Category Archives: fun

blooming tea…

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I experienced something I never knew could happen, or maybe I just hadn’t ever thought of it before so the idea of it was out of my head, I guess you could say. Catherine, a friend of mine, offered me tea as she had so many times before during one of my visits with the boys. As an aside, we take turns coming over to each other’s homes weekly so we can chat and the kids can play together. The four of them get along amazingly well, and as they, too are home schooled, visits can conveniently happen during the day, a good time to indulge in some good company and good caffeinated drinking!

Although the tea Catherine offered to me this time was herbal – I am a pretty die-hard black tea drinker, especially anything with the name ‘earl’ in it – I couldn’t pass on the offer. Seriously, when someone tells you they have some ‘blossom tea, would you like to try it? you have to see what happens to it when you add the water!’ how can you say, ‘no thanks, not interested’?

Not only was it one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen but the tea was good. Really. I don’t care for herbals and it was gooood. Maybe my taste buds were a bit swayed by what my brain had witnessed but so be it.

Catherine boiled some water, took out this cute little glass teapot and popped in one of the buds. Then she poured in the water. The transformation was the coolest thing and started to happen instantaneously. The flower changed from a tightly packed little bud into a series of little flowers where each new bud opened up to reveal another.

The company that makes the tea is “Teavana, the flavour is peach Momotaro, the style of tea is blooming tea”.  Thanks, Catherine! 🙂

~happy tea drinkin’!~

Merry Christmas to all

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Oh, what a beautiful feeling,
Oh what a wonderful day,
I’ve got wonderful feeling
This is going to be a great Christmas Day!
 

Despite the fact that both L and I had been awake since about 1:30 or 2am when he came to sleep next to me (Steve had went into bed with X) today turned out rather wonderfully. L was just too excited to sleep and try as he may, he tossed and turned and kept us both awake for the most part. I pulled through with half excitement for such a great day to spend with my favourite men and four cups of tea and one coffee. No, five cups of tea and I think I may put the water on soon again. 🙂

There is no need to go through all the details but here are some highlights of our gift opening frenzy. But, first, let me say that last year it was a frenzy and the paper wrapping was splayed everywhere. The actual unwrapping of gifts may have lasted five minutes. It was fast. Cleanup took longer. So, being who I am, I prepared by having the boys take turns opening gifts and in between I gathered up the wrapping into a bag and placed the bows aside to reuse next year. I only took a few pics along the way because I didn’t want to miss the moments that Christmas morning brings. Being behind a camera (I used a real camera this time) detaches me a bit and I don’t always like that. Especially when it’s me boys!

Santa came. as you know, from my last post, leaving some gifts for both boys and some stocking goodies. We left Santa some soy milk and some cookie goodies as well (he got the non-burnt cookies). He must have been in a hurry because he didn’t finish the last cookie…I hope that is no reflection on my baking skills…

One big point for Santa. The big guy managed to get one thing on Xman’s list. Kai and his motorcycle. Trés kewl and happy boy, too.

Santa scored again. Whew! He got L something he really wanted although it wasn’t on the list. But, Santa didn’t let down L there either and did get him ‘anything Lego’. L got a super-cool Lego game as well, Heroica.

X has a mad love for caterpillars and has two Eric Carle Caterpillars, one being a stuffie from last year and one a puppet for his birthday this year. No, there is caterpillar #3, the game. He likes it! He likes it!

Funny story. One time after Steve picked me up from work, we went next door to ToysRUs. They’d just opened at that location and are bigger than their store in the mall. Anyway, both Steve and I were tired so I went into the store with the boys and Steve went next door to get he and I a tea and coffee. Just inside the entrance to this ToysRUs is the game section. That is where we waited for Daddy. Geez, he really took a long time and I was starting to wonder what was up. Apparently, as he told me later in a funny way only he can relay this story (sorry you can’t hear this from him as it really is funny) he told me that he went in another entrance figuring we headed for the Lego section. Lego is always the ultimate destination. Isn’t it for everyone? On the way there he noticed a Pikachu toy that X has wanted for weeks, maybe longer. We told him no, as Christmas was coming so no toy buying now. Once we were in the store and the toy was there and the next time it was gone. X was very upset. So, upon seeing it in stock this time, Steve grabbed it and did a quick check of the store to make sure we didn’t see him. We were still hanging around the game section, right next to the cash registers. It was like a mission almost impossible for him. Here he was standing in line, swaying back and forth behind a pillar by the check out, each time he saw us move to another game isle. I never saw him once, but from what he says, it was entertaining for those in line, watching a father trying to hide in open site from his children, to buy a little gift for his son. He done good, as they say, that’s for sure. X was so thrilled and has no idea he was going to get his beloved Pikachu. Way to go, Daddio.

