The best week of the year

Christmas this year was good to us.  The past few we/I have felt like we are trying to understand how to make Christmas work with our kids.  How to not overwhelm Grace.  How to go at their pace.  And each year we do less, which in essence, creates more.  More space to be.  Together, to play, to love, to laugh, to rejoice in the people we have around us who make this life so much better. 

And, despite how great this Christmas was, I still LOVE the week after Christmas.  I always have.  There is this quiet peace that lingers after so much festivity, and with more festivity to come.  This pause between Christmas and New Years that allows people to just be.  Or so it seems.  I absolutely adore it.

We haven't done much this week.  We've slept in, hung out in our pyjamas.  My hubby and Grace have sunk their noses into their newest books.  Aidan has continued being two - laughing, running, playing, learning new words seemingly daily.  I've been usually found with knitting needles in my hands. 

And as 2011 soon comes to a close I'm starting to reflect on all 2011 was.

- Aidan turned one.  He has learned to walk, talk, jump, skip, and has turned into an amazing little boy. 
- Grace turned four.  Four has been a harder year for us, but despite the emotional challenges four has brought about, there is also this caring amazing girl who shines through more and more each day. 
- We took trips to BC with my parents, and then Hawaii in the Fall.
- Nate and I celebrated 9 years of marriage. 
- Nate finished off a long year of night shifts and our family regained some normalcy.
- I started teaching some knitting classes in the Fall at a local yarn store.  This has expanded into the Spring as well.  I absolutely love being able to share my love of yarn and needles :)

I'm not one to make resolutions.  But, 2012 will be a big year for our family.  I'm excited.  There will most likely be career changes, a trip to Anaheim to celebrate a 5th birthday, a sweet boy soon turning 2, and Kindergarten in the Fall.  I have a crazy personal challenge to knit as many projects as my age.  That means 33 this year. I did just eek out my 32nd project this week.  Good thing I knit lots of little things for little people.  Somehow in there I want to knit as many socks as possible.  Is it too lofty to aim for 12?

Tomorrow, after dinner with friends, I'll be ringing in the New Year at home, with a movie, and a new knitting project on the needles.

Thanks for journeying through 2011 with me.  Here's to 2012!

A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

From our home to yours....

We wish you the very merriest Christmas :)

Week Full

I didn't expect to be away from this space for so long.  Starting December 16th things got busy around here.  Most I can't share, but for the most part, all extremely wonderful.  But between all the changes we were going through and thinking about, there were also Christmas activities.  Life got busy.  Busier than I usually like it at this time of year.

One thing I can share with you is we purchased a new to us car.  Our little Civic had been SO good to us.  It was purchased with the hope of a family, selling my most beloved VW Beetle.  That Civic brought home Grace, and then Aidan from the hospital.  It had numerous family outings to the mountains, kept us safe around town, and in all of its 114000K with us, never had any huge mechanical issues.  Only issue was space.  The trips I made to BC with the kids, it was good in a space way, that Nate wasn't with us.  I had the trunk packed full, the space under the kids feet, and the front seat.  Space in the Civic with two kids was a little tight.

Enter the Mazda 5. 

(photo from the dealership website)



I was at a playdate last week and my friends cousin was visiting.  She was driving a Mazda 5 and I noticed it had 6 car seats.  It was a lightbulb.  Nate and I knew we didn't need the space of a van, nor could we afford one.  I came home and did some work, and found a 2012 Mazda 5 with just over 20,000K for a steal of a deal.  The deal got sweeter when they appraised our Honda at the same price we would have wanted to sell it at privately.  For a VERY minimal cost, two days ago, our new wagon was parked in our driveway. 

I'm adjusting to the length, and to driving an automatic.  But I LOVE the extra room in the back with the back row seats folded down.  Grace is already practicing buckling and un-blucking herself.  She's determined to sit in that back row.  Funny girl.  I feel very blessed that this vehicle seemed to have been waiting just for us. 

This week also found me wrapping up (literally) those projects I mentioned in my last post. 

Erin's tree skirt.  I struggled with the free motion quilting.  Hard to do on my little Singer.  But I think it turned out pretty good for something that will be covered with presents :)



 Aidan's elf shoes.  These are seriously sweet.  I felted them in my front loader which worked like a charm.  They match up to his size 7 shoes.  You can find the pattern here.  I used Cascade 220 yarn.

