it felt a little like christmas snuck up on me this year, on us really. i think because i've been so busy with work and craft and also that shared custody really compresses an already busy schedule, it was just suddenly christmas. i knew it was coming, and i love preparing for it, but it still surprised me regardless...
we had time to do some fun projects - cookies and homemade snow globes, a few handmade presents to place under our tree and the trees of others. and this year was the first year we had a real tree! i've never had one in all my many years on earth, and this was coco's first as well! we ventured, in time honoured (or something like that) tradition to the garden shop a few blocks from our home to pick a well-selected tree. we brought it home, decorated it, inhaled it's lovely aromas and then watched as it (while still being lovely!) slowly became more and more dehydrated as the weeks passed. coco managed to avoid eating all the candy canes and instead resorted to hiding small candies in the tree, presumably to retrieve later, a moment that often never materialized. when taking down the tree i found many small hidden treasures, and i'm still finding the best ornaments tucked in various small hiding spots all over the house.
we visited santa and cole was adamant that he bring candy. also trains, on second thought. and he posed most carefully and with Best Behaviour on the fat man's knee.
christmas eve was amazing - cole was so interested in the routine: stockings, timing, how santa got here, where the reindeer would eat the carrot. he had a hard time getting down to sleep that night (and that's relative, mind you) but eventually he did. i think i sleep more poorly as i kept expecting him to pad by in the night!
he woke us at a barely respectable 6:20 and we opened gifts slowly until early afternoon. cole played with almost every gift he opened right away, hauling out operation and tractors and "teenager lego" as he calls the regular stuff. we carried on the fun at dinner with steve's family and had a wonderful christmas.
it was magical, to see his eyes and watch his reactions to it all. and next year, i vow, to get started on the hullabaloo a little earlier. :)
we ventured out again this year to metrotown to visit santa. at the time when i chose that route, i figured it was the "easiest" option, but that was only because i didn't really think about it... after all, it's a skytrain ride, several elevators, the mall for pete's sake and a monster-sized one at that, and then there's the line etc. on the plus side, the mall did have things that i needed to do anyway what with it being christmas and all...
we visited last week, before the ankle biters got out of school. the line wasn't too long - maybe 20 minutes - and we went early so nobody in line seemed on the verge of a teary sugar-high breakdown. cole loved looking at the decorations, peeking on santa while we waited and he was so excited! he was smiling from ear to ear when he got to santa. they snapped photos quickly, which is good, because once santa started asking him all sorts of complicated questions about presents and toys and good boy this and that he began to look a little pensive...
i'm glad we went last week, because we rode out this morning to pick the photos up (ugh, two rides to metrotown? blast!) and the line looked like a disaster. overheard - two kids too old for santa telling their mom "no way - an hour wait? dude, that's 60 minutes!".
we also went to the robson square santa last week. it was a fun experience - they've just opened up the ice rink and they have a little santa's village. for free! (thank you GE corporate overlords and provincal tax dollars). santa photos, crafts and gingerbread and more. we played around outside for a bit and then we walked in and had a lingering santa photo session since no one else was in line and then made a mess with sparkles before heading out.
the photos were handed to us five seconds after taking them - the quality of the print wasn't that great, but it was fast and santa was really nice. for future reference, there is an elevator into ubc (which exits into the square) on the hornby & robson side of the gallery so you don't need to lug a stroller three flights of stairs below street level. i was ok with the gingerbread idea, but the lady operating that area poo-pooed it for a person cole's age. i was more on the "it'll keep us busy for 10 minutes and it's festive and nearly lunch anyway" side of the fence... she really wouldn't have liked our family gingerbread house party:
we did this a few years ago and it was fun. we cheat - it's really graham crackers glued to cardboard boxes using royal icing. but the candy is plenty real - and plentiful too. i wasn't sure how it would work with cole - i mean, bowls full of candy?
i haven't let him eat actual candy yet, but was able to distract him with other treats - dried ginger, raisins and apricots. i'm thinking that next year he won't be so easy to convince, especially with a ransom of candy in front of him...
we have made a lot of cookies this year for the holidays. i really love making cookies - i mean seriously, what's not to like? butter and sugar? glace cherries and bits of chocolate?
cole loves baking and cooking (well, he loves standing on a chair, helping and eating supplies) and i enlisted his help with the sugar cookies. perhaps wisely, i made the dough while he slept and, like martha, baked a few trays first. when he woke up from his nap he was really excited to hear that we were going to bake. once in the kitchen, we rolled out his own special ball of dough just for fun. he ate spoonfuls of flour from the canister, attacked the dough with cookie cutters, scarfed fistfuls of uncooked dough trimmings whenever i wasn't looking for a second. then we put our cookies in the oven and pulled out a tray full of cooked shapes...
cole's idea of decorating them was pretty much just to attack the sprinkles, pour sprinkles all over the kitchen and then eat them when i tried to rake up some of the candied mayhem. but it was really fun! the end result? four decorated cookies - one for cole to eat and three that we're saving for santa. the other result was a seriously wired kid - he ate a lot of cookie dough and i thought he was turning into a hummingbird for a while...
