nose and hopefully try to get some sleep. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

E. Bunny Hops on Through

Mr. Bunny made his visit yesterday morning, leaving behind his cute eggs, instead of other…. um, bunny leavings. Thankfully. The girls were ecstatic, running around collecting little plastic eggs filled with treats and other goodies. Baboo dragged her basket all over the house, and after each egg she found she said “Tank-um” (which is her slang version of thank you). The hunt took all of 6.3 minutes. Oh well. Next year, E. Bunny will make it a bit harder.

We did do a hunt outside after breakfast as well. MRS Bunny (aka ME) was up at 6, crunching around in my pajamas on the frosty grass to hide the dyed eggs in the back yard, after about 3.5 hours of sleep because of a sick little Baboo. I was just falling back to sleep when Mouse came in at 6:45 to announce VERY LOUDLY that the Easter Bunny had been in her room and left a new basket AND EGGS!

All very exciting. And yes we acted very surprised.

I managed to convince her to lay down with me for about 45 minutes to allow Baboo to sleep a bit longer, but then her anxious, excited wiggling drove us out of bed.

All in all we had a good day. It was quiet for us and involved some yard work, but also included much digging up of dirt (to add some mulch under the slide/swings) and highly successful worm hunting. That makes it a good day at our house.

I have to say how much I enjoy being on the giving end of holidays. I know how excited I used to be when I was a kid, waiting for the magic of Christmas, Easter etc… and I love being able to recreate that for our girls.

To commemorate the day, Mouse made a little book called “Mouse’s Egg Adventure”. She drew a bunch of pictures showing where the eggs were hidden –real and imaginary – including the play structure in the back yard WITH the big mud puddle at the bottom of the slide, and an imaginary “pretty, princess tree”. She signed her name to each page (this cracks me up) and asked me to narrate her story by describing the picture on each page. “Egg under a chair. Egg under the slide. Egg under the pretty princess tree”. She read it to us at bed time. This is beyond precious to me and will put this away in her momentos. It’s just so cute.

Baboo had been sick on Saturday, having a fever and an infected vaccination site on her leg which involved a trip to the local clinic, and now 10 days of antibiotics 4 times a day. Oy. She’s much better, he leg looks 100 times better and she is back to her spunky self.

Yesterday was our respite and today Mouse woke up with a fever and croup. Sigh. It’s a crappy, rainy day so we’re hanging out inside, in our jammies, watching waayyy too much tv and likely recreating the ‘GREAT EGG HUNT OF 2009’ several dozen times.

Hope you all had a happy, healthy Easter!

Egg-cellent

Oh, come on! It’s Easter… surely you expected a cheesy egg-referenced title.

This is what we did yesterday…

I cooked up a few eggs in the afternoon and then Mouse asked me about, oh, 290 times when it would be time to decorate eggs. Finally, after trying to get her to wait for Baboo to get up from her nap, I gave in and let her do some. We did a few with the little wax crayon thing and just dyed some plain. It was fun. And addictive.

Then I felt bad because Baboo didn’t get to do any, and well, I did just buy eggs, so I boiled up some more. And we coloured some more when Baboo got up. It was fun and the girls loved it and they turned out really cute.

According to Mouse, we’re going to leave a note for the Easter Bunny to tell him to hide the beautiful eggs we made OUTSIDE for us to find. This will be the first year that we’ll get to do a hunt outside, provided the weather cooperates. I told her the Easter bunny will take note of that.

And now, I have a dozen brightly coloured eggs, stinking up my fridge. Every time we open the door, we get a waft of sulfur (aka fart) right in the face. Hubster gets nauseas just thinking about going to the fridge. And me, being who I am, can’t bear to just THROW THEM OUT (though it’ll depend on how long they’ll be outside, I guess) because god forbid I waste $0.79 on a dozen eggs. I’ve been trying to think of ways to eat them (egg salad, deviled eggs); and make note that I am the only person who will eat hard boiled eggs in this house, without spiking my already high cholesterol to record heights.

The Birthday Cake Take 2

So, yesterday I made a new set of cakes from a tried and true recipe. It’s not called “Damn Good Chocolate Cake” for nothing. Why mess with what works? I shouldn’t have, but have redeemed myself with damn chocolately goodness. So say the masses anyway, it was pretty quiet while everyone ate the cake and no one died, so I guess it turned out ok. Ha.

Last night I planned out what I was going to do… kind of. I got out my cake decorating tips, which I barely know how to use. Got a huge plate of M&M’s ready and mixed up a boat load of frosting and had at it.

I think that this turned pretty cute considering I’ve never really “made” a cake before. Yes, I’ve done cakes in pans and done mountains of sprinkles, but never made a cake that looked like anything.



When Baboo saw it this morning she said “Yehaw!”, so at least it looked enough like a carousel for her to recognize it. Then she asked if she could get on it. Uh, no.

