goodbye

This afternoon we said our final goodbye to Bessie, Robin's dear sweet Nana. Robin and I have been friends for nearly twenty years and I couldn't tell you how many times I've had the pleasure of being in Nana's company at parties and special occasions. Heck, once we even teamed up with her to double cross Robin. It was pretty awesome. You see we had planned to have a shower for Robin, but we weren't sure how to get her to the party so we suggested that she have a surprise birthday party for Nana and we'd help her pull it off. So Robin told Nana that she was taking her to a strawberry social at our church and Nana, all wide eyed and innocent, said she'd love to go, so off they went. Are you following so far? So they get to the church and Robin and Nana walk in the door, Robin's yelling surprise! and Nana is saying, no the surprise is for you. So funny. Even better we had Robin there the night before decorating for "Nana's party" aka her very own shower.

She was a sweetheart of a lady and a true blessing to her family. Do you know she and her husband were married nearly 71 years? Is that incredible or what. I had the very distinct honour of making their 70th anniversary cake last year. How many times do you get to say that? Such an adorable couple. My heart broke for him today.

RIP Bessie I will miss your lovely smile.

losing a piece of myself

Not that long ago Auntie Yoli wasn't even on my radar. In fact I can't even remember meeting her for the first time. She just appeared in this gaggle of people Michael had started hanging out with at work. Then before I knew it we were socializing with this gaggle at wing nights, local festivals and in our home. It was a fun group and I loved spending time with them even if I felt a little left out when the conversation eventually turned to rants about work. The thing was Auntie Yoli didn't stand out anymore or less than anyone else in the gaggle. In fact the argument could be made that out of all of them I was closer to Karen, only because she was often on our way to wherever we were headed so we'd pick her up.

Then that thing happened that usually happens to work gaggles, people move on to new things in their lives and the gaggle grew smaller and smaller. And before I knew it the only constant left was Auntie Yoli. Even though, technically she was Mike's friend first, Auntie Yoli and I became BFF's too. If I am Gayle to Robin's Oprah then I am Nicole to Auntie Yoli's Paris. You before they did The Simple Life and started hating each other. Oh and now that they're both dating the Madden boys and I assume have patched things up.

Over the years Auntie Yoli has done all the things required to fall into that best friend category. She's loved me and my kids. We've cried some and laughed a whole lot more. She's been there for the highlights, the lowlights and all the in betweens. And when Maya finally arrived in our lives she was amongst the core of our support system as we navigated those scary first few weeks. When it came time to pick Maya's godmother, Auntie Yoli's name was on both our lips. It was an honour we were only too happy to share with her.

Tonight we were at a barbecue at Auntie Yoli's with some of that original gaggle. We shared some food and lots of laughs, but for all the fun there was a tinge of sadness, at least for me as I sat and wondered when we would all be together again. You see tomorrow Auntie Yoli is driving three hours away to look at an apartment. An apartment she plans on moving to in a few weeks time. Did I mention it was three hours away? Three hours! I can barely think about it. I can't imagine that there will be no more movie nights, dinners, barbecues, or bonfires. No shopping. No hanging out. And I'm sure there was a clause in the contract that forbade long distance Godmothering.

Auntie Yoli is attempting to help me keep it in perspective by pointing out that this move could have taken her half way across the country, but when she's not going to be in our day to day lives there doesn't seem to be much difference between a few hundred and a few thousand kilometres. And I can't even begin to express how much I am going to miss her. How much the girls will miss her.

How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
~ Carol Sobieski and Thomas Meehan (Annie)

such fun

Well it's no secret how much I love to get together with my girls, so I was super excited when Darlene invited us all to a barbecue at her place.



I wasn't sure I was going to be able to squeeze it into the busyness that is my life these days, but as luck would have it things managed to work themselves out. Which is great because I would have felt terribly left out and also Darlene is an awesome cook. I'm telling you folks, her stuffed mushrooms would make you weep. The best thing about them is they're never the same way twice, but they are always awesome. Oh and there were rumors that Kaffy was going to get tipsy and you don't want to miss out on that fun.



