Christmas Through Photos

Started by making cards and pictures for family members.


Then Rob took the kids to Loblaws to make a gingerbread house - an annual tradition.


Put up the tree together. It was a lot of fun. The kids went over each and every ornament, reminiscing about Christmas' past before it went on the tree. Listening to some old fashioned holiday music and drinking egg nog, it felt like a moment taken right out of a Jimmy Stewart movie. A lovely day!


Did some baking...started with the fudge and chocolate peanut butter confetti...yummm!





Went bowling with a few other homeschool families.





Made ornaments at a Ceramics Studio.


Had the in-laws over for a big turkey dinner.


Went to a homeschool Christmas piano recital with our closest hs friends. Alex played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.


Izzy and her buddy E goofing off a bit at the recital.


Took Aunt Kelly out to pick up a new car. Pretty Mini.


Picked Izzy up a new bed at Ikea. We are coming closer to fulfilling our destiny by furnishing the entire house by Ikea. We'll need a plaque by the front door soon. This home and all its furnishings brought to you by...


First night in her big girl bed.


A Christmas Eve tradition. We head out that morning to Rob's company kids party, have lunch at East Side Maris, grab an early afternoon train and come home to a nice surprise. One of Santa's elves delivers an early present, a new pair of pyjamas, an ornament for each child to put on the tree and a new game.


This year they scored with 2 sets of pyjamas and The Amazing Animal Trivia Game. Santa must have sensed the need for pjs that fit. Later that night, before bed, we leave Santa his cookies (one from each child) and some water. We also sprinkle some special sparkly oats outside for the reindeer.








Christmas morning was a happy one. There was Lego, a Leapster, some Strawberry Shortcake toys and a whack of stuff for the Wii. We ate homemade Belgian waffles with whip cream and strawberries for breakfast. A lovely red wine broth fondue for supper.

Boxing Day was another treat. Aunt Kelly stayed with the kids while we had a night out. There was dinner at a restaurant and a movie. Avitar. I was a little disappointed in the movie but, then, it really isn't my kind of movie anyway. We booked a suite with a Whirlpool tub and had a whole night to ourselves. It was a glorious treat for me after running around and working so hard over Christmas.

Unfortunately (and fortunately) my phone died while we were out. Just a week ago, the man at the Corporate Plan Telus office remarked that he was surprised to see my LG Chocolate phone still working after nearly 3 years. If he had actually touched it I would have sworn he broke it for me, lol. Since we got rid of our land line last year it was imperative that I got a replacement right away.

So...
I finally got to pick up **my baby** :-)

I have wanted one of these from the day Steve Jobs showed it to the world. I love, love, love my iPhone. Rob and I each grabbed one and let me say, we are addicted to them. I even have to fight them away from the kids. I now can't even fathom how I survived without one before now, lol!





We took a short road trip to see my brother and the kids. More presents. More great food.

It was a good Christmas.

Now I am off to ready the family for a New Year's party with the neighbours. I hope everyone out there had a lovely holiday too. Happy New Year to you all!!!

Blabbering On

I was thinking over my last post and how it was too hard to articulate what is going on in my head sometimes. I think it boils down to mother-daughter relationships and how strange and awesome it is to see how my role with Izzy evolves.

I didn't have a good relationship with my mother. Lets just say that there were many generations of females on that side of the family who just plain sucked at being mothers, sisters, daughters...

When I found out I was expecting a girl the second time around it kind of threw me for a loop. The first few years of her life are pretty typical of life with a young child. Nothing particularly noteworthy. Now she has blossomed into a little girl and looks to me as her model of what a woman is. Yikes.

So there are times when she mimics me or when she looks up to me when I am surprised and wonder a little what to do next. We are very, very close and I love that. It is a new world for me. I pined for a good mother-daughter relationship. Coveted those that belongs to my friends. It is amazing, surprising and weird to be part of one now. It makes me just want to stick her in a bubble and keep life as perfect as I can for her.

So yesterday, when we were at the hospital and I let my mind wander into the far off future I think I was a little shocked to think I could be a big part of it. To think she may want or need me around! There is a ton of history I just don't post about but it obviously clouds my thoughts. There are so many of us without mothers - either lost through death or by being emotionally and mentally incapable of parenting.