The party today was a lot of fun and it seemed like everyone had a good time. I’m getting better about planning enough to do, but not too much so and timing things better so that they flow and the kids don’t get too crazy. We did a few simple games, bubbles outside, played with balloons and ate. Both girls did great. Whenever anyone said “Happy Birthday” to Baboo, she said “Happy Birthday, thank you” right back. What a riot!

I can’t believe that my baby is almost 2! ACK!

Happy "Valentime's" Day

Oy, it’s been a loooonnnggg day. Love is complicated, especially when it comes to kids.

There’s no doubt that we love them, every day, not just on Valentine’s day. However, today has been a day of ups and downs. Big ups and BIG downs.

Mouse has huge expectations when it comes to holidays; expectations that are hard to live up to. Hubster and I decided this year that Valentine’s day would be low key, for various reasons, and haven’t really been pushing it. We didn’t want to squash her enthusiasm so much as just keep it in perspective.

Mouse did have a little card exchange at school. She made all her own Valentine’s and she really enjoyed the process of making them. It took us a few days to make them (cut out shapes, decorated with stickers and a Valentine's pencil) as there are 18 kids in her class and she made every one and wrote each child's name by herself. She really focused on what each child would like on their card and carefully chose each pencil. When she brought her cards home from school, we took the time to look at each one, appreciating that the other kids took the time to do a card for her.

We talked about how Valentine’s day is to let those people around us know that they are special. We made Valentine’s for each other, and for the girls I just got them a balloon and made a very small goodie bag. Today we did go for breakfast and this afternoon made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert tonight.

Well, despite “low key”, we’ve had 2 days of fall out. Lots of tantrums, sass and back talk. It’s sooo hard because the stores just have sooo much “stuff” out and the kids see all of it and think “Wow! This is a BIG deal” and we're telling them "Well, no, we dont' have to have all of that STUFF to have a nice holiday". In particular, I know it’s hard for Mouse to reconcile what she expects and imagines with what is real sometimes. I know part of her being upset was that we didn’t have an all day Valentine’s party with decorations and friends and all the hoopla she imagines should go with a “holiday”. It was very much an ordinary day, with a few special things thrown in, which is what we told her was the intention all along.

And of course, the crazy attitude has rubbed off on Baboo who is almost 2 and certainly doesn’t need any encouragement when it comes to tantrums these days.

Baboo added her own brand of toddlerhood to this day. The painted on the table with her applesauce at lunch, threw several tantrums when she didn’t get her way and then took a red Sharpie marker and added her own special touch to our coffee table. (Guess we're finally deciding to paint that table).

It’s been a long day of putting out temper fires in between some really sweet family moments.

Mouse made a cute picture for Hubster in his Valentine’s card. Baboo sucked all the chocolate off her strawberries and said “Mama! I WIKE this!”. And I could never replace all the hugs that we’ve gotten today.

This is the picture Mouse made of herself (notice the LONG lashes, blue jeans, and smiling mouth) and Baboo beside the enormous flower with dirt and roots. I love it!

Hubster and I didn’t really do too much for eachother. We’re both kind of “over” the commercialism of Valentine’s day. He did get a killer box of chocolates for us to share. They’re made by Pete Schmutte, head pastry chef at Puck’s restaurant. Apparently, he’s a friend of a Hubster’s coworker. They’ve got great names like “Dark and Stormy”, “Ancho and Cayenne Pepper”, “Port Lemon Caramel” and “Pear William”. They’re delicate and delicious. A surprise favourite is “Earl Grey Tea”. And they’re pretty. So pretty. See?!

Almost too pretty to eat... but uh yeah. NOT.

And, I went and got my hair cut finally today (yup, decided on going shorter again). Whatever she put in it smells like coconut and all I can smell is COCONUT. It wasn’t too bad in the beginning, but now it’s starting to annoy me.

Anyway, hope you had a lovely day – Valentine’s celebrations or not.

A New New Year's Day Tradition

All plans for a well thought out and inspiring post fell apart as I napped a large portion of the day away. Despite sleeping well last night and not hearing our neighbors screaming “Happy New Year” banging on pans and shooting off fireworks and maybe a gun or two, I’m still wiped out and out of sorts. It almost feels like a cold – AGAIN – but I’m not sure. I’ve been sleeping/resting a lot today, and doing laundry in between. Nothing like starting 2009 off with a bang…

BUT we did actually incorporate a type of “bang” into the day.

The girls got a gift from Hubster’s cousin that threw me for a bit of a loop and won the award for ‘weirdest gift ever’. (Sorry K). It takes a lot to make me say “huh?” but it turned out to be a cool thing indeed and I think it has inspired a new tradition.