To make this work we had to take the girls with us which had both it's good and bad points. Great because I love to have them with me as much as I can. Annoying because Maya was a bit of a cranky pants. She's still firmly into this Muh-mee Muh-mee Muh-mee stage that I think has been going on since the day she was born. It's makes it difficult to effectively gossip with your girl friends when you have a toddler clamouring for your attention. Or crying because the scary drunk lady upset her.

It was great fun with great laughs as it always is when we get together. Thanks so much Darlene (and Tim, the grill master) Full photographic evidence is available here.

i love you yoey fa-tony

Last night Auntie Yoli and I had our big date to see Dancing With The Stars live show. It is safe to assume we were more than a little bit excited about seeing the show. That we screamed like teenaged girls may be a slight exaggeration. Maybe. As we attempted to navigate our way into the parking lot I couldn't help, but noticed that the throngs of people approaching Copps were largely made up of women. Gaggles of women all out for a girls' night. I am, however, willing to speculate that there would have been more men there if Stacy "Legs" Keibler had been on the tour. Now one thing I did immediately notice about the herds of people headed for the show was, a lot of white. I mean a lot. Of white. I'm not sure if I missed a memo, maybe something came across my desk earlier this summer and I didn't read it closely enough. Who knows, but kids there was a lot of blinding white pants, capris and kicky summer skirts. I'm pretty sure I asked, "what is with all the white?" About 45 more times than Yoli really cared to hear.

Okay so we've maneuvered our way into the actual building, the place where it's all going to go down. We hand our tickets to the door person only to have alarms go off when she tried to scan us in. Helpfully she thrust our tickets back at us and sent us to the box office with no other explanation past, "window 9". Okay so I maybe started hyperventilating a tiny bit because we clearly had counterfeit tickets and we were likely going to go to prison at which point I almost started to cry because folks, Yoli's too pretty for prison. Clearly we didn't end up in the clink, but rather the section our tickets were in they had closed, for reasons they didn't feel necessary to explain to us, so they had "relocated us". Luckily into seats right next to the young ladies with the bad attitudes and lackluster politeness skills. Good times.

As for the show, it was incredible. Yoles, had actual goosebumps, but that was just when Joe Lawrence came out. Ha! Actually don't call me Joey Lawrence got a huge cheer when he came out on stage, much to our surprise. I mean Blossom's been off the air for like a decade and I don't think Ole Joe even wants to think about how many years it's been since the Gimmie a Break hey days. For two and a half hours (with a 15 minute intermission) we saw some pretty amazing dancing. We were half way through the show before I realized the tour was made up of only guys from the show. More specifically guys named Joe (Lawrence, MacIntyre and Fatone). Oh and a little bit of Drew thrown in. The guys all performed their best dances from their season and also partook in a little singing.

Were you aware of my love for Drew Lachey? Because I am. So in love. In fact I was thisclose to buying myself a Drew Crew shirt, largely because wearing one of Joey Fatone's shirt, Fat One, seems a little like stating the obvious. I was thrilled I got to see my boy with Cheryl (who's got such an amazing back/rump area) dance to Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy and Thriller, my two favourite routines. Now if the production company for that show is smart they'll send Joey Fatone and Drew Lachey out on permanent tour cause, dudes are fuuuunnnnneee. So all in all it was an amazing night, awesome show, equally awesome company and plans to do it again next year, but we've gotta talk Mike into springing for lower bowl tickets next go around.

Now I'll close with yet another dayum that kid is funny story. As we got ready to leave for the show Abby came over to whisper in my ear. When she finished she stepped back and said, "Tell Auntie Yoli in the car Mom. Okay?"

So what did I need to tell her in the car?

"Mom, your tummy is bigger than Auntie Yoli's. Tell her in the car."