Too lazy/tired/busy to write much of interest, but I couldn't resist the chance to post a few photos of Cole from the past couple of days, playing around some of his new toys...
He loves his Uncle Goose wooden blocks. They're really fun to play with - for us too - stacking, building towers, loading them back into the wagon they live in. Cole loves to smash the towers down, and apparently the way they taste doesn't lessen the appeal... Mmm, piney!
Cole received an adorable Melissa & Doug wooden barn puzzle from Grandma B & Grandpa D. He is enjoying the large wooden knobs on the animals, which true to form end up as stand-in soothers, and of course the bizarre animal noises we make to encourge his *learning*. ;-) He picks the animal we call out quite often, actually.
He seems to be having a lot of fun on the new piano that we got him for Christmas. He enjoys pounding on the keys and using the piano itself as a good balancing tool for his standing adventures, and we are enjoying having a new toy to play on too. Hey, I've even expanded my own musical repertoire, past my ability to play Mary had a Little Lamb on anything and sea shanties on the harmonica. I am proud to say I can now also play I'm a Little Teapot. We're hoping to decode the secrets of the Murder She Wrote theme song soon... ;-)
And Cole really enjoys playing with his chewy teething keys. These aren't new - we were given them for our baby shower and he's begun to really enjoy chomping on them... We love how he looks like he's emerging from a snug little cocoon here - we caved and spent too much on the Bugaboo footmuff to keep him warm, ordered in true Vancouver fashion a few weeks ago when it was uncharacteristically cold out. Jamie figures that's the time that all Vancouverites buy things like coats and snow tires and shovels... The big snow storm before the Christmas eve one was my excuse to finally buy a new pair of wellies, so I figure that last minute thinking works well! Anyway, the footmuff (despite it's ridiculous name) is great, and much better than the alternative - my plan to spend probably many hours making a cozy zip-up for the same purpose.
Wow! Cole's first Christmas was all that we hoped - fun, memorable and full of Christmas cheer.
We were planning on heading out to Langley to stay over at Jamie's parents place as we do every year for Christmas morning, but what with the weather forecast we decided to make a move earlier than originally planned for fear that otherwise we wouldn't make it! We loaded up the car on Christmas eve-eve and made the trek. It's a good thing we did - the amount of snow that fell over the next 24 hours was bonkers by any standard.
We made the most of all that lovely white stuff by wearing all the snow gear in the house and building a fort on the lawn (oh, and some of us helped shovel!), complete with a snow throne and bassinet for Cole, who enjoyed watching us from the window while playing with Gramma B. We got him all decked out in a hilarious (and thankfully very warm!) hand-me-down snowsuit, complete with a hood that made him look like he was heading towards the nearest Renaissance faire... So funny. He loved the fort, making a snow angel and especially riding around in a recycling bin.
We made the most of the snow by going for a leisurely trek - or maybe not so leisurely. What with my lack of core strength and carrying a nearly 20-lb baby in the carrier, I'm still feeling a little twinge here and there! So beautiful though.
Christmas eve was perfect - doing a little carol-singing, tucking the presents under the tree, reading Cole Twas the Night Before Christmas and watching It's a Wonderful Life, which I seriously love every minute of, cheesy schmaltz and all.
Couldn't wait for Christmas morning! I guess that's a wish that can be answered in a number of ways. Santa gave Cole the early present of ultra-awakeness in the middle of the night. His teething, which I foolishly said recently was going well, suddenly became much more trouble for him... Argh. His poor little mouth - he was not a happy camper at night. We ended up camping out in the family room downstairs, watching log and doing our darndest to get some sleep. Naptimes weren't much better - hello - only one nap all day on Christmas? Wowzers... Our homeopathic teething tablets and gel didn't help but we were so lucky to borrow some Tylenol from lovely Lindsay, next door. It didn't really seem to do much to comfort him, but maybe only because he was in such a state by the time we decided to try it? Any recommendations anyone? Anyone, anyone? When he was awake he was a gem though and just like his usual self.
