candy cane cookies

Here is a new batch of cookies that I tried. I always love seeing the picture of them in magazines and dream of being able to make such nice cookies. Well this year I gave it a shot.



All in all they came out nice :) very fragile of course but not as bad as anticipated. I have not even tasted them yet but Maelie has and seemed to think they were ok ( I would have heard about it otherwise). My taste tester Bill still being out of town, I may have to take some to someone else for a taste test! :)

I find it really interesting how I have been into making all kinds of cookies this year. Usually I am not a cookie baker but this year I tried so many and still want to try more! Maybe because it is so relaxing to be in the kitchen, I'm not sure.

Happy New Year!

Christmas recap

Merry Christmas!



As you can imagine, we have been pretty busy for Christmas. We went to bed at a decent time on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning began at 5:00 am.... By 5:45 Maelie couldn't help herself anymore and had to go wake up Bill. We opened up our presents. Maelie always insists that Bill and I go first.

After opening up presents, we played a bit but then got dressed and out the door we went to drive Bill to the airport. He went for a surprise visit to his moms.

Maelie and I drove to visit my folks. It was extremely quiet on the road which was nice and it was also perfect driving weather! What a blessing.

We had a great time. I thank everyone who helped make this Christmas special once again. It is wonderful to have a great family on both sides. Maelie enjoyed all of her presents. I don't like to name presents one by one. I feel like it is just way too much and I don't think it is important what she got from who. But please know that Maelie loved her presents from everyone. She was completely surprised and is playing with each item little by little. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!



I worked on a few projects the days before Christmas. I wanted to make a few homemade treats for my side of the family and also for Bills side. (I hope the treats made it in one piece!)

We came back home yesterday and were in bed very early. We had a good nights sleep that's for sure!

Now the next few days will be for resting, cleaning and enjoying a few days off. I love it! We have no plans for the rest of the holidays season, except for last minute activities we may choose to do.

We have some cat sitting to do across the street... some of our neighbors left yesterday for Florida for almost a month and we offered to cat sit for them so that's our plans for the next month.

This is the life! :)

We had company today... lots of gingerbread people.



Look at this cute family :)

She was awesome!

Keener parent that I am, I was almost first in the gym. Especially after missing her dance recital the other day, which I did NOT blog about because I felt like the most horrible mom in the world. (I showed up at 12:30 for dance and it was at 12:00) It was an innocent mistake, but I almost shrivelled up and died that day.

So anyway... needless to say that for this performance, I was gonna be there on time no matter what!



Maelie was nervous in front of such a huge crowd. She told me a few days before she was nervous about forgetting the words. I explained to her that it was ok to forget words, because with all the kids singing together, everyone was bound to forget some words, but then the others would make it unnoticeable by just picking it up. She did fabulous! She was in the back row, more on the right, you can see her head between a couple of kids (if you click on the picture to make it bigger).

I am extremely proud of her! I can't wait for the next shows now!

My first play was "Frosty the snowman" in Kindergarten and I was Frosty! I was in a big snowman costume, and I think they chose me for the part because they needed someone who was LOUD.
My line : "Hi, my name is Frosty, can you and I be friends?"

6 days to Christmas ....

Guess what this cutie pie is doing today

Today is Maelie's concert at school! The kindergarten classes are joining together to sing "Must be Santa". They all had to wear red and white.



This is Maelie all dressed up to go! I would not miss this concert for anything in the world :)

Look at our snow!

After the incredible snowfall we had yesterday, my neighbor Marc Andre got carried away with his snowblower and made an amazing hill for the kids!

Maelie had a couple of issues going down the hill as you can see....!



But don't you agree it looks like a lot of fun???

how do you wrap a gas tank?

so the news about my car....
a nice Christmas gift worth $1020.
and they didn't even wrap it.

something about the gas tank and the something in the gas tank and a whole new gas tank, and lots of hours to take it apart and stuff. All i could hear was "bla bla bla gas tank bla bla expensive bla bla"

"tis the season to not be so jolly?

well yesterday, coming home from work, excited about it being Friday, my car stalled. Kaput. right in the yield of the busiest intersection in town at traffic hour. One good samaritan man came to try and help but I could tell he knew nothing about cars really. He did help me push the car off the road a little.

One thing that I found really disturbing is a man that drove by in his huge 4 X 4, put his window down and yelled "you could move it out of the road!" - um if I could move it, I would! If he had slowed down, I could have told him to come and push it out of the road for me. That's one of my pet peeve. People who are so quick to comment negatively to people, but they are the last to offer to help. There are unfortunately MANY people like that nowadays. They truly think that their little negative comment will make someones days. not.

So anyway, I was kiddie corner to a garage. So I walked over there and begged the man to come and check it out. He had to finish with a lady's wipers first but then he walked over to confirm that my car was sick. and it would have to be towed.

I called Bill to come and save me. I was trying to avoid making him come all the way out from work, but I just didn't want to disturb anyone else. I had to go pick up Maelie at the school daycare. We at least made it on time. Bill dropped us off at home and returned to work. So today, we will know the outcome. Perhaps it was just slush or ice that got in the wrong places considering the very dirty, wet, slushy conditions we had this week.

Santa, if you hear me, all i want for Christmas is a low repair bill!!