I guess I should be thankful she didn't want to embarrass me on front of Yoli's Mom and brother. Thanks for that sweetie.

whirlwind trip

So as you know I had been persuaded to take a couple of days and head of to Niagara Falls with Michael. And Yoli. Actually, Yoles was going and kindly asked if we'd like to tag along. I have to admit I was a tad resistant to going because I always am when it comes to leaving the girls, but I'm really glad I went because, oh the fun we had.



Despite efforts to the contrary, we did not end up at the same hotel as Yoles and thank God for that. Her hotel was a tad on the sketchy side. I mean nothing says high class like a sign taped to the wall encouraging you to turn off the air conditioner if you're planning on using the hair dryer. Also the exposed wiring, zip-tied together and running the length of the hallway was a nice touch.

Oh the Outlet Mall, can I tell you how much I loved it? I actually wasn't expecting much since it is a lot of higher end stores, but I always manage to stumble upon something good. I got way cute and way cheap track pants and t-shirt for Abby from Roots. Also scored some Christmas and/or birthday presents at deeply discounted prices. A quick stop into La Vie en Rose had me walking out with two bras and two pairs of undies for a mere $26. Oh yes, you did read that right. And not boring white either, try lime green and soft pink. Very nice.

At some point in the day I decided Maya needed a pair of crocs. Operating on assurance from the shoe store lady that crocs in a size 4/5 did indeed exist, Mike, Yoles and I traipsed in and out of every gift shop in the falls trying to find a pair. They were not to be had. So instead I picked up a mauve pair in size 6/7 which we could have bought at the first store we were in. For the record they are big on Maya's little bricks, but she can still wear them now and there's lots and lots of growing room. And the best part, Maya LOVES them.

Our room rocked. Mostly because we had this...



We are such rock stars that we soaked in it and watched HGTV. Oh yeah, we know how to par-tay. Oh did I mention that Yoli's room only got 5 channels, one of which was our local station from home.

We also hit up the Hershey store for fudge (me) and chocolate covered strawberries (Yoli). Oh and I should mention that eating chocolate covered strawberries on the street will likely result in dripping strawberry juice down your shirt. It may also make you put your head between a Mountie's legs.



Oh we walked and walked and walked some more. All so we could stuff ourselves at Tony Roma's and not feel guilty about all the fudge I was going to eat later.

We planned on killing half and hour in the Clifton Hill arcade until the fireworks started, but what can I tell you, that skeeball is damn addicting.



Heading back to our rooms for the evening, we were stopped at a red light when we heard a huge crash. The cop across the intersection from us was attempting to make a left hand turn, instead he jumped the median and took out the road sign, knocking it into our lane of traffic. Even though the light was now green for us the whole intersection came to a complete standstill for several moments. I can only imagine how embarrassed that cop was.



The entire two days was just so much fun that we're planning on doing it again next year! Can't wait!!



full photographic evidence here

yo! happy birthday

Today is the day we celebrate Auntie Yoli and we are big Auntie Yoli fans around here. Ever wonder why? Here's the top 32 reasons.

