This week I went to see Santa to give him my letter and tell him I am excited for Christmas. And then yesterday we finally put up our Christmas Tree!
He said
This week was pretty much focused on Christmas. Being the first, full week of December both Danielle and I were in festive spirits finally catching up to the same place Emelia has been in since like the end of September. Of course our friend Charlie the Elf made his reappearance, as well as a visit to Masonville Place on Wednesday night to hand deliver a letter to Santa Claus. To close it all out, there was a trip over to Poppa and Grandma’s to pick up the Christmas tree and the rest of the decorations to decorate the house.
After a rather unpromising start to her bid for the Nice List, Emelia really turned her behaviour around this week, ending the week on a much better note than she began. It’s not like her behaviour is unique at this time of year or that we don’t get that kids are pretty much overwhelmed by all the excitement. But, by the same token we don’t want to raise a kid that expects rather than wishes, as well as one that feels five minutes with the halo on erases bad behaviour like it never happened. So, even at this time of year, respect, manners and caring about others is something Danielle and I are pretty rigid with. With any luck, it will pay off.
Wednesday night we went to see Santa at Masonville to drop off Emelia’s letter. She got dressed up in her Christmas dress and waited patiently in a very short line for her turn. And of course when it was her time to go, our shy little girl clammed up and suddenly her volume level dropped to subterranean levels and Mommy’s hip became very interesting. She did manage to talk to Santa and actually look at him, which is a huge step forward. However, I always get a chuckle when I think about this girl that can be louder and more boisterous than Danielle’s entire daycare crew after she bolts through the door at the end of her school day, and how shy and quiet she gets in the right setting. I’m pretty sure, some nights after school Danielle could use a half hour visit from Santa to quiet things down with Emelia!
Finally this week, my brand new iPhone 6 arrived. It was interesting watching how it delivered—seeing it going forward and backward a calendar day as it made it’s way across the globe. What was not delightful however was how it could move from China to Kentucky in three business days, but then, take the same three business days to travel from Hamilton (two hours down the road) to our house. And, as luck would have it, twenty minutes after I left for work on Friday, the delivery truck showed up at the house and dropped it off. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t up way past my bedtime that night configuring and playing with the phone after my shift ended at 11:00pm.
This weekend – for the second in a row – I had a Saturday off and spent the day with Danielle and Emelia doing the regular family things which is wake up when we want, lounge around for almost too long, and then make like banshees as we hustle off to Emelia’s swim class and then her gymnastics. It’s a bit of a whirlwind, but I have really grown to relish these moments on Saturday where we get to pretend our weekends are like they used to be.
After we were done classes, and with the rest of Saturday to our own devices, we made off to hunt for some vintage used furniture out in Strathroy and then back in London. What was funny was at the same time, our cousin Billy was looking into a table for us down in Windsor that Danielle managed to find online. It worked out well having a cousin that could go check it out for us rather than spending the 2 hours down and then back if was a dud or worse yet, had been snatched up. As we were combing through the Strathroy Antique Mall, a call came from Billy and after some texted photos back and forth, Billy had bought the table and was taking it to his place for us.
And the best part is we will be able to pick up the table after Christmas and New Years when we head off to Frankenmuth with Bill and his girls for a weekend hangout. That will be a very fun and much-needed weekend with our cousin with whom we’ve been trying to mesh our schedules for the better part of a year to hangout. I am really looking forward to it!
And tomorrow… A very big day for Aunt Charlie and Uncle Todd—we will finally know the name and more importantly the birth details of our newest nephew in our family. I work tomorrow but I suspect at some time in the afternoon, a message from Danielle telling me the good news! And then Friday this week (my day off work) Danielle (who took a holiday from the daycare), and Emelia (who will be playing hooky from school) will all be heading down to Toronto to meet this new nephew for the first time.
So as you can see as great of a week it was, we are heading in to an even better one this week! Can’t wait to meet this new nephew and tell him what an awesome uncle I am!
She said
This week was all about Christmas for sure. Emelia’s behaviour was amazing and she really seemed to learn and appreciate the reason for her loss of privileges last week. Needless to say we have back our sweet and helpful girl. I am sure it won’t last forever but it certain is welcome this time of year.
