I just did a search to see when I last posted about my Capital Parent columns being up and um…it was in July.
So, catching up, then!
December: Home for the Holidays
November: Pet Peeves
October: Joyride
September: They Call Me Mrs. Smith-Jolie-Pitt-Pop
Or, see the whole shebang here.
Also, my January column isn’t up online yet but you can see it in the print copy, which is now in libraries and community centres.
We’re down to just one Santa believer in the house, and it’s a little sad, but okay too. Gal Smiley was on the fence this year – last year, she asked me about it point blank, and we had The Talk about how Christmas is in All Of Us, but yes, Mommy and Daddy leave the presents. But then, this year, she was all INTO Santa, and I thought maybe she was in denial, or didn’t understand me, or whatever.
But then, last night:
Her: Mom, I finally decided what I want for Christmas!
Me: [internal dialogue: SNORT, I finished shopping three weeks ago kid, and nothing could get me to the mall this week, but WHATEVER.] Really?
Her: Yes! I will write it in a letter to Santa.
Me: Um…okay.
Her, very quietly: And then, I will show it to you so you will know.
Me, very quietly: Okay.
Her: Mom? Will you ever stop putting a present under the tree for me and writing “from Santa” on it?
Me: I can if you want me to.
Her: Oh.
Me: But if you want, I can always and forever put a present there and write “from Santa” on it.
Her, very very quietly: Yes, please.
I know what I’m getting for Christmas – my babies, always and forever. AWESOME.
Our three kids each have a Special Friend, a stuffed animal that they sleep with, and they are like three extra members of our families. All our friends know the Special Friends by name. They come with us any time we will be sleeping somewhere else. They are the ultimate in comfort for our children.
All three are showing signs of deep love, from thinned out fur to floppy necks to a vague greyness that has taken over their original fur colour. But none has been loved more than Shearly, who is Gal Smiley’s stuffed sheep.
Shearly’s ear, in particular, has been rubbed and sniffed and worried so that it now looks like this:
Despite many repairs – even a complete reconstruction with new material at one point – we have decided that the ear is now beyond help. It’s very close to falling off completely and we explained very, very gently that there’s little we can do for Shearly at this point.
And so, again, very very gently, we have introduced the idea of perhaps putting Shearly out to pasture – she’d still sleep nearby, but we’d get a new Primary Special Friend, and let Shearly retire in peace. We’re just afraid of her falling apart completely, and what that might mean to poor Gal Smiley.
I went through this myself at exactly her age, age 9, when my original sleep buddy (a dog named Kelly) had been repaired for the umpteenth time by my mother. She was at the point where she was weaving threads in and out to create “fabric” over places that had worn away to loonie-sized holes. It took months for her to convince me it was time for someone new; then, she took me on a special shopping trip to the Eaton’s Centre in Toronto where I blew my entire savings (a massive $22) on a single soft, cuddly bear named Honey. Honey and Kelly shared the bed for a while before I made the transition and it was okay, but I’ve been there and I know there are tears to be shed in the near future.
This past weekend we were shopping and happened upon a new friend. It was love at first sight. Everything we wanted – a sheep, slightly bigger than Shearly, white, soft, cuddly.
She’s known as Big Shearly for the time being.
So far, Big Shearly sleeps beside Shearly and Gal Smiley. But there are tentative hugs at night, and snuggles in the morning. We’re not sure yet if it’s going to take, but there’s hope.
It’s the little things you need to help your kids get through that really matter, isn’t it? Moving from Shearly to Shearly is almost as tough for me as it is for her. But I know it’s going to be okay, for all of us. Happy holidays, Shearly dear.
This is a super easy and yummy craft/activity/snack to do for Christmas with the kids. There won’t be any leftovers. Trust me – we made these for our advent activity yesterday and um…they seem to be all gone. What?
24 (ish) big marshmallows
lollipop sticks (I bought mine at Michaels, but I bet they have them at the Bulk Barn)
1 cup chocolate chips
a teaspoon or two of canola oil (optional)
a variety of sprinkles
First, put the cup of chocolate chips in a heavy bowl and melt them in the microwave. It’ll take about 1 minute on level 6, then stir; then another 30 to 60 seconds on level 5, stirring every 30 seconds or so. If you like, you can add a little canola oil after the first minute – it makes the chocolate smoother, but also makes it a bit runnier, but we always say the bigger the mess, the yummier the food. That’s a thing, right?
If you can, let the chocolate cool a bit before using, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, as then it won’t be so drippy. But we will totally understand and empathize if you cannot wait. Glass houses and all that.
Now put out some bowls of sprinkles on the counter, and the bowl of chocolate. Have everyone pull up a chair.
Push a marshmallow onto a stick, as Gal Smiley demonstrates here:
Dip the marshmallow in the chocolate:
You can dip it right under the chocolate, or just do a half dip, whatever you fancy. Let the marshmallow hang around over the chocolate bowl for a minute or so to let it drip.
Now hover the marshmallow over your chosen bowl of sprinkles, and sprinkle them on by hand, like so:
If you want to circle around the whole kitchen island, adding sprinkles from every bowl, no one is going to judge you. Just saying.
Then, stick the marshmallow in a big box with holes punched in it that you have prepared ahead of time (probably should have mentioned that earlier):
Let them cool/harden/dry for as long as you can stand it (a couple of hours is good), and then MOW THOSE BABIES DOWN. Mmmm.