1. She's Mike's best friend.
2. She's my best friend.
3. She's Abby's Auntie Yoli and there's not a whole lot better than that.
4. She's Maya's Godmother.
5. She's Italian, but she still thinks I make a pretty good lasagna.
6. She doesn't mind a chuckle at her expense.
7. She's been known to fall asleep on our couch when watching a movie.
8. She's took Maya overnight at the height of the sleeping issues just so I could get a decent night's sleep.
9. She met Mike at the hospital during the heart attack/allergic reaction scare even after he told us both he was fine to go on his own.
10. She was a huge support during Maya's hospital stay.
11. She bought Maya her first pair of shoes.
12. She's often the first to arrive at any event we might be hosting.
13. She's been to Abby's swimming lessons.
14. She makes a pretty mean lemon square.
15. She's blended in seamlessly with our family. It's like she's been here all along.
16. She lets me bitch if I need to.
17. She takes being an Aunt/Godmother very seriously.
18. She invited us on her whirl wind trip to the falls.
19. We had an amazing time despite her staying in the ghetto.
20. She invited us to her family birthday dinner.
21. She picks up little gifts for the kids.
22. She helped me search in a million gift shops trying to find crocs for Maya.
23. Our relationship is comfortable.
24. And relaxed.
25. Her laugh is contagious.
26. She is a friend you could call in the middle of the night if you needed too.
27. She is the perfect compliment to "original BFF" Robin.
28. She is oh so very funny.
29. She's my Dancing With the Stars date and I couldn't think of a better person to go with.
30. She's dedicated & loyal.
31. She's amazing and a true testament to how she was raised.
32. Family is huge with her and I'm so glad we get to be apart of hers.

Happy birthday Auntie Yoli. We love you!

we roasted our weenies

Tonight we celebrated the fourth annual Roast Your Weenie Event. Actually I wasn't aware this was our fourth year, but thankfully Jason's been keeping track at home. It hasn't always been the Roast Your Weenie Event, in fact I just came up with that name this year because I'm cheeky like that. Plus when I created an event page on Facebook I needed a name, but it seems like a good name and I thinking it will probably stick.

Roast Your Weenie is a fun night. We have it on or very near Canada Day and it's a laid back evening. Refreshments consist of whatever you bring in your cooler, hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and roasting forks. This year we offered a few upgrades like chocolate covered graham crackers to eat with the roasted marshmallows and mexican pizza, supplied by Robin, as always. Tonight was a perfect night for a bonfire, nice and cool. The skids Mike had collected burnt nicely and were only vaguely redneck-ish..

Another great thing about Roast Your Weenie is it's a little high school reunion of sorts. Well really it's Mike's work friends but oddly enough he works/worked with a lot of people we went to high school with or who are married to people we went to high school with. It is surprising to me some times that I still have these people in my life. High school seems so very long ago. We actually don't see each other much through out the year, but it's nice we've stumbled upon this tradition and I hope it continues for many many years. Thanks to all who attended. See you next year!



full photographic evidence here

You've got a friend in me.

This blogging thing is an interesting ride. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting when I started this, but here I am and I have to admit, I kind of really like it. I like to think my writing has improved, that I'm a little bit funnier, a little more concise, a little more interesting, well I hope it I am anyway. I've even managed to garner a tiny little following. Sure it's largely made up of family and the girls from work, but hey I'm not complaining.

What I've come to discover recently is you can get quite a feeling of community from blogging. Case in point, the always amazing Sognatrice from bleeding espresso fame suddenly went AWOL. Now I have been a faithful reader of hers since she started her blog and she was my first really regular commenter here. And there's not a blogger alive who doesn't live for the comments. She had me at hello. After one day had turned to two days, then three and four and so on, I have to admit, I started to worry. Where could she have gone? What horrible thing had happened to keep her form her daily posting? When another day went by I knew I had to take action. So I fired off an email to the other side of the world and basically said HEY, WHERE ARE YA?

Turns out she's fine, well as fine as anybody can be who just lived through a week with no internet. Being the nice lady she is, she replied to my email, thanking me for my concern and telling me she'd received multiple emails that expressed similar sentiments. That led to a tiny conversation about the blogging community. More specifically, how do we label these new people in our lives? Let's take sognatrice for example, living on the other side of the world as she does, it's not likely we will meet face to face and yet she knows tons about me, my kids and my Michael. She could totally go out for a girl's night and hold her own with my "real life" BFF's. And yet do I refer to her as my friend in conversation? No I do not. Instead I try to explain this bizarre online world us bloggers inhabit and if you aren't a blogger, odds are you just won't get it.