Christmas Day, despite our increasing levels of exhaustion, was magical. So lovely. Cole woke, as usual, sometime between 5 and 6, and we did his stocking first with the family. I'm sure he had no idea why various new toys were popping out of nowhere, but he loved his new things, especially a tambourine and a mischief of rats from IKEA.
We did his bigger presents later and he loved them all. Well chosen treats, everyone! He is in love with his Radio Flyer ride-along.
And we're glad he likes his new piano as much as we'd hoped... He comes from a long line of musical folks on Jamie's side and he started pounding away on his new piano the second the paper was off. I'm glad it was a hit - I lugged that thing from the Kids Market on Granville Island across the ferry, carrying him all the way!
Despite the snow, most of the usual suspects were able to make it to dinner. Oh my goodness - I love turkey dinner and it's always good, but this one was amazing! Can I please eat stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce every day? I'm an adult, so I guess I could... :-) Cole was in high spirits seeing all the family - he's great with visiting - and of course was the recipient of much attention from all. Doesn't hurt that when he's not fighting the teething he's about the happiest kid I've ever seen... This year's gag exchange was a hoot. Much stealing and strategizing, and we were all laughed out one raunchy hot-dog cooker, a toilet putter, a sexy pair of Santa shorts and a whole lot of other sillyness later...
We booked it home later that night, even with the bad roads. Cole's teething was giving him no rest no matter what we tried. He went to bed well enough, but he was up at 8:30 and so much more flustered than I've ever seen him. Thankfully he slept like a baby (the quiet, sleepy kind) in the car and actually made it from the car to the crib in my arms without waking up. That never happens! Poor kid must have been just exhausted. He slept well that night at home and I won't say another word about the matter until he has all his teeth - maybe even the permanent ones too - if I can help it. You know, first rule of parent club and all...
Since then we've just been chilling out at home, relaxing, playing with our new toys and trying to find places we want to go via Skytrain. It's totally a snow related disaster (by my definition which merely means it's inconvenient for us) down here... From our place there are a few long stretches of sidewalk that are totally impassable with a stroller. The only option is to walk out to Main Street and the few relatively decent blocks to the station. Cole loves that noontime nap in his stroller (me too), so we've been finding places to go on the train. Yesterday, a necessary trip to the Safeway at Commercial - wow, that place has a lot of weirdos in it. And today we took a ride over to Granville to grab a much-needed Artigiano's latte and a few design & photography magazines at Chapters.
Now back to the business of playing, falling asleep in front of a new set of Murder She Wrote dvds and figuring out which of the leftover Christmas cookies we should eat first. Lovely!
So, hey - it snowed! I think it might still be snowing... Last time I looked out the window, nose pressed to glass, it was. Lovely, swirly white stuff to make us feel extra festive around here - in case indulging in scads of cookies and rocking out to our itunes xmas playlist wasn't already doing the trick... :-) Oh, and I am slowly making my way through 'Silent Night' on the harmonica. Seriously!
We needed present-wrapping tape today, so we had to venture out. Last night we used up our tape wrapping gifts for the extended family annual post-xmas-dinner gag gift exchange. A much anticipated event every year. And we needed some other supplies (unrelated to said exchange) from the weirdo Yoko Yaya 123 store we just found in Tinseltown last week. Kind of like Daiso but with less selection.
Plus, Cole usually takes a mini mid-day nap in the stroller and figured we should try even with all the snow. We debated about whether it would be insane to take a stroller out in the still-snowing snow but figured we'd be set with the handle switched around so the big wheels did all the pushing - Bugaboo's sales pitch had assured us that this is the way to motor through difficult terrain. It also makes steering the thing a more nuanced experience, but hey, we are crazy fools who want to walk in the snow so why not? Well, we made it about a block and half, just past the skateboard park, and decided it wasn't working so well at the first go around. The stroller was becoming more of a snow plough than anything and getting around was really hard. We came back home and strapped Cole into the carrier - boots that tend to fall off if you're not holding his feet and all - and grabbed our new baby sled. 'Grabbed' meaning read the instructions, swore, shook fists and then assembled. There's a strange little park in between our place and Tinseltown, perfect for a little sled ride.
Cole seemed really interested in staring down, watching the snow going by. The sled, I should mention, is really odd. I got it at Superstore a week ago on an impulse, looking for something else in the lane that also contained toboggans. I love and hate the Superstore. Inexpensive, yes. Hellish and wide, also yes... Love the impulse-purchase of a sled too. Why not just stick to the easily manageable candy and gossip magazines at the till? Anyway, the sled is named the Pelican, because why? Of course, everyone wants to sit inside a pelican's mouth and of course they are also such snow-loving birds. The hood thing comes off and it becomes a reasonably normal looking sled, good for ages 0-2, if you're curious...
