Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

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Yesterday was my last day of work until next Wednesday and I’m so happy to be able to spend the next four days with my family. I’m having a little trouble believing that it’s actually Christmas tomorrow, but here we are on Christmas eve. I still have some wrapping to do and we’ll be cooking the turkey later so that it only needs to be heated tomorrow when we cook up all the sides.

Santa is being monitored closely on the NORAD site, a lovely fire is “burning” on the fireplace station on the tv, and there’s a full carton of egg nog sitting in my fridge. Cookies are ready to put out for Santa, along with some carrots for the reindeer, and the kids were roused early in the hopes that they’ll settle down somewhat easily for sleep tonight.

All that’s left is for me to watch “Elf” and “Christmas Vacation” (the latter being my favourite Christmas movie ever) in a little while, along with getting the kids bathed so they can open up their traditional Christmas eve pajamas.

IMG_7402

They saw Santa yesterday while I was at work; tonight they go to sleep so he can come slip gifts under the tree and stuff the stockings.

I may or may not pop online tomorrow, so in the meantime Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Remembering

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Back in 1989 on this day, Marc Lepine gunned down and killed nine women in what became known as the Polytechnique Massacre in Montreal. He also injured dozens more in the attack before killing himself. His motives were that he was “fighting feminism”; it was an engineering department and it enraged him that women were learning “his” trade and taking jobs.

I was 15 years old at the time and it was the first time that I ever realized that someone might ever hate me just because I’m female. It was a sobering realization and more than just a little scary too. Every year I like to remember the names of those who died for no other reason than they had a uterus.

In memory of Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, may you never be forgotten.

What became the anthem of the Polytechnique Massacre:

Holidays are making me flip upside down

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This weekend one of our Advent activities was to put up the tree. I hate to admit it but nothing ruins my holiday spirit quite like setting up the tree with the lights – even with a pre-lit tree! One section of our tree’s lights ended up being burnt out so George had to buy a small string for me to weave around that one area, and that worked fine.

Tree

Tree

Tree

Luckily then we were able to move on to the part I truly do love which is decorating the tree. We put on some Christmas music on the television, I made myself a cup of Chai tea, and we went at the tree with every ornament, string of beads, and bit of tinsel that we have.

All done

Details

Lit up

In the end it looked great and I was very happy to hang out by the tree for the rest of the evening. We also had a string of lights that wasn’t really going to work in the window so I wrapped it around one of our lamps instead and it makes the living room look so cheerful.

That was yesterday and then today I decided that after almost two years of practicing near-daily yoga, it was time to confront my fear of headstands, well, head-on. I blame Bex who was working on the same thing today.

It worked. I still have to get more comfortable with it and learn to get my legs up higher in a full headstand, but baby steps work for me for now. I did a headstand once (halfway like I did today) back in April of 2010 and then I suddenly became terrified and wasn’t able to bring myself to do it again. Part of my problem was I had needed to hop up and I know you aren’t supposed to hop into a headstand (or any inversion really other than maybe a handstand), and I couldn’t figure out how to just bring my legs up without it.

I’ll keep working on it but for today, well, my clap at the end of the video pretty much says it all.

How was your weekend?

And the countdown starts now!

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I can’t believe it’s already the last day of November. This month blasted by so quickly it’s not even funny. Somehow we’re entering the month of December and it’s going to be full and busy with all the holiday preparations and events.

I’m doing some extra hours at work over the month, plus we’ll be doing our daily advent calendar full of activities, then there’s shopping for presents, decorating the house, seeing Santa Claus, having Christmas celebrations and dinner. Sheesh. It’s a good season and all but it’s also exhausting, even just thinking about it!

I have to figure out what the kids want this year and what we want to surprise them with, plus we need to get gifts for our families back home as well (and get them sent off in time!). I also have to answer the email my sister sent about what we all want for Christmas, which is a pretty good question since I have no idea.

I do have a couple of ideas of fun things to get for the kids from us but alas, I can not mention them here in case Hayley reads this.

What are you getting for gifts this holiday season?

Refining the plans

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If you’ve been reading me for awhile you’ll know that for the past couple of years I’ve hung an advent calendar with homemade envelopes and inside each one is a slip of paper with a fun activity. It helps count down until Christmas and gives the kids something to look forward to each day.

Advent calendar

This year finds me not being home for most of their waking time during the week but I don’t want to give up the advent calendar tradition. I just need to do some refining and pick activities that work either for the mornings before we leave for school (maybe a special breakfast or some kind of holiday-themed story on the couch?) or that George can do with them in the evenings. Then we’ll save the bigger ones for weekends.

I was disappointed at first but this just means I have to get a little bit creative to keep the tradition going. We’ve included things like manicure/pedicure sessions at home, candlelit bubble baths, letters to Santa, and other such fun stuff. Any suggestions of simple and quick ideas for weekdays would be appreciated!

