A Dose of Perspective

It has been a busy December.  I love the Christmas season but, but, but... I have huge expectations every year of giving our kids the BEST.  Of taking in as many festivities as we can, of skating, skiing, sledding, socializing, watching all the best Christmas movies... the list goes on and on.  Well guess what?  Life got in the way of all of my dreams and you know what, that's what they are - dreams.  Not reality.
My husband is much better with reality.  He loves the Christmas season but what he loves the most is connecting with family and friends and having some unplanned fun along the way.  He doesn't care that we need a new t.v., a new truck, that he needs a new winter coat, the presents are not wrapped perfectly, or that the tree isn't up by the middle of December.  Even our children don't care about all of that.  I think as moms we try too hard and then "life" happens and we experience a big let-down.  It has been a tough month with the death of Ian's beloved Grandpa and that definitely brought some reality to my month.  We basically put "pause" on any Christmas preparations but throughout the whole experience, within the sadness was so much love.  Love.  It was precious.
I have been scrambling to complete some projects for Christmas and in the midst of it all, I have come down with the flu.  I woke up with a funny feeling but I just "had" to get to the city to get some last-minute shopping done and while standing in the line to buy Grace a new snowsuit, it hit me and I had to get home.  I crawled into bed and my mother-in-law rescued the kids while Ian was working.  I slept the afternoon away but still feel achy.  My bed is calling me again so away I will go before 8pm.  Ian will finish the wrapping and put the finishing touches on our special Christmas project for Jean.  I have faith in him to try his best to make tomorrow a little easier for me but you know what?  It doesn't matter.  We have each other and three amazing kids... and a great family to spend time with throughout the holiday.  We are blessed and have so much while others do not.  The most important thing we need to do is talk about why we celebrate Christmas, about Jesus and God, about why Santa gives, about how important it is to pray for peace and to give love to everyone around us.
You know what it's called?  Perspective and I needed some.

Our first snow-shoe of the season proved to be even too much for our leader, daddy.  The snow was extremely deep.

The kids each got a pair of skiis and boots this year (all previously-loved) and have already had so much fun outside wearing them.  We have some lessons planned early in the New Year.

An Amazing Hockey Experience

Last Thursday Alex and his hockey team, the Arnprior Green Dragons, had the opportunity to play on the Ottawa Senator's ice again a team from Gananoque.  We were treated to amazing seats to watch this action-packed game!  They had a blast and even won!  We had dinner at Boston Pizza, as a team with their families, and then back to the Canadian Tire Centre for a Sens game.  What a day!

Peace

Today has been the most peaceful day.  After my hour working in our school's library this morning, I came home got caught up on things around the house and now I am in the middle of packing for our weekend getaway to Lake George, NY. Ian has been working at getting straw on the berry plants for the winter so I haven't seen much of him lately. I love days like this....just peaceful.

It will all end quickly by 4pm when the little rascals get off the school bus and we race around this evening...hockey game in Petawawa, a birthday party and a drama workshop.  Everyone has something really fun to do tonight!  Then we are off on our road trip tomorrow - just to give us some time together as a family.