Days 15-23: Catching Up

Oh, we've been busy! But I haven't even taken the camera out of it's bag, to be honest. I may have to add a photo or two to this post later. When I find where I stashed my camera with all the holiday tidying going on around here...

On the 15th, Sarah and I kicked off the holiday season by going to see Christmas On the Air at a tiny local theatre. Then I worked late into the night on stuff for the next day's bake sale.

On the 16th, we had our busiest day of the school year. It is always exhausting, but also rewarding. In the morning, parents and kids packed 125 bags for less fortunate people in the school neighbourhood, filled with practical items and homemade shortbread. The kids make each one a card and we parents love to read what they've written each year as we are getting everything organized. In the afternoon, I helped to organize the Bake Sale set-up, then home for an hour before I was back to help run the Bake Sale. Whew! The school has the annual sale along with it's Christmas Sing-Along. There are many musicians at the school so they make up a makeshift band and play along while the kids and their families belt out holiday tunes. I must admit, I was glad to be in the quiet cafeteria, cleaning up after the Bake Sale! It is so hot in that crowded gym!

On the 17th, we were all extremely glad to say good-bye to school for the holidays. Two weeks of sleeping in and wearing pjs as long as we want! We drove around looking at Christmas lights and walked a few blocks of Trinity Street. We still need to return and do the whole things when we are dressed warmer.

On the 18th, Jay and I went to the annual holiday potluck at David and Susan's, sans children. Lots of yummy food and hilarious conversation, which seemed to hover around the topic of vasectomies an awful lot!

On the 19th, we had an annual gathering of friends at K and A's house, complete with kids. Alot of homemade Irish Cream was consumed, and big excitement was in the air with Chris and Diana so close to their due date with their first babe.

On the 20th, my sister came over with Maya and Brynn and we did something in the kitchen. I don't think I can call it baking. Colleen was making up rap songs about Christmas fudge, which nearly had me peeing my pants. Oh, remember the fudge fiasco of last year? It was repeated. Yes, we managed to completely screw up the fudge again this year. I think I have to wait a while before attempting it again. If at all. But our Grandma is gone, and we feel like it still needs to be made, so tackle it we will! I did have success the second time last year...

On the 21st, we celebrated the Winter Solstice with friends. Sarah and Vicki and their families came over for a lovely, relaxing evening. The food was easy (meat and vegan shepherd's pies, mac and cheese, red lentil soup and a yummy salad) and we had a lot of conversation, despite 9 kids running all around us! I'm thinking potluck casserole-type dishes is the the way to entertain withour stress. Hopefully I will remember this at other times of the year! (and next Christmas...)

On the 22nd, it was PopPop's birthday, so we gathered with friends and family for our annual celebration. Usually we host it here, but this year we went to my in-laws. I must say it was a lot more relaxing for us this way, even though we like to do it! Jay and I came home last night feeling ill, we were sooooo FULL! After the kids went to bed, we slumped onto the couch and couldn't move for the next hour or two. Well, except for my hands, which were working the knitting needles. I only have one gift left, which will easily be finished today. I purposely cut down the amount of knit gifts this year, and then took my time with them. I knew I could have sat for two days earlier in the month and knocked them all off, but then I know I would have found a new list of stuff to knit with the time left, so I spread it out and kept it stress-free. I hope I also remember this next year. See the point of blogging? To remind yourself of what you discovered the year before so you don't repeat mistakes!

Today I plan to hit the Drive with Jay to complete our Christmas shopping and gather the remaining food items needed for the Big Day of eating! I've got local, pastured turkey (20 lbs) and ham (10 lbs) plus an enormous bag of Brussel's sprouts, so I'm good to go! I'd better start making my list!

Shea Is Seven

What better way to celebrate our little Sith Lord than with a Star Wars Party?

a Death Star pinata,

Costumes (we had a Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and R2-D2)

and a "Flames of Mustafar" cake.

I'm quite proud of my ability to make a simple chocolate-zucchini bundt cake look cool in the eyes of seven year old boys. (Also funny because the Mustafar scenes of Episode 3 are the ones Shea seems most obsessed with in the Star Wars saga, and it is the only Episode we haven't let him watch any of!)

Happy Birthday Dear Friend!

