Merry Christmas

Santa has come, ate the cookies, drank the milk, and filled the stockings.
I hope your Christmas was filled with sad little gingerbred men desperately trying to hold up their equally sad little house,

uncooperative children,

perfect moments,

too much food,

but most of all, I hope it was filled with love and family.

(yes, this is the picture in the christmas card , that are still sitting on my desk. You won’t get it by Christmas…).

Well, the weather outside is frightful…

I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but it’s snowing on the island. A lot. Oodles. Copious. Piles.
It is very pretty and picturesque.

It’s also getting a little old. We get it, it’s pretty, it’s Christmassy. Now stop snowing so I can drive my own damn car and not be ferried around like a little girl by my Mommy.

Not that I mind being driven around like a princess, and my Mommy has been very accomodating (although, make no mistake, it’s the rottens that motivates her to drive the 13 kms on our backroads and not me, but I will use them to my advantage as I see fit. It’s my right as a mother).
We haven’t really been out playing in the snow all that much, to be honest, but we did drag the wee ones out this afternoon and forced them to play with us.

Claire was a good sport about the snow, although that isn’t apparent from this picture. She made her own snow angel!

Callum was a lot less enthused at first, likely because Auntie Fear tossed him into the snow and snow went up his back. You’d think the fun of the toss would have out-weighed the cold-factor, but you’d think wrong. He did enjoy watching the birdies.

Love the hat, people, because the very next knit project I do will be a hat for me and it will never again be seen (although it isn’t even mine but honestly. It’s horrific!).

Scaling Back Christmas

The news would have you believe that everyone is scaling back this Christmas because of the “economic crisis”. Whatever. We are doing Christmas like we always do Christmas, without giving a second thought to stock markets and global economies. How about you? Have you scaled back the celebrations because of the news?
Not that we do Christmas totally crazy, some of the folks that are being interviewed admitted to Christmas costing $6000. SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS?! Whoa. You can take your entire family on a pretty nice vacation for six thousand dollars, people.
This weekend was the perfect start to my Christmas season. The snow put us in the festive mood, so we went out and got our Christmas tree and set it up with the kidlets. This year we decided to get a live tree, still in the pot, and if we don’t kill it, plant it in the spring in the front yard. How sweet is that?!
If we do kill it, it will be the most expensive Christmas tree I’ve ever had.
So, the tree is up, cookies have been baked, Christmas card pictures taken, and almost all my shopping is done. I realized that I have no stocking stuffers for Claire but what do you stuff in an 8 month old’s stocking? Actually, we still have to buy Claire a present but we know what we’re getting her so I’m calling it done. Santa, on the other hand, has some thinking to do when it comes to Claire. Maybe Santa needs some suggestions… (seriously, any suggestions?)
Not that Claire is going to care much if Santa comes-a-calling because she kinda hates Santa.

Weekend of Decadence!

Steve and I had the very enjoyable opportunity to spend two nights in Courtenay for his Christmas party without children. We debated staying home… oh, who the hell am I kidding, we didn’t even blink before we jumped in the car and left them behind.
It was bliss.
I can sum it up for you quickly: we had many drinks, we danced, we frolicked. The end. Well, the end was actually being insanely tired and hung-over and a very vivid reminder of why I don’t drink. I mean, I knew why, but it was a head-splitting reminder and I’m good for a year (or, well, maybe til February, because in February? I TURN 35!). Completely unnecessary information here, but my boobs were amazing. Two days of no breastfeeding makes for some fabulous looking boobs that look, well, fabulous, in a nice dress.
Speaking of Claire, I am starting to formulate a plan to get her on a sleep schedule. I feel like I was slapped in the face this week and realized that she is EIGHT MONTHS OLD, and not sleeping well or predictably and that is not fair to her, and a huge pain-in-the-ass for me. And no, I have no idea why I insist on capitalizing our ages.
When I say “formulate a plan” what I’m really saying is bring in a solid pre-sleep routine and then cry-it-out. Yes, I am an evil, evil bitch of a mother but there is one thing I know about Steve and I, and it’s that we’re not capable of sleep training. Besides, this worked like a charm with Callum and you know what? He’s still alive and a fantastic sleeper so phfffft. I am toying with the idea of staying in the room while she screams as per Laura’s approach (and when I say we’ll be staying in the room, I totally mean Steve because damn, that would be excrutiating).
Even though I just laid out that plan, I may entertain other suggestions, so go ahead and suggest something. I should also say that we do have a pretty solid pre-sleep routine, but she is still being “put” to sleep either via nursing or Steve’s very patient boucing and walking. Yes, that is completely insane, I know.
Other than that, the only other tidbit to report is that my kids have been sick, pretty much solid, since September. They’ve had runny noses, eye infections, ear aches, and coughs. Is there anything left?!

One day it’ll be a hand-made Christmas…

I really thought that I’d try to have a hand-made Christmas this year.
yeah, that idea totally fizzled.
This working? Hard. I feel very blessed that I don’t have to work at a job that demands I am at the office all day, everyday, because doing it three days a week (in the afternoons!) is hard. At the end of your day you’re spending time with your kids at the worse part of their day. They’re tired and hungry and suddenly realized “Hey! Where have you been all day?!”. Especially considering the end of the day is spent making dinner, doing dishes, tidying up and getting the kids to bed.
But beyond the little rottens, it also means that those brief moments in the day when I used to “make stuff’ are gone. I think this Christmas is the first Christmas in a long time where I’ve made hardly anything at all, and I don’t think I’ve made a single gift. It feels …weird.
I’m hoping that things slow down the next couple of weeks and I’ll have a chance to make a few simple things, little ideas that are running around in my head, and hopefully will be able to come back here and share them with you.
If not, I’ll come back here and just bitch at you. heh.