2 Days Left

*taking a deep breath and exaling slowly*

yep, 2 days and we can say good bye to 2005 and hello 2006! i feel like my brain is somewhat on vacation, not sure where. it's not like i vegged all that time. and it's not like i lacked in stuff to talk about either.

I had a good time recieving the family for Christmas, i tried to prepare myself a day early this time, even tho i still forgot to buy celery for the turkey stuffing. at first i was at lost but i thought to myself, self, you got some mushroom, might not be what you're used to, not what's on the recipe, but it should turn out just fine. and it really did, it was good, the whole meal was good. well maybe my pie crust need perfecting. it was my first pie crust ever tho.

everyone seemed to had a good time, even Vivian was full of giggles and smiles all day.

i should've known right from the start the crust was gonna be tough. I suppose i had my suspicion when i had to steem roll the dough over 50 time each half, to get it flat. it never broke, it was so hard to flatten it. but no one lost a tooth on it. and after a few days, the crust had softened.

my son started doing something quite peculiar yesterday. my hubby and I were wondering if it was tipical for a 2 years old. he takes plates, bowl, glass and now even silverware, line it up on the floor and when he hits a wall, that's it, regardless that there's still room on the other side of the line. and we weren't sure what to think of it. DH was even wondering if it was an autistic behavior. untill our DS cheered the word, quinkx. we're not sure how he came up with that word, but it's the word he use a lot when he sit on and watch DH play tetris. so in his own way, DS is playing tetris with plates and bowls. he seems quite interresting in learning to wisle too, he's starting to get the hang of it. i find it so cute.

DD has so far taste tested, avocado, squash and asparagus. and to my surprise, she seems to quite like asparagus. will be nice this summer when our garden's asparagus comes up. yum fresh picked asparagus.

also took Owen for some toboganing. he liked it a lot. i wish i had a baby sled, so i could've sat Vivian down and towed her around. she's quite heavy to cary. ah well, she'll be walking next year. a few week ago at her 6 months apointment she was 20lb and 13oz.

<--- my son on the tobogan my parents used to take me slinding with when i was his age hehe

ah well time to call it a night. 1 more day till new years!

Chantal

ok, here's the links

1 2 3 4 5 6

i should go count sheeps
Chantal

I wish you a truly Christmas

Not one as we know it. It has become far too commercial for my liking. Are we really in “the Christmas spirit” or could it be that some other spirit has stolen the meaning?


for two centuries after Christ's birth, no one knew, and few people cared, exactly when he was born. Birthdays were unimportant; death days counted. Besides, Christ was divine and his natural birth was deliberately played down. In fact, the Church even announced at one point that it was sinful to contemplate observing Christ's birthday "as though He were a King Pharoah."

We can read in the bible about the birth of Jesus in luke 2

It is interesting to consider that the sheep were kept in corals during the cold rainy season, that it was in the spring, when the grass was fresh and the ewe were lambing, that the shepherds were keeping watch through the night with their flock.
So why did it come about that we’re celebrating on December 25th? In ancient times, Dec. 25 was the date of the lavish Roman festival of Saturnalia. It was a time when gifts were exchanged; homes, streets and buildings were decorated; people came home for the holidays and everybody was in a happy, party mood. It is also a time for many cultures around the world to have a yule is an other one)

Some scholars maintain that December 25 was only adopted in the 4th century as a Christian holiday after Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity to encourage a common religious festival for both Christians and pagans. As a mean to make conversion easier?

And there came the 3 wise man to worship and bring gift to the infant Jesus, well, maybe not quite as we think. is it just me who’s under the impression that our culture feel the need to tell a story with a conclusion that come within 30 minutes and that includes the comercials.

Next in line would be boxing day. The day when we need to take out all the box and wrapping and return the gifts that don’t fit or need to be exchanged for one reason or an other. Once again, we’re celebrating something we don’t quite understand.

And what would be christmas without Santa Claus? Now, i got this question poping in my head. Ok, yeah, he’s been part of chirstmas all my life, he’s that magical mistical figue that brings us gifts when we sleep, if we’ve been good. But, but who is he realy and where does he fit in with the story of Jesus? In French we call him Pere Noel, and I was also told that he was St Nicolas.

We seem to have made him the most apealing part of our celebration. He’s everywhere and kids still write him letters. Have we turned him into a big marketing tool for an ever comercial holyday. (now that realy sound oximoron, comercial holy day, please, holyness is not for sale) first off, we celebrate the feast day of St Nicolas on December 6th, again we’re trying to cram everything in one day. And he wasn’t always portrayed in that red suit. Much was atributed to coca cola for cementing that image as yet an other marketing ploy.

I could go on about our traditional decoration and other christmas parafernalia, mistletoe, wreath, yule log ( the french named it the “buche de noel”), stocking, tree…. And other custome, wish I’m not familiar with, my family enjoyed decorating but wasn’t keen on ritual like kissing under the mistletoe and whatnot. if you're interrested, i'll leave links on an other post, i think this one is already too long.

In a few words I feel that For today's Christian, the origin of Christmas is, and should be, the birth of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible. Nothing more and nothing less. However, most of what we witness on December 25th each year has absolutely nothing to do with that blessed day. When we think about it, the word Christmas mean Christ’s Mass. A religious ceremony in high honor of Jesus, for His birthday. Come to think of it, every Sunday mass are christ’s mass, after all He’s the whole reason of any and all Christian mass period. So I guess it should be Christmas every day!

