Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Stockings Were Hung...


Hooray, I'm done 'necessary' sewing for the year ;)

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Walking in a Warp Speed Winter Wonderland

No matter how organized you are it seems the holidays puts things on warp speed regardless. Thankfully dinner has been premade and in the freezer, we're at cookie overflow and the only time the mixer comes out is when I'm stressed and in need of a diversion (cookies never 'fail', you don't have to frog them, they don't jam up and have bobbin issues on the last part of sewing, perfect)

Santa has thankfully been preserved for this year. Three days after the church incident there were presents under the tree that I'd wrapped for some other people and Alex thought Santa had been by while he's been asleep, phew! In just one week we'll be getting ready to head up to Mom and dad's where I can finally relax and just do some crafty stuff with Alex ;)

Stitching has taken a small hit in the last week, I'm plugging away at Knotted Pine's santa from this years JCS slowly but surely but we've had school concerts to go to, inlaw company on the weekend, stockings to sew, cookie exchanges to bake for, parcels and cards to mail and parties to look forward to. Thankfully it's stitchy night tonight :) I can park my worries and veg.

Alex's school concert was wonderful. He looked so GQ up there in his Old Navy plaid button down and CP cords :) Apparently this is probably the last year I'll get to buy him cool clothes for it as he wants to be in the boys choir and they wear plain white shirts, black bowties, an NB plaid scarf and black pants. I suppose I could buy him a funky argyle sweater for when he sings with his class though ;) The concert had the usual frustrations, I showed up 40 minutes before it started to get a decent seat, and they dwindled pretty darn quickly, the SAHM mother's came in early and 'reserved' seats for their lazy a** husbands who waltz out of work 5 minutes before the show to their perfect seats while people that actually make an effort are forced to stand. I mean they had 300 programs printed for the first show and they were gone 20 minutes before the concert. Then there's the morons who rush the center and stand there so no one behind them can see. I had to army crawl and sit on the floor so I could see and get a video of Alex's performance. Matt couldn't make it and when I was telling him about it his opinion was very true, to the point but I don't know how it would ever fly. They need to do something about the 'extra's'. I think banning them is a bit absurd, I mean Alex would love it if my parents could come once in awhile but you see people bringing an 8 person entourage of uncles, aunts, grandparents and it quickly becomes out of control and parents can't even see their own kids. The situation either needs to be addressed or they need to look at having an additional show besides the two that they already do. Oye.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Catch the Spirit

Yes...I'm alive ;)

This past week has been busy++. Alex was off of school for 3 days due to parent teacher meetings and professional development so I had a nice 5 day weekend with lots of mommy son time. We did some crafts (Alex's first use of a glue gun), played some games, baked alot of cookies and continued to decorate for the holidays. We ventured out to an old fashioned christmas tree decorating party at the local independant bookstore and froze our butts off waiting for the parade on Saturday. At the end of our little vacation Alex and I lugged all of the tree decorations upstairs and made up quite a few appetizers to have a family tree decorating party.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. There were stockings to prep for sewing (Alex is getting very anxious for his to be sewn), guests to prepare for and an awesome dinner party/stitch night to look forward to. I had a wonderful time at Faith Ann's, Cathey's account of the evening sums it all up in her blog ;)

Saturday we headed to Alex's Christmas bazarre at the school and were joined by mom and dad there later in the morning. What a great time! Apparently it's quite popular as even the Premier (equivalent to a governor for my friends south of the border) was there for awhile. Alex was really excited, it was the first year he won at the cake walk. Matt was even more excited where it was a black forest cake ;) Saturday afternoon mom and I headed to the coop to do a little shopping and then we had a nice family dinner with Swiss Chalet. We were all kind of zonked so the Jesse Stone tv movie hit the spot.

Sunday we headed off to church where it was the first Sunday in advent. Sunday school was interesting, about 5 minutes before the kids were scheduled to come back one girl came back in wailing, poor dear. When Alex returned he said he didn't really like Sunday school as one kid said 'Santa isn't real'. I reminded him that he was a good boy and asked him if there was ever a year that didn't have presents under the tree and he seemed satisfied with the notion that Santa only comes to good boys and girls and children that make others cry wouldn't be on the list. It's the best I could do in the middle of the service. I know that some day he'll figure it out on his own and probably carry it along with him like I did one day seeking out the confirmation that the physical entity doesn't exist but still have the spirit of giving. I know there are more and more 'realists' in the world that don't start the Santa tradition for a number of reasons (don't believe in lying to their children, or want them to be thankful to the right people). However, imo, kids have to grow up way too fast as it is and deserve that magic. It's nice when people say thank you and are grateful but it's not in the spirit of giving to be looking for it or looking to have it reciprocated. The best thing about Christmas morning for me now is watching Alex get super excited about a present, and the icing on the cake is hearing him call out his thanks to Santa, even though he is no where to be seen.

Mom and I checked out an open house in the afternoon and then did a little bit of shopping. Apparently alot of boys size 6x-7 are getting pj's for Christmas as they were pretty hard to find ;) I also picked up my two Christmas movies I budgetted in for this year, a 'Muppet Christmas Carol' to replace my very worn out VHS and Home Alone 2 where Alex loves the first one. After supper last nigth Alex and I watched that until bedtime and our sides hurt from laughing so much, surprising after his new obsession with Shrek the Halls ;) Needless to say I'm really enjoying being 'done' all of the preparation for Christmas and now just sitting back and enjoying the show (even it it means a little less stitching that usual)