First up, we took advantage of the warmer weather and got our Christmas lights up outside.
When we lived in Petawawa, we would start decorating around the first collection of snow, which was usually around Remembrance Day or shortly after. (It often snowed before then but by mid Nov, it would be here to stay.)
Now that we’re in Nova Scotia, First Born will be the first to tell you that we don’t get snow. This isn’t totally true, but where we are in Nova Scotia gets less snow than most of the rest of the province. Last year, we only needed to shovel/get plowed once!
I digress, we usually decorated early so we could enjoy our version of Christmas before heading to Nova Scotia to have our extended family Christmas.
A couple of years ago, we had renovations after the cats flooded our house (almost $38,000 damage! Although the Husband is still convinced someone “Wet Banded” us… if you know what that means. If not, watch the old school Home Alone!)
Again, I digress. That year, we finally had our house back together, but the basement was stuffed with storage and, knowing we’d be selling, I just went ahead and bought a new pre-lit tree for that season. We kept it simple and decided to make paper snowflakes and chains for on it. We donated the original pre-lit tree to a mom and her kids who were starting over, as we didn’t need it all season, we were heading to Nova Scotia for the Holidays. But we loved it so much, so we bought a new one for this house last year and decided to make it a tradition.
So once we put up the outdoor lights, I told the kids that they could bring the trees in from the garage loft if they wanted to. They were only able to bring one of the trees down, but they brought it into the house, took it upstairs, put it together and then Middle Born started created paper tree ornaments for it right away. It’s still not finished yet, but we love this new family tradition.
The kids also all wrote their letters to Santa. Now, I’ve always told them that I’m Santa, but that it’s fun to believe and pretend. So we’ve always written letters, and we’ve always watched movies, and we’ve always had the Kindness Elves come to visit every December… And, somehow, even though I’ve always told them the truth, they all still believe that Santa is real. *sigh*
Learning is everywhere, even in the bedroom at bedtime when you have blacklight flashlights and notice a painting glows, so you experiment with other paintings and clothes, flashlights from science kits and purple string lights from the dollar store.
Then off we went back to my hometown.
The Husband was able to take Friday off and join us for a trip to the folks for the weekend again. A sweet lady, a sister in law to one of my sisters and a best friend to the my sister, finally lost her battle with cancer after years of fighting. This one will deserve a post of it’s own because the world needs more people like her… so stay tuned for that one.
That afternoon, my parents suggested we go Christmas Tree Hunting! Fun Fact: I’m the first and only person in my family to have a fake tree. It’s become a great tradition to have the kids help pick out Nan and Gampy’s tree.
So off we piled in my Dad blue dodge and went tree hunting
Every year, First Born takes his turn with the axe/hatchet and chops a bit. Last year, he even helped his grandfather drag it back to the truck.
But this year, all three kids wanted a turn to chop, and so, between the three of them, they chopped down the tree themselves and then First Born helped Gampy carry it down the hill and onto the truck.
Of course, we took the chance for some quality time with the grandparents, watching and discussing sports with Gampy, reading and crafting with Nan. Playing cards and building with Lego and knex. Memories that seem small but are really big, especially after living away their whole lives, and even more especially after celebrating the life of a lady who didn’t wait to live and love life.
It worked out that we were also able to attend the Parade of Lights for the town, and watch Santa’s arrival.
This year, we were dressed warmly for it.
We’ve always gone to Santa parades when we can, and they’ve all be a little a different. The ones in Dix30 near Montreal, I have to say, will always be my favorite, with jugglers, and horses, and real eard Santas, and more!
The kids enjoy these small town ones just as much, though. Especially when big brother offers piggy back rides while waiting!
Finally, to top off the weekend, we had a gathering at my sisters so everyone could see my niece, who flew home from Alberta for her aunts funeral.
Good food, good conversation, and a little bit of laughter with Last Born thinking her only boy cousin is scary… but then asks for a piggy back ride before we leave.
Kids!
Fishing!
I can't forget to mention the working fishing rod that First Born created from Knex while at the grandparents. Sometimes his brain amazing me.
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