Well, it's a new year and I'm FINALLY back in the Land of Blog! Happy New Year everyone and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I can not believe I haven't posted anything in so long...yes, Holly, that was quite the migraine. LOL!!!
December was so busy and just flew by...I can't believe Christmas is over and it's 2007 already.

Some of my December highlights included:

My girlfriend Marlene's 40th birthday...welcome to the club Mo!!!
I have known Marlene (and her sister Marianne) forever. Unfortunately we weren't always such good friends...you know how it is when "the little sister" (2 years younger) is always trying to hang around. I can remember many hide and seek games Marianne and I would play with Marlene...never to look for her. I know, we were awful..but thankfully she doesn't seem to hold it against us! They are both fabulous individuals and I'm honoured to have known them and been part of their lives for so long.
To celebrate her 40th, Marlene had this great idea for her party. She wanted it to be a book themed party, so you were to let her know what your favourite book was and why and they put everyone's choices in a booklet. They also had copies of everyone's books there so that you could have a look at them. Well, you wouldn't believe the anxiety this request caused some people! I know one particular member of our scrapbooking group and myself never did get back to her with our choices. We were all worried our choices would be embarrassing or silly, hers was from her childhood and mine were childhood (Nancy Drew) or basically "fluff" (Maeve Binchy, Adriana Trigiani or Scrapbooking magazines). I haven't read anything of "substance" in ages, I barely make time to read at all anymore. I used to be a voracious reader and then when I went to college I basically stopped reading for pleasure, always feeling guilty that I should be reading textbooks and studying. Sadly, I never really got back into it.

Anyway, the books people chose covered a wide spectrum. There was everything from Sports Illustrated magazine to a book about spirituality and physics.
Here's a partial list of some of the favourites:
Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon
When God Winks by Squire Rushnell
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Cure for All Diseases by Hulda Clark
Interview with a Vampire by Ann Rice
A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe
To A Child, Love is Spelled Time by M. Anderson & L. Wubbels
Dropped Threads 1 by Carol Shields

The party was a great success, with book themed games and Name That Tune with songs from 1966. I had the kids with me so I only planned on staying an hour or so but I had such a good time I think it was after midnight before we left!


Marianne, me and the birthday girl

Far right is Sharon, a friend of theirs since their college days, who had me in stitches, and the handsome devil in front is their dear friend Craig who is always good for a laugh or two!


Emily and I went to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Toronto. It exceeded all my expectations, the show was amazing and the costumes and backdrops were beautiful!
At one point the Rockettes were in the middle of this spectacular number, doing their famous kick line and Emily leans over to say something to me. I was expecting something about how beautiful they looked or how she would love to do that when she grows up but no, my little displaced farm girl says "mama, they look like a big combine when they do that!". Good grief...not what I was expecting but it sure made me chuckle!!


The Umbra Warehouse Sale in Toronto...what can I say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself (I LOVE a good sale right before Christmas!), got totally caught up in the excitement of all the deals...will definitely be going again...but NEVER again by myself! They had everything from curtain rods for $5, picture frames for $3, beautiful glass vases for $3, all sorts of bathroom accessories...it was unbelievable!!
Things I learned at my first Umbra sale:
1. Find the push carts they provide and put a very large cardboard box (also provided) on it for all your goodies...do NOT try to carry what you think will just be a "few" purchases.
2. Take several deep breaths when you go in...and join the chaos...hundreds of people picking through hundreds of boxes!
3. Take cash...you get an extra 5% off if you pay with cash.
4. Don't overlook the "Returns" boxes they have all along the aisles where you stand to wait to pay....many treasures can be found in these! These are the boxes where people leave stuff after they've stood in line so long, sorted their stuff and changed their minds. When I first stood in line to pay I had 10 frames (not all for me!) and by the time I got to the till (an hour later) I had 2 vases, 2 platters, and probably 20 frames!
5. DON'T GO ALONE! As I'm standing in line gathering all this extra stuff, carrying some and pushing some along the floor with my feet, I realized you can't take the carts outside (not that I was going to find one at that point anyway!) so I was somehow going to have to pack all this stuff in a huge cardboard box and drag it down the street to my van. This is where the extra person comes in handy...they stay with the stuff outside while you go and get your vehicle. It's also nice to have an extra person to start standing in line fairly early and you can take turns shopping while the other stands in line. Oh, the things I learned in a very short amount of time!
6. Probably the most important....tip the kind young man that sees you dragging your stuff down the street and offers to help you carry it to your vehicle...what a sweetheart!!!


The ever-popular Christmas card photo shoot...first of all, this should be in my October highlights because that really is when I need to start this process so that I actually get the picture I want and then get my Christmas cards done BEFORE December 23! Second, this really isn't a "highlight" if you ask my kids what they think of it...they practically dread it now. It's become a painful process with me needing "just one more shot" and them soooo not wanting to participate anymore! This may be my last year for doing my own pictures...that's ok, I think I've run out of creative ideas for interesting pictures anyway. Two years ago I made big letters to spell NOEL and got them to hold them and took them in black and white and last year I did santa hats. If anyone has any other great ideas I'd love to hear them.


The one thing in December I was very excited about was the kids' Christmas concerts at school. Yes, two concerts, Jesse's was in the morning and Emily's at night. Actually Emily was also in the morning one singing with the choir. This was Jesse's first concert and he'd been practicing his songs every day at home...loud and proud! I was sure he would be the star of his class...yeah, I know, settle down stage mom! Then the day came and he wasn't feeling that well and he decided he really didn't want to go. Even telling him the grandparents were coming to watch didn't help but he finally got ready to go after much coaxing. Well, he came through, singing his little heart out, doing all the actions with each song and even doing a Jingle Bells dance...it was adorable!

Emily's concert in the evening was for Grades 2 and up. Her class did a song about different animals and what they each gave to Baby Jesus. She was a cat and she was so excited, she got to sing a solo in the song. She did a great job, I was so proud of her...a star is born! (oops, there's that stage mother thing again!)



Well, I certainly think this very long post makes up for the past few weeks. I'll have to finish December and the beginning of January tomorrow...I'm exhausted now!