One new thing I learned from this research is that Although it is a common misconception that the term Xmas is disrespectful, its origins show it is neither modern nor disrespectful. The Greek word for Christ is Xristos, and the letter "X" was frequently used as a religous symbol. Thus Xmas is merely an abbreviated form of the word Christmas and was first used by Europeans in the 16th century. Andy 'Xian' is also sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word 'Christian'.

I was hoping to make a tidier research but I’m all researched out.
Merry Xmass and a Xly New Year

Chantal, rethinking about the way to celebrate

Banana split supreme

ok, not quite supreme, i don't have wipp cream or the ever essencial cherry on top. but i had a nice chunk of brownies at the bottom and some fresh pineapple to go with it. and now i can feel the sugar level climbing back up to normal. I think.

I was shoveling some powdery snow out there in the cold wind and didn't quite realized my sugar levels were dropping till i was over and moving back to where its nice and warm. so i aimed for the kitchen for an emergency snack. i realized i had enough elements to put together something that was at least worthy of the title of bananasplit.

now that it's all gobbled down, i feel a bit too full, but beats the shakiness hands down. and now i can rejoyce, my dear husband is on vacation for 12 days YAY!!!!! not sure what we'll do yet but spending family time is a good start, and the other possibility that i contemplate is decluttering the house. i want to go crazy, this place is such a cluter hot spot, all over. and i can blame myself for most of it. i'm the clutterbug per excellence. i've been excelling at it for years. now it's time to master something new. i might need a mentor tho.

not sure what is urging me to do so but the urge is getting stronger. maybe the fact i used some little movie clips i filmed with my photo camera to make a little video and watching it makes me wish the surounding was tidier. but the main purpose why i made it was to share with my relatives that lives away and don't have the chance to see the kids in person. there was a problem i encounter with that idea, 21 mb is too big to e-mail and instant messenger don't seem to want to permit that type of file. so i had to find a host for my video.

i finaly settled for YOU TUBE to host and share my creations. i have sent some invitations cause i dont intend on making all my movies public. like this one, i would like to keep it low profile. i know there isn't all that many peoples that view my blog anyway. i don't expect to be a cewebrity, nore would i want to. then i'd colaps under the presure to perform for each post. so long as i believe i don't write for a crowd, i'll be fine and relax. last thing i'd want is starting to get selfconsious about my blog.

that's about it for tonight, i'm gonna go, euh! what??? more snow? noooooooo!, i just shoveled it nicely, and, argh, i better go to bed, i'll need as much energy as possible

nite all, grumble brumble
Chantal

Glad the day's over

Just one of those days i guess, when the only confort you have is in knowing that the day ends at 7:31 pm or something along those lines.

yesterday we have a friend that stopped by to pick up his CDs and help us get an old washer out of the house, so i can put my old sewing table there instead... all part of the moving everything around. He and his wife have a daughter a bit over a year old, and he accepted to lend us an excersaucer for our DD.

So today i put her in it to see what she think of it, she seems to love it, unfortunately her brother loves it too, a bit too much. spinning the toys i guess is not so bad, when you catch him trying to spin the whole thing, with his sister in it that's an other story. poor girl.

and anyone with kids will probably know how it feel to be able to take a shower once the kids are in bed, aahhhh! so now i'm attempting to go to bed early, cause i wasn't able to take a nap, since i'm holding the castle by myself all day.

so enough said, even if i'd like to say more, i can't think right now so nite nity boo!

chantal

A time for change and new stuff

just when you think the routine is setting in, everything has fallen into places. you can live on status quo for a while?

last week it apeared to be so. but this week, so much for that. it seems that everything that seemed to have became a constant, is now pushing its way for a change. My mom telling me she has to go back to the hospital and she will need more time to rest and that mean, less time here to help. last time that happened, it burned me out for a long time. but with DS that has his bedtime routine downpath, its that much easier then 3 months ago, DD is now, not quite crawling but rolling around a fair bit. she is more independent to explore and play. so i'm not so worried about being alone with the kids anymore. DS seem to understand a bit more when i have to nurse DD.

then there's my nursing confort that is gonna soon be a thing of the past. Saturday, i detected a new tooth. her first tooth, and i think she had her own experience of it. she bit her toe. she has been sitting more and more sturdy on her own since 2 weeks ago. I think the introduction of solids is coming soon.

and we decided it was time DS had a room of his own. he was sleeping in the same room with me, and it was still ok after DS was born but at this point, the thought of one waking up, waking up the other is not my idea of a late night party. That mean that someone will have to go sleep in the basement tho. wish we had a bigger house, but that's not in the budget for now. That change will have to wait.

and so, today we've been moving things around, DS has most of his stuff in his new room, but some of DH's stuff still have to go. and some of mine too. yeah, we have a wierd sleeping arangement, but considering the shift work, it was the best we came up with so each can maximise on their sleep. and like anything else, i don't think it's permanent.

hehe, i just spotted my DH waring one of my shirts. its a bit big for him, hopefully that will change too and my stuff will be too small for him. not that i mind him waring my stuff, just that i'd like to shrink down some. but i should go to bed for now.

change is part of life, change is life
Chantal