Wednesday, December 30, 2009

year end

Here's another little meme I like to close the year out with....

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Made time for me to hang with my best girls.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I like to think of it as more of a to do list. I made one last year. I imagine I'll make one again this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
The Mommy Project had Baby Colie!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A gourmet kitchen.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The whole year was pretty great. I'll hold it close to my heart.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
My family.

9. What was your biggest failure?
My first attempt at Maya's birthday cake.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just the kids colds and flus.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Hmmm not sure.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The Abster and MyPie. For the most part.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Ummm Charlie Sheen?

14. Where did most of your money go?
Groceries, bills and the babysitter.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
All the fun social events we had this year. Jammie movie night of course!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Single Ladies because Abby won't stop singing it.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
same same same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Family Fun Nights.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Laundry.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my terrific family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
I certainly did.

22. How many one-night stands?
None that I know of.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Modern Family, no question.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
What's the point?

25. What was the best book you read?
The Book of Negroes. I cannot recommend it enough.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Lady Antebellum

27. What did you want and get?
A breadmaker. Thanks girls!!.

28. What did you want and not get?
I have no complaints.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Hangover!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had dinner with my Mom, Mike and the kids.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
It was pretty great as is.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Comfort.

33. What kept you sane?
My family, my friends and the internet.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Bradley Cooper.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Environment related issues.

36. Who did you miss?
My Dad, Papa Joyce, Ricky, my grandparents.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Well I don't want to call her out by name because I don't know if she's down with that, but she and her family of course, they are definitely up there. Oh and my Jersey Girls. I realize I've met them all before, but this is the first year we've really done some hardcore hanging out. Thanks for that ladies. Looking forward to more great movies in 2010 .

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Good friends are the best!

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
You know there isn't just one that jumps out at me this year. I blame the demise of Country 95.3. I never listen to the radio anymore. I just keep throwing my Tim McGraw greatest hits in the cd player.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

christmas recap

For your reading enjoyment, our Christmas in convenient and easy to read random bullets.

So as it turns out Maya got the chicken pox just days before Christmas. The pox has been roaming around our school and our neighbourhood, so you would think it was only a matter of time before mine got it, but mine have been vaccinated against the pox. I have no interest in turning this into a debate on vaccinations, but please know the decision to vaccinate against chicken pox was made with the kids doctor as the best thing for them when factoring in the other health concerns they have dealt with in their short lives. And now moving on.... because she was vaccinated it was a very mild case, she had about 10 smallish spots on her and no fever, but she was horribly out of sorts and clingy.

Mike and I both worked Christmas Eve and then went grocery shopping right after. Sounds crazy, right? Actually it was the best time to go. Everyone else had long since headed for home and we shopped the store in complete peace.

Christmas Eve we spent at church. I had a feeling I should let Abby and Mike go and stay home with the little one and I should have gone with it. Maya couldn't find a spot she was willing to sit in for longer than a moment or two. There were too many people she didn't know and the noise that a large crowd of people can generate was overwhelming for her. At one point she was sitting on ML's lap with ML covering her ears and Maya with her hand over her eyes. We headed for home not long after that.

Christmas morning they were up early, well not early for Abby, She's my early riser, but early enough. The girls (with help from Papa) got Mike and I a new breadmaker. That means family pizza night is back on the docket. There was much rejoicing. There were books and boardgames under the tree for the girls. Abby got a new Wii game that we popped in right away. The rest of the day we spent lounging around until dinner at Papa & Grandma Linda's.

Dinner was a delicious affair, as always. Maya ran hot and cold with her mood for most of the evening. They came home with the new Night at the Museum movie, some clothes and some Little Pets. I scored a shopping trip to Michaels (who wants to shop with me?) thanks to a gift card and we've got a dinner or two at a real restaurant in our future.

Boxing Day was dinner here with Grandma Sandi and the crew. Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel arrived in the early afternoon for their three day visit. Since we were having three Christmas dinners in a row I opted for lasagna and it turned out to be the best decision. It was a great meal with minimal work, gave me lots of time to relax and hang out with my family. Also great this year all the helping hands I had with the after dinenr clean up. Thanks guys, I appreciate it more than you know. Abby got the Tag reading system, which she's been playing with ever since. She's logged almost 4 hours with The Cat in The Hat. I love I track her progress by downloading info from the pen. Very cool for a struggling reader and the struggling reader's Mom. There was moon sand and pladoh and jammies too. Oh and Up, which watched the next day. Super great movie. Mike and I have shopping sprees at Wally in our future too thanks to gift cards. I always feel so much pressure when I have a gift card to make the right choice. Anybody else, or is this particular psychosis all mine?

