Pre-Christmas Festivities

The weeks leading up to Christmas holidays were a shit show. And I really don't like swear words in the blog, but this is necessary. Work was crazy busy and full of crisis, and free time was spent preparing for Christmas with baking, shopping, events, and other preparations like daycare gifts for Logan's friends. Although I like Christmas festivities, i'm happy that January has less expectations.

We look forward to Rachel's school Christmas concert every year. This year, it was a bit later in the year on December 15th AND I thought it was the day before and drove all the way across the city the day before to see that the school was completely dark! That's where my brain was. But I made it! Aleksy and Logan stayed home because of Logan's bedtime... Rachel was so cute and was the only girl in her class who chose not to wear a dress!

This deliciousness here is Christmas stollen bread. We had it for the first time last year made by family friends, Tommy and Vina Wang. This is difficult to stay in the house for more than 2 days. I think that's all it lasted this year. Its sweet bread with dried fruit.

This year, Logan got to enjoy some too. He is particular about bread, and doesn't usually eat much, but not the Christmas stollen.. He loved it and ate tons!

Even though it made my days so extra busy and late, I took 3 days off in December so I could get my Christmas baking done and on the last day off, I made these hot chocolate reindeer as Christmas gifts for Logan's daycare friends! Pinterest for the win once again.

And on Tuesday Dec 20th, Big Sisters had their Christmas party. The last couple years, it was held at the Windermere manor with a buffet of caesar salad, pasta and hot chocolate and ice cream sundaes. It was pretty awesome and included craft activities on the tables and a dance.

This year, they took us on a school bus for a tour of Christmas lights. It was actually really cool... there's 2 houses near the east end library that have a radio station that is synced with their light show. Crazy! We were even provided with hot chocolate, candy canes, popcorn and a granola bar as snacks for the bus ride. We randomly picked up Santa and his elves at Argyle mall parking lot and brought them back to the library where we had pizza hut pizza, pasta, and salad. The there was cake and ice cream for dessert and presents for the kiddos. Pretty awesome! The amount of food they provided was amazing... thye thought of everything!

They had pictures with Santa and this "photobooth" set up too.

Snowy weekends at the C House

This past weekend was probably the most relaxing weekend we will have in December. Weekends fill up quickly with plans in December and this weekend, we had Friday supper with the sister and her new guy, Jon then Saturday we had plans with our neighbours. Sunday, the big event was Logan's Santa pic at the mall!

Other exciting events of the weekend... snow! Logan is still hesistant with the icy stuff, but still played outside for a bit on Sunday before Santa.

And some sledding happened. Same sled as Family day when he hated the sled ride, but this time he was interested and smiling! Win!

At the mall... all fancied up for Santa. This guy got so much attention for his cuteness in the mall. Could have been the bow tie, the uggs.... the ladies love Logan. And Logan loves the light-up reindeer...

We really prepared for some tears this year... Logan has recently gone through a phase of playing strange but I think daycare has helped him with this so we got no tears. And really not much of a reaction at all. Just staring at the camera where they were jingling the bells.
Other 1 year old pictures looking like Santa is terrorizing them are way more fun!!

The difference of a year... this little guy could hardly hold his head up last year and was slightly blobbish... as much as a not so chubby baby can be blobbish. But this year, He's a handsome toddler! And Santa is not quite as Santa-ish as he once was at Masonville.

Birthdays and Christmas Spirit

Our past few weekends included Scarlett's 3rd birthday, a weekend away in Kincardine, some mall meet ups, and Al's birthday party (aka Aleksy and Katherine were baby free and forgot how much hangovers suck).

Scarlett had her 3rd birthday party at Little Gym on Nov 20th. Logan had the best time climbing all over everything and participated in some of the organized activity (but mostly was his own boss and found his own way around). The staff were so good at including him too int he activities even though his attention span is hardly a second!

Just one small mishap with one of these red rails and Logans noggin. Just another goose egg to add to those he;s already had!