Gah...I am getting all emotional now. You know, I never think twice about how much I love and adore my son. Stupid childhood baggage! I wonder if I will ever stop being surprised at how good I have it now?

I was told more than a few times when I was pregnant that a girl was a good thing. That I was meant to have her in my life. That I needed her in my life. True, true, true! I have never been so happy that we accidentally got pregnant after deciding to have an only child.

Girls V. Boys?

Printing, writing, colouring? Are these all things where girls are just naturally more proficient? Izzy will, through her own initiative, sit down and compose something for someone. Alex has to be bribed, cajoled or threatened into it. Already Izzy's penmanship surpasses Alex's but what is more amazing to me is the way she strives to learn new things. She is pretty good at capital letters but still writes lower case so she will be better at that.

We haven't done much in the way of school work lately. I feel bad, I think, because I don't feel that bad. Go figure. Actually, that isn't totally true. We have lapsed with the oral reading but mommy had the cold from hell and still feels congested so reading to the kids was tantamount to torture. Thankfully Alex is such a good reader but even he has been spending more time on the Wii than in front of a good book.

Not that much will change in the next few weeks. Life is busy and we are having too much fun to slow down and do math right now. That is what the terrible dead of winter is for. Getting stuck in the house and catching up on...everything.

When One Day Stands Out from all the Rest

Yesterday was one of those days.

The house is clean and that has a calming effect on all of us. I tend to be cluttered and my house reflects that. So when I woke up, I could do pretty much anything I wanted without having to tidy first. We decided that after some piano and math, we would turn on the Christmas music, decorate the tree, start the baking and break in the new Wii Fit Plus disc.

I felt like I was in some sappy holiday movie. Izzy was so happy and helpful that I wondered more than a few times that day if she had been switched by aliens. We took our time with the tree, going over each and every ornament. We have amassed quite a collection. Each year Santa brings them a new one that reflects a little about who they were that year. They remember some of the ornaments and anticipate seeing them again and placing them on the tree. Alex is hysterical. Sometimes it is like he walked out of a Dicken's novel, saying things like, "I am delighted to help you mommy..." and "...these cookies and eggnog are scrumptious!"

It was beautiful. We were just missing Rob, only not really as he doesn't appreciate this sappy Christmas feeling like the rest of us. The tree twinkled all day long and we sang old fashion Christmas songs. I made the fudge and some cookies. We reminisced about holidays past and then made tacos for supper. That was the only glitch in the day. The kids felt tacos were not really Christmas'y or festive. Well, everything can't be perfect.

Sometimes I am a cool mom!

This is the fort I made for Alex's room. I think it lasted 4 days or so. We taped and tucked...added Christmas lights...it was awesome! It took up most of the bedroom and the kids got hours and hours of play-time out of it.

Alex slept inside each night it was up. Izzy tried to the first night but, as usual, the kids are a nightmare when they try to sleep together and had to be separated.

Alex asked if I had forts like this when I was a kid. I explained that my mother would not have let me use the clean sheets. He then replied, "Isn't it awesome being a grown-up. Now you can use all the sheets you want and nobody cares!"

They were sad to see it come down but I told them we'd rebuild some time after Christmas, when we need a little pick-me-up.

Well, that was fun...

Christmas lights up - check.

First holiday family meal over - check.

First of many Santa presents purchased, delivered and opened - check.


Rob had Remembrance Day off. He actually took the whole day off. It was beautiful outside so he put up the Christmas lights after getting a promise not to put them on until after his birthday.

Then we had the big November family gathering. It is Rob's late mother's brothers and sisters and their offspring, grand-offspring. A number too large to be accommodated in any one house so we rent a hall pretty much in the middle of no-where and one family (mine this year) handles the turkey while everyone else contributes the rest. We live the farthest away so it becomes an entire weekend-long event.

So, yesterday morning at 8am I dragged my poor, sick, sister-in-law out the door for a long drive to the location. We got the 31lb beast in the oven and killed an entire day gabbing, eating, playing Uno and Bananagrams (my new favourite game) and getting the hall ready. By late afternoon most of the family was there. Lots of good food was eaten. Santa came and the kids got their first presents of the holiday season. There was a 4 hour drive home with an over-tired and very cranky 4 year old.

