How Did We Get Here?

 Dear Santa

I am three years old.  Do you remember coming to my birthday party?  That was fun.  I would really like to have a Rose Petal Cottage to play in with my friend, Kate.  If it won’t fit in your bag,  I also like Groovy Girls.  The Christmas one or the rockstar would be nice.

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Merry Christmas Santa.

Dear Lydia Claire:

Hi, my name is Pepper Minstix and I am the special elf who helps Santa with all of the email he receives during this busy time of year.

No matter how busy Santa gets at the North Pole, I know he takes time to read all of his letters! You can expect to get an answer from Santa within the next few days.

Thank you for writing to Santa and please write to him again next year!

Happy Holidays
Elf Minstix

Do you ever want to get off the merry-go-round of life?

I only wish that weekends were nice and calm and boring.  Nope.   I’ve got so much to do between now and Monday that I feel ill just thinking about it.    Tonight we have Kid’s Club and Youth Group.  Thursday is judo.   Friday is my birthday but I’ll spend it geting ready for Parker’s party on Saturday.  I need to find a gift for him.  His birthday is Dec 28 but I agreed to have his party a month early.    There’s a craft fair this weekend but I know I won’t have time to go to it just like I missed the last one. Saturday will be dh getting groceries while I do laundry, judo, party and then Lydia is going with a friend to see Franklin’s Christmas.  Sunday is church with a meeting afterwards, getting homework done and fitting in a family movie night?  Oy.  My head hurts.  When to start the Christmas baking or find a couple of hours to do some shopping?  Do I make myself a cake or not?

Off to tackle Mt Washmore so it’s done by Saturday and I just have to put the 20 million loads away.

That’s 48 hours worth of laundry.

No matter what your personal or religious beliefs, you’ve got to admit that Christmas has become over commercialized.  Christmas is no longer what it started out as and it’s so easy to forget the true meaning of the season.  I’ve come across this video lately and thought it was good food for thought.  As I am part way through my Christmas list, it reminds me not to overinduldge.  I’m going to make every effort to refocus on our family this season and not the external forces around us that are saying spend, spend, spend.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Need some help on quality gifts from the heart?  Check this out.

http://www.rethinkingchristmas.com/

Growing up my cousins collected the Little Miss and Mr. Men books.  We had a few as well but not nearly as extensive as theirs.  I’m wondering if there is a Little Miss Independant.  I have one that lives at my house.  Last week a friend was coming over in the evening.  I came upstairs from doing laundry.  Lydia was in the kitchen washing dishes.

I asked her what she was doing.  “Cara’s coming, Mommy, I doin dishes.”   When she was done she grabbed a towel from the laundry and finshed drying the floor she had “washed”.

Another day, I found her downstairs putting together a doll playpen that I had packed away.  So much for downsizing the toys.

Then there was potty training her baby.

Last night she  finished eating and when I thought she was putting her dishes in the dishwasher, I found her helping herself to more Kraft Dinner.

She still uses water bottles on a daily basis, just to avoid cups getting knocked over because she can fill them and get the cover on herself.

Yesterday the kids had the day off school for parent teacher conferences.
The kids and I stopped at Value Village. We were looking for a bag of plain Lego. Ds is having a Lego birthday and we wanted to put lego in the treat bags. We found a box of Lego with over 25 people in it and accessories. We also found a large box of K’nex AND an American Girl Doll 2008. The American Girl Dolls retail for $100. I got her for $2.99. She’s in mint condition with gorgeous brushable hair.   Lydia is in love with her new “girl” Claire.

Might not look like a lot of Lego but the pieces in it were awesome.

A few days ago I picked up a pair of Ugg boots for Lydia.  $4.  We’d looked everywhere for black boots and had settled on a pair of boys boots.  Well now she has a stylish pair too.

If someone could tell me how ot get the mothball smell out, I’d be more than greatful.

That’s what they say in the movie business right?

I just came up with a new holiday tradition for our house.  I’m going to gather up the Christmas movies and wrap them.  We’ll celebrate the Sundays of Avent by watching a family movie together.  But when I suggest movies, there’s always some bickering over who wants to watch what.  Now we’ll just pick one without knowing what it is.  It’ll be a great way of winding down a busy weekend .  Kids in their jammies, an easy supper and some popcorn.

Here’s some of my favourites.

The Polar Express

I’ll take suggestions if you have a favourite holiday movie.

I’m back on the Meal Plan Wagon now that I have ground beef in the house again.   Every Wednesday it’s on sale at On The Vine for $1.99/lb.  I just never seem to be able to get there.  I stocked up last week and cooked and froze enough for 13 meals.  that is if, dh keeps his paws off of it.