It was a blast to pull him up the little slope in the park and down the other side, and there was so much snow out that we walked a ways more, pulling him along the covered sidewalks until we got to the main road. So much fun.
We spent the rest of the day enjoying being slow and quiet inside. Grilled cheese sandwiches using white bread and fake cheese. Lots of tea. Playing in front of and staring out the windows, often with comments like "it's really coming down out there" again and again.
I even took a nap! I was going to wrap presents since we are flush again with tape but laid down for a second while Jamie put Cole down for his nap. The next thing I knew it was nearly 5 and Cole was up for dinner... I'm not a napper - hey, and the result is now I can't sleep at night, but man, that nap was such a lovely feeling of hibernation.
I'm curious how much snow there is out there on the roads and sidewalks downtown now. We were out early, but it snowed all day...
I started writing this post two days ago... Where does time go? This weekend we did about a million Christmas-y things, many on Saturday alone. It wasn't planned to be so, but it just worked out well. Kind of helped that nature was on our side and there was lovely SNOW that night too.
I'd been meaning to take Cole to see Santa at the mall, hoping to do it on a weekend day so Jamie could come too but dreading the prospect of the mall-Santa lineup on a day starting with 's'. Of course, not to be daunted by the fact I loathe Metrotown mall (fuelled primarily from the many lunchtime jaunts made there when my office relocated from West Hastings way the heck to the Siberia that is Canada Way), we took the Skytrain out there.
Victory in itself, as Jamie is not a fan of public transportation. In theory, yes, but in smelly and damp practice not so much. He's a fan of the foot patrol and walks to work every day. The theory was that Cole would nap on the Skytrain and we wouldn't have to get him in and out of the car. Just wheel the sleeping baby up to the Santa lineup and we're good to go. Chances of that happening as planned? ZERO. Cole enjoyed the train ride, making eyes at other riders and laughing at us.
The Santa lineup looked short but took about 45 minutes. Cole was very alert and we were worried that he'd use up all his perky awake time on the line alone. We were firmly lodged between a very nice family dressed in their mall-best, including three-year-old in a buttoned up suit, and a guy who Jamie thought was eyeing our diaper bag for valuables. Maybe it's just me, but getting really dressed up seems a little excessive for a Santa photo? The fancy people took about four million photos of themselves in the line, brushed their hair a hundred times and eventually had to bribe the children with french fries to keep quiet, which required the grooming process to start anew. It did make waiting in line entertaining for me, while Jamie took Cole for many walks to look at the elevators, the choo-choo and the shoe stores (what can I say, he's my kid and likes shoes).
Cole was nearly as jolly as Santa when they got to meet. He promptly pulled Santa's beard (it was real!) and laughed and laughed. He didn't want to sit down at all, preferring instead to dance on Santa's lap. Couldn't wait to see the results... We took the car yesterday to go back to the dreaded Metrotown to pick the photos up. Interesting journey and much aggravation along the way (more on that later), but it was worth it ten times to see this photo. So Cole - I love it:
We skidaddled pretty quickly after the photo, opting to ditch plans to do our food-bank grocery shopping at Superstore and save that for this weekend.
Cole didn't sleep on the ride home either. He did, however, end up taking his afternoon nap earlier which worked out well because we decided to hit up the Festival of Lights at Van Dusen Gardens that evening. Good thing we went earlyish - it was c-c-cold! So beautiful too. Cole loved the lights and was amazingly fine with the cold temperatures - not a peep of complaint out of him. Probably helped that I had him in enough layers to withstand a trip to the North Pole.
And of course, who can forget the lovely snow on Saturday night (or Sunday morning, depending on your perspective). We braved the frigid temperatures and uncleared sidewalks for our morning walk and went to do a little Christmas and food shopping. We had to take Cole to see his first snow - he saw the snow and then promptly slept for the remainder of our trip. Again, I think it was the layers that kept him so complacent...
We're super excited for Christmas 'round here. The Christmas tree is up now, sparkling away. We use just a smallish table-top tree because we can't really spare an entire corner for a huge one, but I love it. We missed it last year, when we elected not to set it up since we moved in here five days before Christmas, six months pregnant, and we spent Christmas eve, morning and day with family anyway...