Flip flop

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The weather has been so weird lately. And really, I don’t mean to be your stereotypical Canadian who talks all about the weather, but I can’t help it, it’s just what I do. I talk to everyone about the weather – family, friends, co-workers, clients, whomever – and I love weather. I often think I missed my calling and that clearly I should have been a meteorologist.

Or a storm chaser, one or the other.

Anyway, since I am not an actual meteorologist, I just enjoy discussing it and I chronically shush the kids when the weather segment comes on the morning news. Also, one of my most-used apps on my phone is my weather app.

(Okay, that’s not true. It’s probably my camera. Or possibly the IMDB app. But you get my drift.)

The weather here has been nuts the past little while. Last week we got buried in snow and while it wasn’t obscenely cold it was damp enough that it was really cold just standing around waiting for the bus. The it warmed up enough over the weekend that most of the snow melted, much to the disappointment of the kids.

Today it was actually so warm that I left my warm winter coat and heavy Harry Potter scarf in the cupboard and brought out my lighter fall jacket with my flimsy scarf. The winter boots were left downstairs by the back door and my shoes were back on my feet instead of carried in my bag to work. We hit double digits in temperatures today.

The next few days are supposed to be filled with rain I believe.

This maritime weather is weird. I’m okay with it, but mighty weird I say!

An aching stomach, and why that’s a good thing

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Usually having a sore, aching stomach is a cause for concern or at least annoyance. It might make you call in sick to work or it might make you lie down for awhile. Maybe you heat up a hot water bottle.

But other times, an aching stomach is a good thing. It’s a wonderful thing, for instance, when it hurts this much because you’ve spent hours laughing until you cry and wrap your arms around your middle, doubled over on the couch.

It’s the sign of a good Saturday when you have family over for dinner and to hang out for the evening and your eyes are streaming, your throat is sore, and your stomach is begging you to just stop laughing for five minutes.

I hope your Saturday was filled with the good kind of sore stomach too.

TGIF – time for a little relaxation, please!

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Oh my goodness, it’s Friday, hooray! This week was wonderful, I had one of my best weeks at work thus far and other than the craziness of the commute during Snowpocalypse Part One, there was nothing particularly awful or annoying. That being said I have been pretty tired lately.

It’s probably because with the time that I get home I find it difficult to get to bed before midnight. Even when I’m tired I need time to unwind. I get in at 9:30, check on the kids (one of whom is always sleeping and one of whom is usually not), get changed, make their lunches, and then the next thing I know it’s already 10 pm.

Once I get into bed somewhere between midnight and 12:30, I tend to fall asleep within a few minutes – sleep is rarely a problem once my head is on the pillow – but then 7:15 comes before I know it and my alarm is ringing to tell me that I have to get the kids up shortly to get them ready for school.

It’s enough sleep that I’m not exhausted but I’m frequently vaguely tired. As a result I’m looking forward to two whole days of relaxing, or at least as much as you can get with two young kids. They didn’t go to bed until after 10 tonight, waiting up for me to get home, so they’ll sleep in a little bit at least, and even if I get up sooner than I’d like at least I can stay in my pajamas.

We have tentative plans for Saturday evening but overall it’s not supposed to be a crazily busy weekend. We may put up the tree this weekend and start decorating, and I have some Christmas crafts for the kids to do, but in general I’m planning on a whole lot of rejuvenation.

What are your weekend plans?

Thankful

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My day started off wonky. When I got downtown I stopped in a store and I bought myself some granola bars for my snack times and to have change for the bus. As the woman handed me my change I came very close to wishing her a nice weekend and then I remembered that it was only Thursday and I must get up early tomorrow morning to get the kids ready for school. I had had nice thoughts of sleeping in a bit, making pancakes for breakfast, and then lazing about on the couch with my Kindle. Alas. Only one more day.

Anyway. I wanted to wish all my American friends a happy Thanksgiving. Although we had ours last month up here in Canuckistan, I am always envious when I know that millions of people just below the border are eating turkey dinners with cranberries and stuffing.

Despite the fact that I’m not American and already had Thanksgiving, I am still grateful for many things. In no particular order here are just a handful of many of those things:

  • My family, and that includes the family in this house, my own family, my extended family, and the friends that just feel like family.
  • Having a great job in an amazing company when I know not everyone has that. I’m human and I have my days where I would rather just stay home in my pajamas than go to work but I do enjoy what I do, I’m getting better at it every day, and I love the people I work with and for.
  • Living here. I miss so many people and even a few things from back home but this is home now and I really do love it here.
  • Yoga and everything it does for me.
  • This glass of red wine I’m enjoying right now.
  • Tim Horton’s ridiculously delicious ginger molasses cookies.
  • Bus schedules that were back to normal so that I was able to get to work nice and early (so I can eat lunch before I start) and got home by 9:25.
  • A relaxing weekend ahead, looking for the next best book to read.
  • Funny stuff like this making me laugh.
  • Being voted in as one of the top 25 mom blogs (thank you for voting!).

There are probably all kinds of other things I’m forgetting but let’s just say I’m thankful for a lot of things. What are you grateful for?