Multi Media Holiday Spirit

The other night we were decorating the Christmas tree and I was struggling to get the lights in place. Nile was getting impatient and demanding some of my attention. I told him that if he could wait a few minutes and let me put the lights on the tree it would be really pretty and he would love it. When I was finally done I plugged in the lights and asked if he liked it. He paused, smiled and said, "Mama, Love it".

Anyway, my main motivation for this post is to get some advice. I'm really getting into Christmas this year. I really love this time of year & I find that having Nile is motivating me to get some good, solid holiday traditions on the go. So, I went out and bought a few Cds of holiday music and I'm planning a holiday baking day with our neighbors, which I hope will become a fun annual tradition.

I've never been much into holiday movies, actually I've never really watched them at all - but the other night I was laying around flipping channels and noticed that Elf, starring Will Farrel was on. There wasn't much else on and I was feeling pretty unmotivated, so I watched it. And to my surprise I laughed out loud and really enjoyed it. A few nights later I was feeling equally unmotivated and ended up watching the second half of Santa Clause 2 (starring Tim Allen). I didn't really like that one quite as much but it got me thinking that I like holiday movies during this time of the year and I wouldn't mind watching more of them, especially as Nile gets older.

So, I was hoping that you mamas and papas would share your thoughts on your favorite holiday movies with me so I don't have to watch any more movies like Santa Clause 2 in search of the perfect Christmas movie! I'd love suggestions on good holiday music, too..

Happy Holidays!

Home is where the heart is? Or is it....

So, lately, we've been talking a lot about where we want to raise Sam and what this neighbourhood/city/province looks like. Both hubby and I grew up in suburbian Ontario, home to the $139,000 4 bedroom family home and we have since moved many, many times, only to end up in "big-city" Vancouver, home to the $650,000 bachelor condo.

The thing is, we absolutely love our life in Vancouver - the weather, the mountains and oceans, the laid-back lifestyle. Growing up in Eastern Canada, Vancouver seemed like worlds away, and I'm kind of jealous that Sam got to be born in such a cool city (as opposed to Sherbrooke, Quebec).

Our problem lies in the fact that we currently rent a 2 bedroom condo in a somewhat inner-city neighbourhood. If we ever want to own a home, or even rent a larger apartment, or feel safe to have Sam ride his bike down the block, we either need to leave the city and move to the suburbs or, leave the city to somewhere else in BC, or gawd! Eastern Ontario (I can't believe I've even just written this).

I guess, at the heart of all this, is my fear of leaving everyone we've met and become friends with the last few years in Vancouver, to once again start fresh. This is the first time I've felt a sense of community and attachment to my neighbourhood and I worry that I will miss it terribly and everyone that is connected to it. I love that people around me know Sam and that he has little friends around the corner and that I am constanly running into other moms on the street. But, am I just being childish? Should someone just hit me upside the head and remind me "you'll make new friends at the new school" cause that's pretty much how I feel right now...

Do I want Sam growing up in the city, going to the art gallery, museum, riding the transit system or do I want a large yard for him to run around him, with perhaps some woods to run through and trees to climb? And, most importantly, am I willing to give up my new life in Vancouver and move, if after all this thinking, I realize that we need to leave Vancouver in order to give Sam the childhood he deserves?

These are my babbles and I'd love to see if this resonates with any one of you mamas out there? How do you juggle your sense of place with where you want to raise your child vs where you can afford to raise them?

trapped in the fifties?

Last week, our town had its annual holiday parade. For some reason, the theme of the Bee's school's float was the Fabulous Fifties. Here she is in what we cobbled together for a costume--I was really happy that I had bought her that crinolined skirt months ago.

But it made me wonder why the fifties have such a stranglehold on our imagination, at least in the U.S. When I was in middle school, there was always a fifties dance every year, but I guess I attributed that to the fact that most of us were children of people who were in high school in the fifties. I thought (in my clueless, pubescent way) that it was just the moms trying to relieve their own glory days, or something stupid like that. I thought, "my kids won't have to suffer through 80s dances!" (Perish the thought! Where on earth would I find one of those fluorescent sweatshirts, for example?)

But this is at least the third thing that's happened at the Bee's school where parents who are my age or younger have opted to dress their kids in fifties attire. What's the deal with that? Is this something you Canadian moms have had to put up with?

Because if this is some yearning for the "Duck and Cover" era, I could live without it. And if not? Let's move on to some other eras. After last month's election, I could really get behind a 1960s Peace Parade, for example.