Cousin K sent the girls a large Nemo piñata. My girls love the movie Finding Nemo, Baboo especially. She wants me to fast forward to all the scenes with Nemo. She doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of the other supporting characters.

When we pulled the large piñata out of the box, we all kind of looked at each other and said “Well…. That’s interesting” and I wondered what kind of crack Cousin K had been smoking. (I’m kidding… She’s a perfectly upstanding member of the community.) But really, a piñata for Christmas? Ok, then. As I said, it takes a lot to surprise me and this certainly did. The kids, of course, loved it. Baboo screamed “NEMO!” from her Princess Cozy Coupe and Mouse surprised me by saying “Cool! A piñata! Can we do it right now?” (I didn’t know she knew what a piñata was).

I decided to save it for another day so that we could stretch the Christmas bounty out over, say a week. Oy. They’ve been wanting to open everything right away and I can’t blame them. I’ve managed to squirrel away a few things for a rainy day when we need something new to do, but um, it’s kind of hard to hide an enormous Nemo. He lived under our tree until today when we started putting some of the Christmas things away.

Mouse asked again today if we could do the piñata and maybe it was the Tylenol I’d taken or the fact that I wasn’t really awake yet, but, I couldn’t see a reason not to.

I wasn’t sure how Baboo would take to us hacking at her favorite, cute little fishy friend with a foam bat, but as soon as Mouse took the first swing she started laughing in that deep, throaty, devilish way that only she can. I’m afraid, very afraid.

Anyway, we hooked Nemo onto a tall shepherds hook from the garden, got out the kid’s foam bat and had at ‘er. I decided NOT to blindfold anyone because well, I prefer life and not to be covered in bruises or cleaning up masses of broken things. Mouse threw a couple of good ones, Hubster helped Baboo and for a good 10 minutes they banged away with no rewarding shower of treats. Then we read the instructions and saw that we had to pull ribbons to open the trap door to release the booty. Oh. I’m kind of glad we didn’t have to pulverize Nemo to get the good stuff out.

Once we figured that out, the kids yanked ribbons until Mouse found the magic one and all kinds of fun things hit the floor – pencils, erasers, stickers, a few chocolates and mini candy canes, socks, tooth brushes, hair elastics etc.

It was fun and the girls definitely enjoyed it. It was something I never would have thought to do, but it’s a great idea. I have visions of us making one to look like the New Year ball that falls every year, but this would be much more fun. The kids could make it and I’d fill it with things to surprise them. It could really be a messy, fun holiday activity. Then after we do the piñata, we’ll order pizza like we’re doing right now. Pinata and Pizza. Hmmm… I like that. That’s a tradition I could get used to.

Thanks Cousin K. The gift was a hit! And Happy New Year!

Added: I just looked up and saw that Baboo had chocolate ALL over her face and was chewing away madly. When I asked what she was eating she said “I find choc-wit”. When I looked in her mouth, I saw a handful of foil covered in chocolate drool. (gross). I guess I missed picking up one of the chocolate Santas from the piñata. Oy.

Count Down at 10 PM... Kind of

So, today we were busy and I had a bunch of post ideas in my head and well, then my head rolled away and I still haven't found it. Have you ever seen the movie Robots where the character Bender loses his head and he keeps kicking it around - calling his own name and saying "OW" every time his feet kick him in the face? Yeah, it's been like that.

However... TOMORROW is a new day AND a New Year...all shiney and spanking new and pretty like. Oooooo. Aahhhhhh. And all these ideas in my head are going to get themselves organized and get crackin' already.

I'm hoping that tomorrow, I will hide in my bedroom for a good long time, maybe sleep, maybe eat some chocolate and guzzle a mountain of coffee and sleep some more and then find that head of mine. (hear heady, heady, heady!) Hey... maybe even write a post or two. A reflection on this past year or holidays? Plans for the future? Oh.... you just never know (and this post is the proof). At least you know not to have your expectations too high. (ha)

Until then, whenever you do your New Year's countdown - enjoy it. Tonight, we all petered out by 10:30 if not before, not that I'm known for making it to midnight... but that's ok. We're all tired and fried and Mum and Dad are back on the road tomorrow. *Sniff*

Regardless... I wish you a prosperous, peaceful and healthful 2009 filled to the brim with love, joy and laughter with a good dose of patience, fortitude and strength on the side - just in case.

Have a safe and happy evening....See you NEXT YEAR! (sorry, I couldn't resist. It's cheesy, I know)

The Clatter of Hippos

My folks bought a last minute gift for the girls which turned into a huge piece of childhood nostalgia for me. When I was talking to my brother on the phone yesterday, I told him what they bought and he started howling with laughter and said “Mum bought that???”
That game, which my Mum hated when we were kids because my brother and I would play it for hours on end. We yelled, added the marbles from the Chinese checkers game and clattered and banged away for hours. Maybe it’s a revenge thing.

