a new book

i love getting books for Christmas, especially devouring them in the less hectic days following the 25th.

i'm enjoying Elizabeth's book so much!

happy holidays!

Happy holidays! I'm signing off to spend time with my family.

solstice is almost here

Just Delicate Needles

It's so delicate, the light.
And there's so little of it. The dark
is huge.
Just delicate needles, the light,
in an endless night.
And it has such a long way to go
through such desolate space.
So let's be gentle with it.
Cherish it.
So it will come again in the morning.
We hope.

--Rolf Jacobsen
Translated by Robert Hedin

:: our Christmas cards went out earlier this week.
here is the photo for this year (shutterfly.com)

:: some photos of the almost winter solstice light

perfectionism

a blog friend (E) commented on the Anna Quindlen book Being Perfect.

sophie is starting to struggle with this at times. i have some strong tendancies that way,so she is coming by it honestly. yes, the whole type "A" personality has its pluses, but it can also make you miserable. i was helping out at her daycare today for a bit and we went over to the rehearsal hall to practice the children's songs for the parent's dinner concert tomorrow night. sophie has expressed her concerns about going "up on the stage" for weeks now. we've tried to reassure her -- pairing her up with her buddy Abby, having a teacher hold her hand. today she was in tears again, but reluctantly got up on stage (only if I did too). once she was there, she did amazingly. she has good listening skills, followed instruction and knew all the words to the songs.

is that part of the pressure she is putting on herself? that is, does she feel she has to know all of the words? or is it more of a stage fright thing? she seems to love to sing. i just want her to be a happy little kid and NOT worry.

easier said than done, right?

on another note, my sister-in-law Joanne had her baby this morning!! welcome baby Jackson! can't wait to see you this weekend :)

sibling love

sophie LOVES her little brother, even though she can be a little over zealous with her hugs :}

Christmas Journal....continued

it is a real challenge to journal your Christmas each day, but i'm hanging in there.

here are a couple of recent pages of the album.

what could be more Canadian...

than Tim Hortons and their holiday free skates?

Sophie and I enjoyed some free skating today at our local rink. Santa was out skating too, but Sophie was skeptical about how authentic this version was (no gloves and flimsy beard).

yummy Tim's hot chocolate finished off the fun.

she also went to a birthday party for her little buddy Kenny who turned 4. and she didn't have a nap. not sure how she is still holding it together.

Fynn love

We LOVE him.
He is an easy going happy little guy.
He also successfully transitioned to sleeping in his own crib versus our bed last night. At his check up this week, he weighed in at 11.1 pounds (almost double his birth weight). Not bad for 2 months old.

Here he is before he and I went out for some errands and lunch today.

sophie's decorations

aren't kids decorations the best?

i've let go of my control freak tendancies and given sophie free reign to decorate the lower 1/3 or so of our tree. her little ornaments that she has done over the years at daycare are great. we also strung popcorn (now that i'm officially off of microwave popcorn).

stuff

a bit crazy busy yesterday.

i invited some women from work over for late afternoon coffee/tea. served them cookies from a new bakery in town and some extremely yummy muffins that Vic and I baked the night before.

then off to two meetings in the evening. one was a board meeting for my work (fynn in tow) and the other was for daycare. luckily the daycare let me drop off sophie there for child minding while I was at the work meeting, then i just had to go back there and pick her up. tuesdays are always crazy as it is vic's swimming night.

today we are off to a doctor's appointment for Fynn to get his rotavirus vaccine.

pine cones

i have a few pinecones on my mantle and a few in a container outside.

i think pinecones are the perfect holiday decoration.

movie night

i loved watching Rankin and Bass holiday specials as a kid.

tonight we rented Frosty. the DVD even includes a little introduction by Arthur Rankin Jr. he talks about how he wanted the images of this movie to look like a Christmas card (versus looking like a Walt Disney cartoon), so he hired a cartoonist who had designed Christmas cards. it's a wonderful looking restored show.

here we are ready to watch:

Christmas Journal

I've been having a lot of fun doing the Christmas journaling project.

Here are a few pages.

vintage candles, toys...

inspired by all the vintage Christmas images on the web these days.
this is a layout i did last year of my mom's vintage Gurley candles.
loved them as a kid.

i ordered a couple of small wooden toys for Sophie and Fynn from Willow Tree Toys www.willowtreetoys.com. they seem very customer friendly -- i had a question about one of the toys and they responded back right away with a thorough reply.

weather

the weather has been the big news all weekend.

look at the view from our front door. it's minus 5 degrees celcius but it is supposed to be warming up.

{40}

my 40th birthday party layout....