So what is exactly to be done about this? Well, I for one am taking a stand. I may not ever stand face to face with sognatrice. I may not be available to give her a hug when she's having a bad day. She may not be handy when I'm stuck for a babysitter. She might not be close enough to cook me one of her fabulous pasta dinners. I say despite all that we are friends. It may not be traditional or even conventional, but it doesn't make it any less true.

That was close.

If you have the extreme pleasure of knowing us in real life then you likely know that Michael has a serious shellfish allergy. While we do take precautions and try and be careful, to be honest we really aren't careful enough. We get lulled into a false sense of security because it's a shellfish allergy in an adult, not a peanut allergy in a three year old. That in itself makes it easy to downplay the risks. One thing we do and really shouldn't is eat at Chinese Buffets. It is so easy for cross contamination to occur in a situation like that and it often does or at least that's what Mike's swelling lips tell us. And yet we still go back, but after the events of the last 24 hours I am putting my foot down and saying no to buffets and very likely Chinese food in all it's forms.

Yesterday Mike went out for lunch with some work friends to our local Chinese Buffet restaurant. I will mention here that we've eaten there many many times over the years without incident. However, since the original owners sold the restaurant we've had a couple of cross contamination issues with just some very minor swelling. Yesterday not long after beginning his lunch Mike began to experience sharp pains in his chest and difficulty breathing. Yoli was convinced he was having a heart attack. Mike was certain this cold he'd been battling had turned into pneumonia. With out family doctor out on holiday Yoli convinced Mike to go to a walk in clinic. The doctor there heard chest pains and shortness of breath and stopped listening. He was insistent that Mike go to emergency and have a ECG immediately.

Now the original plan had the girls going to Papa and Grandma Linda's while I joined Mike at the hospital. With absolutely no idea how long he was going to be Mike decided to go on his own and I would stay with the girls. Even though he insisted he'd be fine and refused to let me come with him, I knew he probably would have liked me to go. Luckily just after he left I talked to Yoles and she immediately went down to keep him company and I am glad she did. Mike ended up having an ECG that was fine, the next step was bloodwork to check for a blood clot. For some reason before they did that Yoli thought to ask if this could possibly be an allergic reaction. Bingo.

According to the doctor over time your body can change how it reacts to an allergy. This time Mike's esophagus was doing the exact opposite of what it is supposed to do and that's what was causing the pain and shortness of breath. I was so relieved to hear that, great it's not his heart or a blood clot, phew! Then I thought, hey dumb ass he could have died. An allergy of this magnitude should never be taken lightly and that's exactly what we were doing. We got off so very lucky this time. Thanks again Yoles for going with him. You're the best!

In other allergy news, Abby had a couple of hives pop on her person this afternoon. Just behind her ear. My neighbour thought it might be lice, so she gave a quick check but found nothing. We did a quick check of her torso and it was clear. I have no idea what could have triggered that. Also Maya's face broke out in hives this afternoon at the sitters. She got a dose of allergy meds and was fine. It appears Fruit Loops (I'm thinking food dye) was the culprit. So yeah, fun times. I'm thinking it's time for the girls to have allergy tests done, to see what of anything we're dealing with here.

A $15 nap

We live on a mountain that's not really a mountain. If you've ever seen a mountain, it's pretty obvious our little hill has no business calling itself one and yet it does. Or I guess, more accurately we do. Us locals.

Local #1: Where are you going?
Local #2: I'm going down the mountain.

Local #1: Where do you live?
Local #2: I live up the mountain.

So anyway tonight we rounded the last curve before heading down the mountain, it was dark, the city lights were lit. And from the back seat; "Wow Mom! You can see everything from up here!"

Now what exactly were we doing heading down the mountain, after dark no less, on this bitterly cold evening? We (Mike, Yoli, Abby and I) had tickets to see the Bulldogs play the Marlies. We were looking forward to seeing the game, but more importantly we went for this.



