Mike's working full time for Jan-Mar, which means another 8 hours for him, but I'm looking to give him as much peace and quiet as possible on the days I take care of the kids. I like to go to the gym in the mornings, which has childcare, but it has a major downside that they pick up the cold/flu of the week, and after a couple days, they're sick with something else and I can't take them to the gym, and I've likely caught some form of it too. Thank goodness I have a treadmill at home. I hope your family is faring better, it seems we're always sick with something, drat it. Maybe it's just a right of passage, being a Mom.
We had a great Christmas, we hosted a small immediate family pizza night and gift opening on Christmas Eve, and a bigger 20 person full turkey meal extravaganza on the 25th. It's old hat now, getting everyone to bring something so that we only really have to do the turkey (or save the turkey from a 6 hour cooking/dry out session from any of the females in our family - honestly, it's a workout to eat those things) stuffing, and some veggie or other. Mike made Chocolates, I baked and made fleece shawls for my Mom and Linda - mostly a home-made Christmas. A lot of work, but those chocolates are amazing. Mike gave me a laptop for Christmas, which is heaven for playing games on - I'd been fighting with my older laptop being too slow to run my guilty (ok not so guilty) pleasure activity.
I was off work from the 14th to the 2nd of Jan, so it was a nice long time to be at home. When kids napped or before/after their night, I was in the basement working on projects. In early December, I put up shelves in my sewing closet, and it's so much easier to work on projects now. It's also easy to see how many 'someday' projects I've got to finish or even start - paintings, quilts, cards, clothes...
Mike cooked Indian food on New Year's Eve, we had Mike's Mom and stepdad, sister and soon-to-be hubby Cory over. Yum! But a load of work, yikes. He made samosas, curried cauliflour, butter chicken and Naan. We used a full LITRE of oil that night. Not our usual healthy fare, that's for sure.
Calvin and Matt are getting to be so, well, boyish. There is only one volume - loud, and laughing and playing are the only things that they really care about. Tugs on the hand, and a cheery "c'mon mama" to remind me that dishes can wait, that laundry can be folded after bedtime - it's time to PLAY, right NOW. Calvin is the quiet one that loves to play with my computer, anything with working parts, puzzles, and lego. Matt is my social one, who will build things fine, but it's more fun to take them apart, and loves to talk. A favorite activity for both of them now is to take my hand to point to things in their books they want the names for. Bedtime is filled with bed bouncing boys, and competing in volume over Mommy who's trying to read to them. After the door is closed, it's up to them when they actually fall asleep - we hear squeals and talking and bouncing for up to an hour after lights out - but then they're good until 8:30 the next morning, giving Mom and Dad some time to spend together.
So now I'm back to work, which is nice and peaceful in a way. Today's all about cleaning out last year's email, planning for what I want to accomplish this year. I'm a bridesmaid in Mike's sister Nicole's wedding this March, and I'm making 2 bridesmaids dresses and helping make chocolates as party favors. I'm working out like Bridget Jones to fit into a size 8 for the wedding (I hate to think of being in a size 12), so it's the other bridesmaid whose dress will be worked on first . I'm teaching at the U of C again in February, and other than that, I'm going to have a low-key highly creative year.
Cheers
Ang