It was a lot of work and I was just plain exhausted today. We stayed inside, dressed in grubby, comfy clothes, while we snuggled on the couch watching movies. These traditional gatherings can sometimes be a bit of a pain but the kids have a blast. I didn't have a lot of traditions as a kid and it is nice to see things like this that the kids can rely on.

Turkey Day 2009

We had a lovely visit at aunt Kelly's again! Complete with our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin farm. This year was a short visit. We froze our butts off and got away as quickly as we could after finding 2 lovely specimens and taking the obligatory pics.

Life

We still have separation anxiety fall-out from the whole school experiment. Izzy doesn't want me out of her sight. Actually, Izzy doesn't want me out of touching range. The latest is refusal to get in the pool for swim class. The same swim class and instructor she had gone to each week over the summer. {{{sigh}}} I am trying to be patient. Really.

On the other hand, Izzy is a very enthusiastic home-schooler. She just goes on and on about how happy she is or what she wants to learn next. It is heavenly.

This week has been a quieter week for us. No house guests and I got sick at the end of the week so we've been just relaxing at home. Alone. It's great. At first the kids were bickering like crazy but we sat down together and had a few talks about what were my expectations for behaviour. We talked about how we need to try harder to get along. While we will disagree, get annoyed or have just plain bad days we need to curb the ongoing attitude that has been happening between the kids. They have spent a lot more time this summer spending time apart from each other playing with separate groups of friends but with everyone busy and back to school the kids are thrown back together as playmates.

They decided that they were lucky to have each other to play with and that they could grow up to be friends like daddy and Aunt Kelly. We talked about what kind of house we wanted to live in and readdressed rules that we could all agree on. I explained that if everyone was unhappy we had the choice of kids to school, mom to work and we'll hang together in the evenings and weekends. I think that got their attention. They love the way our family works as it is and couldn't imagine it being any other way.

I can honestly say this past week has been one of the best ones in a long while. Everyone is getting along. There is less bickering, whining and yelling. I don't know how long it will last but we'll keep trying to push for a respectful family that communicates openly with one another.

10 Years Ago, Today...

...Rob and I got married. How a decade passed so quickly is beyond me! We met in University, his first year and my last, in a Japanese language class we both picked up on a lark. We became fast friends. When I moved away the following year we lost touch for a few months. When we reconnected we skipped dating and went straight to engagement -the wedding following a mere 7 months later, shocking all our friends and family who thought we were both still single. We just knew it would all work out.

We have since had 2 children, lost parents, moved more than a few times, bought a house and a car, got jobs, lost jobs, advanced in our chosen fields (okay, I got to stay home with the kids which I had always wanted to do), coped with mental illness, and a whole lot more. There have been ups and downs but we have always remained best friends. We created very high standards in what we expected out of our relationship and easily met them all.

I don't know how or why I got so lucky.

I am very thankful.

Happy Anniversary to husband Rob. May we spend the next 10 (hopefully less eventful) years exactly the same way, with lots of love and even more laughs!

Fathers and sons

We had a good thing happen this week, which, sadly came out of a very negative incident. It involved issues that can be very difficult for parents to handle. Normally, just due to logistics (I am home all the time, Rob isn't) I handle many of the big talks. We are a very open family and I hope that the kids feel comfortable coming to us. This talk was a little different and I wasn't making much headway with Alex.

Then daddy came home from work. I talked to Rob privately and asked him to have a man-to-man chat with Alex. He did...and all I can say was wow! They talked and Alex was open and receptive. A new bond was forged. Rob and Alex tend to butt heads frequently over Alex's (mistaken) perception that I am President and Daddy is just my VP. It isn't really surprising as I am with him all the time and he sees me making many of the family decisions.

This pleases me to no end. As the kids get older I try harder to get out of the way of their relationship with their dad. It isn't always easy for Rob or the kids. When you spend so much time together there is an ease between each person. Sometimes Rob feels like the outsider and he can't fall back on all the "tricks" I use. This was nice. I love watching the kids develop a stronger relationship with their dad, outside of the one with me.