holiday recap... a la "Night before Christmas"

'twas the night before Christmas...

and all through the house... the kids were excited, as were I & my spouse.

Christmas jammies were donned & stories were read... the kids wrote their letters & got cozy in bed.  Then I went right to work on my job as St. Nick... I wrapped all the presents & stuffed stockings quick. I was tired & anxious to get me some rest.. cuz Sofie no doubt would soon want her some breast. And then Sam would be up too excited to sleep... and Sofie, again, she would open her peep. And of course at 5:30 Sam was ready to rock... to get everyone up so we could all "share our socks". By around 6 o'clock I could no longer delay, a boy's sheer excitement to get up Christmas day. And then soon thereafter my bed overrun... with children & "sockings", with toys & with fun.

Santa left them a letter which was really quite neat, to say thanks for the milk & the broccoli & treats. But they were way too excited and just wanted to see.. the presents that Santa left under the tree. Fun toys for Sofie to help her explore... Juliet, of course, got babies galore. A DS for Sam who was excited because, he'd been waiting 3 years to get that from the Claus. Presents were opened and messes were made and then we had breakfast with my husband's friend Quade. And then off to work went Christian to get pay to cover the costs of the presents that day. Juliet played with her babies and the DS for Sam, then we packed up the car for a visit with Gram!

Finally at Grama's after a drive that's quite far, and the kids got spoiled rotten, Sam got a guitar! Juliet loves to sing so a micro for her, there will never be peace in my house that's for sure!

Lots of mimosas & lots of red wine, lost of good food & great family time. Lots of good friends & tons of fresh snow... and today's a new year so we're ready to go!!

HappY New Year!!

Tinsel

So I think the last time I wrote Tinsel was trying to go out the front door in an RV. Well because she couldn't take a trip outside of the house she decided to take a fishing trip INSIDE the house...

Joyeux Noel!

'twas the week before Christmas

What a CRAZY week it's been. Last Friday night was my staff Christmas party and believe it or not, I was home pretty early. I was in bed by 10 and sometime overnight got hit REALLY hard with the flu. I slept for 34 hours straight. Didn't even see the kids until Sunday morning when I was forced to parent because Sam had a hockey tournament. It was awful. Clinging on to life I did my very best to mother the girls while Sam & his hockey team cleaned up that tourney & took home the gold! Way to go Novice C1. Sam even got MVP for one of the games....

deck the halls

In comes the holiday season out pour the crafts & festivities. Well, sort of.

In the past I've been known to go a little cookie crazy...

It's like a crazy 5-day extravaganza. You can see more about it here. Unfortunately last year I forwent the cookie baking process because A.) I was pregnant and who wants to do anything when they're pregnant and B.) We were in the midst of kitchen renos. This year I have no excuse. Ok let's go with lack of time and laziness. But come to think of it... I should really bake this weekend.

Herself the Elf...

Got some more photos to share of Tinsel. So on day 3 she decided to have a party on the kitchen counter and got together with Ariel for some cake & sprinkles... a little too much of the latter.

Juliet was a bit freaked out to have her just sitting on the counter. "Mommy if I just reach out my arm I could touch her." Well don't reach out your arm then.

Elf on the Shelf

I just wanted to keep you up to date with the goings-on of our elf, Tinsel. I think she is going to be a trouble maker... talk about setting an example! Yesterday the kids found her swinging in the chandelier! Worse still... this morning she was hiding in the milk jug and had dyed the milk green! Sam was not interested in drinking the milk but once we showed him it was okay he had honey nut cheerios & green milk. I wonder what she'll be up to next....

Happy December

Last year I talked about the little family traditions we've started... the Prescott Parade, the Nutcracker (which is this Friday night!!). Well, I'm happy to say I've got a couple more up my sleeve.

While browsing the web for craft ideas I came across some really cool ideas for advent calendars. Forget cheap chocolate hiding behind doors... this year, and every year thereafter, we're counting down the days to Santa's arrival with books! The idea was to get 24 Christmas themed books and wrap them up. I've numbered each one and every night beginning today the kids will find the number for the day & unwrap the book. That way every night they will get a Christmas story before bed! Once Christmas arrives the books will go away until next year when I will wrap them again in random order. The initial investment has been a little pricy because I've had to buy most of the 24 books, but then they'll just get re-used year after year. The kids will be so excited every December to get to read all their Christmas books again, all the while counting down the days until Christmas!

Unfortunately my book shopping backfired and I haven't received all 24 of my books. I really wanted to have ALL 24 books wrapped by today but I had to order quite a few of my books online. So I'll wrap them as they arrive & add them to the box.

Then I used a little heart-shaped punch & sticker paper to create tiny little hearts to hide the numbers on...

So today the kids opened # 1. Enter new tradition number 2...