That’s right…

Hungry Hungry Hippos.

This morning we pulled it out of the box, set it all up and clattered away for a good ½ an hour. It was just as noisy and just as much fun as I remembered and I haven’t lost my touch after all these years. Hehe. Baboo loved it because she could play too and was pretty good at it. Of course, she still wants to put the marbles in her mouth, but we’re working on it. Maybe she thinks she’s one of the hungry hippos?? Mouse has claimed the pink Hippo as her own and Hubster feels a particular affinity for the one named “Homer” – the green one I think.

I see many noisy hours ahead of us and maybe I’ll be like my Mum and eventually hide it because if I have to hear that clattering banging for one more minute I’ll shove a hot poker in my eyeball, but for now, its’ fun. And for the record, I don’t know what happened to the old game we used to have.

Speaking of my Mum, despite our best hopes, she was really not well all day yesterday. She got up to open gifts with us, but then spent most of the rest of the day in bed resting. Apparently stomach bugs are going around this holiday – poor Mir over at Woulda Coulda Shoulda was in the hospital.

Mum is feeling wiped from being through the wringer, but a bit better today. We held off our roast Beast until today and had Chinese last night. I’ve just put the beef in the oven, have the potatoes for garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, for green beans with almonds and brown butter (yum), Dad’s homemade pickled beets, and pumpkin pie for dessert waiting in the wings.

I’m watching Polar Express with Mouse while Baboo and Mum are resting and generally we’re all taking it easy today, but I have a feeling things will be getting a leeetle bit noisier once everyone is up again. (clacka, clacka, wacka, wacka, clack, bang)

Merry Christmas!

Good morning! Merry Christmas!! After days of rain, heavy winds and freezing rain, this morning we are greeted with glorious sunshine, calm winds and tolerable temperatures.

Yesterday was an odd day with all of us feeling cooped up and cranky. The weather was nasty so the girls, my parents and I headed to a local museum; which was surprisingly quiet. We enjoyed listening to a history of Christmas carols sung by 2 talented musicians, rode the Christmas train a few times and just pleasantly passed a good chunk of Christmas eve day.

Last night, we enjoyed our delicious appetizer dinner, played some WII and read some of our favorite Christmas books before putting out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and heading to bed.

Every year that we get to play Santa, I feel a connection to how to my parents must have felt when they used to be “Santa” for us. I could hardly sleep (but did) last night because I was so excited for the girls.

My Dad was the first up this morning at 6:30 and good man that he is, he had the coffee ready for the rest of us. Mouse was up shortly after, about 7, and she wanted to get everyone up to see if Santa came. She insisted on getting fully dressed in her Christmas dress, tights with her hair done before making her entrance.

Mouse was right into the whole shredding of the paper and shrieking over gifts. The highlights for her were: stuffed Eva (from the movie Wall-E), princess sled, dress up clothes, pink Landsend dress, globe, and many craft items. We’ll be busy for months to come!

Baboo saw the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe and nothing else. Several hours later, she isn’t out of the car. I imagine she’ll still be there until she’s 5 or so. She shoved a few small stocking stuffers into the little trunk of it and just sat in there. It’s really cute actually. The tiny baby doll is also popular, but she plays with it with one hand on the car.

In my effort to train them to be Cinderella’s I bought a kid sized vacuum, mop and broom. I hope it pays off in a few months and I won’t have to do any more cleaning. Mouuuhahahahhahaah. (evil laugh).

Hubster has just finished putting together his rolling tool boxes, which Mouse has just filled with the pink plastic princess tea set. (He’s trying to decide if this makes it less manly).

Me, I’ve received a lovely warm hat knit with alpaca wool, a new mouse, a kitchen knife and new coffee maker and toaster oven. My best friend B from Couple Bit made me a beautiful bracelet that fits perfectly; so unfortunately, I won’t have to come back for a custom fitting. (Thank you. I love it)

Thank you to our friends and families who took the time to send us these lovely gifts. While we feel that Christmas isn’t about the gifts, we certainly appreciate and enjoy each and every one. That you took the time and effort to do this for us means a lot.

We’ve talked on the phone with the rest of our families – feeling sad that we can’t be with everyone but grateful that we have the ability to talk to them so quickly. We miss you!

Unfortunately, my Mum hasn’t been feeling well since last night. She’s resting now and we hope that she’s feeling better soon.

So, as we sift through the Christmas carnage, get dressed, play with our new things, enjoy each other’s company, get dinner ready and generally bask the in holiday revelry; know that we are thinking of all of you and wishing you peace, joy, good health and love on this special day and every day. Merry Christmas!

Apparently I've Made the Source of All Evil

Remember when I made my list of “things to do before Christmas”? Yes, I keep referring to it. Well, one of the things was to determine what baking to do this year.