Also, if you want to excuse the kids from helping with clean up, so you can lick the chocolate bowl and eat the leftover sprinkles, then no one here is going to judge you.
Variations: I’ve heard these are good with white chocolate chips instead of dark; melt them in the microwave the same way (I do find white chocolate chips to be a little softer, so it’s less likely you’d need the oil). I also really wanted to try this with melted Kraft Caramels this year – I adore those caramel coated marshmallow things – but the kids were not interested, sadly. If you do try it, you’ll need to melt the caramels in a pot (be patient with the melting and the clean up of the poor pot), and then SAVE ME SOME.
For toppings, you could try crushed peanuts or nuts if you don’t have allergies, crushed graham crackers for a s’mores type flavour, or crushed candy canes are truly divine (you can buy them pre-crushed at the Bulk Barn, but that’s really no fun now, is it?).
December is flying by, isn’t it? Just two weeks until Christmas Eve, and I’m happy to say everyone here is pretty cheerful and into the spirit and enjoying the Advent calendar. Yes, even the Captain – MyFriendJen suggested that maybe he was doing a testing thing, and now that he knows the rule (i.e. you WILL ENJOY CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR FAMILY, DAMMIT), he’s pretty happy to participate. Dodged a bullet there – THIS YEAR, at least.
So far the activities are going well, just little things that we’ve enjoyed and help celebrate the season. I have been especially happy with our charity activities this year – I know many families that do so much more than we do, but we try to do what we can, and this year it’s going well. It was the first year I made a point of taking the kids to the Fill The Bus food bank campaign, and they were really into it, going through the store and picking things out for the drive (a nice mix of things they actually need, and fun things the kids like that they wanted to share with others). Then, we did our annual toy mountain trip and the kids each picked out something from the toy store that they themselves would want, then gave it away happily, and everyone left feeling really positive, and all was well, and CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED AND WORLD PEACE.
You know, the usual.
I think what I have learned here is that abstract giving of cash on the computer means nothing to them, but actually getting out and DOING something and GIVING something concrete has meaning for them, so we will definitely be focusing on that in the future, and looking for more opportunities to be more physically involved.
The only other thing I wanted to mention here was about Alight at Night at Upper Canada Village. We went last Friday and it was lovely and magical, and really, SO worth the trip down if you are considering it. But most importantly, there is a brand new rest stop on the 401 just outside Morrisburg, literally 1 km down the road from the Upper Canada Village exit. This means you can leave here at around 4:30, which is really too early for dinner unless your kids are 6 months or 60 years old, and then stop at the rest stop for either a pre-packed picnic dinner (which we did) or the treat of take-out (there’s a Tim’s and Burger King). All of which makes heading down there for the evening SO much easier, especially in winter.
Now I must go and make chocolate dipped marshmallows, then struggle not to eat them all while the kids are sleeping and the marshmallows are “drying.” IN MY BELLY. Did I type that out loud?
Yesterday we started up the family advent calendar, and even though the first item is always to put up the (fake) tree and decorate the house, there was much excitement and wondering about what the first activity would be. Once revealed, the girls were super pumped, and ran to get the decorations, and immediately flew into a decorating frenzy.
Then this conversation happened:
Captain Jelly Belly: “When I grow up, I am totally going to do this advent calendar thing.”
Me, heart swelling with pride, imagining Mother Of The Year award on my mantel: “Really honey? That’s wonderful!”
Captain: “Yeah, it’s a great way to trick your kids into doing work around the house and actually getting excited about it.”
Me, set to WAH-WAH horn of disappointment: “Oh.”
So yes, the Captain felt that trimming the tree in Norman Rockwell Treasured Family Moment style was work, and that we were trying to trick him into doing lame-o chores with his lame-o family. And so, I have seen the dawn of preteen behaviour, and it is a long, dark, lonely road ahead of us.
At first I told him he didn’t have to bother bringing his bad attitude around, and he could sit and read or whatever while the rest of us had fun. But that started to bother me, and Sir Monkeypants and I went to have a chat with him that covered these highlights:
UGH. I mean, on one hand, I don’t want to force him to do family stuff. My mother was always forced to do family stuff as a kid, and HATED IT, and still speaks to this day of the HORROR of HAVING to do to big family dinners every so often. When we grew up, she insisted we never had to do any family thing if we didn’t want to, and I took her up on that once when I was about 16, staying home while the rest of them went to Easter dinner at my grandparent’s house, and it was bizarre and uncomfortable and lonely, and I never did it again. So maybe it’s really best to leave him out of a few things and have him come around on his own.
But on other hand, at 10 I feel like he’s still too young to stay home alone for several hours or a whole day, especially in the evening, while I am taking the girls shopping or to a movie or to a museum, so he’s going to have to tag along to some activities, at least. And I agree, he shouldn’t be able to label some things as “lame” or “work” and ignore those, then do the fun things. I think maybe what I should do is get HIM to pick the activities for next year. Maybe I’ll even run this year’s list by him and let him make substitutions (which means, 24 days of PLAY VIDEOGAMES in the advent calendar, GAH).
It’s quite sad for me that the girls are still so passionately enthusiastic, but the Captain has apparently moved on. It’s going to be a tough, tough few years of juggling preteens and teens while I still have at least one kid who wants to still be a kid. I guess that’s what these years are all about – time to buck up and suck it up. Sigh.
TurtleHead 