Old Tradition re-instated

When my girls were little -- about a month before Christmas we cleaned up their rooms.... cleaned sorted AND got rid of toys they no longer played with.

That is not a tradition that has ever happened in this house.  The lil one does not give up toys for any reason.  Back in the spring/summer I got her to help me organise and sort out the toys in her bins... throwing out a lot of old colouring books ... broken crayons... and baby toys.  I thought we did a good thing.  

The lil one though didn't have the same opinion and told her mother that I had made her throw out her toys!  What a shit storm!  The only time after that when I wanted more sorting done I insisted Sir Steve was with me while we sorted and tidied (trust me when I say this child had more toys/stuffed animals than any other child I have ever met!) he brought all the toys assigned to "GO" up to her mother.  (let her figure out what to do with them!)

But the room still had major sorting to do....... I refused to venture into her cupboard .. it was full of boxes of god only knew what!  

Yesterday when I was cleaning and I virtually by-passed her room for the umpteenth time...... I threw a little hissy fit.  Sir Steve promised that when the lil one got home from school they (her and him) would sort and clean.  

We had a talk with the lil one about Santa coming -- about children who don't have toys -- about her having way tooooo many and most of them she 1) never played with or 2) were 'baby toys' and she had outgrown them.

'Daddy took a firm stand and said that she could keep 6 of her stuffies (not including the favourite ones she sleeps with) and that they would empty all the boxes in her cupboard.

It didn't take them too long -- maybe an hour or so -- but at the end there were 3 HUGE garbage bags of stuffies.... a whole box filled with baby books ..... brand new crayons and markers and colouring books never used...... and two HUGE plastic bins of mega blocks! (one was kept) 

Sir Steve loaded up his van to take them all to one of the charities that collect gently used toys before Christmas.

The cupboard floor is virtually empty -- we put her box of dress up clothes in it -- and the huge bin of mega blocks and there was still room to put a furry blanket - turned into a rug - in.   Now she has a 'clubhouse or secret hidey hole' whichever she prefers to play in. 

I can't get over how much room she has in the room now!  and as we reassured her lots of room for more toys from Santa..... and room to play.  She wants a 'big' girl bedroom for Christmas and there is gobs of room for the new bed that is hidden away in the back shed until the 25th !!!

Some old traditions are a good thing !!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

We had such an amazing weekend!  Saturday we headed to Montreal for the youngest grandson's birthday party.  The lil one loves (and I mean LOVES) our family parties.... they're noisy and full of kids and playing.  

On Sunday I had promised we would decorate the house for Christmas.  Sir Steve and I talked about it.... she has never ever decorated the house.  My heart hurt - ya know? My kids decorated from the time they could walk ..... to think the lil one had never experienced the joy of decorating......... well it boggled my mind.

We got all the decorations out -- and I had decided our theme would be snow ... snowflakes .. snow balls.. snow men -- everything SNOW.  BUT there were some timeless decorations I had to have out -- the sleighs (which the lil one filled with empty gift wrapped boxes......... 

my Santas (which the lil one lovingly placed on the table under my watchful OCD eye)

and these Christmas houses (the big village that I made has been passed on to eldest daughter)

Then the tree............ 

Sir Steve got to separate all the little metal hooks that magically knot themselves into balls ...... I hung them on the snowflakes and snowflake balls and the lil one put them on the tree.... she did an amazing job with Sir Steve doing some directing and the use of the bathroom stool..........  


One small smile -- 
while we were decorating we had Christmas music playing... Feliz Navidad came on.  The lil one was singing her heart out -- "Feliz Navi DUCK..... Feliz Navi DUCK" which is now our family theme song. 

I wanted to share a picture of the lil one decorating -- but I rarely if ever put up pictures of the children in my life..... but this one is safe -- and gives you all a little idea of how damn cute she is!  Someone on facebook called her a "little munchkin" and that she is !!

It hasn't been a hardship having her with us for these two weeks -- not at all -- I'm almost sorry she'll be back to visiting her mom next weekend -- we've had so much fun!!

Sunday Sentiments

Christmas Adventure #2

Last night we went on our Christmas Adventure #2.

We started off having dinner at every 5 year old's gourmet restaurant - McDonald's (grinning) and then headed off to Upper Canada Village (a restored pioneer village) to see their Alight at Night.

I have never been and was really looking forward to it -- despite the no snow (I think it would have all been just a little more magical and Christmasy if there had been some snow) and despite it only being 24 hours after my cancer procedures.

We started off at the station and rode the Christmas train............ 

which was dark and VERY cold....but when you're 5 it's magical and exciting and fun.

We stopped at the church where they had a carol sing -- led by a very talented young singer......... 

BUT that didn't hold much interest for the lil one so we moved on to the children's section of bouncy castles and giant slides and igloos.

We wandered around a bit taking in all the lights and decorations -- and landed up at the Victorian Christmas House -- where St Nicholas was waiting to greet all the children.  Our lil one was hesitant because it was NOT Santa Claus -- but we explained that this Santa was just wearing a different coat -- and he "ho ho'd" just like the regular Santa Claus. We finally coaxed her to sit beside him so I could grab a quick picture.  

We do have to work on the answer to the question Santa always asks "What do you want for Christmas?" the lil one has no idea what she wants ..... (me thinks she will be thrilled with whatever she gets then!!)

Then we headed back out to view more lights and houses.  It was around this point that I really REALLY needed a washroom.  Trust me when I say the 'sloughing off' of dead cells is best done at home not in a public bathroom !!  At that point I really just wanted to crawl into a warm car and come home...... but we still had more houses and lights to see....... 

We all made it through the rest of the Adventure and declared the night an absolute success!!

The Holidays Begin

December 1st !!!  Welcome to The Journey the Christmas edition.  I have hung some decorations and attempted to bring a little holiday cheer to the blog.

Back in the day I used to participate in something called "Holidailies" where you pledged to write a blog entry every day from the 1st of December to January 2nd.   BUT it was a vanilla site - oh they had a section for Adult Only posts -- but truthfully after a couple of years I felt like I was supplying porn fodder for some creepy characters.  So I stopped.

I stopped my registered entries -- but I still tried to post something every day through Advent and the holidays.

I'm gonna take a stab at doing that again -- one post per day for the holidays.  

Christmas for me is the happiest holiday of the year!  I have such fond memories of family gatherings and singing Carols and going out at night driving around to see all the Christmas lights up in the neighbourhood. It was a magical time.

Sir Steve is not a Scrooge -- Hallelujah!! -- and despite it being 5 years since he got the Christmas spirit -- we're working on it this year!

It's gonna be an amazing holiday season!!!