Well, hello there winter, ice and general freezing my knickers weather!

I haven't blogged in a bit but I just looked at my last post and it was all about the winter we're supposed to be getting this year. As in, the winter we're already experiencing today. It's FREEZING!!!!!! Really chilly and windy just to add a bit of excitement... ?

It's just cold.

And to top off the joys of really cold weather, I'm sort of stuck at home. As I've mentioned many times before, our house is on a steep hill and my husband forgot to drive his truck down before the snow/ice became an issue so he's driving my car to work. Thus, I am stuck. However, I don't really imagine myself carrying Hudson up and down my driveway in this weather anyway. So we're at home. And we're warm so I'm glad!

A positive of my predicament is that my house is VERY tidy right now! No little piles to be seen, laundry all done and I actually think I'm going to do something "fun" today. (fun in quotations because this is relative and the fact that I'm stuck really limits what I can actually do for fun. ha ha!) Maybe bake with loads of butter or watch a movie while Hudson naps this afternoon. We'll see. I wish I had a good book right now... I'd be reading all day. Oh well.

In other news, I just watched a 17 minute Youtube video interview with Prince William and the future Mrs. Kate Middleton. I don't know how much you really care about this and in the grand scheme, I don't care TOO much but it's kind of fun to see them get engaged. Since I'm Canadian, I was raised with some awareness of the British royal family... and I had the Princess Diana paper doll set... yeah, I know, big deal!! ;-) I was a big fan of the wedding dress with poofy sleeves for my paper princess. And that blue gown that matched her saphire ring. And then my brothers wrecked it all. At least I imagine they did because it's not in my life anymore and I can't imagine that I would've voluntarily gotten rid of this stuff.

So I'm going to plan on watching the wedding on April 29th because it'll be on tv and it'll be beautiful, I'm sure! But I must say that I'm really glad that I'm married to a really regular guy with a totally non-public life... who wants to be scrutinized that much?? Not I. Nope. And for those of you who know me well, I'm sure if I had a "public" life, I'd say something terrible that'd be criticized for generations so it's just better this way.

It's something we can all be thankful for. (roll of the eyes... yes, you may as well!)

Okay, enough ramble. I'm thinking banana bread with chocolate chips to start of this day off right. Then maybe a spoonful of Nutella to keep my spirits up before moving onto some kind of cookie.

A Winter Weather Preview

(Or just a prediction from other people.)

Check this out!

Hmmmmm.

I've read a few different resources regarding this prediction and they're all saying it. Below normal temperatures for the Pacific Northwest.

Have you seen my drive-way? Have you seen my dog?

Both are reasons for me to tremble in my boots. Because my drive-way is a "blue" ski run and my dog is a wimp.

Even more concerning, I have this baby... you know, the one born last March? When it's snowy or icy or even threatening either of these conditions, we park at the bottom of the driveway. The thought of climbing up and down with Hudson sounds so perfectly awful to me... I can imagine a lot of "at home" days where we slowly go crazy from cabin fever and I succumb to the television. And food.

After I typed that, I got a craving for brownies. I think I'm gonna go make some!

Such a Lovely Book

Before Hudson was born I received this wonderful book from my friend Sarah. It was such a thoughtful gift and made me cry the first time (and many times since...) I read it. It's called "You are My Miracle" and is so sweet plus it has the best illustrations. Who loves good drawings in kid's books? Me!!!

Here's the cover of the book. Beautiful.

See those little animals? They're on every page!!

The story is sweet... sigh.

After Hudson was born, I would read this to him and sob. Over and over again.

Because although ALL children truly are a miracle... Hudson really sort of was and because of this, I love this story for special reasons.

So thanks Sarah for being so thoughtful to buy this book for us before Hudson was even on the horizon. It will always be my favorite, no matter what other books I love over the years.

Uncle Steve!

Before I start writing about Uncle Steve, I have to say I was playing around with blog settings and it's just messed up right now. Sorry. And for the life of me, I cannot get my photos any bigger than they are which is really, REALLY annoying.