Maya came down with a dry hacking cough Christmas night and had been sleeping poorly on top of getting over the pox, by the 27th and dinner at my Mom's she had just about had it. Falling asleep on the trip down didn't help either. She pretty much crawled under the blanket on the couch when we got to my Mom's and stayed there through dinner. The girls scored a two screen dvd player for the car, which Abby thought was a laptop (oh I wish sweetheart!). Maya got the Uno Moo game that she's been asking for for the past 3 months or so. Mike got an itunes gift card that he has generously offered to share with me. Of course he says that now, but once I start downloading Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum songs he may change his mind. Mom stocked us right up with various hot drinks for our Tassimo machine. I got a deluxe dvd copy of Gone With The Wind and a little folding money.

So all in all it was a great Christmas. Uncle Dave and Aunt Mel have headed back home. Mike's back at work and the girls and I are here trying to return the household to some semblance of normal. Maya finally had everything catch up with her and she passed out at about 5 this afternoon only to wake up an hour later completely hysterical. Thankfully Mike managed to calm her down and coax her back into bed. Abby appears to be having an insomnia night. We still have to hook up with my Robin, but other than than I call Christmas done for another year. Well this turned out to be longer than I had planned, but we had a lot of Christmas to get through.

Feel free to check out all the photographic evidence on flickr.

Monday, December 28, 2009

christmas concert

The Friday before Christmas was Abby's last day of school and the day of her Christmas lunch and concert. Parent's Council at the school puts on a full "turkey dinner" for the kids. I say Parent's Council and we certainly support it, but the whole thing comes together thanks to one of our amazing Council Moms and she in turn organizes an army of parent volunteers. ML and I were there first thing in the morning to help set the tables with place mats and napkins. We then moved on to buttering buns (me) and mixing up stuffing (her).

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Finally the kids showed up for lunch and I got to be "table Mom" at the Abster's table. There was meat to be cut and chocolate milks that needed to be opened. Abby was very happy that I was there, but disappointed that I didn't get a chance to eat with her and her friends. Lunch for us volunteers was hastily eaten in the kitchen in shifts before we returned to our respective posts. For ML and I that was dishwashing duty. Our Christmas lunch is held at the community centre next door to the school which has a push through type diswasher, so I set up shop at the dirty end loading racks, rinsing dishes and pushing them into the dishwasher. ML held down the fort at the clean end, making sure all the dishes got back to their respective spots. With 160ish students, plus invited guests, parents, grandparents, staff and volunteers that equals a heck of a lot of plates, cutlery and glasses. Not to mention the stuff we used for cooking. Our goal was to get it all done as quickly as possible so we would be back at the school in time to see the kids perform their Christmas program.

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Abby's class sang that Alvin and the Chipmunks hit - Please Christmas Don't Be Late. They were of course as adorable as anything. She also performed with the rest of her ukulele class, two songs - Must Be Santa and Jingle Bells. MyPie and I snuck up to the front to video it. I apologize in advance for the crappy quality. The lighting for the concert was not the greatest for us parents trying to immortalize our kids every moment. I think our school should hire The Widney Woman's fella to light next year's production. He's a rock star.



After a full day the girls and I ended up at ML's just hanging out and doing crafty things with Perler Beads. These were so much fun and they kept four kids (3-10) and three adults busy for hours. Check out my awesome snowflake ornament...

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Saturday, December 26, 2009

year in review

And it's time to close out another year with my yearly first sentence round up....

From January...

Happy New 2009 to everyone!

From February...

Maya and I are hanging out on our bed.

From March...

Over the past couple of years Abby has received several WebKinz animals as gifts.

From April...

Time again for the monthly interview project I started.

From May...

There was a million reasons to say no on Sunday night when my pal ML called and asked if instead of our regular walk around the neighbourhood, would we rather take our kids and our husbands and walk around the Royal Botanical Gardens.

From June...

I apologize for the delay!

From July...

Before I let you dive on into wordless wednesday. I'd like to extend a hearty congratulations to FaithChick - winner of the Always Infinity giveaway.

From August...

About a month or so before school ended Abby's teacher sent a note home asking for a meeting.

From September...

Yeah, it's frosting again this week.

From October...

This past week Abby started ukulele lessons at school.

From November...

So it was nice of me to promise you all a giveaway and then never mention it again.

From December..

Last Saturday night Robin showed up here with this super delicious and super easy appetizer for our first annual holiday potluck

Friday, December 25, 2009

a photo an hour - christmas day

I thought I'd take a sweet idea from the Queen of the 25 days of Christmas - Andrea, from a peek inside the fishbowl and take a picture documenting each hour of our Christmas day festivities. I'll post them as time allows, although we're headed to Grandma Linda and Papa's later this afternoon so I'll put up a bunch later tonight. These will just be what a snap, when I snap it regardless of how it looks.

Here's our day so far............

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7am - Someone is a little excited!

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8am - That is one super cool hat! I wish they had one to fit me.

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9am - Playing our new Six Flags Wii game.

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10am - Aww they kill me with their cuteness!!!

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11am - Boxing up some treats. Man do I love those boxes. So cute!!

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12pm - AMC was playing a Christmas Vacation marathon. I'm not going to lie to you, we finished up watching this one and kept watching as it started again. Love it!

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1pm - A few last gifts to wrap. Yep, magic marker written right on the wrapping paper. That's how I roll.

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2pm - Light scribing a dvd I was in the process of putting together. Super cool!!

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3pm - Finally at Grandma Linda & Papa's with Cottonball.

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4pm - More Littlest Pet Shop, her favourite. p.s. She's growing out her bangs.

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5pm - Bow head!!

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6pm- Mama, do you have any threes?

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7pm - Mmmmm dessert!

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8pm - Shhhh. Sleepy girl.

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9pm- And Mommy is sleepy too. Off to bed with some TV. I think I watched 10 minutes of this before I fell asleep. Bonus points if you can name the movie.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

what i love

Thanks to Dani for another great posting idea..... the five things I am loving about this Christmas.

Christmas Eve service. I really do enjoy service on Christmas Eve. It's always filled will my favourite thing...... Christmas carols. Hearing a bunch of people singing together is so beautiful. The service got off to a bit of a rocky start, but that was largely to do with Maya's mood. It was not her best one, but since she has the chicken pox, I'm trying to cut her some slack. Yep, despite the vaccination she's still managed to catch a mild case of the pox. It amounts to about a dozen spots, mostly on her face and has put her in the most foul mood for the past few days. They are starting to fade now, so here's hoping the mood thing turns a corner.

That we have simplified and scaled back. This Christmas season (so far) has been one of the most stress free ones we've celebrated. The shopping happened with ease and without the use of credit. I am excited and happy about the gifts we have to share with our friends and family.

That I had the chance to be off and help out at Abby's Christmas lunch at school. It was such a treat. I promise a full post and crappy video of Abby playing the heck outta her uke very soon.

That Abby still believes. She's going to be 8 in 6 months. I know we can't ride the Santa train for much longer.

That I get to share this Christmas and every day with my Michael and our beautiful girls.

Merry Christmas all!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

taking a break

I know it's late Tuesday night and usually time for me to put up my What's Cooking Wednesday post, but I think given all the hustle and bustle that goes along with the season it seems like a good idea to take a couple of weeks off from WCW. I hope you all enjoy your time spent with family and friends this holiday season. I know I plan on enjoying a visit with Uncle Dave and Aunt Mel, and I'll probably throw in a few jammie days with my girls... no extra charge. I am looking forward to it, only two sleeps left.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

the play

The Sunday after game night the girls were supposed to be playing angels in our church's Christmas play. I heard through the rumor mill that they wanted me to play one as well, but me... on the stage? HA! You must be joking. Anyway after such a late night laughing with my besties the night before I can't tell you how much I hated the idea of the play. There was no way I wanted to get out of bed, get me and the girls into church worthy attire and head on over to our little church around the corner. And Mike does Sunday morning chores at ML & T's dairy farm, so I would be on my own.

So I grumbled and complained and whined about it a whole lot little bit, but since ML's boys were playing shepherds we decided we'd wrangle our kids there together while our men dealt with the livestock.

We arrive at the church and I head the girls back to the hall to find out where they need to be and to get them into their halos. Maya, not surprisingly, refuses to participate. I think it had something to do with her dressing room. Perhaps the Perrier wasn't chilled to her liking or perhaps they accidentally left in a green M&M. Either way she was having none of it. Instead she spent her time doing this....

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This play was a little different then the usual Christmas Story production. It was told by the animals, so the humans were just set dressings in this one. It was incredibly cute and well acted by the members of our congregation. Abby, of course, was the cutest angel there. For all my complaining I had a really great time and enjoyed the service immensely. And to make it just that little bit worse the service was filled with the hymns we used to sing at my Grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. We sang carols every year after dinner. I'm sure it was an exercise our parents invented just to distract us kids from the gifts for an extra 15 minutes while the after dinner tidying was going on. So I was all misty eyed through the entire thing and so glad I went.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

game night

Well I did it! I finally did it. And I still can't believe I did. After, literally, years of talking about hosting a games night I actually did it. You know I have to say when I put the word out to the Jersey Girls that they should bring their husbands and come out for some game night fun it seemed like a good idea.

Then we got to the day of and I wondered what in the heck I'd been thinking. I had no plan at all, no idea what game to play or where I was going to put everyone. Nada. Which led to thoughts of - why am I even doing this? No one is going to have any fun. What a ridiculous idea. Blah, blah, blah. Because if I'm being truthful I wanted to have one of those nights you see on TV/in the movies. You know what I'm talking about... life long friends, who share tons of memories, have standing games night date and is the most fun thing ever. I know - the pressure, right? Lets be honest, this was going to have a hard time living up to my ideal (the perfect, scripted Hollywood version).