Once all gifts were open the boys set about putting together some Lego. I know. Shocking.

Steve and I don’t get each other gifts for Christmas but this time we did. Why? Don’t know really. And that’s a good reason, no reason at all. Just because and it was nice. Steve got Perplexus Epic, so now we have all three. Kewl. And he also got book 2 and 3 of the Buffy comic season 8 series. Super kewl!

Steve got me a Buddha charm to complete my collection. This meant so much to me as I’d been wanting one for a long time. The sun charm I had bought while living in Banff in the 90’s, the jade cross from a crazy weekend spent with friends outside of Edmonton at a crazy weekend music fest called Highwood. Probably the best part of the weekend was that purchase. I just like it. Now, I have Buddha, too. I smile.

To top it off he got me this super-neat Buddha Board mini. I had never heard of it before. It is a thin layer of rock that sits kind of like an easel when open. You take the brush that comes with it and draw something on it. If you make a mistake, that’s okay. In time, the water will evaporate and you have a clean slate. Perfect. Steve put a little note on it for me once I opened it. Teary-eyed me? Yes.

Late afternoon we got ourselves changed and over to Steve’s parents for dinner. So yum. We stuffed ourselves full of Tofurky roast with all the trimmin’s. Now, the boys are snug as bugs in a rug with some of their toys waiting next to their beds for the morning to come.

A Christmas just isn’t complete without a little “White Christmas”. So off I go, to spend some time with my man…and Bing…and Danny…good times indeed.

Merry Christmas everyone.

~love~

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve

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It has been a very full week here at the Shard household. Let’s see…yesterday we got a bit of a storm and it was so beautiful to watch the big flakes float down so softly from the sky. I love the silence that comes with the fluffy flakes. It’s very serene and peaceful to me. It’s almost like those millions of flakes are saying, “Shhh…slow down…look at us…enjoy us…”.

I know, yet again, I have used my iPhone for another pic. Ugh – I can’t help myself sometime. I need to go out and get a good point and shoot, I’m just too fussy and can’t decide. I don’t want to pay $500 for a p&s when I have a super-duper dslr. So, for now, it’s iPhone because I’m just too lazy sometimes to go upstairs and get my camera out of the bag. I know, silly, but true. However, I did use it today to take some great pics of all of the cousins when they came over today to exchange gifts. It’s amazing as they get older they actually all sit and listen and look at the camera – wow!!! I will post one of the pics if it’s okay with everyone – gotta check that first….

Yesterday, I started the long and arduous, yet mostly enjoyable, task of making a GF gingerbread house from scratch. You can’t buy ’em gluten-free and XL saw the cookie cutter set at the store so I couldn’t help myself. It did go fairly well all things considered, I guess, but I did try to hurry things along since I only had one cookie tray and I had to work later. I didn’t wait for the cookies to cool down before transferring them to a rack. Some of them were too soft and fell apart. I had to redo one roof part, two sides and two fronts. We also have a temper-mental oven so some of the bottoms got a little too cooked although the tops were perfect. Seriously? Why? All part of the process I know.

At this point I had to relinquish the power of the house creating to Steve. I had to go to work. On the bus. In the snow. Fun. So the rest was up to Steve and the boys. I got a pic of the first icing-making effort – it was not pretty. It was clumpy. Oil and icing sugar do not mix. Literally. We usually use oil as a sub for margarine for making breads because it’s easier and cheaper. Cookies too. No problem there. But, apparently, not so good for icing. So, try number two came out with better results, albeit still a bit tricky. Here’s a pic of what’s been constructed so far with a little help from some Tim’s cups for support:

I think it looks great! Can we be done now? I’m afraid to touch it for fear the roof may slide off. I’ll keep you posted, fingers crossed!

This morning, although we had a plethora of things yet to accomplish before family arrived at 1pm, I was determined to make a wack of gf waffles again so I could freeze some for future breakfasts. Future meaning like Christmas morning. Meaning tomorrow morning. Tripling the recipe according to Catherine’s recipe went very well and we managed to have a load left over. Off to the freezer they went. Cool. 🙂

I must say here that the iPhone is certainly fun to use when the lighting is right. So fun!

Waffles and breakfast over-with, next on the list was um, making gf sugar cookies. I made up the dough and put it into the fridge to chill at which point it becomes a blur. I know that suddenly it was noon and I had to sew seven little stockings to put treats into and I hadn’t even taken a good look at my ‘new’ sewing machine. (A great find on Kijiji and only used once before me) I crossed my fingers and plugged in the sewing machine and sewed a sample piece. Ah, it ran smooth as butta. Beautiful! I finished the stockings at about 12:45 which was longer than necessary but I realized, with Steve’s help, that I was one stocking short and it took me a bit to find the extra material. It was on top of the microwave in a papier-maché bowl. Isn’t that where everyone keeps extra material?

