Christmas cards, Christmas concerts and Christmas to-do lists.

Grace's class singing "Christmas in
the Vally".  Grace is at the top, in the middle.

Alex's class - he did
such a great job!  He is wearng a
black Senators shirt, centre in the back row

I am still trying to figure out how to set up my writing and pictures.  It usually takes me a while but I'll get it eventually.

Tonight I'm sitting in my kitchen, Ian has gone to hockey so I'm on my own for some peace of quiet.  The kids were exhausted after a week of Christmas fun at school and then an evening of skating at our neighbours beautiful rink.  We will certainly enjoy that over the winter months.  They went to bed very easily and hopefully will sleep in tomorrow morning. 

One of my favourite parts of the holiday season is writing our Christmas letter, designing our Christmas card and sending it out to so many of our family and friends - almost 100 go out!  It might seem crazy and a lot of work but it is important to us.  This year, earlier in December I just didn't have the words in me to write our annual letter.  Ian took on the task, as he does some years, and I proof read it (ha) and then off it goes.  I like to think that everyone enjoys reading it.  A little recap of our year - when I write the letter, much of it is of family life.  When Ian writes, he describes our business and farm... and then a bit of our family life.  I find that funny. 


I LOVE receiving Christmas cards to - and LOVE seeing pictures and reading letters, (no pressure to any of you) it allows me to catch up for a few minutes on the lives of people I don't get to talk to or see very often.  I take pride in my 2 bulletin boards full of cards and letters - thank you.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  My to-do list is sitting on the counter... I can only hope it all gets done but you never know... a good Christmas movie might be on or we might need to play outside.  Santa doesn't care if my floors need to be vacuumed or my bathroom sink needs a good clean - maybe, if I'm good, he'll do it for me!  I hope he can do a load of laundry to!

Merry Christmas from all of us at Glenroy Farm.

Finding Magic in the Christmas Season

The Christmas season is in full swing now... Jean had her Christmas concert this morning and we have the school one next week.  I love this time of year.  Every year I have more and more to do, only because I want to do more.  I take numerous deep breaths and push through while enjoying the moments - there are so many good ones.
This year we received a wonderful gift - our very own Elf.  He is a messenger to Santa and we named him Alvin.  Every night, after we go to sleep, he flies back to the North Pole to deliver his message to Santa about our day.  He talks about if we behaved, used our manners and were kind to one another.  He also is a good listener and will let Santa know if we want anything special for Christmas.  He returns to our house before we wake up and the trick is to find him in the morning.  One morning we found he got into the sugar bowl and was doing sugar angels on a platter.  This morning he was wearing Jean's nice brown boots and a little purple doll coat.  He likes to keep us guessing.  The only rule is that we cannot touch him - it will take away his magic.  Grace, Alex and Jean are very conscious of that rule...
Christmas is a time of magic and believing in the wonder of the season.  I hope you all can find magic and wonderment to! 

Alvin in Jean's boots and a little doll sweater.

Feeling Like a Good Parent

Parenting can be tricky.  With all of the coverage on bullying in the news and in schools it is scary to watch your child grow up.  Ian and I frequently talk about how we are going to try our best to raise confident and caring children and have open communication with them.  We don't really know what we are doing though because we've never done this before - I do a lot of reading and talk to other parents.  Every situation is different, every child is different - and our kids are not necessarily like we were when we were kids.  Grace might seem similar to me but she is more confident and works hard at everything she does.  Therefore she might not make the same choices as I would - she isn't me. 

As I write this, feeling good about my parenting skills, Jean is having a temper tantrum regarding her soother.  Not one of my finer moments as a parent - letting her keep her soother past 3 years old!  We'll deal with that later.

This morning Grace came to me with a friendship problem.  We talked about how she can handle it at school and I felt amazing that she came to me for support!  She is very sad but I know she is going to make some good choices and it will work itself out.  She has continued to nuture numerous friendships, which we have encouraged her to do, so when one relationship is on the rocks she can possibly count on another friend for support or at least to play with at recess.  The main reason why I am writing this is that I am so happy that she felt she could come to me to talk about the issue.  I've always had that relationship with my own mom and it was such a blessing.  I am doing something right - both Ian and I are being great parents!  Let's hope she always feels she can talk to us.

Jean's temper tantrum has subsided but I think she found her soother.  Sheesh.  Off to go and fight another parenting battle... or not.  Maybe I'll let her win this time, again.  She is the youngest, you know!

I want to stop time.

Lately I've had this feeling that I want to stop time... sortof.  As I watch the kids doing their usual kid-like activities, when we are sitting at the table playing a game or cuddling on the couch early in the morning, I have this strong yearning to make time stop.  I have never been a parent to rush through anything.  This is very evident in some of the milestones children need to meet such as potty training (every one of the kids was almost three or even well past it once they accomplished this task), taking the soother away, moving out of the crib etc.  I don't want to rush ANYTHING.  Except maybe sleeping through the night - I did want that to happen as fast as possible. 
So to help me stop time, I've decided to write down what happens around here.  I can promise that most of it won't be exciting and that you might not find it nearly has funny as we do but I'm going to record it anyways.  My purpose for my blog is to record our life with little tidbits of what happens around here at Glenroy Farm.  We know how lucky we are to live here on our beautiful farm and in our beautiful home.  We know how lucky we are to have so many great friends and family.  We know how lucky we are to have 3 wonderful, healthy kids and we know how lucky we are to have eachother.  You are now lucky to be able to read all about it!  BUT I'm not doing this for our friends and family who want to read this - I'm doing it for us.  For me.  I want to be able to look back and relive moments of our time and then stop time. 

Needless to say, enjoy!