Luckily my girl ML, is all about this kind of stuff. Friendship with her comes with a fully stocked games cabinet, craft cupboard and a blueprint for fun. So I supplied Pictionary and punch. She showed up with spinach dip (my FAVE), an easel, a large sketch pad and markers. I admit I was still feeling kind of anxious about the whole thing even after everybody got there and we fumbled around trying to figure out the best way to play the game. We started by the rules, but then quickly adapted the play to best suit our group. As Mike pointed it out it was unlikely the Pictionary Police would be patrolling our neighbourhood that night. I mean Canada is a big country, what would be the odds they would be in our hood?

And my living room is small and Mike and I wondered how we'd manage with everyone there, but we squished in together and shifted over and moved around and it worked.

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Of course you know we had to play boys against the girls. And I don't want to brag or anything, but to borrow a Tweet from my pal The Mommy Project .......

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Oh yes, we were that good. So good we had to start a mercy rule for them, you know like in little kids t-ball? So good, Michael accused us ladies of mind melding with each other. I have another theory though.....

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They may have scored more points if they played with their eyes open. Just a theory of course.

So we played and we laughed, oh how we laughed. Laughed until our sides ached. Laughed until I started to worry that several people would need to be resuscitated. And we played late into the night, really late for poor Mike and T who had chores to do before the sun rose the next morning. So I consider it an epic success. Truly, if they all had half as much fun as I did, then wow! I'm only sorry that all my Jersey Girls couldn't be there. Robin had other Christmasy plans. JJ is living at hockey arenas right now. And Heazer fell victim to the sandman.

I am certainly looking forward to doing this again. I hope you're all looking forward to being invited.

Friday, December 18, 2009

what's in a name?

As family legend has it, back when my Mom was pregnant with me she just knew she was going to have a girl and she would name her Shannon Marie. Shannon because she had gone to school with a girl named Shannon and thought the name was beautiful. And that's how I became the (half) Polish girl with the Irish name. Marie - well I'm not sure where that came from, but having conducted my own unscientific research over the years it seems like every little girl in the free world is given the nickname Marie. Seriously, I can name a dozen people I personally know who's middle name is Marie, just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with more if I put some thought into it and conducted some more research. How about you? Is your middle name Marie?

So while my Mom loved my name... of course she did, she named me..... her Mother did not. She thought for sure I would get Shannon the cannon (I didn't) and actually referred to me as Marie when I was a baby. Luckily by the time I was only enough that it mattered she had resigned herself to using my first name. I wonder if my Grandma would laugh now if she knew that I do get called Cannon quite regularly now. Mike's stepdad, Papa Old Beard, is the kinda guy who likes to give people nicknames and mine from him is Cannon. He calls me that exclusively and has for nearly 20 years. It's not something that bothers me, but that could be due to the fact that he's the only one who calls me that.

For most of my life I've been Shan. I introduce myself as Shannon and I sorta expect to be called that unless we're good friends. Maybe expect isn't the right word, but I always think it's a little odd when someone I've just met calls me Shan. Of course I say that, but I put myself out there all over the interwebs as Shan. If I'm really being truthful it's probably more to do with the personal connection I feel with that person. I can be a hard nut to crack, I'm aware of that. I really don't want to be, but I'm just so shy I can't be any other way. I really do hate it though.

And now at the ripe old age of 36 I'm Shanny. I'm not even sure where or who that started with, but it's growing popularity. To my Jersey girls I'm Shanny. To my "little" girls at work I'm Shanny. Even Mike will slip in the odd Shanny now and then. I like it. Sure it may be a nickname more suited to when I was, oh say, six, but I'll take it now. I kinda feel like this is a whole new phase in my life and I got a new name to go along with it. Things are good.

What's the story with your name?

*Thanks to Dani for the post idea

Thursday, December 17, 2009

you capture - holiday decor

Well I kinda fell off the You Capture wagon there for a while. I'm not quite sure why. I was planning on posting about my favourite holiday decor anyway, so this seemed as good a time as any to get back into it.

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When we were kids Uncle Dave and I always had a Charlie Brown tree of our own. My Mom painted these wooden ornaments from a kit for us to hang on our little tree. There used to be more, I know I gave some to Dave. Our tree actually fell over (twice!!) a few years ago and we lost a lot of ornaments, so maybe they perished. I still have this one though.

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My Mom is a freak for Christmas. When we were kids she used to turn our house into a winter wonderland. She'd paint the windows and decorate the heck out of the rest of the house. In our dining room that we never actually used as a dining room she would drape the ceiling in crepe paper streamers in red and green, dropping them down to encompass the light fixture that hung in the room. This year I decorated our chandelier, it's my homage to her.

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This is Maya's creation from her first trip to Kids Club. She painted it and picked out the doodads and then in typical bossy Maya fashion told me where to glue them. Pretty cute, huh?

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I was a huge fan of Barbie back in the day. I played for endless hours with my vast Barbie collection. I had Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, the Barbie with the tan lines ('member her?) and the one who had hair you could curl with a little plastic curling iron. I haven't quite gotten over never getting the Barbie camper, my cousin had it and I was oh so jealous. She was older than me and I was sometimes on the receiving end of her hand me downs, but she never did hand me down that Barbie Camper. Anyway I still love Barbie, so each year my Mom buys me the Barbie ornament from Hallmark. I just love seeing them scattered all over the tree in the fanciest holiday dresses. Call me wacky, but it makes me smile every time I look at that tree.

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My Mom buys us all an ornament every year, but it was my Big Grandma who started this tradition. A little side story first - when I was small I labeled my Grandmothers Big and Little. My Mom was likely horrified at this because my Mom's Mom was on the larger side while my Dad's Mom was more petite. My child's mind didn't quite work that way, though. You see my Dad's parents lived a few blocks from us in the city. My Mom's parents lived on the family farm out in the country and you had to go up the mountain to get there. Big hill = Big Grandma. No hill = Little Grandma. Anyway, my Big Grandma buying us ornaments usually meant her opening a package of balls and writing your name on it in black marker. Those as well have dwindled over the years, but I still have this one. PS - yes I'm aware it's a horrible picture.

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I have a real fondness in my heart of Charlie Brown's Christmas special. So a lot years ago my Mom picked up this little set for me. It sits on my desk every year and it makes me smile.

And that friends is just a small portion of what makes our home all Christmassy. I definitely inherited that gene from my Mom. Thanks Mama.

you capture, hosted by.....

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

wordless wednesday - angels

How about a little wordless Wednesday?

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

what's cooking wednesday - ginger snaps

This past weekend I was invited to attend the first annual Festivus cookie exchange over at my friend Normie's (aka The Mommy Project) house. Now I realized I talk about her all the time, but there is no photographic evidence of us ever having been in the same room. Even though it's happened on several occasion. And this time is no different. Although I did get this.....

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There she is..... the hostess with the mostess, The Mommy Project, doing what she does best.... taking pictures!

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Then we turned the camera on her. Or her sister in law, who we crowned Ms Festivus '09, did. Festivus was a huge hit. I'm glad I got to spend the afternoon hanging out with my Jersey girls and meeting some more of Normie's friends. I'm already looking forward to next year.

So I realize this recipe is a repeat. I'm not even going to lie to you. I went back and copied the entry as I originally wrote it, but this is the cookie recipe I used for the cookie exchange. Enjoy!

Are any of your attending or hosting cookie exchanges this year?

Gingersnaps


Ginger Snaps

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
granulated sugar

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add molasses and egg. Beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Shape into balls. Roll balls in sugar. Do not flatten. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes.

Recipe Notes: These just might be the greatest ginger snaps I have ever eaten. I made some last year from I recipe I have long since forgotten that were really heavy on the molasses taste. This recipe has everything in perfect balance. It's a simple and very quick recipe to make and it has a high yield. The recipe made just over 6 dozen cookies (and I imagine I'll have to make more before Christmas) so it would be great if you were involved in a cookie exchange (Robin I'm looking in your direction). You might want to watch the first batch you bake off. I found 8 minutes left the cookies a little crispier than I liked, so I ended up baking mine for 7 minutes.

*Just for a festive holiday touch, I rolled them in red and green coloured sugar.*




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

Monday, December 14, 2009

25 days of christmas - message from st. nick

I had heard about this site from a couple of different people before I went to check it out. At Santa's PNP - Portable North Pole - you can arrange to have a personal message sent right from the big guy, himself. I went there and punched in the required information for both girls - hair colour, eye colour, ages, what they wanted for Christmas and then I uploaded a picture.

So tonight for our 25 days of Christmas fun the girls each got a surprise message from Santa himself. Watching Abby get her message was pretty darn funny. You could just see her trying to figure it all out. She was also disappointed that Elwood didn't make an appearance.

What was even funnier was watching Abby watch Maya's message. There comes a point in the clip when Santa asks if - Maya in this case - has been naughty or nice before he opens his big book to check. While we were waiting for Santa to check, Abby was holding her breath. I didn't even realize it until it all came out in a relieved whoosh when Maya's name and picture popped up on the nice list.

I have to admit I wasn't too sure if Maya would be all that into it, but once Santa started talking to Abby - Maya turned to me and asked, "but, what about me?"So very cute. I highly recommend this for your little ones.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

maya's first trip to kids club

Every other week my baby sitter hosts a kids club at her church. You have to be 5 to attend, but in the weeks leading up to Christmas (when she hosts it weekly) she lets the 4 year olds come if they have a parent with them. This year Maya, at almost 4, was deemed old enough to participate. I can't even tell you how excited she was to go.

That was, of course, until we got there.....

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I'm not sure if it was all the kids (even though she knew a large portion of them) or the structured activity or what, but we weren't off to a great start.

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Then it got a better. For a minute, until......

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one of the volunteers spoke to her. The horror.

Meanwhile, Abby had completely deserted us and was off creating beautiful things because she is the self declared master of the glue gun. The kid didn't even burn herself, which is more than I can say.