This is Sarah and I back in 1997. We lived on Trout Lake then, in a funky little house that is no longer there. We met in college but it was in this house that our friendship and sisterhood truly began. Oh, we had some damn good times in that house! And in the one that followed, but this little spot on the Lake holds a special place in my heart.

We navigated young adulthood together, and although our lifestyles were different, our hearts were the same. When my daughter was just about a year old, we both found ourselves pregnant (together!) and gave birth five days apart to boys. We began navigating motherhood together, and, really, we are still navigating, because Mamahood is never quite a smooth sail. But she is my lighthouse, and I am hers, and often we don't need advice from each other, but simply a confirmation of what our instincts told us anyway. We think a lot alike.

She is now a Mama of three, like I am, and we are thrilled to share girl clothes (finally!) and share chaotic but wonderful afternoons or evenings together with our 6-pack of kids. Sometimes we even get time alone (or nearly alone, but Juma is so easy-going she hardly counts!), like last weekend when we hit a craft fair and then had a leisurely lunch afterwards. Bliss! And even after all those hours together, I still wanted to call her about an hour after I got home to continue talking. Her husband will sometimes say "Didn't you just spend the afternoon together???" because he can't imagine what more we'd need to talk about.

What does my husband say?? "She's pretty much a better husband to you than I am".

You know, he may be right.

Happy Birthday Girl! I love you dearly!

35

I turned 35 on Friday. We celebrated with a themed costume party - Superheroes and Supervillains. I was Poison Ivy. There I am in all my long-red-haired glory. Funny, my ass was practically hanging out of the back of my super-short dress, but when you've had hair as short as mine for as long as I have, everybody just noticed the wig and ignored the ass! Or perhaps they were too busy noticing Roxy's Catwoman cleavage - woohoo, baby!

Here are some costumes:

The Green Lantern and Captain America


Captain America and Poison Ivy Number Two (I'm Number One of course!)

Princess Leia and A Stormtrooper

Catwoman and me!

Follow on to the next post for more photos!

More Superheroes and Supervillains

Mr. and Mrs. Clark Kent

Batwoman, Ho Ho Ho, and Wonder Woman!

My crazy family as Running Man, The Zit Zapper, Johnny Flame, Super(wo)man, Green Lantern and Poison Ivy!

Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel...with Baby Marvel

Johnny Flame and Super(wo)man!

Captain and Mrs. Canuck!

Happy Birthday Faire!

Seven Things About Faire:

1. She is an amazing Big Sister. Seriously. She helps me more than anyone else in the family, and she is rarely asked to. She just busies herself taking care of her baby sister like she is her own. What a Mama she will be one day.

2. She is a wonderful artist. There are works of art all over this house. Anyone have any ideas how we contain it all? I'm all ears!

3. She loves tradition. Baking "mama's bread", bringing us breakfast on Santa Lucia day, advent calendars...these are the things I also love and want to nuture in her.

4. She is a good friend. She has made lovely friends at school, and gets along so well with them. No mean-spirited talk. I hope that never comes...

5. She likes to take photos. She's pretty good too! We have some framed in our kitchen.

6. She likes to bake and knit. A future Domestic Goddess? In this house, you just wouldn't fit in if you didn't love hanging out with the butter and sugar in the kitchen. She makes great Mama's Bread (a Swedish cardamom bread). And she's been knitting a scarf for herself (or maybe just a neckwarmer - she can't decide)

7. She is a sensitive thinker. She hates to hear anything sad. In fact, as she was helping to make cookies for part of the Out Of The Cold project this past December, she was in tears thinking about those less fortunate who have no homes to go to, or families to spend Christmas with. It broke my heart. And after learning a little about African-American history (after questioning why "Obama was such a big deal") she was in total shock at the concept of slavery. And racism. Her most favourite relative, her cousin Maya, is half Jamaican. The thought of Maya or anyone else not being respected (or worse) because of the colour of their skin just seemed so "stupid" to her (and she was worried because she wanted to say it was stupid but knew that saying things were stupid was not nice. What a girl.)

Happy Happy Birthday to You, Seven Year Old! We hope you get what you wished for (we certainly did when we got you!)

xoxoxoxo

Mama and the crazy bunch