 I also have a new to me deep freeze.  Woohoo.    Our deep freeze always seems full so there’s no room for freezer meals or baking.  Mil was getting rid of her deep freeze and I was more than happy to take it.  I cleaned it and plugged it in last night.    I’m planning on using one for meats and meals and the other for baking and frozen fruits, jam…

Need help with meal planning?  You can check out my google calendar  http://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=mc&gsessionid=J9J4lOkmRXb8dMubKyBEcQ  Click on a meal and the recipe should be there.  Although if you need a recipe for tacos or chili, you need more help than I can give.  I also came across this blog if you need more ideas.   http://orgjunkie.com/

Today we’re having crockpot ribs.  MMMMMM  can you smell them?

One of the most dreaded fall chores is sorting through the mittens.  I despise it.  This year I thought why not make a game out of it?  It’s getting colder out and I always have to go digging for mittens for the first time for Halloween night.  So this afternoon I gathered the kiddos and gave them each a basket.  Lydia was to gather the hats, I did scarves, Hannah and Parker were to pair mittens.  All the odds got tossed and all the too small hats and mitts will be donated.

Before- I think we have way too many

Yes we do!

We lost a kid in there.

This is the face of a cheater.  Quite deliberately, while I was explaining the game, Lydia cathered an armload of hats.  She stood by her tote and said “ready, set, go” as she dropped her load into the tote.  Quite proud that she’s young enough to get away with it.

All together now.

It’s more fun with cowboy boots.

End result- 1 basket of mitts, 1 basket of hats and scarves, 1 bag to toss and 1 bag to donate.

Tomorrow’s project- coats and snowpants .  I honestly don’t know how larger families keep it all organized and everyone outfitted.

Lydia is quite enthralled with the changing of the seasons.  At first she was worried about the trees and wanted to fix them by putting their leaves back.  Now she’s excited that when the leaves are gone, we’ll get snow.

And we’ll be ready.

We had a great meal with just our family this year.  It was much more relaxed with no company coming.  I had intended to turn the oven on before we left for church, the turkey was ready and just needed to be turned on.  Oops.  As we got there I realized I hadn’t turned the oven on.  Left Jeff and the kids for Sunday School and booted ‘er back across the city.  Good thing, I also forgot to turn the crockpot to low.  We would have had cold turkey and crispy dressing.

I had to take some pictures.  Lydia was so funny.  Oh, I “wub” ‘weet potatoes, I “wub” mashed potatoes, I “wub” corn, I “wub” butter.  In the past we haven’t been able to keep cranberry sauce on the table as she would eat the entire bowl.  This time she wasn’t so keen on it.  Speaking of cranberry sauce, I’ve never had to make it as my mother always gives me a jar for Thanksgiving/Christmas.  I never knew how easy it was.  Was she trying to pull one over on me?  It’s 1 bag of cranberries, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water.  Boil til the berries pop.  If you want to get fancy, use orange juice instead of water.  Who knew it was so easy. 

I found a great squash casserole.  I don’t eat the stuff but Jeff loves it and his sister grew them this year.   http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/baked-squash-casserole-111387.aspx

I think I’ll start assigning dishes to the kids to help with.  Hannah can do the cranberries, Lydia  tears the bread for the stuffing- she did yesterday.  Parker can help peel potatoes.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The cake was a big hit.

So with Christmas coming, I thought I’d give some reviews of games that we have.  In the past couple of years, we’ve accumulated a lot of Cranium games.  One that we recently purchased for Lydia is Cariboo.      http://www.hasbro.com/games/cranium/browse.cfm?page=&product_id=21399

 I could explain how it’s played but we don’t really play by the rules.  It’s an openended game, easily adapteed to what your child’s needs are.  It was recomended by Lydia’s Speech pathologist.  I ask her to say a word on a card (provided by the speech program) and then she gets to use the magic key to open a box.  If she finds a ball, she takes it out and puts it in the hole and when all the balls are found, the treasure chest pops open.  She loves the game so much, she’ll even play it on her own.

I just picked these ones up for Christmas gifts-

Put the puzzle together and use the game cards to search for differnt objects.  Circle the found objects with a dry erase marker.  I picked this up at Winners for $6.99.  I like that it’s a prereading game and leads them to read by using cues.  I’m not sure if it’s readily available as it’s not on the Cranium site but Amazon still carries it.

I also found Talking Tracks Monkey Safari  http://www.hasbro.com/games/cranium/browse.cfm?page=&product_id=21501

Again at Winners for $5.99.

More big hits with preschoolers- Hullaballo dvd game by Cranium.  We have the original one as well but I find it hard to hear so when I found the DVD version for $5 last year at Walmart, I told everyone I knew.  We often use it at church with an extra set.  It’s a great moving game.

I used to sell Discovery Toys and Playful Patterns is a great game for so many reasons.  https://www.discoverytoyslink.com/ecommerce/control/product?PURCHASE_STATE=STANDARD&product_id=2930  As well as Games to Grow on and Oh Rats.

http://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Toys-Games-Grow-Board/dp/B0011CY82M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=generic&qid=1226721440&sr=1-1

http://www.epinions.com/review/Oh_Rats_Puzzle_Game/kifm-review-202E-ADC80B3-3A36E239-prod1

They’re not available from Discovery Toys anymore but if you know a consultant or check Ebay and Amazon, you might luck out.