I made the gingerbread men, I’ll likely make cheese cake for Christmas dinner (because that’s what we do) and I think I want to try a bread pudding. We went to a restaurant once, a while ago, and had an AMAZING bread pudding with a whisky cream sauce that knocked our socks off. The food itself wasn’t much to write home about, but this dessert? One of the best I’ve ever had at a restaurant. Ever. I think I drooled just thinking about it. Mmmmmm….

Huh, where was I? Oh yeah! Holiday baking! When my Mum is here next week we’re going to make butter tarts . It’s not Christmas for us unless we have butter tarts. This year, we’re going to make mini ones for our Christmas Eve finger food extravaganza. When I asked Hubster if he wanted me to make anything in particular, he said right away: Nanaimo bars. These embody Christmas for him, and really, I don’t know too many Canadian holiday celebrations that don’t include a pan of these bars.

What are Nanaimo bars? What? You don’t KNOW? Oy.

See the link above for the long history of these bars. Here is the short version: The base is a mix of butter, cocoa, nuts, sugar and coconut. The filling is almost a custard, with 100% more butter – it’s made of icing sugar, cream, butter, and custard powder (almost impossible to get here in the States) or vanilla pudding mix. The topping is chocolate, and you guessed it, more butter. I guess we Canadians like a lot ‘o butter in our holiday treats.

You don’t bake this bar at all, it’s done in layers that are refrigerated. The top gets hard, the filing stays creamy and the base is nice and chewy. It really is a neat dessert; but rich. How could it not be with almost a pound of butter in it?

I made these 2 years ago and I wasn’t really thrilled with how they turned out. The recipe I used was way too sweet and the filling seemed gritty. I searched through a few and found this gem of a web site:

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/

I used their recipe and the bars turned out really well. (Note: if you use this recipe – it doesn’t tell you the exact weight of chocolate to use for the topping – after consulting some other recipes, I used 4 ounces. It worked really well). I liked that the egg in the base got cooked a bit in the microwave, so I didn't have to worry about RAW eggs in food I'd serve to children or have to go through the hassle of finding egg powder.

I enjoyed reading through some of their recipes and will definitely go back there again.

ANYWAY… since these bars are so rich we do not need a whole pan of them in our house, I plan to pass some onto the neighbours and Hubster took some into work to share with his co-workers. He offered them up and within minutes received a call from a friend that just said “These are the source of all evil. Wow. Can I have the recipe?”.

Here is the recipe:
http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/search?q=nanaimo+bars

So go ahead and whip up a batch of these babies, eat them until you’re sick and give the rest away. It’s a Canadian tradition.

Christmas Traditions

I’ve been banished to the bedroom so that Mouse and Hubster can wrap my Christmas gifts. I’m certainly not unhappy to be banished as I’ve grabbed a fresh cup of coffee, a morsel of dark chocolate (and yes a morsel, 2 small squares) and my laptop and am comfortably situated on my bed, with a few minutes to myself. Ah exile, it’s a good place to be.

Since I will have a longer than usual time frame for writing, which will hopefully be uninterrupted, I'll warn you that this post will likely be longer than normal. So, go get another coffee. Go ahead. It's ok. I'll wait.

As my Christmas CD loads into iTunes, I’m thinking of the music I’ll be hearing soon. No, it’s not some hip star singing rocked out Christmas songs. I’m not that cool. I had my Mum make me this CD a few years ago from albums that we used to listen to every year. Songs I missed at the holidays when I moved away. It’s John Denver, Living Strings and Living Voices, and Nana Mouskouri. And yes, I know all the words. Not cool for anyone else and I don’t care.

Growing up, we didn’t live very close to our extended family so we didn’t often have that gaggle of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents that seem to embody a typical traditional holiday. Our Christmas’s were much more subdued but no less magical because my parents made an effort to start traditions that helped our holidays feel special – like the family time it’s meant to be. It gave us special things to look forward to, things we only did at the holidays.

Surprisingly Santa didn’t play a huge part in our Christmas. He was never “pushed” but was more of a suggestion. We were never threatened with “Santa is watching!” to get us to behave. I don’t know if I ever really believed in it, but I liked the thought that a magical person could actually exist. We did talk about him and did “receive” gifts from him but, really, I think we always knew it was our parents.

Every year, we’d decorate the tree together as a family. Once Dad had the tree set up (a real tree) in the stand with the lights (mumble, mumble, ARGH, &^@#), we’d start to decorate. We loved opening the boxes of ornaments and admiring all the familiar decorations. My Dad’s decorated duck egg, my brother’s little pompom snowman from when he was a baby, my felt tree decorated with alphabet macaroni that I made in kindergarten. They held so many memories and brought their own magic to the season.