The week was all about getting ready for the holidays for Emelia. For me it was a bit of a different focus. It was daycare focused. First there was the passing of Bill 10 which deeply impacts the ability for many daycare providers to continue in business and therefore limiting the choices for parents for daycare options. I will be OK but there will be leaner times as finding the perfect daycare family is hard enough but add in the new limitations on providers and it can make for some harder times. I am grateful that my daycare is well established so I should be able to weather much of the storms for the next year or so and hopefully longer.
The second daycare focus was the need to fill a daycare space. I had a family give notice last week and it was for all the right reasons (family/work balance for the parents) but for a provider the timing could not have been worse. The boys last day is only 6 days before Christmas which is the hardest time of year to find new clients. It certainly changed things for Christmas budget but we will recover and we are thankfully mostly done Christmas shopping so I do not have a huge amount of adjusting to make. So this week in the rare downtimes the children gave me I was advertising and networking hoping to find a replacement client to fill my fifth space. Down a ⅕ of my income this time of year is not ideal.
Now back to Christmas. We managed to get a few of our favourite traditions done this week, first is the annual trip to visit Santa and give him Emelia’s letter. She of course was shy so we got a her Santa picture with her tightly clung to my arm. She did manage to say a few words to Santa and told him about her big wish for an American Girl doll that looks just like her. Now she waits the three weeks to see if she gets what she has been wanting for years.
Friday night while John worked we took in a special night Emelia and I with her closest friends at school. Her school was hosting a movie viewing of the Christmas movie Elf. Emelia and her friends had an absolute blast and I just loved seeing her in her total comfort zone. Gone was the super shy girl and there in its place was a super happy giggling girl with all her friends gabbing each others ears off. I could not have been happier to see her like that.
Saturday John was off for another weekend day, a rare event to have so many weekend days off and even more precious this time of year. We took full advantage of the day off and squeezed in as many things as we could. Later in the evening Friday, I received a message from a friend I know from a mom message board telling me she had seen a mid century modern coffee table she thought I would love. And we did, it was perfect. Problem, its in Windsor which is 2 hours from us. And as much as we want this search process to be over we could not figure a way to get down to Windsor on John’s only day off with us. Thank goodness for family. A quick message to Billy and he was on a mission. He checked it out for quality and condition and picked it up for us. We will have to wait until after Christmas to pick it up but we are that much closer. And add to that a table I found on kijiji last night was the perfect accent side table, solid wood 1960’s walnut. We are so close! Hopefully in the new year we can finally put this redecorating project to bed and relax on our weekend days off together.
With all the running around and searching done we trekked over to Helen and Doug’s to pull our Christmas tree decorations out of storage at their place. Emelia could not wait! We got home with dinner fixins’ and I got to the task of getting the tree set up, lights on and garland while John got supper done. Emelia and I took the next 40 minutes or so with Christmas music in the background and put all the treasured ornaments on the tree, each ornament collected over the last 25 years, each holding a special memory for us. It was the perfect end of the day.
Then the night came, John and I after watching a movie were just coming upstairs and sneaking in a peak at Emelia as we do every night to find her sitting up in her bed. She said she has been awake for a while. It took no time at all to see she was sick. She was ashy grey, fevered and saying her throat hurt. Into bed with us she came, the tylenol was mildly breaking the fever but she was still warm. A pretty restless night for all of us with all of us in bed together.
The morning came extra early and we at to get John to work. Emelia continued with the fever and crying her throat hurt. I know my daughter, she doesn’t get a fever unless something else is going on. Thankfully she rarely gets sick, the last time she had anything even a cold was over a year ago. So I knew something wasn’t right. Add in the fact that our nephew is going to be born tomorrow and we are going down to Toronto later in the week I wanted to nip this in the bud.
Off to the Children’s Walk-in clinic we went, we were in and out in an hour with a prescription for a throat infection. The medication did its job and fast, within 2 hours of taking her first dose she finally could eat for the first time in the day and she said she was feeling 1000000x better. Her fever now long gone she is already feeling much better. Tomorrow she was cleared for school so we are back to the normal life tomorrow.
One last note for the blog this week. Tomorrow is a date we have been waiting for 9 months. The arrive of our nephew. We are beyond excited to find out what this little man’s name will be, see his beautiful face and I can get my baby snuggles in this week. I will be obsessively watching my phone for news of his safe arrival and photos. Charlie and Todd we cannot wait to meet your son!!!! We love you both so much.