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So to recap - Maya's first kid's club experience started out rocky, then got a bit better, then she wasn't so sure, then she got right into it, but by the end she'd had enough of people and could be found hanging out here.

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At least she was still smiling.

Oh and the project was wooden sleighs that my sitter's husband had made. The kids painted them and then there was a buffet of bows, greenery, flowers, bells and other holiday doodads that the kids glued on them to decorate. Maya and I tag teamed hers, she picked out the decorations and told me where to glue them while I worked the glue gun, burning my finger prints off in the process. Probably should of had Abby in charge of gluing on our project.

Friday, December 11, 2009

friday high five - q and a

Well typically I have always responded to comments made on my blog in the comments section, but I have appeared to fall off the wagon in that area. It falls under the category of too much to do and not enough time to do it in. There were some questions recently that I really wanted to answer so I thought I'd take care of that little housekeeping project here.......

1. From the incredibly gifted knitter and card maker extraordinaire, Leah - the jammies are AWESOME! Emily Grace would think that me having matching jammies to hers was the greatest thing on the planet. Where did your mom find them???

She is of course talking about the matching jammies my Mom got for the girls and I for our sleepover last weekend. My Mom picked them up at The Children's Place. For some reason they don't sell the adult jammers in Canada, so she got them on a shopping trip across the border. She tells me that they only sell the adult jammies at the outlet store (she's pretty sure), but you can also order them online. Oh and hey they have blue striped jammies that match the pink ones for boys!!

2. From the lovely Merry, who's my friend because of a little ole jar of Hellman's - Okay, I'm confused. That picture doesn't look coated in chocolate. Did you squish up the candy bars & roll it in that? I read that you used white chocolate toblerones but the coating looks more crumbly than I would have thought. Help!!!

Oh it is, trust me. I realize it's not the greatest picture, but I was shooting without the flash so I didn't lose the detail. What I did was throw my toblerone bar into the food processor and pulse it a few times. It came out more crumbly than chopped. Perhaps because the bar was so small compared to the size of the processor bowl. And, yes I did roll it in the crumbly bar afterwards. I think next time I just use one of my wicked sharp chopping knives and some elbow grease to pulverize it. Oh and I forgot to mention on that recipe you're best to throw the cream cheese mixture into the fridge for a while. It's almost impossible to form into a ball when you're finished mixing it together.

3. From frequent commenter Goofball - euh, what do jammies have to do with Christmas?

I'm not really sure. All I know is each and every year growing up my brother and I were always allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. It was always new jammies that we got to wear to bed that night. I have no idea where my Mom got the idea from, but I think it had a lot to do with making sure we were presentable for pictures the next morning.

4. And another from Goofball - I can't stop being amazed that the christmas season is so in full swing so early in December already. Everyone must be so sick of it by the end. Gosh, christmas takes up 1/12th of a year?

I can't speak for everyone, but I love Christmas. For me it's real concentrated family time. It's time when we slow down, turn on the Christmas lights and watch movies and play board games and just enjoy each other. My kids are small and they still believe in all the magic of Christmas. I can't imagine ever getting sick of all of that.

And one last one from Goofball - who's elwood (sorry...I'm ignorant foreigner)

Elwood is a Christmas Elf who is in charge of family fun. I invented him last year to help with our 25 days of Christmas project. Each night Elwood leaves a note in a basket we've left under our tree that tells the girls what that night's activity is. This isn't necessary if you're participating in the 25 days, but we enjoy doing it this way. Abby loves trying to figure out how Elwood manages to not only to leave her notes, but also how he knows so much about her. It's so much fun. I know Noelle the Christmas fairy visits The Mommy Project's house and MooMoo the Christmas cow has been hanging at the Widney Woman's place.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

25 days of christmas - checking out the lights

We thought taking a drive to look at all the fancy Christmas lights would be a fun idea for our 25 days of Christmas. Apparently this one did not agree.

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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

what's cooking wednesday - chocolate-cheese dream ball

Hmmm not quite sure why this didn't post... better late than never though!

You know how Christmas dinner rolls around and you stuff your self silly on turkey and buns and green bean casserole and stuffing and so on. And then they bring out the dessert. And because it's Christmas Granny brings out the big guns and makes her yummiest cookies or cheesecake or pie or cake or some other awesome dessert that I haven't heard of yet. And you have some even though you know you shouldn't because you're stuffed from dinner, but it's Granny's lemon meringue pie and she only makes it once a year. And so you eat it and then you just really hate yourself afterwards?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Oh well... um... me either. Only if I did do something like that, well I think this little recipe could help.

dessert cheeseball


Chocolate cheese dream ball

2 pkg brick cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 crispy crunch chocolate bars
1 pkg ritz crackers

Beat the first three ingredients with a mixer until well blended. Refrigerate 1 hour. Shape into a ball and coat with chocolate. Serve with crackers.