Oh yes. I'm sure you've all seen it before by now. And I caved. I pretended that I just bought a book about this elf but that Santa must have come last night and somehow brought it to life. Oh that sneaky Santa... never ceases to amaze! So we sat on the couch and read the book. The kids were in awe. They hung on every word and by the end were fully engulfed in the story of our elf on the shelf. They just couldn't believe it! She comes to life every night and visits the north pole to report to Santa on their behaviour (good & bad)! First they needed to give her a name so the magic would work, but they can't ever touch her or her magic will vanish. Sam freaked out when Juliet "pretended" to try and touch her. Lol. Sam immediately wanted to call her Dairy Queen. Really? I don't know where he gets his ideas, but Juliet didn't like that. We couldn't even sell her on DQ. Then I suggested a name and both kids thought it was great.

So her name was chosen and then we decided on a place for her to sit & watch us for the rest of the afternoon. Sam panicked.... I told him it was okay for adults to touch her. "How do you know?" he asked. "I looked it up online." I said. "Oh. Ok." Phew...

So... here she is perched on the TV where she spent the day observing.

They are SOOOOOOO excited to wake up tomorrow and find her hiding in the house somewhere, and equally excited to open book #2.

TRICK or TREAT!

We had another amazing Halloween in the country all thanks to the Purvis family and their wonderful hayride. It was even better this year because A) Sam & J knew more kids on the wagon this year as Sam plays hockey with a few of them, and B) I was not pregnant. That's always a bonus.

THIS is HALLOWEEN.. this IS halloween.. halloween HALLOWEEN hallowEEN HALLOWEEN

I LOOOOOOOOOVE Halloween. It's fun, it's exciting, it's creepy, it's scary, it's full of CANDY!! It's a chance to go out on a school night! My kids love it too. They are soooooo excited to wake up tomorrow.

I like to think that I put a lot of effort into Halloween. I really hate the way it's become so 'commercial' with blow up everythings and aisles and aisles of costumes in every store. When I was a kid people were creative with their decorating and there were TONS of haunted houses. Decorations were creepy. My mom made our costumes and I try my very very best to make our costumes too.

Here's what I came up with this year.

Drummond's Haunted Hay Ride (of Terror)

Let me start this post by saying that if you'd like a shot at getting your name on the list of nominations for 'parent of the year' I would strongly suggest that you pile your young children in the car and take them to Drummond's Haunted Hay Ride in Spencerville. There's nothing that screams parent of the year more than subjecting your kids to a forest full of psychos, evil and death, leaving them breathless, shaking & scarred for life. Take it from me, because I did just that this past Saturday night.

CANADA Day.

Yes I know... I'm a little late with this post. But believe it or not, there are other things I need to do in my down time (ie: when Sofie sleeps/rests her eyes)... like clean, sleep, shower. So my posting suffers. But better late than never eh!

Mother's Day

I keep trying to find a reason for why Sofie screams so much. Keep looking for answers. I don't want to believe that this is just her personality. It can't be. Who wants to be THAT miserable, all the time? Who NEVER wants to sleep? Wakes up every TWO HOURS!!? Today she had an absolute meltdown in the car. You would think she'd been left somewhere to suffer & die. I find myself wondering if it has anything to do with the trauma of her birth. Does she get overwhelming feelings of abandonment when she can't see me because they took her away from me so fast & for so long? My mother saw an osteopath who said that when our bodies experience a trauma they have to "finish" that experience... and that perhaps Sofie is still suffering. I'd been thinking of taking her to see an osteo so I brought her to her first appointment last week and we're going again this week. She definitely has tension in her stomach & intestines. Geez the sounds her stomach makes & air that comes out her behind is sign enough of that. I hope it helps. I'm so tired of the crying. It's so draining. I've also eliminated dairy, soy & wheat from my diet to see if that helps. So far no good. We'll be seeing an allergist too. I'm determined to find a reason.... but doubtful that I will.

So happy mother's day to my mother readers. Hope you all had a wonderful day. Sam bought me a grape tree/vine. He was so excited. I think he just wants to see something grow. A few weeks ago he planted a cantaloup seed in the back yard... watered it a gazillion times & checked it several times a day to see if it was growing. Yesterday it was an apple seed. No such luck. So we'll plant the grape vine & watch it grow. That is if I don't kill it...

Juliet got me giant lavender incense sticks for outside & beautiful flowers...

But the best part....

I was laughing so hard. Best. Card. Ever. Hands down.

The Abominable Easter Bunny

Sam brought this home today. Something about this screams KKK. Am I wrong?? The cross doesn't help the situation. I'm not sure I would like this bunny to deliver chocolate to my kids. It's like the abominable Easter Bunny. With a giant carrot.

