I did my aerial this week at Gymnastics! And I did a Shoot-Through too!
He said
With having last weekend off and the one upcoming off, this week meant I started a nine day stretch of work on Monday. As much as I will likely be tuckered out come Tuesday night, it is a really fun time of year to work at the store as the holidays bring people in wanting to find the perfect gift for a special person. And, a lot of those conversations are around getting the family a computer for the kids to use on school projects and the parents to organize their life on. It always brings me back to that first Macintosh we got in 1984 and what opened a world of digital art for me and led to working in graphic design and ultimately a life changing career at Apple. Every time I get to meet parents and hear them talk about the possibilities they foresee opening up for them, I feel like I am getting a window back to when Mom & Dad made that same decision for us.
The schedule this week also afforded me the ability to see some of Emelia’s busy after school activities. Wednesday night I went with Danielle to watch Emelia’s Acro Dance class. It’s crazy to see how much she has picked up already. But the best part was when she came out after class and said one of the girls in her class said she thought she recognized me as her Dad works at Apple too. It turns out that she’s in class with the daughter of a guy from our store who is off work right now coping through the loss of his wife to cancer. We keep in touch and he is a very dear friend, so I was delighted to see that his daughter – who is also going through this hard time – now has Emelia as a new friend. And it means he and I will cross paths a lot more too which is great. Can’t imagine what this holiday season will be like for him, but I am glad to have this added connection for Emelia and we’ve talked to her about how she can try to be a friend for her cause she must be having a hard time.
Speaking of the holiday season… Last week we added new lights to our out door display and were delighted with how much better our house looked. Well, that last all of a week as some time between midnight on Friday and Saturday afternoon, some dickweeds decided to make off with 3 of the 4 new projector bulbs we had as well as 2 of the extension cords running to them. That really put a damper on our Festive spirits. But, the perspective we took away from it, is it could have been a lot worse in the grand scheme of things. We have both friends and family dealing with a lot more serious things, so we’ve decided to focus on the real meaning of the season and not the probable useless prankery of drunk university students from our neighbourhood.
Twice this week, I got out to see shows. The first one was Friday night to see a coworker Corey’s band Fire At Five, at a show they were playing in London. It was great to see him outside of our everyday and behind the comfort (as scary as this may sound for some of you) of a guitar and a mic stand on stage. He’s band is really great and they put on a tight, fun set. The next night was out with Danielle this time to see our friend Jim Bryson play a show with Jeremy Fisher. Both were celebrating the tenth anniversary of albums that really kicked their careers off. As Jim is a good friend, we don’t miss any chance to see him in the area. It helps that his music is fantastic, but his live show banter is pretty much the funniest I’ve experienced. And last night was another such experience but it was great as we were visiting with him after the show, hearing people who were seeing him for the first time gush the very same thoughts.
That is really the week for me – even with a nine-day stretch at work there was still more than enough family time and even some going out to see live music to boot. This week brings me a day off in the middle of the week, as well as the weekend off. We have a neighbourhood festive gathering on Saturday night and on Sunday a down and back trip to Whitby to celebrate Marshall’s birthday with Charlie, Todd and Todd’s sister. That’s a fantastic forecast of funnery and that makes me pleased as punch!
She said
The holiday theme is still going strong around here. As the weeks move closer to the big day the to do list is still growing but we are in such great shape that we should have everything wrapped up soon enough. This week we got a few more things done, we got a tiny bit more shopping done, a trip to Santa and Emelia continues with her preparations with her holiday dances for her acro, jazz and gymnastics performances in a few weeks.
Every week we are blown away at how much she is learning with her new dance classes. She is picking up the dance moves and is keeping up with the girls who have been taking classes for years. She is absolutely loving acro but is loving jazz almost equally. Her big accomplishment this week in acro was finally getting her aerial which she has been relentlessly practicing for months. She has been trying to get this and has been trying and trying on our front lawn since the beginning of the summer. With some hands on tips from her acro instructor she nailed it. She was spotted in acro and today at gymnastics did it with no spotting. The smile on her face was absolutely priceless.
The other thing that has really take an amazing turn for the better for Emelia this year has been school. The last few years (especially the last two years) have caused her so much frustration. But now with the proper support, guidance and teaching style she is coming into her own. Her support learning computer arrived about a week and a half ago and she is loving it. Between this and the specialized support program for her reading and writing her confidence in school has really exploded. Add in some one on one tutoring in math and she is really finding her own voice in school. What a difference a year makes for her!
This weekend John had to work the entire weekend so Emelia and I filled our weekend the best we could. She had jazz class on Saturday so after class we decided to build on the holiday spirit and hit up the Christmas craft show that was in town for the weekend. We didn’t find a ton there that we loved but we did find one booth that we loved and managed to find the perfect gift for her teachers in her life. She carefully and thoughtfully picked out one for each of them thinking about their taste and personalities. We hope they love them and that they know how much we appreciated everything they have done for her this year.
Once we were done at the craft show we made our way to the mall to do a bit of window shopping to add to Emelia’s wish list. She knows we are done shopping already but with a birthday shortly after Christmas it is always good to have some ideas in the back of our minds. With festive feelings in our hearts we made our way home.It was then when the festive spirit got a bit of a kick in the gut. We came home to notice somethings different about our outdoor lights, something missing. Last weekend we added to our Christmas display with some fun and festive lights. Well some asshat decided that they wanted them more than the people who paid for them. And with that 3 of the lights and the new extension cords were stolen. Really festive hey? In the whole scheme of life it isn’t a huge deal, but it did really piss us off. I am not a Christmas person, I haven’t been for some very big reasons for years. So I put on a festive face to assure Emelia has the best memories for the holidays. All week Emelia was so excited about the lights, she kept saying we have the prettiest most festive house on the block. The look on her face when she noticed the lights were gone was heartbreaking. So yes we are fine, no one broke in our home but it was a pretty big invasion for Emelia.
Last night John and I had a nice date night. Emelia went over to stay at Helen and Doug’s place and we managed to get out for the evening. We went out to see our good friend Jim Bryson perform followed by Jeremy Fisher. The show was incredible and both artists put on a great show. We love seeing Jim perform and try to never miss a chance to see him when he is town. After the show we had a little chat with Jim before coming home and crashing for the night.
Today we were up bright and early so we could get across town to get Emelia and bring her to gymnastics training. Throughout this week Emelia had been fighting a bit of a cold/sore throat so I wasn’t sure how she would hold up at training today. But as always she pushed herself hard and never complained. She was super happy to show her coach her aerial and even mastered an element of her bar routine she had been working so hard on. We are so proud of her and all the work she puts into her training.
Once we wrapped things up Emelia filled her afternoon with playdates with her Anna, Grace, Marin and Gracyn. With the beautiful weather the girls spent most of the afternoon outside playing. With a happy girl busy with her friends I got some things done around the house. All in all it was a busy, and slightly exhausting week. Next week should prove to be hopefully a little less manic although busy none the less.