Merry Christmas 🎄

Tuesday was Maren’s last day of school and Wednesday was Linden’s last day of daycare before Christmas break. It was bitterly bitterly cold last week (several days of -50C/-58F with the windchill) so we couldn’t be outside for longer than it took to get in the car, or walk across the street or between buildings, because you can get frostbite on exposed noses in as little as five minutes in those temperatures. So we were stuck inside. 

On Thursday we ventured to see Christmas trees on display at our local performing arts centre. 
 

The kids had fun, but Linden was having worsening cold symptoms which tempered her enjoyment. Fortunately by the next day she was starting to feel better. 

On Saturday, we watched Arthur Christmas while eating takeout pizza in our pjs.

Then we had a relaxing and fun-filled Christmas day.

It has been a much-needed rest after a very busy semester. We are still hunkering down for a bit, before preparing for next semester, and it feels really good to slow down. Merry Christmas! 

Maren’s turn

 Thursday was Maren’s Christmas concert. It was her first since preschool, the first her school has done since 2019, and everyone was pretty excited.

Every class did something different, and Maren’s class played recorder. In this video Maren is in the front row, in the middle, wearing a pink dress and headband:

Jeff and I were realizing that this was our first school concert as parents. Our only memories of school concerts were as students, performing. It was kind of surreal. 

Yesterday we baked more cookies and froze most of them, which we also did with last weekend’s gingerbread, so we will have lots of different kinds of cookies over a long period. This morning we went to a movie theater to watch Elf, which was Linden’s first time in a movie theater. I think she liked the movie, but the previews were kind of intense and I think that put her on edge for a while during the movie. But we all had fun.

This week is stressfully busy with work for me, but even so I think we are doing a pretty good job of making Christmas fun for the kiddos 😊🎄

Linden’s first Christmas concert

 Yesterday Linden had her first Christmas concert ever. Her preschool put on a performance in which each class (three total) did a very short dance and then they all said a very short poem together at the end. All told the concert was over in about 15 minutes, which is really perfect for a preschool Christmas concert. 

I took a video but it is very very tiny and hard to see what is happening. The kids are wearing little mousey hats and alternating between dancing around and creeping like little mice. In the video (below), Linden starts out third from the right and is wearing this dress:

Today we continued the Christmas festivities with gingerbread cookies.

Flying solo

 I am currently in the Vancouver airport, waiting for a flight home to Regina. I am at the end of a short trip to Eugene for my grad school advisor’s retirement celebration, and it was a big deal trip for me. 

I went alone, and this was my first solo trip in five years. My first time sleeping away from Linden. I drove from Portland airport to Eugene, and it was the first time since my brain surgery (June 2012) that I drove on the freeway for more than a few minutes. This was a huge confidence booster, because even though I was sure I could do it, it meant a lot to actually do it. 

It was also the first time I had seen a lot of my former lab mates in many years, and I was flooded with emotion seeing them and hearing about all they are doing. And of course everyone speaking about my wonderful advisor, all she has accomplished, and all she has inspired. 

Overall, a very good trip ❤️

Christmas begins

Happy Thanksgiving 🌽🏈🐕 to all my American friends and family! 

Here in Canada there is really no good marker (like Thanksgiving is in the US) to indicate when the Christmas season should begin. Because of that, people have been putting up Christmas lights since Halloween. Around here you never know when it might be bitterly cold, so in a lot of ways it is smart to put up your lights early. Several of our neighbours have had lights up for a few weeks already. But I just can’t be okay with starting Christmas so early. 

Fortunately we lucked out today and had a warm day – a few degrees above freezing – so we were able to put up our lights at a reasonable time and do it without frostbite. 

Now Christmas can officially begin 🎄