Easter

So we made it through another holiday. Geez... It might as well be Christmas around here the way my kids get excited about Easter. They even count down the days. Is the Easter Bunny really that exciting? What could EB possibly leave that's better than what Santa does? The night before we decided to watch "HOP" to be festive and Juliet starts whining... "when will it be night time so it can be Easter tomorrow..." She couldn't even sit through a movie! Of course, Sam made all sorts of plans that involved sneaking down to the living room in the morning to see if EB had come, or rather what he had left behind. Of course... up at 6am he did just that. Then he wakes up Juliet for a full report. I'm surprised he even slept the night. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep the night and it wasn't because I was excited about the Easter Bunny. Miss Sofie was up FOUR times between midnight & 6am.... and Juliet up twice. That means I was up SIX TIMES between midnight & 6am. And at 6am I had to make sure Sam didn't wake Sofie up again with all his running around excited. FAIL. The kids made Easter cards for us at school and while Juliet gave us hers on Thursday Sam insisted on waiting until Easter morning. Apparently at 6am after reporting to Juliet he'd waited long enough. I got my card. Forget that it's Easter... With Sam, it's all about what is important to him when he's making it, so in celebration of his newly acquired roller blades Sam drew us all rollerblading.... very Easter-esque. I was wondering why we all had straight feet with a bunch of circles....

Merry Chaos & A Happy New Groove

The celebrations are over. The house is quiet. The kids have another 6 days of holidays. It's -16. There's a dusting of snow on the ground. Too cold to go for a walk. Not enough snow for tobogganing. No ice for skating. I don't even have a winter coat that does up. My feet are too swollen for my winter boots, not to mention my kids came home from school before the holidays with 1 glove each. Awesome.

The holidays were great. For Christmas I got a cold sore and a broken hot tub. My husband got a gun. Yes... me, the anti-gun, never going to have one in the house wife bought him a gun. A semi-automatic assault rifle. Sounds worse than it is. I was going for the extreme element of surprise and I definitely got it. It was worth it, but perhaps I'm watching too much red neck TV.

We traveled a bit. We ate a lot. We were at Pepère's for Christmas Eve, home for Christmas & off to my aunts for Boxing day. The kids were tired...

The Week in Review

Not only has today been some kind of record breaking blog-a-lot but the week in general has been quite hectic. Well at least for a pregnant lady. Before I get on with it just a quick reminder that Mom, this is the post that you are NOT supposed to look at until AFTER the 26th...

Christmas Concerts

Yesterday was the annual Christmas concert at the kids school. It's always a bit difficult to sit through given that some classes go on and on and on with their acts. There really should be a 2 minute maximum or something. Just sayin'. I brought the video camera because it's always worth a good laugh. This year the laugh's on my husband though. Juliet was up first and I handed off the camera to him so that I wouldn't screw it up....

Awesome. Jackass. And in night vision too.

He was successful in getting Sam's performance, although I did a back-up recording on my phone just in case. Beware the enthusiasm.

Belated Halloween

I only just got my hands on a photo of my husband & I from Halloween. It's such a horrible photo of me that I probably wouldn't normally post it but it's too funny not to post, even 2 days before Christmas. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum. We won best couple costume... no doubt because my husband was impossible to look at without laughing. The real deal was a lot more funny than the photo... but at least you get an idea.

The Nutcracker

In the spirit of Christmas tradition we (the kids & I) attended the Pennsylvania Ballet's performance of George Balanchine's Nutcracker at the NAC yesterday. In the spirit of Christmas tradition 2012 I will be attending the ballet ALONE. Both of my adorable children just couldn't sit still. Forget ants in their pants... they must have had beetles in there. Perhaps it is because I am pregnant and EVERYTHING is less tolerable. Pregnancy, especially at 29-30 weeks, puts a damper on even the most exciting of things.

Sam was jittery even before it started. "I've never seen a Nutcracker show before. I am so excited so that's why I can't sit still". Of course 10 minutes into the show that excitement waned and he was asking about the intermission. And at 15 minutes. And 25. Juliet was equally bouncy and I found that surprising. Last year she sat through the entire performance and barely moved. I guess I was expecting the same this year.

The constant questions are normal. Excessive, but normal. "Do all those kids have moms & dads?" ... "Is that real snow? Is it sparkles?" ... "Will the rats come off the stage?" In between questioning when the "break" was... there was a question for everything.

The ballet itself was AMAZING. I loved it. The Pennsylvania Ballet's art director, set & costume designers were fabulous. The sets & props & costumes were gorgeous and all meshed together effortlessly. The colors were perfect. The Nutckacker himself & the rats were fantastic. Mother Ginger... amazing. And to top it all off a large number of children were cast in the show. It was one of the greatest interpretations of the ballet I've seen. Way more kid friendly then last year's Russian rendition. I've gathered some photos from online as I couldn't take any myself, to show off some of the talent. Most of these photos are credited to Alexander Iziliaev and I found them on the ballet's website.

One thing I love about the Nutcracker is that every ballet company presents it differently. They all have their own artistic take on the Christmas classic. Like I said... last year there was a Russian twist to the entire show, while this year was way more candyland. I can't wait to see it again next year... kids or no kids.