The origins of the phrase “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”. I heard the saying before but never knew where it came from. What a touching story! (Via MetroDad)

• I put up a new template for my blog. I haven’t decided if I love it or not but at least it’s a change. Maybe I need to make my own header.
• I’ve been watching that new game show “Duel”. It’s good but it drives me nuts how they drag it all out so long. Just ask the question, play the game, give the answer, and let’s get on with it. Also, the contestants have pissed me off a few times with their incorrect answers to questions. Seriously, someone thought it took YEARS for the light to travel from the sun to the Earth? Seriously?! And tonight, neither one knew that a cello and a violin have four strings each? GAH.
• Someone please come and rescue me. For reasons I can not understand, I am sitting here in the living room watching the Spice Girls documentary. Willingly. What the hell is wrong with me? Is this what happens to me when the writers go on strike?
• Speaking of television, someone kindly reassure me that I’m not the only one who is eagerly awaiting Dance Wars: Bruno Vs. Carrie Ann. Honestly, I was so excited when I first heard about it. And there’s no doubt for me – when the commercial comes on and they ask which team you’re on, I always cheer, “BRUNO!” Sorry Carrie Ann, I like you a lot but I would very much like to carry Bruno around in my pocket so I could pull him out when I need a hilarious and flamboyant Italian man to make me smile.
• Still speaking of television, I never noticed until Hayley started school that so many of the Christmas specials air at 8 and 8:30 pm. I’ve let her stay up until 8:30 to watch some specials on Treehouse that keep running from 7:30 until 8:30 but I can’t let her watch something that only finishes at 9. She’s hard enough to get moving in the morning as it is. I hope there’s some good stuff on Friday so she can watch those.
• George and I started watching Polar Express several years ago and never finished it, deeming it dull. It was playing on CBC the other night and I ended up watching it. What was I thinking, I loved it! I kept hearing people found it creepy but I thought it was charming and fun. I want Hayley to see it this weekend.
• Breanna is really into Santa this year. She shrieks his name when she sees anything to do with him. I asked if she’s going to sit on Santa’s knee for a picture and she shouted, “YES!” so hopefully we’ll avoid last year’s hilarious but freaked out photo:

  

• Hayley’s school had a “Previously Enjoyed Toys Sale” today. Last week the kids were invited to bring in up to five toys that were in good condition, then everything was priced from 50 cents to two dollars. Today they let the kids buy new-to-them toys. I never know what to expect from Hayley but she surprised me. She took five dollars in with her and she came home with a gigantic Princess teapot that houses a whole tea set, a lovely soft doll that she named Molly, and a little light-up toy. The tea set is awesome and I love the doll because there are no hard parts which means it’s perfect for cuddling. The light-up toy flashes so rapidly I fear I may have a seizure but the batteries never last long in those anyway. Good little shopper!
• I need a tea.

Hayley hasn’t eaten her favorite lunch of peanut butter sandwiches very often lately because she isn’t allowed to bring them to school due to allergies, and on weekends we often have brunch with eggs. Since she was home today, she wanted one. That was fine except that used up the rest of the peanut butter.

As far as Breanna is concerned these days, a breakfast that doesn’t include toast with a thin layer of peanut butter is not worth eating. It was a crisis of epic proportions, so this afternoon I left the kids here with George and braced myself to head to the store. ForecastFox was telling me it was -25 with the wind chill but it wasn’t bad at all. The weather itself was nice. What was less nice was the total lack of sidewalks so that I had to walk on the street. Luckily, no buses passed me so it wasn’t as bad as last time when I thought I was going to have to scale a snowbank that was higher than me (the driver saw me and swerved in a wide arc around me, much appreciated!).

I made it to the store and back and survived and took many pictures along the way. The snowbanks were crazy once again. Not surprising since we got over 30 cm of snow, which is more snow than we’ve gotten in several decades.

And on my way back, I looked up from across the street and saw – barely – George and Breanna peering out the window over the massive snow drift on our balcony. It was kind of hilarious because George is 6’2″ and I could just make out his head over all the snow.

You can see the rest of the photos I took over here.

And in other news, Muffin Watch: Yesterday I polished off the remaining two for breakfast. I made more tonight so I could send some with Hayley for dessert. Out of the dozen I made at supper time? I put two in her lunch, she ate two for a bedtime snack, and I just ate two with my Earl Grey tea. We’re already half way through the batch and I only made them five hours ago. Sheesh.

With the forecast I mentioned yesterday, we had a feeling that tomorrow would be an official snow day for Hayley.

I’m pretty sure that I won’t even bother to set my alarm to check the radio for the school closings. I’m quite certain that the school – and many others – will be shut down tomorrow.

Why?

Because at almost 10 pm it’s still coming down out there, and about four hours ago I took this picture:

As far as I’m concerned that’s totally a snow day.

Overheard from Hayley’s room as I sit here doing some work in the bedroom:

Hayley: Let’s play!
Breanna: YAY!
Hayley: Let’s play Mommy and Daddy. I’ll be the Mommy and you can be the Daddy.
Breanna: Okay Hayley!

I can’t stop giggling.

We’re expecting to turn on the radio or my favorite news show on Monday morning to hear that there’s another snow day at the school (and all the other ones too). When we had the snow day the week before last we had gotten about 20 cm of snow. This weekend, starting on Sunday, we’re expected to start seeing snow through until Monday for a total accumulation of anywhere between 15 and 40 cm. That’s 5 to 15 inches, for Americans. And that’s one forecast; last night I heard on the local news that it could be up to 60 cm, which is 23 inches. I don’t think we’ll get quite that much but I do think it will be enough to close the schools down again. And honestly, yay because who wants to deal with all that?!

The biggest issue with the coming snow is whether it will cause trouble for us tomorrow. We’re fine for food – we have leftover spaghetti sauce, leftover grilled pork chops, two whole chickens, ground beef, black beans, and sides all on the menu and all in our fridge or pantry. We could use some more milk, but we have two and a half loaves of bread and eggs. Even with storm warnings, we’re definitely not in dire straits for food (though I don’t have any chips, and that’s somewhat alarming…).

However, we’re getting a new entertainment/wall unit. Well, sort of. Our friends got a new TV which is too big for the wall unit they have so they offered it to us. It’s a nice wood and I’m not crazy about the one we have now so we said yes. I think we’re supposed to be getting it tomorrow since they now have their new stuff and the old unit (haha, unit, haha… sorry) all crammed together, but obviously that will be a problem if it’s a massive snowstorm. Hopefully it will hold off (or not start at all) until it’s all done.

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Muffin Watch 2007 – last night’s fresh dozen of Cinnamon Muffins are now whittled down to only two remaining, both of which will likely be devoured by Hayley for breakfast tomorrow. I may need to make more AGAIN.

Mike is one of my favorite dad blog authors. This, in particular is a beautiful and touching entry.

Yesterday I realized that we needed to do groceries because we had nothing suitable to send with Hayley for her morning snack or dessert (it was pizza day today so lunch was covered). I walked down to the pharmacy because we had no time for groceries and picked up a pack of fruit salad cups and some granola bars.

When I arrived home, I looked at the box and realized the granola bars had whole almonds in them. It’s a nut-free school (well, except for the nutty kids, ha!) so those were out. Concerned about what I could send, I decided to make my cinnamon muffins. I hadn’t made them for quite awhile, at least a year. Now I remember why.

I made them at supper time last night, and by 7 pm I was putting the topping on them. By the time Hayley came home from school, all 12 were gone. I even packed an extra one in her lunch because George’s drummer works in the lunch room so I asked her to give him one. She claims she didn’t see him and so she “had to eat it herself”. Uh-huh.

I made another batch tonight after supper. So far, two are gone because I ate them with my tea. I’m pretty sure that it will be a miracle if the remaining muffins last until this time tomorrow night.

Easy, fast, and really delicious:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

TOPPING

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Mix the egg, milk and oil in another bowl, then stir into the dry ingredients to moisten. Spoon into greased or paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until done.

For topping combine the sugar and cinnamon. Brush the tops of the warm muffins with butter and dip the top of muffin into sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Most people will have all of those ingredients in their kitchen already. What are you waiting for? Go make some muffins!

Whenever I leave home, I almost always have at least one bag with me, and if it’s just one then it’s my camera bag. Sometimes I take my purse too, depending on where I’m going. But I usually have at least the one, and as far as Breanna is concerned, a bag is a bag. She must have gotten the habit from me, but now if we’re going out somewhere, she wants to take her own bag with her.

When we got loot bags for her birthday party, George got all the girls little Princess-theme purses that hang on your wrist, and he got a Dora motif for Breanna. That is her “bag”. She always asks, “Where my bag? Oh! My bag!” The other day she was ticked off at having to leave the bag in the car because we were going into the store where it had been purchased and we didn’t want to deal with people thinking we were stealing it. On the other hand, a glimpse inside would have certainly demonstrated it truly belonged to someone already.

What does a two year old girl carry in her “BAG” when she goes out? (Or just goes room to room while shouting “bye! Bye Mommy!”)

Her Dora bag:

A little peek inside. What could all this be?

The necessities that every girl needs in her “BAG!” A string of beads, a plastic lemon, a couple of hair ties, an unused but crumpled up tissue, a tiny piece of blue construction paper, and a ceramic cat with a broken ear.

I know I like to keep some strange things in my purse too sometimes, so I guess I can’t fault her for the necessities in her life.

Luckily the hair ties won’t be as necessary. Which is good because for a kid who used to love having her hair combed and even once fell asleep standing up while I combed it, she hates having anything done to it now. You should see the magic I must perform for the occasional pigtails. Even regular straight-up brushing elicits a worried, “all doned Mommy? All doned?!”

However, her hair was insane. It had never ever been cut and it was constantly hanging in her face. She wouldn’t keep a barrette in to keep it off her face and she wouldn’t even keep a hair band in anymore. Tonight at bath time, I couldn’t take it anymore as I watched her trying to brush her hair aside so she could see her bath toys.

So after her bath, I got a comb, some hairdressing scissors, and I gave her bangs.

She was a little concerned, still asking her breathless, “all doned?!” and she said “ouch!” every time I snipped, but luckily it didn’t take long, she held still, and I managed to get the cut straight.

I am so tempted to go do mine too because they’re also hanging in my eyes and driving me nuts. Alas, I don’t think I’ll look as cute as she does.

We finally decorated our tree yesterday. I cursed the entire time I strung the lights and I can not tell you how badly I want to buy a pre-lit tree after this season when they’re all on sale so I can pitch our tree and lights straight off the balcony. Lights are NOT the key to getting me into a festive mood, let’s just put it that way.

Once I was done though, they looked great. I made a cup of peppermint tea, found a streaming online radio station that plays Christmas songs, and got the decorations out. I put a few on, but mostly I just let the girls do it because they were doing such a great job on their own. Breanna needed a bit of help understanding not to put ten decorations onto one branch, but she caught on quickly. They’re pros.

And it looked great when they were done!

I also hung lights in our window and set them to flash. I managed to leave them for a half hour before the flashing made me crazy and that was the end of that. Back to solid they went!

I have always loved having white lights on the china cabinet so I was glad we had a spare set.

Our home is finally holiday ready!

These people at Improv Everywhere are hilarious!