I went down to our storage locker on P2 after the Santy Clause parade to fetch the tree box and decorations. Thankfully I was thinking last time I reorganized down there in the summer and they were oh-so-wisely placed right at the front. Genius, right? I opened up the tree box and went about bending the branches to resemble a realish-looking tree and strung the white lights that were magically not tangled at all. Still, thinking I was so smart... So easy! So quick! Logical! Then I opened the box marked "decorations". It was immaculately tidy. Took out the first ornament box and... empty. No ornaments in it. Just the empty case with it's little glass-ball protecting plastic tray. Same with the next box and the next. There were no ornaments in the entire box! Then I started to vaguely remember balling all the ornaments up in a paper Whole Foods bag two years ago. Apparently I thought I didn't have a few minutes to spare from my life of relative leisure back then to put them away properly? Now they must be somewhere in one of the boxes still sealed with packing tape, not strategically placed near the front of the storage room but presumably under the old chairs, old dresser, boxes of wall-matching touch-up paint and saucer sleds and ugly lamps and extra wineglasses...
So yesterday I went out and bought new ornaments. I am so against the concept however I figured it was sadly worth another $35 to not have to dig through that whole mess. It's a very neatly Tetris-stacked mess, but still, a lot of work... Good news! The Bay downtown had great ornaments and they were all 40% off! Why is it so complicated buying ornaments, by the way? I spent probably an hour in there debating. It's not that hard, I kept telling myself. Eventually Cole got annoyed at me and I figured it wasn't worth spending any more time figuring out which snowflake thing we 'needed' at the top of the tree.
Cole loves the ornaments and the lights. Especially the awesome family of silver owls!
I also spent an hour yesterday morning while Cole was napping making him a stocking. Couldn't resist the chance to see if he fit inside too of course... It's totally reversible - inside is the same Amy Butler fabric in red and white. I love the super soft minky fabric cuff but damn, that stuff is the dickens to sew with.
Today we were out and about in Kerrisdale and I stopped at Moore's Bakery for some sustenence, in cookie form. I bought a gingerbread man and for some reason picked out exactly 12 cookies to-go. I don't know why - we certainly don't need to eat more cookies around here and I plan to do some baking. Perhaps it was subconscious, buying exactly 12 cookies when I have a cookie-exchange to go to on Thursday? I realized the handyness of this in the car after I had bitten into a delicious cherry icebox cookie. So, realizing I couldn't use them for the exchange with only 11 (plus I hope to make some buttertarts tomorrow for that anyway) I figured I'd bring them home for us. Well, eleven cookies would never do, uneven number and all, so I ate another one. I thought about evening it out some more by eating two birds nest cookies too, but realized that having a latte and five cookies for lunch wouldn't make me very smart and stopped... ;-)
This morning, we were trying to figure out what to do today when we looked out the window and saw several parade floats being police-escorted across the Georgia Viaduct. After checking online we discovered that we were in luck - the Santa Clause Parade was starting in a few short hours...
We first stopped off at Red Burrito for some eye-wateringly hot burritos and then picked up a few good books for Cole at Chapters. And some Christmas cards for me... I wanted to make my own, but I'm not sure I'll manage to do that, so at least I have another option!
We waited in Chapters at the windows for a little while, staying warm, drinking our coffees and entertaining Cole with a red balloon nabbed from the folks outside Sears. After a little, Cole, who had not napped at all during the walk over, was getting kind of archy so we got a move on and stationed ourselves along the street a short ways up Howe.
Various amounts of jiggling, singing and passing back and forth with Jamie helped keep him happy until things got under way. Also staring at the lady behind us - Cole is a big flirt with the ladies... Once the parade started, he was suitably distracted by all the marching bands, pipers and emergency services sirens.
He actually made it all the way till the end and we got to see the big guy in red. Cole did not look particularly interested or impressed, but we were stoked that he got to see him.
Why don't people in Vancouver cheer, by the way? Everyone is at a parade. Of their own choice. Being entertained for free at a festive time of year. Often by children and old folks and people with various causes that could use support. Why no cheering, Vancouverites? I love to cheer. And clap! Jamie too. We get some odd looks, but really, it's kind of depressing to let the talented junior bands from xyz school or the Beavers with their earnestness and merit badges go walking by to the sounds of stony silence, only to have all the kids in the crowd get excited for the wii float which involved two people playing wii from inside a see-thru truck.
Anyway, we had a terrific time. It definitely put us in the Christmas spirit, and we came home to hot cups of tea and mandarin oranges, pulled the tree out of the storage space and got to thinking about putting it up. And soon: home-made cookies!