Somewhere in that gaggle of kids is Nikki, who had the extreme pleasure of singing the national anthem tonight before the game. Oddly enough, although maybe just to me, they sang the American national anthem even though it was two Canadian teams playing. I guess us Canadians are just uber respectful that way.



So this was Abby's first hockey game and she was very excited to go.

A Hockey Game Timeline

First Period

00:30 - Abby turns to Mike and asks "When are they going to fight?"
04:26 - Hamilton scores, Abby cheers.
05:00 - Abby requests that I switch seats with her so she can sit next to Nikki.
06:12 - Abby dances wildly after being encouraged by the guy in that creepy dog costume.
07:22 - Mike comes thisclose to getting a shirt that was shot out of a cannon. I remind him that's how Maude Flanders died.
07:48 - Toronto scores, Abby cheers.
08:39 - Toronto scores, Abby cheers.
10:11 - Shattered glass halts the game for many minutes.
10:39 - Hamilton scores, Abby cheers.
12:48 - Toronto scores, Abby cheers.
13:45 - Abby asks if it's time to go home yet.
13:56 - Abby tells me she'd like to go home because she misses her bedroom.
15:17 - Hamilton scores, Abby cheers.

Second Period

02:32 - Abby puts her head down on my lap.



04:17 - Abby sleeps on me.
06:29 - In her best impression of a lap dog, Abby turns three complete circles in her seat before curling herself up into the tiniest ball and resumes sleeping.



07:21 - Abby sleeps on Allison.
11:22 - Toronto scores, Abby sleeps.

Third Period

04:52 - Abby wakes up and desperately has to pee.
05:48 - Abby wants to watch what's left of the game from the concourse level.
19:24 - Hamilton scores, Abby asks if the game is over yet.

Overtime

03:54 - Abby decides we need to return to our seats.

Shoot out - Abby cheers for each shot on net and then immediately asks if it's time to go home yet.

The Ride Home

01:12 - Abby asks when can we go again.

Happy Birthday Darlene

Last night I had the pleasure of attending my friend Darlene's 40th birthday party. Actually it was a joint birthday party for her and her Dad, who was celebrating his 75th. Since we had babysitter issues I went as Nancy's date while Mike held down the fort with the kids. Saturday night was the kind of night I love. I am very fortunate that I get to work with friends and as much fun as we can have at work it's always a great time to have fun outside of work. Especially if Kathy's there. And especially if she's drinking. There's your entertainment, enjoy! For the record, she did not disappoint. Nancy was in excellent form herself, at one point throwing her hat in the ring and declaring herself the father of Anna Nicole's baby. Which was funny, but no where near as funny as Kathy asking us about K- os, which as any slightly hip person will tell you is a Canadian rapper and is pronounced chaos, not kay- ohs. We'll be laughing about that one for a long time.



Now Darlene's birthday is actually on Wednesday, Valentine's Day (which was also supposed to be Maya's due date), but since I'm posting pictures from her party now I thought it was a good enough time as any to let you in on the top 40 reasons I love Darlene.



1. She's funny. Oh so funny.
2. She's loyal.
3. She likes the same TV shows I do.
4. She lets me vent.
5. I let her vent.
6. She's an animal lover.
7. She was willing to entrust one of her kitties to me.
8. She wasn't at all offended in the end when we weren't able to take her.
9. Actually she was happier that Sugar ended up staying.
10. She always slips a KitKat bar in with my gift.
11. She slipped me KitKat bars when I was pregnant.
12. She calls me Shammon.
13. She thinks my kids are cute.
14. She hates that Mike uses my MSN.
15. She's trustworthy.
16. She thinks I'm trustworthy.
17. She likes when I feature her in my MSN tagline. Right now it says Happy Birthday to my Darlene!
18. The DVD I made impressed her.
19. She gives a good hug.
20. We've cried with each other many many times.
21. Her, me and a cardboard box scared the life out of Kaffy.
22. She loves my Mom.
23. She can appreciate complex family dynamics.
24. She knows what the problem areas are in my life and asks how they are.
25. She's got my back.
26.I'm glad she's on my side cause I'd hate to go against her.
27. She's strong willed.
28. And yet she's sensitive.
29. She has amazing hair.
30. She takes great care of her parents.
31. She has a pretty great husband.
32. She has a lot of style.
33. She loves a good bargain as much as I do.
34. I've always really liked her hand writing.
35. She and some red food colouring really scared the life out of Kaffy.
36. Her and I keep the Kaffy nickname going.
37. She likes country music, I like country music.
38. She loves to take pictures.
39. She likes to see my pictures.
40. I'm lucky I get to call her my friend.