After some serious playtime in the gym part, we headed into the party room for some pizza and cake. Ariel was there. Logan was terrified. This balloon Ariel was way scarier than the 1 that came out for his 1st birthday!

Logan's little friend Indie wasn't so scared - shes just a few months younger than the Logster.

After Scar opened her present, she said thanks and gave hugs to everyone - Logan was getting grumpy because it was late and he has too much exposure to scary Ariel, but Scarlett was a sweetie to him anyways!

And the very next weekend, we headed up to Kincardine to visit Sam, Zac, Scarlett and little William. Best hosts ever - supper, appetizers, breakfast, and a crazy assortment of drinks for the weekend.
And fun activities with the children - boxes for adult and child fun!

This guy was so pooped by the time we were ready to put him to bed - it was hardly past his bedtime. it was just a long day of play and a crappy afternoon car nap. We plopped him on the bed for his sleep sac and he was basically snoozing already.

Not that he snoozed that night - this guy who usually sleeps the whole night without a peep from 8pm - 6:30/7am was up multiple times - like 5 or something. And he kept that for the next night too. I'm so used to peaceful sleep so I died at work on Monday. But he's now back to normal (thank goodness).

And the 3 kiddos the next day! After eggs and bacon and some playing in the serious playroom downstairs, we headed back to London during nap time and Logan slept the whole way home (because he didn't sleep at night!).

Logan really likes his boots - there's no bad time to wear them really. Christmas tree, boot lovin baby.

This weekend, we met up with my niece Emma and brother Mike for some shopping at the Disney store and some lunch. It's been too long since these two got together and  I'm so glad he got to see her again! Emma is not little anymore -this girl is 9 in a couple weeks!

Logan got some awesome new Mickey Christmas jammies and a playmat and cars from his Uncle Mike and Emma picked out a Moana nightie for her birthday. A successful Disney store trip then some lunch afterward. Uncle Mike treated Logan to his favourites - meat and cheese. It's little weird ordering a mr. sub sub with no bread but that's Logan's style!

And later that day, we dropped the goober off at his Nana and Dziadek's and it was time to party for Al's birthday! We went to the Palasad for 7pm and we didn't even finish up our bottle of champagne before the taxi got to our place to share with Chels and Warren.

I think this was the first time I did a shot in like a couple years.

This chocolate cake came out around 10:30 - it was a shared party with Al and his friend Malcolm.

When 30 creeps up on you and you're certain you're still in your 20s and can handle 1 single shot of tequila... but you can't.

Selfies with the bestie!

And this was the community drink - it was basically a fish bowl of a drink that tasted like juice. But to add the the awesomeness, the straws had sour keys hung from them. We all tried to finish it together but that didn't quite work out.

It was a fun baby free night out, but the next day I realized that I really can't manage much more than 3 glasses of wine in a night. The next day was a slow moving day!

Self Five!

Mission complete! I made a goal at the beginning of November to work out each and every single day in November... and I succeeded! Some days it took a lot more discipline than others. Most days I went to the gym (either Movati for a class or Planet Fitness) and on Saturdays, I manly ran for at least 30 minutes and I did 2 home workouts in the basement too (these ones I probably would have skipped if I didn't have this goal in mind!). Happy to have my metabolism at a high for the next few Christmas weeks!

This may be tootin my own horn a bit, but this is a first time and I'm pretty proud :)

My name is Katherine and I have a Christmas Problem

As I write this, I'm listening to Christmas music (despite the resistance from Aleksy). I know its just mid November, but the Santa Claus parade weekend makes Christmas love fair game!

On Saturday, I started off the Christmas festivities by baking some Christmas cookies while the goobster napped. Aleksy decorated the house with our decorations in the moorning (after I went for a run and Aleksy gymed it).

I have enough of these Christmas cookies (our fam tradition passed down from my Mom!) to last the next few weekends leading up until Christmas (for cookies and egg nog and rum of course). We'll have to make another batch for Snata!