Okay, here I go!

My brother Steve has been gone since September 12 to the other side of the pond... aka: Europe. He went for a semester of Art History to build his portfolio to get into a Graduate program in Architecture. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I'm jealous. Yes, I'm sure it was amazing. Yes, he bought me something. Okay, I don't know if that last statement is true yet... but it'd better be true.

Something FABULOUS. Tres chic. EUROTRASH awesome. YES!

Pardon my momentary lapse in decorum. Ahem. Let's continue.

So Steve has returned to his ultra lame and drab un-european art history educated family and we're going to my mom's house for dinner today to see him. (disclaimer: I took 4 classes in art history, we've all been to europe at some point but not for as long as him... just saying...) Anyway, I'm excited! He hasn't seen Hudson since the crawling and the baby-shouting and the eating solids and a whole of other other things have happened! I know it'll be great to re-unite Uncle to Nephew today!

And my mom is making her chocolate custard pie which is amazing. And totally non-fat, zero calorie. You wish. Okay, I wish...

So with that, I need to go. Time to grab passports, shoes, baby and go!

Have a nice day!

What to do...

I'm in this kind of weird spot today.

Well, first of all, I'm on day 5.5 of feeling like a bucket full of poop so it's a miracle I'm even on the computer. I think the fact that I've been holed up inside my house for days is excuse enough to want to blog... to feel like I'm actually communicating with the "outside" world. So I'm listening to Anthony Skinner, playing peek-a-boo with my little guy and blogging. For now, at least.

It's amazing how much cold/flu season totally isolates Moms. We stay home to keep our sicknesses away from our friends and their kids and in the process, we lose the very vital and valuable time to socialize and "normalize" away from the never-ending lists of "to dos" in our homes. I think on this Friday, 3 of my friends or their kids are sick and at home. Good times abound.

This has nothing to do with what I was planning to blog about.

Here's what I was really going to blog about: Christmas.

It's November 5th. I know some of you are already dragging out the rubbermaid containers of Christmas junk/treasures and getting into HOLIDAY MODE! I always wait until after Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons.

1. Thanksgiving is such a great holiday in and of itself and I don't want to take away from it with all the focus on the holidays that come after it. And this holiday is pretty novel for me still, since I've only moved the USA in 2002 and thus, began to celebrate "American" Thanksgiving. In case you didn't know, Canadians have a Thanksgiving in October. (My husband strongly recommends marrying a Canadian to cash in on another turkey dinner each year... ha!) And I love Thanksgiving for the fact that it's really a totally non-materialistic holiday. The entire celebration is focused on food, which is one of the BEST parts of life. Is it not?

2. Because of my Canadian roots, in my family we never considered it really "appropriate" to decorate for Christmas until December 1st. I'm sure that's changed for a lot of people but growing up, people waited. December was the beginning of that season, with the advent calendar to count down with us! And in our family, we always had a fresh tree so getting it too early would just mean a dried out fire hazard by Christmas morning. So, because I live in the states now where it's much more acceptable for me to decorate earlier than December 1st, I start the day after Thanksgiving! YAY!

So with this in mind, I'm looking forward to Christmas but I'm waiting until after Thanksgiving to drag out my (11??) boxes of Christmas decor. Or rather, Luke will drag them out while rolling his eyes and exclaiming about how ridiculous it is that we have all of this stuff. But he quickly stops complaining when our home is all festive and beautifully decorated... which is usually days later, as it takes me some time. Probably weeks later, now that Hudson is in our home!

Anyway, Christmas has some interesting implications for our family this year. Some special, and some... not so special. The most exciting this is that it's Hudson's first Christmas! I am so excited to see his face when we light and decorate our tree! He's so observant so I'm sure it'll be great fun!!