Check out the photographic evidence here.

Friday Favourites - Robin, my Oprah

Abby: Mom are we done celebrating for Jesus yet?
Me: Almost, yes.
Abby: Then can we put the pool up?

Yes we are finally winding up the Christmas season of 2006. Tonight we had dinner with Robin, Tim and the girls. Abby had been dying to go all day. She spent about an hour carefully packing her backpack full of toys, movies and books. Then spent another hour wearing it around the house and asking every 30 seconds if we could please, please, puh-lease leave. The spirit crushing hold-up was Maya, who, today of all days, decided to add another hour to her afternoon nap.

So as I had mentioned Christmas funds were tight this year so the Christmas gifts weren't as extravagant as they have been in years past.



Here's Courtney opening her gift of two pennies and a Polly Pocket purse. What can I say I blew the Christmas budget on decoupage glue for Dave's gift. By the time I got to the girls there wasn't much left to play with.

Actually that is Abby's gift to Courtney. I was only half paying attention this afternoon as Abby gathered up little Christmas presents for Robin and the girls. She had found in the china cabinet the little keepsake boxes my Mom had given me for Abby and Maya. Boxes I have yet to fill with the requisite lock of hair, hospital ID bracelet and first tooth. So tonight as we unwrapped our gifts Abby disappeared down the hall and returned with her stack of keepsake boxes. One box at a time she delivered them to Robin and each of her girls. Their gifts were as much a surprise to me as they were to them.



These are the "gifts". From the top left we have one package of Laffy Taffy, one uncanceled stamp from a Christmas card, two pennies and a Polly Pocket purse, a handful of tiny cows, an elastic headband and another handful of tiny cows. Just random things she had collected from around the house. Mike had no idea she had done this and I had only vaguely paid attention to what she was doing so we were both a bit choked up by it. I think this might beat Mike falling out of the shower as my favourite Christmas moment.

Christmas with Robin is always a bit awkward for me because she's Oprah and I'm Gayle. Meaning we are BFF's in the truest sense of the world. I love her like no other. She's one of the greatest gifts in my life. It also means she's much richer than I am. So Oprah's gift to Gayle is Josh Groban appearing to serenade her and Gayle gives Oprah a decoupaged pickle jar. It's that kind of relationship. I try not to stress about it because it is what it is. Robin is certainly one of the most generous people I have met in my life and she spoils us.

On top of spoiling me this Christmas she felt it necessary to take me to school by serving up perfect punch tonight. The same punch that I massacred at our Christmas party last month. Maybe I'll play it safe and get her to make it for Maya's birthday party.

And this;



is to help with the problem of the burnt fondue. I cannot wait to give this a try.

So after the food was eaten, the girls had danced themselves silly to the Minipops and Nickelback, Abby and Kailey had taken turns crying about what the other had said/done and Maya had been "babysat" to death it was time to take the traditional Moms and daughters picture.



Photographic evidence of the entire evening is located here.

I Think There's a Wire Crossed Somewhere

So how was your weekend? Really? Oh, that's nice. Me? Oh I had a good weekend. It was busy. Full, but I managed to muddle my way through it. And by that I mean;

• I invited Robin, Tim and the kids over with promises of feeding them. Then I totally forgot that I'd said that and didn't feed them. I remembered an *hour* after they left for home. Surprisingly enough Robin is still talking to me. True story.
  