I was thinking of an easy way to close the top of the stockings without the kids struggling to rip open a sewn top so I used some previously painted green clothes pins. Perfect! The kids loved them, I think especially since they were unexpected. I like that. :0 Aren’t they cute? I can’t take all the credit – Martha Stewart made me do it.

1pm, family arriving and I’m making sugar cookies. The dough is so much easier to roll out as it is much ‘wetter’ I want to say. But, that being said, this makes it harder to transfer to the cookie sheet. So, not only did some of them burn on the bottom (a bit), some of them were also not really recognizable. Our niece held up one cookie asking what it was. I said, ‘It’s holly. No. It’s a tree.’ Oh, well. At least they tasted good. Nothing to see here as far as cookie pics. Didn’t think of it and probably didn’t want to remember the oddly shaped, albeit, yet yummy tasting cookies.

Once all the kids left I made some yummy potato soup with onions, garlic, dill and fennel. So yum! Totally off topic but so enjoyable! Then we Skyped with Nanna and Papa. When I asked the boys during dinner what their favourite thing about this year was so far they said, ‘visiting Nanna and Pappa. And Cheeky Monkey.’ I can’t argue there. Our visit to see Nanna and Papa was awesome as always. The boys love seeing them and their friends and going to play at Cheeky Monkey, the coolest indoor playground even for adults with some kid in them. Rocket slide, you are one crazy fast piece of plastic! Eek!

Suddenly it was 6:30 and we all jumped in the car to  drive around and check out Christmas lights. X said he counted more than two hundred houses with lights. It was fun to see how people decorate their homes. The glow of the lights just really gets me in the mood for the holidays. Of course, the street that we found with the most houses decorated was just 5 minutes from us. Our street was pitiful. That includes us. The plug to our house is in the driveway so not in a convenient spot at all when it’s late at night and very cold outside and you need to unplug the lights. I know, we should get one of those extension cords with a switch. I know. We said that last year too…

We got home, and helped the boys get ready for bed and Steve and L read, “The Night Before Christmas” and off they went into ‘Christmas dreamland’. I usually say to them as I kiss them goodnight, “Sweet dreams come true”. This time, after I made this wish to the boys, X said, “Sweet Christmas dreams come true”. Indeed…which leads me to the next part – gift wrapping…

Santa, as always, dropped off gifts and I took a quick pic of the wrapping. Always impressed I’m with Santa’s wrapping ways. I still wonder what his hand-writing looks like because he always uses these cute little tags. Hmmm…I guess these days, with computers and all, and so many gifts to deliver, the time it takes to print out a tag is much less than writing. What a hand-cramp that would be. Carpel tunnel anyone?

…and like we told the boys, Santa can’t get you everything on your list as he has so many children to deliver gifts to. Well, Santa is good. He got them one thing on their list and a couple ones that they had forgotten to mention when they made their lists with Daddy last night while I was at work. Boy, that Santa, he is fast. He can even do last-minute requests! X decided to place his list on the tree so it wouldn’t be missed by Santa. He used a magnet from our dart game. Works perfect with a fake tree. L’s list is in the next best place, the refrigerator door. 🙂

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I was surprised to see L’s list much shorter than X’s. Then again, I think this was a ‘carry over’ from his birthday list. He totally scored on that one.

Steve and I managed to wrap a few gifts from us. I decided to do something a little different for the tags. Maybe I was inspired by Santa’s savvyness. Or, maybe I saw something like this online. That Martha sure is crafty!

Now here I am with my glass of wine, the gifts are under three tree, stockings stuffed and I am pooped.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Love you all!

xoxoxo Us 🙂

Good night and Sweet Christmas dreams come true.

~smile~

 

 

AGNS and learning to felt

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The boys take a trip to the local art gallery once a month and they love it. They get to view new installations and various recent travelling shows. This October there was an artist in residence who was making a felt waterfall that rotated vertically by a track on the side. The kids loved it, especially turning the big crank to make it go! Below the piece is a mirror which makes it look as though the ‘waterfall’ is crashing into the water below.

The coolest part?

The kids got to learn how to felt, from combing out some sheeps’ wool into thin, fine pieces to actually picking up a nice piece of finished felted sized about 6″x12″. It was very cool to watch. Then they were able to pick – well, I think Xander found the spot – to place the newly-made felt onto the already existing waterfall structure once it was dry.

Gotta try this at home! Not the waterfall, just the piece of felt. Or, at least little felt balls. So fun!

The pics were taken with my phone so not the best but oh so handy!

That’s one of the artists next to Xman. She was very patient with the kids and you could tell she enjoyed showing them the process. It took me back to art college days learning to felt in Textiles class!

Xman feeling drying felted pieces.