This little fairy is by Susan B. Anderson and came out in the Knit Simple Holiday 2011 magazine.  It's a great project for using up scrap sock yarn, but is a little tedious and requires quite a bit of seaming (just a warning).  The flower pulls up into a pouch to carry the fairy in.  It's incredibly sweet :)

I have decided to gift the kids their handknits tomorrow night, rather than trying to fight with Santa on Christmas morning.  I hope they absolutely adore them. 

I hope this past week of yours has been one of quiet preperation.  With the last stitch being cast off on the fairy last night, today passed quietly.  Nate finished work early, and it was such a nice surprise to come home from picking Grace up at school, to find him at home.

I'm excited for this weekend, for watching Aidan re-discover Christmas, and for Grace sharing the magic with him. 

Tomorrow:  Making cookies for Santa.  Grace wants sugar cookies, cut out as Santa, with pink icing, and craisins on them.  Sounds interesting.  I hope Santa likes them ;)

Merry Christmas to you & yours!

Causing Panic

Grace likes to tell me whenever Aidan is getting into something he usually shouldn't "Aidan is causing panic!".  It makes me chuckle everytime.  It hit me on the 14th that it was 10 days until Christmas Eve.  Eeep!  I have caused myself some panic.

This year, I made a decision not to go crazy trying to do a whole swack of handmade gifts for people.  Last year, up until the last minute, I was busy knitting away.  Two scarfs, a cowl, a pair of fingerless mitts, and two animals for the kids.  Phew!  Scarfs seem easy.  After all they are just long and skinny.  Key there is LONG.  And I tend to notice scarves take a long time to knit.  To knit and gift someone with a scarf, shows a whole bunch of love and care for that person.  (I think anyways, coming from a knitters perspective).

So this year, I did things a little different.  I gifted out of the sheer joy of gifting, outside of the Christmas season.  Giving a couple people a little unexpected knitterly surprise.

First, after Grace's surgery, I wanted to do something for her surgeon.  And I wanted to do something to recognize his skilled hands.  I went up to my stash and found the perfect skein.  So perfect it was, to be honest, slightly hard to part with.  I then called the two men I know who are tall (Dr. Fraulin is at least 6'7.  No really, I asked the nurse).  Once I had the hand measurement of the other two guys, I set to knitting Dr. Fraulin a pair of mitts.  He was smitten with them.  When we went back for our return visit last week, he came in the room with a smug smile on his face and asked "Did you knit me more mittens?" :)

You may also recall I made a cowl for my girlfriend to keep her toasty warm.  She is Canadian (now) but her roots are in England.  All this snow gets the best of her every year.  Heck, it gets the better of me too, but I grew up here so I have a certain tolerance of having to just cope and get through it.  She too loved it.

So all I am left with are these:

A semi-secret project.  Um, it was a birthday gift... from last May.  But it is destined to be under a tree, and today is Dec.  15th.  Ahem.

Almost there.  A pair of elf slippers for Aidan.  One done, one almost there.  But they still need to be felted.  Since I no longer have a top load washing machine, this requires an evening trip out to my Moms.

And this?  Ha!  It's Grace's fairy.  Yes, still to start.  To be honest, this has me the most concerned.  For others who I have seen knit these, it has taken them a few days.  And given G is with me most of the time, it's pretty hard to find time to knit in secret.  And we are running out of days.

Slight panic. (Must also say, this panic is caused by my own skill of procrastination).

Is anything out there causing you panic 10 days til Christmas?

Easy to Please

 I bought coffee beans when we were in Hawaii, but I didn't have a grinder in order to be able to use them.  So I added one to my Christmas list.  I found a great deal on one in the flyers this past weekend, and not so secretly pointed it out to Nate, who informed me he had other plans for my gifts, and I should just go get it myself.  Wheee!  While Grace was in school this morning, Aidan and I headed to the store to pick up this fantastic device.

 This my friends, is sweetness.  I don't typically drink drip coffee, but I have very fond memories of waking up in the morning when I was little, and smelling the aroma of coffee brewing for my Mom & Dad.  The smell of coffee still brings a smile to my face.

Ah!  A homemade Caramel Macchiato, and my Ipad turned to my blog list to do some great reading.  This latte tastes so smooth it is pretty remarkable.  Starbucks may not see me for a month or so while I work through these fantastic Hawaiian beans.

