Getting excited about Christmas...

I've been really excited about Christmas since the summer this year. It's so exciting now that Brianna is old enough to get excited about it and it's made it so much more magical for me. I'm looking forward to all the festivities that happen and also to finally spending Christmas with our families! We're going to the Santa Claus parade on Saturday which should be great. She really likes Christmas decorations (much better than the Halloween ones that made her a little nervous) and the fact that the floats will be lit up will make it even better. The parade in Edmonton was actually kind of a disappointment which surprised me since it was a big city. They did it inside the City Centre Mall Which has a series of pedways connecting it all around the downtown) since it's usually so cold outside and instead of floats they had people pulling wagons. It didn't have the same appeal for me.

I think I've also convinced Scott to go to Upper Canada Village some night for their light festival. They have all sorts of children's activities and neat things to see. Scott's not excited, but I think Bree (and I) will really like it.

We won't put our tree up right away in December, but Scott is talking about putting up a few lights outside and I bought a little Fisher Price Little People nativity that Brianna can play with (but it has to stay in the same spot!). I like the idea of having a little nativity that the kids get excited about seeing every year when it comes out. I always liked the nativity that my parents displayed, but we weren't allowed to touch it.

Aside from the commercial side of Christmas, which I won't deny that I enjoy, I've been trying to get Brianna to think about the importance of giving to people in need. We've been talking a lot about what we have and some people don't and she got really into the Operation Christmas Child shoebox. She's been talking a lot about "the little girl that's far away" that will get the box with everything we put in it. I also want to get an advent wreath and read stories and reflections every week and start that tradition. It's something that I always liked as a little girl too.

friends

This morning I was doing some housework while Brianna was playing in her bedroom alone. She often wants me to play with her instead of cleaning and I usually try to get through my chores quickly so I don't feel so guilty. Today she had her door closed and she had Tyke, one our cats in there with her. She loves to have him trapped in there, but he doesn't enjoy it so much. I usually allow it until I hear her chasing him into a corner yelling at him. I had an armload of her toys and I opened her door to put them in there. Tyke was out the door as soon as there was space for him to squeeze through. Brianna all of a sudden had her bottom lip out and tears in her eyes and she said, "I need Tyke to come back in here because he's my friend!" She said this which such earnest in her voice that I felt kind of bad, but then, wiping her tears away and trying not to cry she said, "maybe you can be my friend now, Mommy." Let the guilt trip begin!

7 months, 5 days

March 28th was way too long ago. Time to try this again. I can't promise that I'll be better, but I'll try to do better than 7 months and 5 days.

We're pretty settled at our new home now. I'm happy to have more space and our own yard (even though we don't play in it very often) and it's nice to be somewhere quiet. It isn't my dream home, but I'm happy for now.

I think Brianna misses the daycare and playing with all her friends. She really likes to see her cousin Alexa, who's 4, and sometimes her distant cousin Kristin when I go to the mom's group at the Christian Reform church. We didn't go last week because I was paranoid about all the kids who are sick everywhere and this week is a hymn sing which I'm not into. We'll go back next week, though, and we're immunized now so I won't worry so much. I'm probably worrying more than necessary, but I can't help it with the way the media has gone crazy with everything.

I'm really enjoying getting to know my midwife, Karen; she seems a good fit for me. At the last appointment she asked where we were planning on having the baby and I said hospital, but I'm not really opposed to a home birth either. Scott's always been the one a little more hesitant on that front. It freaks me out a little when I think of the mess (silly, I know) and I'm not sure about Brianna. One the one hand I think it would be great to not have to ship her off to someone's house while I'm in labour, especially if it's the middle of the night. On the other hand, though, if she's here I guess I'd need someone to be with her and I can't think of anyone that I'd feel comfortable asking. The idea of her being here makes me feel better, though. I'm pretty sure that if she wasn't I'd be worried about her. The other thing about a home birth I like is that I can just be in my bed afterward. I hate sleeping in a hospital; it's too noisy, uncomfortable and bright. We'll be going to an information session at the clinic next month. I also like that I don't have to commit to anything right now and I could decide in the middle of everything what I want to do. I suppose I should pre-register at the hospital just in case, though.

I just finished reading the Twilight series and, if you haven't read it, it was very good. I never would have picked it up if Scott hadn't given me the first book for Christmas. Now I'm among the followers. I'm not crazy like some of them , though. Next I have to continue reading my Outlander series since there's a new book due out in the fall. I'm re-reading the first 6 books to refresh my memory. I've never read a book twice before; I never saw a point. I'm absolutely in love with the books, though. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they are written by Diana Gabaldon. It's a historical fiction (with some romance thrown in for good measure) about a woman who accidentally gets thrown back to 18th century Scotland and because of circumstances end up marrying and falling in love with a warrior from then. It stretches out through many years and real life wars and it's very good. I didn't used to be much of a reader, but after Brianna was born I started to read more often.

Even though it is officially spring, the weather hasn't been co-operating. It's still been cold and snowy. We've ahad a few days above zero, but nothing to significantly melt any snow. We just get a bunch of puddles that end up freezing and being hazardous. I'm really looking forward to warm weather being permanent. The last two winters here didn't really bother me, but this one has been really long and I'm done with it. My brain is telling me it's spring, though, and I feel my spirits lifting slightly and I'm thinking of spring cleaning. We have the week after Easter off so I'm hoping that along with a trip to the mountains to ski and a trip to the Calgary zoo that I can do some purging around the apartment. I usually enjoy that (until I encounter spiders).

I'm hoping to make our eventual move back to Ontario easier by taking stock of what we have and what to keep or get rid of. I feel confident that the move will happen soon, but it drives me nuts not having a hard time line. We plan to have the application for the transfer in within the next month, but after that it will be out of our hands. We just hope that we don't have to wait to long and we'll be in Kingston by summer. I prefer summers there to here since there are better places to swim and camp. To me camping and swimming go hand-in-hand, but there isn't a lot of lakes here, and the few around aren't worth swimming in with all the pipe-lines running through the province. I hope to be visiting Sandbanks or Charleston Lake this summer.