Sweets can be a hit or miss with Logan. Sometimes things are too sweet for his liking. Not these... these were a definite yes. Pure deliciousness. Logan will enjoy many more of these in his lifetime! Cookie and cake lover like his Mama.

Saturday night... we went to Chels and Warren's for supper then we all grabbed Tims to go with our baileys in a flask and headed downtown. We never go so late.. like 6:30 and Oxford was so backed up! We parked behind Joe Kools and walked up Richmond and got a standing spot at the pleasant intersection of Richmond and Dundas. Behind some people.. ut honestly Logan didn't mind!

The peeps at the parade. The twins, Logan and Cadie is in the backpack Warren's wearing. She's basically a purple hat. When you have too many kids you just throw some on your back to make sure they don't run away...

I really didn't think he would enjoy the parade as much as he did. He would stare at the floats as they went by and once they passed, he would point and talk about it. Making sure we also saw how awesome the lights and music were!

And the anticipated arrival of Santa. He came just after 8pm, which was past Logan's bedtime but he was so into the parade he didn't notice! After Santa we headed back home and Logan didn't even fall asleep in the car.

But once he was asleep, the Christmas movie watching (Christmas Vacation), Christmas cookie eating, and eggnog and rum (whisky for Aleksy) began.

Christmas in the house! Or on the house! Our lights on both levels (which made me barf watching Aleksy put those up... so scary), bows, wreath, reindeer, and garland!

I had intended on putting up the tree too but after getting home from the parade and getting Logan to bed, it was late so I stuck to sitting and watching the movie instead. Maybe this weekend. We'll see how the goober feels about a tree with shiny sparkly balls hanging from it! Uh oh...

Healthy Eating & Fitness!

We stick to healthy meals around our house (weekends are where we have treats and sometimes one or two meals that include something not so nutritious..) and we have regularly been exercising for years now but there have been some changes the last little bit, which is a result of learning new things about nutrition all the time and sticking to the no excuses to skip a workout when we are able to (because its not as easy to find free time to gym it with such limited time with the goober on evenings and weekends!)

One of the changes that I've made recently is changing my sweet treats to natural sweet treats! I've experimented with lots of natural treat recipes: these sugarless, flourless chocolate muffins (aide from the 3 choc chips on top!), as well as peanut butter energy balls (oats honey, peanut butter, chia & flax seeds), 3 ingredient pb bars (honey, pb and oats... but so good!), banana ice cream, and a few others!

This way I can still get my sweet fix but there's no guilt feelings or swollen tummy!

On my mat leave, I became a pretty avid follower of Ashy Bines who is a fitness and health figure from Australia who has a reality series and I follow on social media for recipes, tips, exercises etc. I can't follow her so closely anymore since going back to work but I already have stolen so many awesome suppers from her. This is one of them: sweet potato shephards pie... so friggin good!

I would make this a lot more often if it wasn't time consuming... this bad boy is over an hour process. Aint nobody got time for that (unless its a weekend, which it is clearly in this picture because of the wine. We only have drinks on the weekends!).

 I found a clean treats kiosk in the Western fair market and I was super excited. Sweet craving filled and no added crap! I need to go back for more!

 I haven't uploaded a screenshot of my fitbit report for a while... this was one of my really good fitbit weeks in the summer. 110, 000 steps! I love my fitbit still after almost a year and it really motivates me to keep moving so I don't lower my average.

Since i've been back at work, my numbers fell a bit since I am not out for walks all the time like I used to, and desk sitting is about 50% of my job!

But this week is pretty high around 90, 000 because I am currently on a personal challenge to work out every day in November (today is day 10... it's been 10 days straight of working out - or at least going for a long run everyday). October was a pretty successful month for workout too - about 5-6 per week!

Another supper taken from Ashy Bines: cauliflower fried rice! This one is so so good and it's pretty much a weekly staple in our house now. Just cauliflower (which I put in the food processer), peas, corn, onion, peppers, ground turkey and a couple scrambled eggs. 

