Holidays

We had quite the first Christmas for Josh this year, complete with an ice storm that caused us to lose power for three days! His gift from "Santa" still hasn't arrived even though I made so sure it would be here in time, but thankfully he's too little to care either way.

Just as we were settling back in after a 4am wake-up on the Sunday morning before Christmas, the power went out. We had freezing rain coming down all night, so it wasn't much of a surprise. We snuggled back in, thinking it would be back by the time we woke up. How wrong we were. We awoke to a world coated in several inches of ice. Trees were down all over the place, power lines were snapping due to the weight of the ice, and many, many people were without power in our city.

I'm not sure I've ever posted about it, but due to a tongue and lip tie, Josh and I were never able to establish a successful breastfeeding relationship. I have been pumping for him round the clock since he was a wee thing. Well, no power meant the pump didn't work, and with no manual pump, a baby who couldn't breastfeed, and only 24 ounces of "emergency formula" on hand, we were in trouble. Luckily, we have a car that has an outlet and that car happened to be full of gas, but that car was frozen shut under several inches of ice. It took almost an hour, and some inventive strategies to get that car door open, but we did! I was pumping milk in the driveway and sterilizing bottles on the barbeque. The first thing I did when power was restored to some areas was buy a manual pump and extra bottles!

By the second night the temperature in our home dropped below 5 degrees celcius, and the blanket fort we had built was no longer keeping us warm (plus the cat kept jumping into the middle of the roof and collapsing it), so we packed up the animals and booked it to a hotel for the night. We were so lucky to have had that option (and a hotel that would accept all our animals) as so many others didn't. I was hearing horror stories from friends and neighbours about disabled parents being stuck on the 16th floor of an apartment building. It was bad, but most people were doing whatever they could to help others. We were touched by how many offered us a warm place, even though we could not accept because we needed to keep our animals with us.

This little guy was such a trooper. He smiled straight through, sleeping like a champ even in new surroundings. The animals on the other hand were so stressed, poor dears. Charlie hid underneath the bed (which we actually had to move to get her out in the morning...interesting things you find underneath those hotel beds!), Lola stood guard all night long, and the chinchillas don't deal well with any sort of change.

We were one of the lucky homes to get power back by Christmas Eve, and how happy we were to be back home, warm and safe. We cancelled the festivities for the night, having to empty out the fridge and freezer, and being told to conserve as much power as possible, so we had a quiet night instead. We had a wonderful Christmas morning, even if the ice storm stopped the mail, meant Jer's stocking never got finished, and we were exhausted from all the commotion of the previous days events. We were with family and friends and that was what mattered most.

This is one Christmas we are sure to never forget.

Is It Really December?

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. Last week Josh turned four months old (and is doing all kinds of new things, like propelling himself across the couch with his legs, laughing the most adorable laughs, and pulling mama's hair), and now we are less than three weeks away from Christmas. Even though he won't really know what's going on, I am so excited to celebrate with him this year. I've already taken him to see the sweetest Santa at one of the local malls, and am hoping to make a visit to the Lowe's Christmas Market. I had planned to go last year, but had just become pregnant with Josh and was feeling really awful those first several weeks. I didn't do many things I had wanted to do last Christmas, so I am making up for it this year! I had been hoping to go to the Christkindl Market in Kitchener since it has been going on for much longer so it has had time to become pretty amazing, but sadly we are home sick this weekend. Next year!

This picture makes me laugh. I had really wanted a Christmas picture of these two, but after several attempts I truly understand why people leave this kind of thing to the professionals. This was the best I got so I didn't bother editing out the background.

We had to wait to put our tree up this year because we had some renovations going on in the basement (after a Thanksgiving flood) and all our Christmas goodies were blocked in a closet down there. When the walls were painted and new carpets put in, we were finally able to get things out. We were also busy moving out of the Pickering Antique Mall. That's right! Lulu and Lolie are still together and we will continue the monthly fleas and are planning to open at Etsy shop, but for many reasons, we decided the Antique Mall wasn't working for us. In the mean time, I needed a little Christmas goodness, so I pulled out the Christmas Pyrex and made a little display on that shelf I thrifted a while back.

This little Pyrex drummer boy bowl has quickly become a new favourite. It's marked "Pyrex tableware" on the bottom.

I'm still finishing up Jer's Christmas stocking and in other crafty attempts, I have been learning to sew with knits. I didn't think it was possible without a serger, but I was so very wrong. So far I've been toying with a bandana bib pattern that works better for us (I wasn't really happy with the fit of these ones I had made, even after tweaking them to include a bit of a cut out neck for a better fit) as well as some baby leggings. I love being able to customize the fit to accommodate those cloth diapers a little better. I'll post a little more about those later on.

I hope everyone is enjoying their December so far!