Filed under: Get All Mushy, Holidays, In The Kitchen, My Kids, Things I Do, Things I Make | Tags: burn-out, Christmas, gifts, holiday, shopping, strategies, thrifting
When I was a kid I loved Christmas — I adored the cheesy music, the month-long anticipation of The Big Day had me unable to sit still, I couldn’t get enough of the various preparations for family meals, church services, concerts, and school break. This love of the Holiday was still so strong with me that when I met DH we had to strike a compromise in which I could only start listening to Christmas music on December 1st or as soon as the first snow fell — whichever came first. Given we lived in Nova Scotia, I never got to start early (though the arrangement had to be modified once we moved to Ottawa!).
As an adult, though, I started losing the excitement and joy — there wasn’t any fun in picking out gifts for people, the malls were a torture to be avoided if at all possible, and I even stopped loving the music as much. Christmas had become a chore. I was done. Once the kids were here, we kept it pretty simple but a big part of me craved to recapture the excitement I remembered from my own childhood.
Filed under: Get All Mushy, Listen to Stuff, Make Lists of Things, My Kids, People I Know, Superheroes, Things I Do, Things I Read, Torchdrool, Unrequited Lust For Jim, Vacation, Watch Stuff, Work at Susie's | Tags: Alex Beecroft, blue rodeo, Bluesfest, extraordinary baby shoppe, Jim Cuddy - sex god, torchwood
I’ve been quiet on the blog front for a bit — busy with vistors, work, and other stuff. Thus, I shall do one of those convenient point-form posts to catch you all up on what’s going down in my life:
Filed under: Awkward Conversations, Drama, Get All Mushy, My Kids, People I Know, Things I Overheard | Tags: kids, overheard, running away, transition
Three years ago, H (my childhood BFF) moved to Ottawa.
It was weird and exciting, as we’d been pretty out of touch with each other’s lives for our 20’s — saving sporadic contact for weddings and congrats at the safe delivery of babies, etc. I was really glad to have the opportunity to get reacquainted and relieved that, despite the years of radio silence, she was still the same person I remembered.
What I didn’t anticipate was the connection she’d forge with my kids. My oldest was intrigued by the adult who didn’t speak down to him and taught him the basics of chess. My youngest fell head over heels in love, creating detailed stories about what they’d do when he grew up — always ending in marrying her.
With H moving to Alberta, I was anticipating a bit of fall-out — not from #1, as he easily rationalized it and decided he could talk to her on the computer or in email — but from my youngest, for whom going away is still rather mixed up with the “going away” that happened when his Grammie died this winter.
Nothing prepared me for what actually happened.
