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Time for Christmas travels. Saturday we’ll load up the car bright and early (and I do mean very early) to head out for our 12+ hour (probably more like 15 or so once you add in all the stops we’ll have to make for Maya) trip up to the great white north of Ontario to visit with our families for the holidays. We’ll spend a few days with my family then load up the car again and drive another 3+ hours north to see Lorne’s family. After a few days there we’ll load up once more and head home. Christmas for us equals lots and lots of driving. We try to arrange it so we are home for at least a few days before Lorne has to head back to work so we can have our own little Christmas (Santa leaves our presents here for us and we get them when we get home) and he gets a chance to just relax before starting the new year at work.
This is what we have done for the last 5+ years. And, as much as we love getting to spend the holidays with our families part of us just wants to hang out here. Traveling over the holidays just makes it tiresome, stressful and too jammed full of stuff to do; doesn’t leave much time for relaxation and rest. Part of me wants to spend Christmas in my own house, I haven’t done that in over 5 years, Maya has never spent Christmas in our house. I want that. I want her to wake up in our house on Christmas morning, go running for the tree to see what Santa has left for her and spend all day opening gifts, playing with new toys, eating yummy food and spending a beautiful lazy day together as a family.
Spending time with our families over Christmas is fun and I do enjoy it. I just don’t enjoy all the endless driving is involved and that it means we never get to spend Christmas at home. Maybe one of these years we’ll decide to change things up a bit and stay home, maybe make our trek up to the great white north for the holidays an every other year type of thing. We’ll see. For now we’ll get in our car, make the trip, enjoy our time with our families and then soak as much relaxation out of the last few days of Lorne’s Christmas vacation as we can.
Think of us Saturday as we drive on endless miles of freeway, listen to countless Christmas carols (hopefully not endless hours of screaming from the little one in the back seat!) and make our way up to spend the holidays with family and friends.
Are you traveling for Christmas? What are your thoughts on holiday travel, do you like it or would you rather stay home?
Thanks to Meghan for this wonderful idea, I love exchanging holiday cards and what better way to do it with my online friends than through our blogs 
I don’t send out photo cards, I usually go for the standard holiday cards. But, I made one up just for you guys
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I want to wish each of you a very Happy Holidays. You all mean so much to me. I hope this holiday season brings you much cheer and much love.
May 2010 be filled with the love of family, the company and love of friends and may it be a happy, fun-filled year for all of you.
Love and hugs everyone. Merry Christmas
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I took Maya to get her picture taken with Santa this morning. We’ll call it moderately successful since I did end up with a picture, just not exactly the picture I was planning on
This morning as soon as Maya got up I started talking about Santa and how we were going to go see him today. I told her she would get see Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas and get her picture taken with him. She was excited about the idea, although you could tell right away that she suspected she should maybe be a little nervous about this little adventure. Since she seemed to be up for this little adventure and in a pretty good mood today I decided it was a go. I got her all dressed up in an adorable dress, a pretty pair of red shoes and put her hair up in a little bow. We were all set.
When we got to mall she was still excited about seeing Santa. Her excitement was still there as we stood in line waiting our turn to see the man in red. I had high hopes that this year would be different than last year.
Last year she was going through a big stranger anxiety phase (signs of that stranger anxiety still sometimes make an appearance, but less often). She was not big on any strangers, or friends for that matter. No one else could hold her except me and many people made her cry just by looking at her. When we went to get her picture taken with Santa we weren’t expecting much. We wouldn’t have been surprised at all to walk away empty handed or with a picture of our daughter screaming on Santa’s lap. By some luck we managed to get a pretty decent picture though. She isn’t smiling, but she isn’t crying either. The lady taking the picture managed to snap the shot at just the exact second before she started freaking out. This is what we ended up with, pretty good considering what it could have been like.
This year I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Her stranger anxiety has faded a bit, she warms up to people much better now, and she loves the idea of Santa. We did try a couple of weeks ago to get her picture taken but she wasn’t in a particularly good mood that day and wasn’t having it. I might have got a decent picture if the girl taking the photos had been on the ball because she sat with Santa for a good few seconds before she cried and asked me to pick her back up. Unfortunately the girl wasn’t ready and didn’t take the shot, bummer. Since that initial try we’ve talked about it with her a lot and she has been open to the idea on several occasions. I got really excited when we were standing in line and she said “My turn Santa picture”. I thought, oh this might just work out really well. As I approached Santa though it all went down hill. She clung to me very tightly and said “no Santa”. I bargained with her and said I would sit with her. She was on my lap but apparently too close to jolly old St. Nick for her comfort and cried most of the time. The lady operating the camera managed to get the water works to stop for about 10 seconds by making ridiculously silly faces. It was long enough to get this shot.
I’ll take it, at least she isn’t crying, you can see tears in her eyes, but only if you look really closely.
Here’s hoping next year we get a picture of our beautiful little girl smiling on Santa’s lap, I won’t hold my breath though (and I’ll go assuming I’ll be in the picture again) 
I mentioned the other day that each ornament that adorns my Christmas tree has special meaning. Some remind me of special moments, some of special places and others of special people. I like that I can glance at an ornament on my tree and be reminded of something or someone special or meaningful to me. My ornaments are very sentimental and I cherish each one.
Most of the ornaments on my tree have been given to me, most by my Mum, some by other special people in my life. A few I have purchased myself as gifts for Lorne and Maya. A few we purchased together because they meant something to us like reminding us of a place we love to go or something special in our lives. I’m often on the look out during the holiday season for the perfect ornament. Sometimes the perfect ornament just happens to catch my eye when I’m not even looking for one. That is what happened today.
Maya and I were at one of our favorite stores today picking up a few necessities and a couple of Christmas gifts. We were wandering through the Christmas department because just loves to check out the Christmas trees and lights. I was standing there while Maya admired one of the trees when something sparkly and purple caught my eye. There, hanging on the wall was this sparkly, purple snowflake. I smiled and said out loud, that’s Maddie. That snowflake, that sparkly purple snowflake instantly reminded me of Madeline Spohr.
I knew I had to buy one. I knew my tree wouldn’t be complete without one. So, I bought one and brought it home and placed it on my tree.
Now when I look at my tree I see this beautiful, sparkly, purple snowflake and think of one little girl who had more inspiration in her, more strength, more love, more passion than any one I know. I’ll remember Maddie, and think of Heather and Mike, every time I look at that snowflake. And each year when we put up our Christmas tree and place that snowflake on the tree with all the other special ornaments we’ll remember a special little girl named Maddie.
We made our first little gingerbread house this past weekend. I haven’t made a gingerbread house in ages. I was probably like 11 or 12 the last time I made one with my Mum and I haven’t made one at all since I’ve been living on mine own. So, when I saw some gingerbread house kits at the store last week I just had to pick on up. I figured it would be a great little activity for us to do as a family and it would be simple enough that Maya could help out.
This past Sunday seemed to be the perfect day for a little gingerbread house making. After dinner was done and everything was cleaned up I brought out the kit. Maya got super excited as soon as a took the pre-formed house out of the box. And once I put all the candies out on a plate that was it, she was totally into it. I mean what child does love the idea of putting messy icing and lots of candy on a little house made out of cookies
Of course, eating the candy was apparently more fun than putting it on the house. At least we convinced her to put a few pieces of the candy on the house as well
We had a great time decorating our little gingerbread house. It certainly isn’t going to win any prizes but we think it looks cute. And Maya is very proud of her first gingerbread house.