'tis the season to be jolly

This is what we worked on an evening this week. Unfortunately, as I don't have enough hours in one day, I have to buy these things prepackaged. Then again, the convenience we have nowadays of having things prepackage helps when you have a 5 year old who can't wait to build the gingerbread house.

When you make actual gingerbread dough, it takes about 30 minutes to take out the stuff, make it and put the stuff away. Then you must refrigerate the dough a few hours or overnight. The you need to roll it all out and make the shapes and pray they don't break. If you are lucky, you will end up with all the pieces for your house.

This express way is... send your husband to IGA to buy a box for 10$, open the box and glue all the pieces together with icing, then decorate. I personally won't eat a gingerbread house anyway, and Maelie will lick the icing... the fun is in the building and decorating!

Please don't get me wrong... nothing beats a batch of homemade goodness... i LOVE making gingerbread cookies from scratch. But not for the gingerbread house. I don't trust my architectural abilities enough for that.

Yummy Frosty

Here is an easy yummy craft the kids made at the Santa Breakfast. It comes from the Kraft magazine. ( you can get it for free if you sign up online here .

We were not even able to take Frosty home.... he melts in your tummy...!

Santa Breakfast

This Saturday I snuck out of the house to Maelie's school to help prepare for the Santa Breakfast. Maelie joined me at 9 am. The gym was filled with a mix of happy excited kids, and sleepy parents wondering why they got up so early on a Saturday morning...

The excitement and fun was well worth it!

When Santa walked in at first, it was like he was just another person in the crowd. Maelie and I were in line for breakfast when he arrived. So I asked her if she wanted to go see him. She said "Mom, let's just get our breakfast first, and then we can go see him".
Ok... my priority list would have been Santa! but hers was the delicious looking rice crispie squares on the table. hehe

After breakfast though, she was very excited waiting in line.





Maelie never really knows what to ask Santa for. She is not a child who is always wants the latest thing. I honestly believe that the fact that she watches tv with no commercials helps out a lot. Also the fact that when she DOES see a commercial, we discuss the motive behind these appealing ads. We are truly trying to make her see that things are not always as exciting as they make them seem on tv.

Anyway....back to the breakfast. We had craft tables set up for the children. They were all really into it! Maelie had a few friends from her class and so she got them playing a balloon game. It was fun to watch her interact with the kids. She is quite the leader.




There was also a nice hug for Santa before he left... because you know... if yougive Santa a nice hug, he will for SURE remember to visit your house on Christmas :)




Ho! Ho! Ho!

Don't even think of stopping once you hit our street

Well it IS a snow day today! Maelie got to sleep in. She also got to play outside this morning while Bill was shovelling. It is a full time job to shovel today!



I came home at lunch today because Bill had to go to work. We spent a while outside playing with our neighbors. The snow is just so gorgeous. It was coming down nicely. The wind just picked up a bit just now so we came in.



It's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Maelie enjoyed a nice hot chocolate when we got in... and I enjoyed a nice cup of peppermint tea :)

in case

In case anyone was looking for me at 4 AM this morning, I was outside shovelling. There's nothing like shoveling early AM when it is really quiet (for me). I am sure I have a few neighbors who will be out to get me once they've had their morning coffee... The windows in the homes on our street are not the most sound proof. If I can hear my teenage neighbors playing basketball in the summer.. can you imagine what they heard for an hour while I shoveled the driveway packed with at least 10 inches of snow? well, to score points with THEM at least, I did their yard too. I am sure Bill won't be impressed when he gets up. Our bedroom window is right by the driveway and he is a light sleeper.... Oh I locked the door behind me in case some neighbors have anger issues.

I am just sitting here waiting for the updates on school closures. Who knew they didn't even decide that THIS early! Stay tuned...

Let it snow... and snow ... and snow...

Wish us well! They are calling for 20 cm of snow tonight and about 10 more tomorrow... that's a lot of snow! I assume schools will be closed, but I don't know for sure yet.

This week, during morning rush hour one day, it stormed. All day, it was nice. Then for evening rush hour, it stormed again! go figure.

It was really gorgeous though as there were HUGE snowflakes... and not too much wind so it was really peaceful even if it WAS a storm.

This weekend, we went to see Santa at St-LAurent mall. They really did a good job with their decorations. I enjoy going a couple times a year just to see Santa and take pictures. We really will have to go back with our camera this time. They have igloos for the kids to go in, and a snowman the kids can sit with. We of course have to go get the overpriced 5 X 7 picture with Santa every year. I figure it's my way of helping with his salary. hehehe

In the afternoon we went swimming with Jacinthe, Koryne and Raphael. No pics... too afraid to get my camera stolen at the public pool! Maelie jumped off the diving board and went down the slide. I am so glad she is comfortable in the water. Her swimming lessons ended this past Friday and so she completed her level. We will wait a bit before joining again. It is very exhausting for her to have extra activities. We will take it easy for a while.

Today, we took it easy. I went grocery shopping. I love the ambiance in the grocery store. It is so festive. You see all the festive foods and packaging. People are not stressed out of their minds yet (give it a couple of weeks). I am all in the mood for winter baking! :) I baked a bday cake for a colleague and made some date squares for Bill. I probably haven't made him those in about 3 years or more.

Here is Maelie having some of her favorite... cappucino frozen yogourt from M&M. We HAD to go out of our way to get some for her. She loves that stuff! Note the Rudolph make up on her face.



Let's hope for a fun & safe snow day tomorrow!