Hiatus over - Party recap!

January has been an unexpectedly busy month! Most of the busyness has revolved around the planning and execution of Fiona's 4th birthday party, which I'm pleased to say, was a success! My sister-in-law and I apparently had some poor planning, and had kids within 3 days of each other, so now Fiona and her cousin Bentley share a birthday weekend...which would be fine if they were the same age, gender, or we shared any of the same friends, because then we could just do a double party for both of them.  As it is, Fiona is a 4 year old girl and Bentley is a 1 year old boy and we live on opposite ends of town and have no friends in common, just family. So planning two birthdays for the same weekend can be a bit tricky. We had to reschedule Fiona's party a few times, but in the end it all worked out. Fiona's two cousins - Rubye and Kayleigh - were able to come for a sleepover.

Fiona and her cousins share a special bond because they were the first three grandchildren born in mine and John's family, and they were born almost exactly a month apart each. Kayleigh in November, Rubye in December and Fiona in January. So on top of all the holidays, we've also got 3 birthdays in a row. Actually, 4 now with Bentley's birthday! It's a busy busy time of year for our family!

Anyways, we had a Tinkerbell birthday party/sleepover for Fiona and everyone had a great time. The girls played dress up (multiple costume changes throughout the day), whacked the heck out of a pinata (and went CRAZY over the candy inside) and had numerous balloon fights, where each girl would take turns being the "bad guy" and the other girls would chase her around and they'd beat on each other with balloons. It was lots and lots of silly fun. For dinner the girls couldn't agree on what to eat. Fiona requested hot dogs, Kayleigh requested mac n' cheese, and Rubye requested pizza...so I made all of it! (why not, it's a party!) The evening capped off with a 3-kid bubble bath and 3 sweet little girls snuggled in bed reading stories.

The next day we took them to the Aquarium, and we all had a great time. The girls were particularly excited by the "Nemo fish" and the jellyfish. Unfortunately a few of the exhibits were closed for maintenance or remodeling, but the girls didn't seem to mind. After the Aquarium, we headed out to Kayleigh's house for her little brother Bentley's party. Bounce-house and cupcakes, that's all you need to know! Fiona was in party heaven! Everyone had fun, and Fiona got a few more presents from her grandparents. Rubye stayed one more night with us, and we dropped her off with her mom on Sunday. It was a fun (but long!) weekend, and the house seemed so empty and quiet when it was all over!

John reminded me to get back on track once the party was over - eat better, exercise, BLOG (!) etc. Then unfortunately Fiona and I both came down with a bug and ended up in bed for a day or two. Today I'm up and about and feeling mostly better, so today I'm getting back on track. I have a to-do list written up on the big whiteboard in our kitchen, and blogging is on that list! Crossed off, check, done!

2011 in review

In the dwindling hours of 2011, I'm reflecting on my life over the past year. To be honest, my feelings towards 2011 are kind of... ''meh''. I sort of feel like we've been in limbo this year. Nothing really amazing has happened, no big events, nothing catastrophic has happened. We're just sort of waiting.

• John still has the same contract job - which thankfully has been a great job for him. He's happy and the pay is good.
• This is my first full year as a stay at home mom. I've loved being home and getting to know my little girl that much better. It's definitely been a struggle at times though.
• I was approved to sponsor John's immigration to Canada, but his paperwork will take a further 10 months to process. Boo. 
• By living frugally, we've managed to pay off all nearly of our debt in a little over a year. It was a LOT of debt. School loans, medical bills, credit cards, two car loans. We're so thrilled to be just about done.

I definitely wouldn't say this has been a bad year. In fact, it really has been a good year. Steady income, loving family, debt payoff...these are good things. But I figure with all of the major life changes of 2012 coming up, we'll be glad we had an easy year in 2011.

We're ringing in the New Year at home tonight, with my little sister and her husband. We're going to make pizza (cauliflower pizza for my brother-in-law who can't have gluten) and we're going to play board games and let Fiona stay up as late as she wants. We'll have a champagne/sparkling cider toast at midnight, and we're just going to have fun and enjoy being with family. Sounds like a perfect evening to end an uneventful year.

Happy New Year's everyone!

