Yule Greetings

Here we were last weekend at a Christmas party. Alas, the loving hands on my belly obscure your view of it. But you already know how big it's grown from the last post.

This morning we exchanged Yule gifts.  They're always hand-made, but not necessarily by us.  My hope was to have Robin's fingerless mitts finished, but that knit-aversion earlier in the pregnancy put a damper on my holiday knits.  Fortunately I had a back up gift in place - a lovely clay bear ornament from the local Stitch N Kitsch show.  I received a gorgeous pottery mug - part of my SFA* gifts from Robin and I have to say, I'm pretty excited to see the rest in a couple days.

Abi received her hand knit doll, who she named Priscilla.

I was in the middle of knitting her (the doll) a hat from handspun yarn when Abi awoke. It was to be the surprise in her countdown calendar.

It's a warm day here. No snow for us this holiday season.  In fact, it's so warm I'm thinking I might even get out and plant those bulbs, finally... Imagine, planting bulbs at Yule!
And by 'plant' I mean toss them in the garden where I dug out the bush and cover them with more soil. Nothing fancy. Just a pile of daffodil and tulip bulbs that were scattered around the other garden spaces and finally dug up this fall.

*SFA = "super-f'n-awesome.  That was my Christmas request this year.

Santa santa santa

We attended a second Santa Claus parade this past weekend.  Alas, it was a rainy, rainy evening. Only a fraction of the scheduled floats made an appearance and a few townsfolk.  But Abi and her friend had fun. We parents enjoyed it too, but not nearly as much as the kids who didn't seem phased by the downpour of rain.  A benefit of the shortened parade is that we didn't have to be out for too long.
Luckily, Robin had also prepared a couple thermoses of hot chocolate and a fresh mini batch of cookies.
We've taken to baking mini batches of cookies lately in the toaster oven.  It's great - fresh cookies whenever we want.  It started with some store-bought dough, on a whim.  Now we make our own cookie dough.  AH, the joys of having a toaster oven again.  We hadn't planned on getting a new one (the old one died not long after moving to this house), but there was a great sale and our region recently switched to time of use rates for power.  In the Winter, that means peak costs are during the dinner-making hours and breakfast. (7-1100h and 1700-1900h.)  A toaster oven saves a lot of energy!  It's great for the basics like toast, or baking up some perogies, a small batch of fresh-from-the-oven cookies, little quiches...

Oh, but I was typing about Santa.
So today Abi and I ventured out to the mall at the far end of town.  She was excited to see Santa.  She dressed herself up in a nice dress.  We trimmed her bangs.  We popped into Zellers on the way to see Santa so she could have nice white tights (rather than the argyle pattern - since all of her current hand-me-down tights have bright designs) for the photo.  She spotted Santa as we made our way to the ladies room to change and she was eager to see him.  She loved the fairy garden surrounding Santa.
And then I was entering our information so Santa's elves could email our (thankfully) free photo to us and she decides she doesn't want her picture taken with Santa.  I sat with her (unprepared for a photo myself!), but still she refused to even look up or smile.  The kind elves did their best.  And luckily there was no lineup before or after us at that hour.
This was the best of the bunch.

Happy Holidays.

Baby Bump and Christmas preparations

Here you go folks. The (almost) 11/13 week baby(ies) bump.
Feeling better lately. Not nauseous all day. More on and off.
Abi's also feeling better.
Nothing exciting to report - other than some folks around here are eagerly anticipating the Grey Cup this afternoon.  I'm not sure which is more exciting - the game or the food and beer. (No beer for me of course, but I'll happily partake of the food.)

(Photo taken at a Christmas ornament exchange party last night, which is the only excuse I can grant my friends for having their tree up already!)

Abi is eagerly anticipating Christmas this year. She drew a photo for Santa and dictated a letter for him. The first item on her list is a flashlight - so she can go camping again. Bath toys (in particular another soft kitty and a rubber duck) and dollhouse toys are also on the list. I think Santa can deliver.
Santa also sent her a video from the Portable North Pole.
She's also decided to make Santa a gift - because she thinks he deserves it for making so many gifts for others.
That's my girl.
I reminded her that Santa really likes milk and cookies and that we'll also leave carrots for the reindeer.
I'm not sure how early we'll set up the tree this year, but I did make a countdown calendar for her with poster board and paper pockets that will hold stickers and little gifts like a silly band bracelet.  We'll use the stickers to mark the days that have passed as we count (from 1 to 24).

Santa came to town

This morning we excitedly attended the local Santa Claus parade. (I shall refrain from complaining about how early it is for such a parade.) We missed the local Thanksgiving Parade, much to Abi's disappointment. She was very eager to see Santa. We arrived early and waited a while (with yummies from Matter of Taste cafe).

At last it began. Abi was shouting Happy Christmas throughout. Literally. Or singing Jingle Bells.

She wanted her picture taken with this beaver float.

Finally, the man himself drove past.
When asked what her favourite part of the parade was, Abi replied Santa Claus (of course) and all the treats she got.  She was so eager and smiley that I think all the people handing out candy stopped to share with her. (No, they didn't stop for every kid. Kids next to us certainly did not get much if any.)  At one point, students from WLU were walking past, Abi shouted Happy Christmas and as if rehearsed, about a dozen students said "ahhhhh!" - and then gave her candy.

So, this was our favourite part: