Still here.

I've been out of town (and I don't like to post that I'm going out of town until after the fact) - more on that in the next couple of posts - hopefully in the next 2 days.


But first I must dash to find out what in sam-heaven the appliance repair guys are vacuuming in the crawl space...

Tomas' Christmas Card

I bid all 3 of my readers a Happy New Year!

New Years Eve was awesome - we had a fondue fondue fondue... meat, cheese, chocolate. It was Five-Star delicious.

We used to have fondues when I was a child and then we got away from it .... which is what every single person said to me at the gym yesterday. They all went "OH ya, fondues. I loved fondues. We used to fondue when I was a kid but I haven't in years."

Well, let me tell ya - I am a trendsetter (this was our 2nd year for a fondue). Read this article and you'll learn that the Fondue is making a Comeback. Oh ya, baby!

But I digress, the reason I wanted to write this blog today was to tell you about the Christmas Card I found when I was cleaning the house today.

Tomas made this card at school and inside he says:

Merry Christmas

Christmas is haveing (sic) fun fun in the snow. Christmas is putting reindeer food out for Rudolph. Christmas is when the NHL playoffs are close.

Tomas

Cat In The Hat

Today marked the first day that my little baby girl read the entire Cat in the Hat book - all 60-odd pages - BY HERSELF.

And this reminded me that I think there are 2 kinds of people in this world.

Those that love Dr. Seuss books and those that don't.

Are you a Dr. Seuss Devotee? Or a Dr. Seuss who?

My husband informed me that he taught himself to read by reading Dr. Seuss books and Toria loves all Dr. Seuss books, too. On the other hand, as a child I did (and still do) consider them non-sensical and a waste of my reading time. As for Tomas, if it doesn't have the word Hockey inscribed at least once on every page then he isn't so interested. Both Tomas and I love to read (in fact, I just checked and the little stinker had turned his light back on and was reading at 10:23pm - a full 2 hours after his regular bedtime and 1 hour after his holiday "lights-out") ... i digress.... but come'on writers of this world give us something that makes sense. Work with me here, Dr. Seuss!

So to celebrate Toria's great feat - I show you a picture of Toria and her close friend Maya with their 'boyfriend'.

Post Christmas is...

Post Christmas is....

Thai Spicy Noodle Soup.

Yum yum. Blessed is my husband who takes the leftover 12 pounds of a 12.9 lb turkey and makes
(1) Turkey leftovers for hot turkey sandwiches
(2) Turkey salad for cold turkey sandwiches (na na na na nah to my little sister who loves Todd's turkey salad but didn't get any this year..... he also made a 1/2 batch of chipotle turkey salad!)
(3) Turkey soup broth

Now, 1 & 2 are nice but anyone can do those. It's the #3 that I love love love. It is the base of my (err, Todd's) Thai Spicy Noodle soup. I have just finished my third helping and ...

life. is. good.

C.

P.S. Todd says his recipe is an ancient Ukrainian-Thai secret and you'd have to marry him to get it but SORRY - he's already taken!

Winter Schminter

This is what winter is SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE where we live. To play in the snow the kids have to make ice sculptures out of coloured water frozen in old Starbucks coffee cups and tupperware containers. This is Tomas and his "little buddy" (kindergartener) showing off their castle from last week.



This was Toria yesterday. This is NOT how it is supposed to be.


That's all I have to say on the matter.

Except that it is only -1C (31F) and not -40C like it is in other parts of the country that say they have no snow but it is so cold they can't be exposed for 30 seconds or body parts start freezing (but I don't know anyone like that, do I mom?).

I guess I'll take the snow over the cold.

At least it is perfect snow for snowball fights!

All dressed up, places to go.

Todd & I have had opportunity to get out on the town a few times this year and one of the highlights was our meeting Sebastien Sasseville who earlier this year became the first Canadian living with Type 1 Diabetes to summit Mount Everest.

Here we are with Alan Brown (JDRF Victoria Chapter Chair), Sebastien, Me, Todd at the JDRF Promise Ball. Where we had a fabulous time but I'll leave that for a different blog....



What does this post have to do with today? Absolutely nothing.

But I spent the morning shovelling our ^%&%#@ 2-sided driveway (I know that no one really feels sorry for me but it was heavy snow and deep and we sold most of our shovels when we moved here because it's NOT SUPPOSED TO SNOW HERE). Then, feeling peaceful from shovelling the driveway in the quiet calm of a picture-perfect snow-covered winter day (and there was no one around because no one drives in the snow) that I rewarded myself with an afternoon at the lined-up-at-every-store-because-half-the-workers-can't-make-it-to-work-so-stores-are-at-half-staff-but-didn't-affect-the-shoppers frenzied Mall... trying to track down that last unexpected gift... from my inlaws to my children.

So I wanted something to make me smile - and this memory always makes me smile.
Oh yes, and the fact that my kids are very happily playing Monopoly with each other right now!

I'm back....

Yes, I'm back and I bring you....

Parent Night at Hockey



Tomas is in a red Team Canada jersey
Toria is the thing in pink.
.... and yes, I am The Mom out there.