What a way to start

We had the Christmas program at church tonight.... Felt we should go even though we are heading out in the morning. I think we ended up staying too long as I had three kids crying in a space of 5 minutes. Abby first, as Nick hurt her in the inevitable cops and robbers.. (even though I told them to keep their hands to themselves GRRRRRR) and then Nick, as a older girl told him off for hurting Abby, and well, we all know how well he handles being reprimanded by others.. it was an accident and it was none of this girls business, but anyway. Then as I was dealing with Nick, Michaela tumbles off a bench and starts crying. Now I watched her fall and it didn't look too bad, but when I reached her she was covered in red. I flipped slightly, as I had visions of the ER for stitches AGAIN, and I couldn't figure out where she was bleeding from. So, I scooped her up and carried her to where I could get to water. A paramedic in the church came in to check on me, as he said he saw the look on my face, but by that point I was calming down as I was beginning to realize it was just icing from a pretzel. (choc. with red stuff on it that really REALLY looked liked blood, the only thing that saved face for me was the fact that the paramedic thought it looked like blood too.) So, no stitches for Michaela and just one very foolish looking mommy.

My kids are wailers..... which means when they cry they are REALLY loud... which is embarrassing.

The car ride better be better.

p.s. i got a very large gift basket complete with a bottle of champagne from a dog tonight.... this holiday keeps getting weirder and weirder.......

shoes

For those of you who have been asking, I went with the sensible shoes. I knew I would!

I will try to get those snow pictures up for you later, it has been a busy, stressful time trying to get ready. As usual, plans change at the last minute making things all the more busy and stressful .

Pray no one gets sick, as there are so many germs running around this time of year!

Winter Storm

Well, here it comes again. This is our third winter storm watch of this season. We went out this morning to run some errands and everyone is talking about the weather. The forecasters say that a low pressure zone, orginating in Texas and being fed by the warm moist gulf air is barreling towards us and set to dump 20-30 cm of snow in 24 hours. Most of the snow will be falling mid-morning on Sunday. We woke up this morning to some lake effect snow- a couple of cm so far and still falling. I don't think I've ever seen a weather warning stating we were getting a near crippling snow storm- but the nice red weather warnings on the T.V. have that exact wording!

It has been an interesting winter, and is going to be a long one. Normally we are lucky to have snow for Christmas, this year- well, there may be a foot of it!

I took before pictures this morning- I'll post those later with photos of our new snow fall.

Christmas is drawing ever closer- and the kids are getting more and more worked up. I went out last night with Jen and Tammi and bought loot bags for the car. Tim thought I went a little nuts and thinks they are getting a stocking before Christmas, (and in a way I guess they are!) but they will love it!

Cheers!

Christmas Tree

I committed a cardinal sin in the Duncan family Christmas tree tradition this year and went out and bought a tree from a grocery store. This year has been so very cold, and i just did not feel up to trekking through the sub-zero temperatures, to find a sub-standard Christmas tree!

So, last night, with Abby chattering in the background- (Mommy, did you make this? Did Nana? What about this... Is this glass, can I hang it Mommy?) I settled down to decorate the Christmas tree. (a side note, Nick went upstairs to watch Tim play a computer game- deciding that was far more interesting than hanging stuff on a tree)

I've long since admired the designer trees found in magazines. They are so beautiful. But, this year for the first time I began to realize what a treasure my own tree is. Shortly after we got married, my mom downsized her tree and gave me my share of the family ornaments. Hanging these on my tree is like a walk back into my childhood. Ornaments my mom made when she was newly married, ornaments that I had made through the years. Some stand out more than others. The ball of dried flowers my mom gave me the first Christmas after I was married, it contains parts of my wedding bouquet dried. The patchwork stocking that I made that same Christmas, taken from old shirts of both Tim and myself and made into stocking ornaments for everyone as we had no money! The horrid (and yes Grace would agree) Christmas ball she gave me the first Christmas Tim and I were dating. Grace was about 9 I think, and giving Christmas presents to everyone was a must. I love the ball, as it reminds me of a generous little girl and her acceptance and love for her big brothers girlfriend. The Christmas balls my grandmother gave me ,some as old as I, and of course all the ornaments, bows and balls my mom has made over the years, and best of all, the angel she made that adorns the top of our tree each year.