The less exciting part will be that we're really dedicated to getting out of debt, even during the Christmas season, which means... we're not really doing gifts. Or maybe not a lot... I think? Luke and I haven't talked about it yet. But it's just the way it is this year. Purely by choice so it's not completely depressing but still... I have a big list of things I would love to buy for Luke and Hudson this year.

But whatever. Life is good, regardless of "stuff" and focusing on relationship during the holidays is meaningful enough for me this year! However, I do LOVE giving good things to people that I LOVE so if you're doing the gift thing, have fun!!!! Give them with joy! Give, give, give!!! But also, give love and thankfulness and thoughtfulness, and time and yummy baked treats and hugs and kisses and romance (just to one person... lol) and deep heart things too! And those are probably the things we'll be giving a lot more of this year! And I'm okay with that! Because next year we'll not owe a cent to anyone except our dear mortgage company (ha ha!) and I will be fully embracing my shopping list! With both hands and probably even a big kiss!

I'll probably blog a lot about the holidays during the holidays... if you like, read! Here are a few photos from Christmas 3 years ago in our home. I'll post other years on other days.

Oh, how I love a lighted tree!

I decorated our tree mainly in red and black. It changes every year...

This ornament was a gift from Luke's mom when we were engaged because we were "counting down the days/hours/minutes" until our wedding day!

In case you were wondering, Grandiflora in Lynden is THE BEST PLACE EVER to buy Christmas tree ornaments. I buy a few new ones every year. They're just gorgeous! Happy Friday.

Important Light Update

Well, I guess maybe it's not that important.

Last night the lights worked! The sun was out and shining all day long and we had lights! But today it's cloudy again. It was nice while it lasted.

:-)

Where I Live.

Our house is situated on a hill and our driveway is like a "blue" rated ski slope. It's steep to back down in a car. Or walk up. Pregnant. Let's forget I ever mentioned that. Anyway, it's steep.

The previous owners had installed these lights in the yard down the driveway to make it easier to see when backing down. But because it is so difficult to do if you're not used to it, those lights ended up getting demolished by cars wandering into our garden on the way down. (funny story, my friend who ran over the first light actually tried to correct her car and ran over a second one. And they are LOUD when they crack into a hundred pieces...) Anyway, the lights were also electric so once the first light was broken, the entire line stopped working. Needless to say, our driveway has been VERY dark for about awhile.

Right after my son was born, Costco had this great deal on some solar powered lights so I carried my new 10 day young baby and my poor postpartum body to Costco to take advantage of the coupon. They were out of the lights that day. I tried to be polite in the middle of my hormonal roller coaster and sleep deprived self. Rain check please!

This is sorta what they look like...

Costco finally got a new shipment in and I picked up 2 boxes, which is enough to light our driveway and keep a few extras just in case we have another car/crushed lights mishap. These beautiful new lights stayed up on the shelf in our garage just until a couple of weeks ago. But they are now up. I was really excited about these lights and they look great!

The first night, they went on beautifully and I practically wanted to get in my car just to back down with the lights shining next to my car. I didn't though. I just looked out the window a hundred times.

Now, one thing I didn't consider is this: I live in the Northwest. We don't necessarily get lot of this:

This happens to be the sun. It looks hot. Temperature hot, not hot hot, in case you were wondering.

Where I live is a lot more like this:

Cloudy and rainy, sometimes just cloudy, not rainy.

I say all of this because I have noticed that as October has been progressing, the lights have stopped lighting up. At first it was a few that didn't turn on and then about 95% of them and last night... zip. Totally dark. So, I think that the lack of light is affecting my lights. Or, the neighbor's kids turned off all the switches... I will get back to you on this. But I'm pretty sure it's the sunshine.

I'm gonna test it tonight though because wonder of ALL wonders, it's sunny today. Blue sky, few clouds and I can just feel it... the lights are excited. And they should be. Tonight they will be able to do their job and I will be glad to see them light my driveway once again. Unless it's a prank. Then I'll be pissed.

And with that, have a happy day!