Doing Time for Christmas

Sorry for the late blog. I think I went into sleep mode over the Christmas break - all of me, but most especially my motivation to do anything much more than sleep and eat. The snow, as much as I truly love it, was a short lived thrill that, coupled with a family cold, turned into a deep frustration. We didn't get even an eighth of what we had intended to do done over the break. But this, was not necessarily a bad thing.

• I think not finishing my Christmas shopping put a good stop to that last-minute panic phenomenon. Although it was a sour disappointment to not receive my photo order (six gifts... ouch) it created much warmer gift-giving once the snow had melted.



• We only once got stuck in the snow; Christmas day, everyone including Mom was packed in the truck, the turkey needed to go into Mom's oven and there were three cars stuck at the bottom of our very steep street. In a moment of testosterone combined with acute frustration and engorged SUV pride, an unnamed male attempted to pull a u-turn in two-feet deep snow. The upside of that was that we chatted with and met some neighbours who kindly spent three quarters of an hour digging us out. Lucas very kindly spent the whole forty five minutes giving us advice on how to best get out of the situation.




• I spent New Year's Eve shovelling my mom's car out of her garage, down the lane and then back into a parking spot beside her house. All for a couple of bottles of wine and some cheese. I could have walked in ten minutes, but for some stupid reason I thought I should "rescue" her from her own seclusion. Instead I bought myself a serious case of self loathing. However once again I was impressed with the help of kind neighbours as well as the pig-headedness of a certain gender. Let's just say that three different strange men got into the car and tried to gun it in their chivalric attempt to save me. By midnight I realized that my suspicion of arthritis in my hands was very likely right. Hmmm, Happy New Year.
  
• I am now consequently have a mid-life moment. I turn 35 this year, close enough! I must press forward with my to-do list.


• The best snow moment for me came when spending an afternoon shovelling. I was down the walk and the kids were safely playing in the yard when I heard a small voice calling me from far away. When I rounded the corner I saw Mia lodged, literally, in a bank of snow off the side of the back steps. She had one leg and one arm completely stuck and was madly waving the others at a hilariously cartoonish angle. I really wanted to run in the house and get the camera before I got her out, but compassion won over humour.

• I read an amazing book in about 48 hours, much to Rob's frustration at my ability tune all out. If you need a good read, check out The Book of the Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

Lucas now has a serious case of space curiosity as well as super hero impersonation.

I never got the dollhouse I wanted when I was little - not depravity, just a long story. Anyhow, this year Santa brought one for Mia. We love it.

I hope you all had a great holiday and 2009 brings you lots of good things. :) Ting