Cauliflower Pizza Recipe

Minutes to Prepare: 15

Minutes to Cook: 20

Number of Servings: 4

Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, riced, 1 cup
Egg, fresh, 1 large
Cheddar Cheese, 1 cup, shredded
Oregano, ground, 1 tsp
Parsley, dried, 2 tsp

Rice or finely chop the cauliflower. Beat egg, add the cauliflower, and shredded cheese. Mix, then press into a greased pizza pan then sprinkle with the spices. Bake at 450 for 12 to 15 minutes. If you double the recipe cook 15 to 20 minutes.

Add desired pizza topping such as red sauce, mushrooms, green pepper, onions, cheese, etc. Bake until brown and cheese is bubbly.

Christmas surprises, sneaky husband

I love my husband dearly...he has many amazing qualities that make him a wonderful husband and father, and really, truly my best friend in the whole wide world. Surprises, however, are not his strong suit. Birthdays and Christmas, Valentine's Day and Anniversaries...I pretty much always know what I'm getting, or what we're doing. And that's ok, really. That's just part of who John is, and I love him for it.

But this Christmas, I'm finding myself constantly surprised.

A few days ago, John told me not to get the mail this week because he didn't want me to ruin my surprises...wait...what? I don't even remember telling him anything that I wanted for Christmas this year, and yet little packages have been arriving almost daily. He wraps them one by one as they arrive and puts them under the tree, with cryptic little comments which he knows are making me insanely curious.

Today he took piquing my curiosity a step further by showing me the envelope he'd just gotten...from Italy. My husband ordered something for me for Christmas from Italy. I'm soooooo curious it's driving me crazy! So far now, I've got 5 little packages under the tree, and apparently there are several more that he didn't order in time and won't make it for Christmas. I'm so excited for Christmas tomorrow!

In other news, Fiona and John have been tracking Santa...Right now Santa is in Madagascar!

www.noradsanta.org 

On the 8th day of Christmas...

My true love gave to meeeeeee....

Actually, today is not the 8th day of Christmas. Did you know that the 12 days of Christmas actually start on Christmas day? I didn't!

There are 8 days left until Christmas though. It's almost here, and Santa's watching...be good!

Random Happenings

• I'm drinking coffee with Cinnamon Sugar Cookie creamer...my coffee tastes like a snickerdoodle. 
• Best quote from A Muppet Christmas Carol:

"And how would the book keepers like to be suddenly UNEMPLOYED?!"

"Heat Wave! This is my island in the sun, oi oi!" 

• Fiona is currently obsessed with The Nutcracker...we saw excerpts from the ballet last week at a show her dance school put on, and now she's dancing all over the house to the Nutcracker music, saying that the Mouse King is coming after her and that she has to throw her shoe at him, and has called herself Clara on numerous occasions. She particularly enjoys dancing in her nightgown with whichever stuffed animal is handy to act as placeholder for the Nutcracker.
• There are 9 days until Christmas and I am completely done with sending out cards and shopping. Just have to wrap presents now!
• Fiona's favourite Christmas song is Deck The Halls...the only part she knows is "Fa-la-la-la-laaa-la-la-la-laaa".  
• For the rest of the month, our cat shall henceforth be known as "Kringus". Last night, she wouldn't get out of the tree.
• A picture of the little Christmas tree we've got in Fiona's room...tree and decorations cost less that $15 at Wal-Mart! She's loved having that tree in there.

 

11 Days and Counting!

Less than two weeks until Christmas, and the world is going a bit mad. I dread going shopping anytime within the last two weeks before Christmas, and I won't go near a mall from Thanksgiving until New Year's. 
Last night I headed to Wal-Mart to do some grocery shopping and to pick up a few more Christmas gifts. I had been listening to Christmas music, and was excited about the gifts I was picking up for other people. I was in a giving, Christmassy mood. When I pulled into the parking lot, it was a mess of shopping carts. Normally it kind of annoys me when people leave their shopping cart in the parking spot rather than taking it to the cart return. It just seems inconsiderate. But it's been raining on and off for the past few days, and Arizonans don't typically carry umbrellas with them. I understood that people just wanted to get out of the rain as quickly as possible. When I arrived, it wasn't raining so I decided to take a few minutes and round up all the carts in the area, and put them in the cart return. I just wanted to make it a little easier for the poor employees that have to go out into the icky weather to gather up the carts. After about ten minutes of putting carts away, a man who had just finished his shopping and loading his bags into his car, pushed his cart in my general direction, got in his car and drove away.  Ok, I'm clearly not a Wal-Mart employee in my green sweater and my purse hanging on my shoulder...but oh well.  'Tis the season and all that, stay happy, don't let it ruin the mood.  I put the cart away, and a few more after that, and I felt good about my bit of Christmas kindness. I headed into the store to do my own shopping.


A box of "Forgton" pictures
at Wal-Mart

Inside was exactly the kind of mayhem I expected. Long lines, people pushing and grabbing, low stock on popular and sale items. I had to go to the back of the store to pick up a gift I ordered online for Fiona, and was happy when I saw that there were only two people in line ahead of me. Unfortunately that line was like molasses in January. If you're unfamiliar with the properties of molasses and what happens to it in cold weather, it's SLOW moving. I waited in that line for over 30 minutes and was so ready to be out of there when I was done. I finally finished up my shopping, made it through the long line of pushy people who clearly wanted to be anywhere but in line at Wal-Mart, and headed out. ...Only to find when I got to the door that there was a torrential downpour outside and temperature had plummeted. I immediately regretted my decision to take the first parking spot I saw at the back of the lot. There was no choice except to run for it. The cart was heavy, and the water was deep enough to cover my shoes. By the time I got to my car, I was soaked and freezing. As I was throwing my bags into the trunk of my car with wild abandon, a car drove past and drenched me as it sped through the water. I finished loading my bags and got into the car. I cranked up the heat and tried not to cry.
This is why I try to avoid stores at this time of year. Christmas is supposed to be a time of giving, family, love, cheer and goodwill towards man. Instead, people are greedy and rude. Most of the presents I'm giving out this year to friends and family have been hand made, so I haven't had to do as much shopping as I would otherwise...but I still have to go grocery shopping. No avoiding that. Well, I don't have to go shopping again for at least a week, and I think I'll go in the middle of the night to avoid a repeat of last night's trip. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the Christmas season with my little family.  Baking cookies, listening to Christmas music, enjoying our beautiful Christmas tree, wrapping presents - I just need to focus on my family and the happy aspects of Christmas that I love, and not worry about the rest of the world.

It's rainy today...

This time of year, most of the country is constantly dreary and people are yearning for a sunny day.  But it's always a nice change here in Arizona when we have a chilly, overcast, wet day.  These kind of days so seldom happen around here. This time next year we'll be in the same boat as all those people longing for a ray of sun to peek through the clouds, but for now I can enjoy the grey and the drizzle.

There are 13 days until Christmas and Fiona is getting more and more excited. Instead of a traditional advent calendar this year, I made 24 little paper boxes with peppermint candies inside, and strung them all together with red embroidery floss. Each morning Fiona runs into the kitchen where the boxes are hanging and opens up the one at the bottom of the chain.  She's thrilled about the peppermint of course, (what kid doesn't love candy?) but she's even more excited to see what number is written on the inside of the box, and tell me how many more days until Santa comes.  Fiona will be 4 in January, so this is the first year that I feel like she's really been aware of what Christmas is, and is actually anticipating it.  It's been so much fun this year.  

On Saturday we got our Christmas tree.  It's beautiful and my house smells like pine.  I'll always have a soft place in my heart for the scraggly, sparse, Charlie-Brown-type Christmas trees that we had in my house growing up...but it makes me so happy to see our full, conical, 7 foot tall tree.  One thing I did take from the trees we had as kids is that a hodge-podge assortment of ornaments makes a more beautiful tree than the trendy monochromatic or themed Christmas trees that you see in magazines and storefronts.  My mom's Christmas tree is covered in antique glass ornaments, popsicle stick reindeer, little wooden toys and birds - all the decorations that we grew up using.  There's no theme, no colour scheme...but there are lots of memories.  So that's what I've tried to do with our tree.  We've got an ornament from our first Christmas together, a set of nutcracker ornaments from the first year we went to go see The Nutcracker, an ornament we bought on our honeymoon...each year we get one or two new meaningful ornaments, and each year our tree is more beautiful and memorable than the last.  This year I bought an ornament that is a pair of ballet slippers for Fiona, since this is the first year she's taken dance, and loves it.  She was so excited to hang it on the tree. 

More Christmas updates to come!