We always made gingerbread people cookies to hang on the tree with our friends/family members names on them; people we couldn’t be with at the holidays but who were in our hearts. We usually didn’t eat the cookies, but pretty much every year some poor cookie that was hung too low got eaten by the dogs.

My Mum always made butter tarts, jam thumb print cookies and Dad made pumpkin pie. We had turkey and all the fixings for Christmas dinner, which was served with good china and silver at a decorated table, usually by candle light. We changed from our pjs into nice clothes. Yes, even though most of the time it was just us 4.

My parents held a ‘come-and-go’ holiday party for many years. They invited all their friends, co-workers, neighbors and when my brother and I were old enough, we invited our friends as well. We’d decorate the house, prepare lots of food and just visit with our friends. It was always so festive and loud and fun.

Each year, we’d pick out a big complicated puzzle and set it up on a board to work on over the whole holiday. I remember the day after school let out for the break, we’d be getting the puzzle out and sorting pieces.

This was the one time of year when we’d have pop (soda) in the house. My folks would stock up on cans of Coke and Ginger Ale and store it in the basement. Little bro and I would often sneak an extra can when we were playing down there. Yeah, our parents knew so we weren't exactly that sneaky.

Of course, little Bro and I loved all the Christmas shows, and back before recording devices were really popular, we had to wait and watch the tv guide to see when all the good ones would be on. Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Miracle on 34th Street, and of course, growing up in the 80’s meant we loved Garfieldf and Garfield's Christmas was no exception.

Even into our early teens we used to get chocolate Advent calendars – a tradition I’m carrying over with my girls because nothing says Christmas like eating a piece of chocolate every morning. One year my brother opened all of his doors and ate the chocolate in one day, but pretended that he opened and ate it each day. I guess that’s his prerogative, but it’s funny all these years later.

We didn’t start going to church until my brother and I were a bit older, like about 7 and 9, but once we did, Christmas Eve service became a part of that tradition as well. When we were younger, we’d go to the 7 pm service which was always chaotic with kids running all over the place. The church was always jammed with families and brimming with Christmas excitement. Our gentle and kind minister would stand at his pulpit beside the enormous, shining tree and tell us the story of Christmas and lament that again this year he was shopping for his family at the last minute that very day. When we were older (early teens), we’d go to the 9 pm service which was quieter but just as meaningful.

After church, we would always drive around the city, up and down all of the little streets to admire the lights and decorations.

My Mum’s family used to open all of their gifts on Christmas Eve and so, to keep a part of her family tradition, we always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was always so exciting to figure out which one our parents would select for us to open.

As kids, my brother and I left out milk and cookies for Santa and veggies (for the reindeer) and knew in our hearts that it was our parents eating it, but were happy to pretend it was Santa. Then we’d force ourselves to go to bed thinking that if we hurried up and went to sleep Christmas morning would arrive faster. Of course it took us forever to fall asleep and we’d be giggling and wiggling around in our beds for hours, unable to willing ourselves to sleep.

In the morning, our stockings were left on the end of our beds. It used to be that we would wake up at 4 am (or earlier!) to get the sneak peak on Christmas. In a beat of parenting genius on my parents’ part to save their sanity, they allowed us to open our stockings before anyone else was up. My brother and I always woke each other up to do it together though, and I’m sure many times my folks were awake in their own room listening to us frantically ripping into our stuffed socks. We were not allowed downstairs to the tree though until my folks were up and we usually got them up about 6. When we got older, we would wait to open our stockings all together (my parents did stockings for each other as well). It was fun to see all the little treasures and treats we found for each other.

Each year someone got to be the “elf” and hand out gifts to each person. As we got older, opening became less of a rip-n-shred kind of affair, and more of a leisurely thing, with each of us taking the time to watch the others opening their gifts. I think we all knew how quickly the gift opening would go after all those weeks of preparations.

While we weren’t ‘poor’ we weren’t exactly rich either. Both of my parents worked and worked hard. We didn’t get a lot of extra things during the year, but Christmas was a time when generally our greatest wishes were granted. We weren’t “spoiled’ but it was rare for us not to get something we asked for (within reason of course). We always had gifts sent in from extended family members as well and it was fun to know that Grandma had sent a special gift on the Greyhound bus for us.

I know I make it sound idyllic and yet it wasn’t all the time. There were tantrums from over tired kids, sulky behavior, and just general holiday over stimulation. However, for us, the holidays really were a special time.

When my husband and I got married, it was a bit difficult to find a good balance between our two families, especially at the holidays. We decided to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and when we lived in the same city, which we did for a few years, we’d still go to church and drive around to look at the lights afterwards. We’d go to my folks house afterwards and together started a new tradition. Since none of us wanted to eat two turkey dinners two days in a row, we’d have a whole meal of finger food at my folk’s house. We’d put on Christmas music, nosh on lots of yummy snacks and take our time opening our gifts, telling stories and sometimes playing games.