• We had a family reunion of sorts with Mike's (step) sisters and their families. It was great fun and we'd really been looking forward to it. We haven't all been together in.... well I can't really remember the last time. So it was a bit awkward in the beginning, of course that may have just been me because I'm awkward in social settings. Still we managed to have a good time, ate lots of Chinese food and are going to make plans to do it again soon. It was on the way home at 9:30 that Mike reminded me that Sunday (that would be in 12 hours) was White Gift Sunday at church. I needed sandwiches for lunch, a gift for a 5 - 12 year old girl and canned goods. Guess who didn't have sandwiches, a gift or canned goods? All I can say is thank God for Grandma Linda. Of course after she bailed me out I couldn't help but feel horribly guilty about not having my shit together.
  
• Then Sunday, because screwing over one friend just wasn't enough, I went ahead and made plans with Grandma Sandi. I, of course, already had plans with my BFF Nicole that I completely forgot about as soon as someone mentioned free Chinese food. Yep, I can be bought for an eggroll. To make matters worse I had practically begged Nic to come over and watch a movie with me. Surprisingly, she is still talking to me as well.

So yeah, I am the shit. Or a shit. I'm just glad the weekend is over and I still have friends.

Despite the inner workings of my brain being slightly askew, I still managed to pull this kick ass ensemble together for Abby.



Mike couldn't believe I was sending her to church like that. He didn't realize it was stylish. What do expect from a guy who only wears blue, black and gray? Abby loved it, she kept trying to pose like a supermodel when I took this picture. She knew she was very fashion forward. It was a big hit at church and the anniversary party we went too.

I'll close with another picture of Abby, again with the red boots. Light flurries started to fall this afternoon just after 4, by 6:30 the ground was covered and Abby was itching to go sledding and make a snow angel. She settled for eating handfuls of snow until frostbite started to set in. I guess winter has finally arrived.

Ho Ho Ho Hum

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas. I'm just feeling crammed full of Christmas cheer after taking the girls to the Santa Claus parade today. It was a perfect day for it, not too cold, last year we froze our asses off. Robin, Tim and the girls and Hope, Aaron and the kids met us. Oh and Papa too. We had quite a gaggle of kids (8 of them) to enjoy the parade with. I love the Santa Claus parade and look forward to it every year and we've never been disappointed. Until this year. This year's parade was poorly organized. There was large gaps between some floats and some that were almost marching on top of each other. Then you'd have a section of the parade that was travelling at hyperspeed to make up the difference. It was chaotic.

One thing I love about the parade is hearing the bands play Christmas music. This year the number of bands was minimal. Or wait is there something below minimal? At least our favourite band was there, with our favourite drummer.



Hi Grandma Linda!!

There were some large scale regular parade participants missing this year. Dofasco's massive tin Christmas scene float for one. The highlight for me this year was the bridal party having their pictures done at the Scottish Rite across the street.



Look closely, did you notice their special guest? I'll give you a hint.... it's Spiderman. They had a guy dressed up in a Spiderman costume at their wedding. And a guy playing bagpipes. That's how you know it's high class right there.

Santa wasn't even the biggest hit of the parade. He kind of snuck up on us with little fan fare. Dora, Elmo, Cinderella, SpongeBob and Scooby Doo got the big applause. I think that pretty much says it right there. That Santa, the headliner, can't get any love at his own parade.

The best part of the day came after the parade. Robin, Tim and the girls came back to our place for some pizza. I love spending time with Robin (and her family). Robin's my girl. My BFF. We're like Oprah and Gayle, only white and not rich. Plus I like to think I don't annoy Robin half as much as Gayle annoys Oprah. So the grown ups got to talk and the kids played. The older girls argued over looked after Maya and there was no fighting, yelling, whining or crying coming from the toy room. Who could ask for a better night then that?



You can check out more pictures from today at flickr.