This year, for the first time, possibly because my little girl is getting bigger, I noticed more ornaments my kids have made taking center stage on the Christmas tree. An ornament spray painted gold made from Popsicle sticks and pasta, a snow man made from foam balls and pipe cleaners now are proudly displayed on the tree.

I laugh as I remember how I made Emily hide all the homemade ornaments (which she insisted putting on the tree) at the back! Now, I am happy to have these displayed proudly, I'm helping Abby build memories.

So, in retrospect, I wouldn't change a thing on our tree. It may not be as pretty as the ones you see in a magazine, but it means something, each piece holding a memory for me, and building a memory for my children.

By the way, I decided I should do the popcorn strings this year as well, and Abby ended up doing almost half of them. I was amazed! What a huge help!!! And she only needed one band aid!

Abby

I'm watching my little girl swaying and singing along to her Daddy's Ipod while happily killing her daily allotment of trees. She loves to draw and uses daily at least 10 if not 20 pieces of paper with her creations. She comes into the living room folding up her "present" for me, lovingly placing it on the coffee table for me to view later. She passes by the T.V. and pauses, coming back for a better look as a jewelry commercial is on, and there is a diamond necklace on. Once it is done she continues on her way, back upstairs to raid the paper supply again.

This morning my plans for the day were drastically changed as Abby asked, on the way home from dropping Nick at bus stop ,if Mosey could come over to play. With a sigh, as I know it will mean more work, I said yes. Jen wanted to go out, so all of a sudden I had an extra kid and two dogs to look after. It was busy!

Finished off some Christmas presents and baked a batch of cookies. Tim is only 10 book sales away from 500. Oh how I hope he hits that number! It is something of a mental barrier. With the total sales of his book over 1000 now it is getting exciting!

Going to get our tree this weekend, I love when the house smells of stale popcorn (popcorn strings!) and pine!

Girlie vs Sensible

Boots. A true must in this Canadian weather. I need new ones. The style right now are these wonderful knee high fur lined not very warm boots that I love. I went boot shopping today, and my girlie side was waring with my sensible side. I really want those boots. They are so cute, but reality is a) they cost about 150.00, and b)I walk the kids to school and really they aren't warm enough, and c) with walking the kids to school they will get destroyed. d) they will be out of style next year anyway.

So as you can see I have 4 very good reasons why I should not buy those boots, but darn it, I like them! So I left, without any boots. I can't buy sensible ones right now, while my heart is still attached to the knee high ones.

Today however, as I trudged through the ice and snow walking the kids to school in my running shoes, (and just about killing my self several times on the ice) I began to come around to the sensible option. We will see... my feet were crying today because it was so cold (this weather is nutty for December!)

Really footware is my weakness... I love shoes clothes for the most part I'm not too picky, but i love shoes! So we shall see which wins out!

Canadian Winter

I wouldn't be a true Canadian if I didn't dedicate at least one post to our winters. This year is proving to be a doozy. After a very very mild fall (we were running around in t-shirts in November!) that had everyone screaming global warming, the last two weeks have yielded a cold snap that has even us hardy Northerner's complaining. Today it is COLD, - 20 with the wind chill (that is -4 F for you southerners) and my hair froze a little on the way out to the car this morning. We have already had a snow day, and two winter storms blow through, and now we are waiting for a good 10-15 cm of snow to hit tonight, before it warms up then we get rain, freezing rain before it changes back to snow the wee hours of Monday morning. Maybe another snow day? This is very early for this weather for us, normally we would expect these temps late January. We haven't had time to adjust and is so it has been such a shock to our systems! Now, if I could just get Michaela to wear mittens.....

It amazes me how inaccurate the weather forecast is. Just last month they were proclaiming that we were going to have a mild winter with a fair amount of snow. Now, they claim we are in for a record breaking cold December! Wonderful. So much for science!

I like the snow, I don't think I would like to move to a place that didn't have the extreme season changes that Canada boasts. I'm o.k when it hits -10, much lower than that and it is no longer fun. As a child I loved having snow for Christmas. Not this year as we will be in sunny and warm Georgia!

I have an Abbyism for everyone. She had a pj day at school and a notice came home from the eco-club. In order to wear the PJ's at school everyone had to bring a dollar to help the polar bears. No dollar, no Pj's . I'll leave that one alone as you can imagine what I was thinking... but Abby in her sensible 5 year old mind asked.... Who's going to go up and give the bears a dollar and how is that going to help them? What's a polar bear going to do with a dollar?