Recipe Notes: This has a great cheesecake taste, but with so much less work. Great during the busy holiday season. I actually made this for the holiday potluck we had a couple of weeks ago. It's also great because it allows you to have just a little taste of dessert. I served it with chocolate covered graham cracker and ritz crackers. And folks seemed to enjoy it with both. Another great thing about this recipe, use whatever chocolate you'd like. I coated mine with a white chocolate toblerone bar. This will definitely make another appearance over the holidays.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

Monday, December 07, 2009

knowing me, knowing you - december

Time once again for that monthly interview project......

1. Are you an egg nog fan?

No way. I think the stuff is vile. Mike loves it though.

2. What is your favourite at Christmas treat?

Well a treat for me is all the fancy vegetables we get to have with Christmas dinner. Oh and Grandma Linda's sausage stuffing. I really have to get the recipe for that. And chocolate... anything chocolate really. Mmmm.

3. How is your tree decorated? A theme like red and gold? A does it have a more eclectic slant?

Every year Granny buys us each an ornament, so our tree has multi coloured lights and if you check it out you can find Disney Princesses, Barbies, the Grinch, Scarlett & Rhett, Tonka ornaments from my childhood, ones Abby has made and some that mark special moments in our lives. I just love it.

4. What's youir favourite Christmas movie?

Well Christmas Vacation - I mean that goes without saying at this point right? I am hoping to catch 4 Christmases this year. I have Fred Claus from last year to watch. Polar Express has become another heavy hitter in our house. And I love the live action Grinch.

5. New jammies on Christmas Eve?

Always! Matching ones of course. It's just not Christmas without them. Do you know my Mom sometimes takes pity on me and will still buy me a new pair as well? She's fantastic!




So now the rules, they're pretty simple. Post your answers to these questions on your own blog in the next few days. Remember to link back here in your post and sign the Mr. Linky too, so we can all see what you have to say. Please make sure you link to your actual KMKY post and not your blog's front page. Any front page links will be deleted. And most importantly, have fun! Have suggestions for next months questions? Leave me a comment or send me an email and let me know.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

santa

Boy oh boy - this weekend was quite a weekend. I almost need a weekend to recover from the weekend I did have. There is so much to tell you about, so let's get to it.....

So this weekend was the one the girls and I were going to sleepover at my Mom's and then have breakfast with Santa. Not surprisingly the kids were beyond excited about this. Unfortunately Granny had to work until 6:30, by the time she got to our place at 7ish...... well it was anarchy. Kids were bouncing off the ceiling. The car seat did not want to play nicely with my Mom's car (only 4 more pounds until she's in a booster. I may replace her 1% with half and half or heavy cream). Mike and I were snapping at each other. Yeah it was awesome.

Finally we managed to head out and even stopped at Michaels so I could do a little shopping. Granny took the kids over to PetSmart to pick out a bone for Adelaide (shhh don't tell her), so I got to shop all by myself. If only The Mommy Project had been with me, but alas she was at home enjoying the silence now that my kids were out of town.

When we got to Granny's she had a surprise waiting for us. I'll give you a hint..... Triplets.

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The girls were tickled pink over this.

The next morning they were up bright and early, ready to head to the mall for breakfast with Santa. It's actually a nice little set up. With your ticket (the proceeds of which go to the United Way) you get a gift bag with a twin sized fleece blanket with a Christmas scene, a stuffed snowman and your breakfast, courtesy of A&W.

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Which meant this guy kept wandering around. Luckily he kept his distance.

Oh and when we started breakfast Abby looked like this.....

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That tooth is just barely hanging there.

And after breakfast.....

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The best part..... the tooth.... she swallowed it! Oh and the tooth fairy forgot to come last night. That's a parenting fail right there. Luckily she thinks the TF didn't come because she didn't have a tooth to leave out. So we've left a note for tonight explaining what happened.... I better remember tonight!

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This is TLP, BFF extraordinaire to Granny and it was her birthday. So Abby and I whipped up this adorable snowman cake for her. We did the candles and singing thing and then served up the cake. TLP's grand daughter took one bite of cake, dropped her fork and said ... This is gross. Luckily she's four and clearly didn't realize that I am an award winning baker, so it wasn't a huge blow to my ego. My sweet little Abby however, immediatley turned to her and said... This is my Mom's best cooking! Cute, right? Nice to know she's got my back.

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And the other cutie that belongs to me thought it was pretty good too.

So it was a big full weekend with two little ones on a 2 day Christmas/Santa bender. It's a miracle Granny and I made it through alive. Tonight we took it easy and read Santa Duck that Elwood left for us as part of our continuing 25 days celebration.

Friday, December 04, 2009

friday high five - the first few days

So the 25 days of Christmas continues to be a big hit here. So for today's Friday High Five - this is what we've been up to so far....