We’d spend Christmas day with Hubster’s family. Most of his extended family lived in town, so we’d truck over to someone’s house, either his Grandma’s or his Mom’s and have a big dinner with all the fixings. It was the chaotic family holiday – kids running around, cousins, aunts, uncles all crammed around the table. For me, that was a whole new experience and I loved being a part of it.

Now, we’re farther away and usually have Christmas at our house with a set of grandparents visiting us. We’re working on setting up our own traditions – a blend of old and new. I want our girls to have that same rich experience that I had – to look forward to the holidays and all the things that we can do together.

Some of our new traditions are:

When we’re ready to wrap gifts, Hubster and I get everything ready, grab a treat and something hot to drink and put in our favourite holiday movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to watch while we wrap gifts.

Because Thanksgiving in the States is so close to Christmas, we have started to have prime rib roast for our Christmas dinner – which is killer good. It’s such a treat for us and we enjoy having something other than turkey. We have to have garlic mashed potatoes, popovers with gravy and top it off with my yummy cheesecake. I throw in a gratuitus vegetable in there too - usually asparagus or something like that.

We still drive or walk around to look at the lights, make finger food on Christmas Eve and the kids get to open one gift. I still make the gingerbread cookies. We don’t push Santa, but Mouse has started talking about him and on her own decided to make a list this year. Our girls are a bit too young for a few of the other things that I used to do, but I hope that we’ll be able to carry on a few and continue to start some more of our own.

So, if you made it to the end of this very long winded post, tell me, what are your traditions? What do you do to help make your holiday special?

Things to Do Before Christmas - The LIST

A little while ago, Mouse and I counted the days before Christmas and at the time there were about 32 days left.

She moaned “That’s FOREVER! I can’t wait THAT long! Whine, whine”.

In my head, I’m thinking “Oh man! Only 32 days! That’s not enough time! ACK”. So I said “Well, there are a lot of things we have do before Christmas – decorating and baking and gifts, then Nanny and Poppy will be here, so the time is going to go by really fast”.

With that dramatic pout she’s famous for, she huffs “No! It’s NOT”.

Ah, it’s tough to be 4 years old at Christmas.

However, I have a "cure" for the Christmas waiting blues. Tomorrow morning, the girls will open the first door of their Advent calendars to eat a tiny shaped piece of waxy chocolate. In the MORNING! Every day! For 24 days! It’s like a Christmas fortification vitamin. Mmmm. When my brother and I were kids, this was one of the many highlights for us at Christmas. We loved that almost tasteless, waxy textured chocolate.

So, "The List". My Mum is a planner. She loves to make lists and to her, no day is truly complete unless “something has been accomplished”. (I mean that in the nicest way, Mum! *kiss*) I don’t think I ever remember her not being well prepared for the holidays. Cards were addressed and sent well in advance, gifts bought, wrapped and stored, parties planned, baking baked and frozen (and hopefully not eaten on the sly by little brother).

I have inherited, to a degree, this list making/checking off tendency. However, I’m less efficient and less organized. When it comes to Christmas I think I generally do pretty well in getting things out on time and have been working harder to be better at it. I told my Mum last week that I would have the Christmas cards done AND the girls Christmas photo ordered before the end of this weekend. I don’t think she believed me. I’m happy to report that I have the cards 90% done and the photos are ordered and will be in this week. Whoo!

I also have most of the gifts purchased and hidden (I hope I remember where) and I’ve figured out almost all of the few I have left to do. Donation gifts for the collection at Hubster’s office have been purchased and are awaiting his delivery. We have some lights up on our house and a bit of decorating done and yesterday when I came home from picking up my new glasses, Hubster and the girls had put up our Christmas tree.

However, despite feeling like we’ve had a pretty good start, there are still a lot of things that still need to be done. Some are not necessarily Christmas related, but because I like to challenge myself (ahahaha!) so I can have a frenzied RUSH to the deadline, I’m throwing in a few non-Christmas related goals. Why not!? I’m throwing in the general “how” and deadline dates for these too. Again, why not!? Maybe I’ll be more accountable if I do this and have a witness to “the list”.

Things To Do

*Decide if we are having a holiday party (these always cost more than I think they will and I’m not sure we can handle the expense right now, however, having just moved to our neighborhood, it might be a nice gesture for our new friends and immediate neighbors) Deadline: Wed

* Finish addressing cards, stuff with photos and send out. THIS WEEK (to be determined by delivery date of photos)

* Hubster to deliver office donation gifts. Deadline: Tues

* Sort out office. (Please pray for me) It’s a pit. This entails, sorting out filing, getting books organized on shelves, hanging pictures and finding a home for a bunch of computer stuff. I will need Hubster’s assistance with this. I plan to work a bit on this every day – at least 30 minutes. I will take photos as proof. Oy. Deadline: Dec 13.

* Finish buying gifts. Deadline: Fri

* Send out any gifts that need to be mailed. This depends a bit on some deliveries we’re waiting for. Deadline: Hopefully next Mon

* Decorating. I have a few things I’d like to purchase, but we’re trying to keep our expenses low this year and maybe pick up some after Christmas sale stuff, so I’m going to need to get creative with what we have. The board meeting is Tuesday so I’d like things to be mostly done by then (we’ll actually decorate the tree later on). Deadline: Tuesday

* Wrap gifts. Deadline: Dec 15

* Do away with Dancing Christmas Elmo singing “Jingle Bell Rock”. Deadline: 5 minutes (sorry Hubster’s mom)

* Cleaning and room set up for folks coming to visit. Deadline: Dec 20

* Lose 5 lbs. I’ve gained back some, ok, all of the weight I lost earlier this year (that’s a whole ‘nother post) and I’m GOING to get back into the groove of watching my portions and I’m going to exercise 5 mornings a week, do Pilates 3 days a week and add an extra 15 minute “jog dvd” 3 days a week as well. My hard time is about 3 pm when I want to eat everything I lay my hands on. I’m fine with meals, but am going to PLAN snacks. Obvious deadline: Dec 25

* Figure out the best time to write blog entries. Deadline: Fri

* Take Mouse to see Santa. She wrote her own list this year (with spelling help from me) and requested to go and see Santa at the mall. We don’t push the whole Santa thing and while we’ve gone to “look” at Santa from a distance in the past, she’s always said she didn’t want to go and see him. I don’t blame her because Santa (and clowns) kind of freak me out. Deadline: Next week

* Baking. I need to figure out WHAT I’m going to bake this year and have a plan to deal with it. If I just bake and keep it around, well, that whole 5 lbs thing is out the window. I do plan on making some as gifts so I need to get my giftees organized and go from there. Deadline for planning and baking: Dec 15.

That’s all I can think of now, but I have the feeling I’m forgetting something! I’ll edit as required.

add: I wrote this yesterday (Sunday), but didn't post as I wasn't feeling so well. Sorry if it seems out of sync.

Snapshots of Thanksgiving

After being told that she was too young to watch the Kungfu Panda movie, Mouse decided to throw a bit of a tantrum (further evidence that she’s too young) yelling “I WANNA WATCH HORSE SHOE PANDA”.

I was feeling a bit under the weather today and so I went to lie down for a while. The Hubster decided to take the girls outside as it was sunny and lovely out and they were bursting with little girl energy. From my cozy cocoon in my recently redecorated bedroom, the warm sun shining through the blind (and my back being nicely toasted by my heating pad) I hear the girls delighted giggles and shrieks as Daddy chases them around the yard.

We generally have a quiet Thanksgiving with just us 4 and this year was no different. After I got up from a rest to check on the turkey, my Dad (from Canada) called to wish us Happy Thanksgiving and just talking to him for a few minutes made me feel so thankful that he’s my Dad.

Yesterday, Mouse and I made pumpkin pie. Into a bowl, we carefully plopped canned pumpkin and smashed eggs (then picked out shells), poured evaporated milk and measured spices (sort of) and sloshed it all over the counter before pouring it into a premade pie shell. Yesterdays’ messy memories became today’s delicious pie. I love me some pumpkin pie. The girls however, would have none of the pie and ate 4 bowls of whipped cream each.

Dinner’s on the table, Mouse helped me “make the table nice” with a table cloth and napkins and my grandmother’s silver. Baboo is in her seat and saying loudly “I WAIT” because she knows to wait for all of us to sit down. We’re gathered around and Mouse, unprompted, says “I think we should say thank you to Mommy for this yummy dinner” and I gratefully receive the thanks and respond almost tearily by saying “I’m so glad to have you to cook for”. Hubster says “I’m thankful we’re all here and are family” and Baboo lifts up her little glass of sparkling berry juice and yells “CHEERS”. We clink glasses several times and start to dig into our thanksgiving feast then comes the “Where’s the ketchup?” question. Oy.

The food was delicious, and I’m grateful to have been feeling better to enjoy it. The kids barely ate anything, but well, that’s all par for the course these days.

I harken back to last year’s Thanksgiving that involved a rushed dinner, 2 screaming kids and 2 frazzled parents followed by 3 days of 4 people puking. I’m grateful we’re not having that kind of Thanksgiving today.

The turkey is carved and put away. The potatoes, veggies and stuffing are tucked into their little plastic containers and the pie and leftover whipped cream are carefully covered all for tomorrows yummy leftover creations. The carcass is in the stock pot simmering away for soup and I’m at the point where I’m beyond smelling turkey. My house positively reeks of Thanksgiving.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.