I hope you too are having a great Wednesday.

Now you see it...

Now you don't :)

Yesterday was our check-up at the Children's Hospital. Dr. Fraulin was happy with how her scar was healing, and said we could take the compression bandage off. Grace has been wearing it 24/7 so we were both pretty pleased with that news. I ran out of medical tape the night before the appointment. I took that as a good sign, and it was! Grace has also been given the clear to jump, run, and play. She can be a kid again, and I don't need to monitor her every move. Relief. There is still some remnant skin leftover from the hemangioma which is why there is purple near the centre. This will fade over time, and I told Dr. Fraulin that if it doesn't, that's ok. It's a reminder of what was. We will still continue to see the clinic, in six months for another check up of the scar, but also to monitor the hemangioma on her jaw. As we left the clinic Grace asked "Will we come back again?" I smiled and told her "Yes, otherwise Dr. Fraulin would miss us" :)


Doesn't it look beautiful?

Sick Days

My two pigeons are sick (yes, I call them pigeons.  I'm not sure why, given I don't think pigeons are all that endearing, but the word just comes out of my mouth).

Grace came down with "it" on Sunday afternoon.  It hit rather suddenly and she just wanted to nap.  We asked her if she was ok and we got the "YES, I'm just tired!".  Alrighty.  She spiked a small temperature, we gave her tylenol and sent her to bed.  We went about our normal Monday.  Then Tuesday came.  I came home from teaching (another story, but a great one) and Grace was crying/moaning in her bed.  She was making an awful raspy noise when breathing.  A call to healthlink (a 24 hour nursing hotline) reassured me that it wasn't necessarily croup and they weren't concerned.  By Wednesday morning (after a long night of waking every 20 minutes... which means I'm not necessarily sure anyone slept) she could hardly talk.

We saw a new Dr. yesterday afternoon who said her throat, ears, and breathing all seem fine.  He thinks it is due to the cold weather an dthe breathing tube from her surgery (I still have a hard time believing this given her surgery was three weeks ago... but I'm no Dr.  Just following that Mom intuition).

But I'm going with the Mom intuition that it is just some sort of nasy viral bug they are fighting.  When we got home from the Dr. "it" hit Aidan.  He fell asleep on his little couch, and spiked a minor temperature.  This means if he follows the same course as G, that tomorrow night could be a long one.

Today I am thankful for tylenol, thermometers, hot air humidifiers (I had to rush out last night to buy a second one), and that we have made it almost two years before they have both been sick at the same time.  And it's not Christmas yet.  Thankful for that too.  Sick before Christmas is much better than sick at Christmas.

Being Real About Christmas Spirit

My girlfriend Alicia wrote this post awhile back, about the reality of her day to day life.  How in the blog world, it is easy for just the good and great to be written about, not also the rawness of our days.  I had a few thoughts initially about this - the first being if we all wrote about the hard stuff, who would want to read it?  And second, does writing about what goes on on a day to day basis expose the "bad" side of our families.  I don't think so.  I think what it does show, is underneath all the crafts, the knitting, (the coffee consumption), that my family is just like any other family.  So let's begin.

We found out a couple weeks ago that the kids Christmas party hosted by Nate's company was at capacity so our family couldn't attend.   They usually have jugglers, face painting, balloon creations, a Santa, so I wanted to re-create this the best we could.  What I found was Christmas in the Rockies.  It didn't disappoint.

We headed out Saturday morning, before Aidan's nap, hoping, but knowing he wouldn't, nap in the car.  We took in popcorn and hot chocolate, a puppet show about the areas of conservation in Canada (very informative), then we divded up and stood in line for the rest of the events.  All in all about a 45 minute wait for each.  My Dad stood in line for the face painting, Nate and I stood in line for Santa photos, and Grace and my Mom stood in the mass waiting for balloon creatures.  We scored there - they had one no other child was claiming, so we took it as our own.  Grace quickly got over the fact it wasn't pink.

This is the closest Grace has gotten to Santa in two years.  She was holding my hand - lol.