1. The first night we wrote our letters to Santa. You can read Abby's here. I've already warned her not to expect to get her entire list. Although she's still hoping the trampleen makes the cut. Here's a spoiler for ya - it doesn't. I helped Maya write hers:

Dear Santa and Reindeer - My name is May and I am 3 years old. For Christmas I would like Kai Lan, Dora Dances on her Toes and Hot Wheels. I want to make a different Christmas tree. I want it pink with pink icing on top and big like my Mom's. I can't wait to eat with you. Love Maya.

2. On the second day I printed out this colouring page of Santa's workshop. Abby was trying to figure out which Elf was Elwood. The note said that Elwood's buddy Noelle had drawn the picture for him. Noelle is the Christmas fairy that has been visiting The Mommy Project's house. Look at me writing crossover storylines. Maybe I can get Shonda Rimes to hire me.

3. On the third night - well that was riding lessons and parent teacher interview. Grandma Linda had picked up a huge Christmas themed search and find book. It's probably 2 feet by 2 feet. Grandma Linda and Papa were watching the girls at their place while we were at the school, so we left Elwood's note with the search and find book. So they had fun looking for candy canes, elves and whatever else was on the checklist.

4. On the fourth day, well I admit I was feeling kinda tired and my plan was to pull out one of the Christmas themed storybook I had ordered through Abby's school, when the new Tinkerbell movie - Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure started playing on Playhouse Disney. So I quickly wrote a note saying how Elwood put Tink on the TV special just for us and we should get in out jammies and snuggle on the couch while we watched it. So the kids laid all over me while I tried to knit and we watched the tinkerbell movie and Abby tried to figure out how Elwood got into our living room and put the movie on the TV.

5. Tonight we're spending the night at my Mom's. So the girls will get their note from Elwood there. (And perhaps a buck or two from the tooth fairy as well.) The note will have a password for them to use online to see their personalized message from Santa. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they watch them. The message is tailored to the person you're sending it too, little kid or adult. Should be fun. Get your own here.

And how are your 25 days going?

Thursday, December 03, 2009

reports and interviews

Well it's time once again for report cards and parent teacher interviews. I was more than a little nervous about the entire project, to be perfectly honest with you. And so was Abby. I casually mentioned the night before that report cards would be coming home the following day. A look of total fear came over her face. Her concern, when I asked - what if I get a C?

Well what if you do? It's not the end of the world. We'll just work on the trouble spots, that's all. That seemed to make her feel a little less anxious, but only made me feel more so. It's not that I was looking for, nor expecting a perfect report card. I just don't want her to struggle. I want her to keep loving school as she always has. I don't want her to get discouraged.

So the report card came home and it was pretty great really. She did bring home a c or two. She also brought home an A- in communication. That's my chatty girl! And the rest were B's. The C's were in reading and writing and since she's in resource that was no big surprise to us.

Her teacher - who I was on the fence about at the beginning of the year - had the resource teacher sit in on our parent teacher interview. The resource teacher (Mrs. P), I liked her immediately. It was plain to see why Abby enjoys her time with her. As for Abby's teacher I truly appreciate the concern she is showing for Abby's struggles with some aspects of grade 2. I am grateful for her decision to be "pro-active and not reactive" in regards to getting Abby the help she needs to get back on track. When we talked about the cues Abby gives when she's getting discouraged and down on herself, the way her body language changes I could easily tell that Miss L has paid attention to Abby and recognizes the things in her that Mike and I do. On the flip side of that, Miss L also recognizes the things in Abby that are great. That she's "sweet, helpful and has a positive impact on the classroom". That art is a true love for her and she does well at it.

So what was the consensus of the interview? They will be putting Abby on an IEP - an individual education plan. Mrs. P said to realistically expect Abby to continue with an IEP until the end of grade 2 and that may be all she requires to get back to where we need her to be. An IEP will allow them to lighten Abby's workload, to keep her from being overwhelmed and becoming more discouraged. They will also be able to assess Abby on her comprehension of the work, rather than her completed work.

All in all it's good. We're moving forward, she will be getting the help she needs. We're just waiting for the paper work for the IEP to come home. It will list her strengths and weaknesses and what the plan is. Both Mrs. P and Miss L. are confident that this will help Abby tremendously. I'm looking forward to getting started.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

what's cooking wednesday - marinated philly cheese squares.

Last Saturday night Robin showed up here with this super delicious and super easy appetizer for our first annual holiday potluck. Funnily enough I had noticed the same recipe in the latest issue of What's Cooking and was wanting to try it myself. We're so in tune like that.

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Marinated Philly Cheese Squares

1 pkg brick cream cheese
1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped red onions
1tsp lime zest
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Cut cream cheese into 32 pieces. Place in a shallow dish. Mix remaining ingredients. Pour dressing mixture over cream cheese. Refrigerate 1 hour. Serve with crackers.

Recipe Notes: This is so quick and easy to whip up and that alone makes it a great holiday recipe. There's always so much to do, it's nice to have something that helps you get out of the kitchen quickly. I'm sure it would be great if you changed up the dressing. Lots of room to get creative with this one.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday