Another Christmas Tradition Saved

I have the best memories of making Gingerbread houses as a kid.

Every year we would make a date with my dear friend Diana's family.

Our parents would fashion houses out of graham crackers and melted sugar.

Mom would whip up a batch of homemade icing with just a touch of glycerin to make it shine.

The candy would be laid out in bowls and we would get to eating decorating.

It wasn't Christmas unless this tradition had been properly observed.

Since then gingerbread houses have come a long way.

The creativity some have is amazing.

One year Jeff and I decided to try something a little like this...

You can find this brilliant design at Gingerbread Log House.

Unfortunately ours ended up looking like this.

After that we got out of the gingerbread game.

Well, as with many Christmas traditions, the kids are bringing them back.

Auntie Brie and Uncle Tim came over on Friday night. 

Pre-fab gingerbread house for Fiona in hand.

These things are amazing.

Beautiful and you can get right to the good part, eating decorating.

Fiona is still raving about it.

Just so you know, I'm not giving up on the log cabin idea.

I'm going to hold that thought until the days when I can be in the kitchen alone.

Dear Strollercize: I Hate You, I Love You

Don't worry I'm not going to submit you to my poetry again.

{If you fancy a refresher, you can find my work here.}

I went to my first strollercize class at the Kinsmen Sports Centre when I was 7 months pregnant with Fiona.

I didn't go in with any expectations but this class blew me away.

This is not a class designed to ease your post-partum body back into exercise.

This is not where you go to meet other Moms and have a chat.

This is a jump-in-head-first-couldn't-catch-your-breath-to-chat-if-you-wanted-to class.

It's a mix of cardio and strength training.

Think circuit training or boot camp.

I definitely credit it with my quick rebound after Fiona.

Once I got pregnant with Cedric I stopped going and it fell off my radar.

Well, I finally went back and am again blown away.

I ran a 10K in September, I'm not in terrible shape.

This class kicks my butt.

I'm talking hurting for 3 days after.

{I am also pushing 80 lbs instead of 40 lbs like last time.}

The up-side is that I got over a fitness plateau that I've been at for months now.

And after going only once a week for 3 weeks.

We haven't been feeling the best so I missed last week's class.

But now I'm all fired up to get back to it today.

The other bonus is that there are bouncy castles for the kids after.

{Always nice to have a carrot for good behaviour right?}

I'm also really proud of the Husband who's been hitting the gym every day this week.

We need that guy to be around for a long time so the healthier the better.

Festival of the Trees

This one snuck up on me.

Thank goodness our besties from down the street asked us to go today.

We would have missed it.

And this is one that I don't like to miss.

Many festivals really don't cater to the babes.

We drag them along anyways and luckily our kids are pretty adaptable.

{Eg.  Impromptu song & dance performance on the steps in Churchill square while waiting for the fireworks that scared the bejeezus out of Fiona anyways.}

Festival of the Trees is different.

There's so much for the kids to do.

We try to look at the trees and usually find something they like along the lines of Sesame Street or this year's giant snowman.

Really though, the Santa letter writing and cookie making stations are where it's at.

This year Fiona also enjoyed the "happy feet" piano and hockey.
{And here's the usual self portrait of me wearing Cedric.}

If you haven't been, it's worth it.

Even without the kids, I always love how it gets me in the Christmas spirit.

I leave you with a video of a future member of the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team.
{Daddy would have been so proud.}

Operation Christmas Child

Parents.

This guy knows what I'm talking about.

{Sorry I've been watching way too much How I Met Your Mother.}

 We want our kids to have it all.

And that's about where the similarities end.

Having it all means something very different to each of us.

I can only speak from my own {and Jeff's as far as we've discussed} point of view.

Yes, of course we want our kids to have great clothes, toys, rooms {within reason}.

But what we want most of all for them is what we have no clue how to give.

I mean, we hope that we are but never really know.

Until it's too late that is.

What we want is to mold them into the best little human beings that have ever walked the earth.

{Is that asking too much?}

We want them to be kind, intelligent, modest, confident, fit and healthy.

Not only that but we want them to be unwavering in their beliefs.

To be fair and without prejudice.

To have more success than they've ever dreamed of.

And to be generous with it all.

If you picked up 10 books on parenting, you would count 59,255,983,025 many contradictions.

There are so many great parents out there but none of them have the magic formula.

{Sorry, they may claim to, but they don't.}

Sure we educate ourselves.

But we can really only hope that we're doing right by these little babes.

We feel their unconditional love.

We see the admiration in their faces.

They think {for now} that we have it all figured out.

And here I am thinking "please don't let me mess this up".

It feels like you only get one chance at that purely clean slate.

Slip up once and it comes right back to you.

That sweet little voice...not so sweet in those moments.

Of course we all make mistakes.

Laugh {or try to contain the laughter} and move on.

Forgiving, that's the other trait I want for them.

Get to the point right?

This week we participated in Operation Christmas Child.

{Part 1 of Operation Generous Child.}

I had seen these shoeboxes in the past and never looked into it.

Finally, this year I did and loved the idea for Fiona.

Earlier in the week we went shopping and she was able to pick out little things for her and Cedric's "friends".

Yesterday we packed up the gifts.

At last, today, we dropped them off.

She was so proud and posed happily.

Cedric was less impressed but I look forward to getting him in on the action in years to come.

Anyone out there have any good toddler charity ideas?

{Year round too?}

Yesterday {in Pictures}

We started the day out watching Obama's victory speech.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying a snow day.

That's that.

This is the Halloween That Never Ends

Did anyone else just try to sing that?  

Are you annoyed that it doesn't fit with the tune?

No, just me?

What a great Halloween week.

Last weekend we went to party #1 in Sylvan.

It was fantastic.

 I wish I had more pics but I was single-parenting it so had my hands full.

Fiona gobbled up the "mummy-dogs" and of course loved decorating cupcakes.

On Sunday we went my parents' house for party #2.

My Mom is the holiday queen and had decorations, gifts, candy and pumpkins.

Dad even added the finishing touch with some spooky music. 

My Mom is also the picture queen so I'm depending on her to have this well recorded.

Hence the no pictures.

Update:  I knew she'd come through.

Our own house was definitely lacking.

I have to admit Halloween is not my favourite holiday.

{You'll soon see which is.}

This sign is our lone decoration.

We didn't even do the obligatory pumpkin-carving.

I left our pumpkins outside and this is what happens when you thaw them.

Finally the actual day came, cue party #3.

This is where I really get my neighbourhood pride on.

A couple of Moms decided to throw a little pre-trick-or-treating party.

We got our little turtle and lion bundled right up and off we went.

{Daddy met us there since he was waiting for a customer.}

There was a pumpkin toss, crafts, a mystery box and of course treats.

I offered to contribute the mystery box and it was fun to watch the reactions.

The maggots{rice} and brains{spaghetti} were good but the winner was definitely the 

eyeballs{canned lychee} .

{Bonus: no grape peeling involved.}

 

We hit about one street which was the perfect amount.

Again, we have the best neighbours.

There's really high involvement and they get pretty into it.

Many houses had halloween lights and one topped it off by offering the parents a choice of coffee, wine or Baileys.

 Yesterday we got another chance to dress up for a potluck at my work.

{I was especially glad since I forgot Fiona's make-up on Wednesday.}

Whew, that was a lot of celebrating, and it's not over.

The Mom's group that I joined when Fiona was born is getting together on Saturday.

{I always love seeing those Moms so am looking forward to it.}

And it goes on and on my friend.