This brought us to 4 o'clock.  We hit McDonalds.  (Writing that makes me cringe a little.  It is not my happiest place on Earth).  The Santa Claus parade was at 5:30 pm.  It was 4:30, the kids were starting to crash, the only thing keeping Aidan sort of content was his soother, but we knew leaving meant more tears from Grace.  So we waited it out.  It was worth it.  Aidan's eyes got as big as little saucers when he saw the trucks go by.  All told there were two Grinches with their dogs, one Mrs. Claus, one St. Nick and a whole lot of festive.

 My Mom with the kids looking at the Ice Sculptures pre-parade.

We left Banff shortly after 6 pm and a snowstorm hit the highway about 7 pm.  We safely arrived home around 8 and tucked the kids into bed.  It was a full full day.  I don't know what I was thinking come Sunday morning. 

See I love Christmas.  I love decorating the house.  I think it should all be this perfect family photo opportunity.  What I was forgetting was that I had two tired kids, and a hubby who doesn't put as much emphasis on it as I do.  And I think it would have gone swimmingly had Aidan not fallen down the stairs.

Here's what happened.  Nate pulled the tree out of our undeveloped basement.  This means the stairs are wood, and lead to a concrete floor.  I went downstairs to find the other boxes we needed, Nate was upstairs with the tree.  Aidan was still wearing his sleeper pyjamas (the ones with the feet) and one of Grace's princess dresses.  This is a point of contention for Nate who thinks he shouldn't be wearing dresses.  I always inform him that he didn't grow up with sisters.  It's just the way it is.  My poor brother wore make-up and had his hair crimped, and I played with Tonka Trucks.  But, Aidan went to come downstairs, which he has always done successfully, but tripped on the dress.  It sent him falling down the stairs, landing on the concrete floor.  We both rushed to him.  Thankfully he was ok.  From this point though, we should have really just said that decorating could wait.  Nate was upset and blaming it on the dress.  Grace just wanted to decorate the tree and kept saying "can I help?  can I help?" (all while she was helping).  Aidan kept getting into the candycanes and was trying to eat them all.  I just wanted the negative energy in the air to disappear. 

 The kids holding their "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament.

A "ready to give up" Mama.



We got the tree set up, but it involved some mild cursing from Nate, tears from both the kids, and one frustrated Mama.

This all happening two days after reading this post.  And I knew/know that we are not the only family that this happens to.  My girlfriend just told me she decorated the tree by herself while her husband and daughter watched Myth Busters. 

Coming into our home today, what you would see, and all you would know, is that stockings are hung, the tree is up, and gingerbread cookies have been baked.

 As we put them in the oven, Grace said to each one "Don't run, don't run, don't run" :)

We got through it, and I think I should write myself a sticky note for next year "Don't be in a hurry.  Decorating can wait.  No need to rush.  Remember they are little.  Nothing is perfect".

Nothing better than being done

Today Colleen came and picked up Aidan's quilt to be longarmed.  (Not sure if that is the technical term... it comes off more like it's going to a shooting range or something!).  I was concerned about the quilt top, given it took me so long to 'almost' square.  In the end there is still about a 0.5" of difference from one side to the other.  Sigh.  But Colleen deemed it ok.  Then I showed her the back.  Oh I seriously LOVE the back of Aidan's quilt.  So much that it might become the front - lol.

I ordered the orange argyle from Fancy Pants Fabric.  Having cut it a bit too short (my error, I didn't order enough) it gave me the fantastic opportunity to jazz it up with some coordinating blocks to the front.  Have I mentioned that I love it?

I ended up picking a blue and brown thread for the front of the quilt, and an orange for the back.  Colleen is going to send me some photos via e-mail for quilting patterns, and it should be done in about two weeks time.  Which means if I get my act in gear, I should be able to have it binded and wrapped up in time for his birthday in January.  (I'm still wondering how my boy became two so quickly.  It seems to have happened much faster than it did for Grace).

Having the quilt gone, I set to work finishing up a hat for Nate this afternoon.  I managed to cast it off the needles shortly before 4 pm and it is now secretly blocking underneath our bed upstairs (blocking - fancy word for it is wet and is drying).  I am hoping it will be dry by Monday - one so I can show you a picture, and two so I can leave it in his truck for him to find in the morning as a surprise.

Now with two projects off my plate, I sit here pondering what to do next.  I love (especially after something large like the quilt has been done) the feeling like there are so many fresh creative ideas that are suddenly possible.  Of course, there are a few Christmas knits that need to be done for the kids.... but there are also socks, shawls, cowls... for me - lol