How do I get extra workout's in now that I have to work? I joined the $10 a month gym on top of my existing Movati gym membership... this way I have been able to sneak 45 minute workouts on my lunch! Aleksy and I alternate nights going to Movati after Logan goes to bed (but I'm a Friday hog because I love to make one or two of my favourite power barbell and step/abs classes!). Between going on my lunch, my night workouts (usually I hit the 8:30pm class) and the occasional run outside on the weekend, Ive been able to exercise almost daily!


Exercise and good nutrition give me so much more energy to accomplish everything I need to in the day and I it gives me confidence that a year after (well just over a year) I had a baby, my weight and size is exactly the same as it was before baby! 127-128 lbs and fit in my old clothes again. And even got rid of the bigger ones that I kept "just in case".

But still not afraid of the occasional indulgences.. looking forward to eggnog and rum and making christmas cookies this weekend and putting up our christmas decorations (its the santa claus parade weekend!)

Halloween... also the big 3-0

Our annual Halloween party this year was a bit different for timing this year. Every year, we plan the party for the evening but this year we decided it would work better for us ad also most of our friends to have the party at 2! This way, kids were napped, we could have some drinks and food together and still get the kiddos in bed at their usual time and even have the evening to ourselves. A little lame but it seriously worked out awesome with 10 kids 3 years old and under.

Brooklyn came over on Thursday before the party and together we made all these Halloween treats! The bark was supposed to be an orange base, but the green didn't turn out too bad! Bulk barn was out of orange and also didnt have rice krispies, so you can see our pumpkins were made of cheerios instead. We ALWAYS have those in stock because of our cheerio monster! The toppers f those pumpkins were just rolos and some of the green chocolate melted for the stem!

And pretzel spider webs...

The tradition of re-using our special occasion cakes continues! Logan had his birthday cake that Tabi made for him leftover in the freezer so I pulled that bad boy out, threw some betty crocker icing on there, orange sprinkles and boom: halloween/birthday cake. If only we had 20 more people to help us eat it!

The get-up this year was our little pumpkin (a costume made by my Mom for when me and my sib group were little!) and scarecrows. Ok, it feels like we cheated a bit this year since these took all of 10 minutes to hot glue the Hawaiian skirt pieces to our hats and clothing and cost a total of maybe $15 for everything. But we totally appreciate easy and fast these days. Working + a 1 year old = limited free time!

We have the cutest pumpkin! This pumpkin costume was actually made by ym Mom when me and my sibs were little! I don't know exactly who wore it (I think Matt..) but I got it in a box of old clothes from my Mom!

Some snacks - the usual veggies, cheese meat and crackers and I made mac and cheese this year. It got really mushy which sucked but tasted pretty good still. Steph (and Colton and Chase) made the little mummy applesauce pouches and Frankenstein juice boxes!

My friend Jenny and the fam jam were able to come this year and her little skunk came too (they were pest exterminators!). Logan and his bud Levi!

Group shot! A selfie taken from the forward facing camera on the phone leaning up against the wine rack of the living room: The paw patrol squad (Skye, Chase, Marshall, and Ruble), the dog walkers and their doggies, the pirate family, the exterminators and their skunk, and us!

The day of the party, was the nicest day - it was almost 20 degrees outside. The kids wanted to blow off some steam in the backyard and this was the state of our backyard - so funny because they are all playing completely separately! Soon enough they'll play together...
What was once an adult drinking party, has basically become a child birthday party!

Our Logan pumpkin and his paw patrol friends! All thse kiddos so close to Logan in age but somehow, Steph and my pregnancies did not overlap at all... crazy!

And after an afternoon of hanging out, everyone was out by about 6:30-7pm and we got to bed at a reasonable time (we value our sleep).

The day after the party, we celebrated Aleksys birthday with Aleksy's parents who made us a ham supper. And this amazing nova era cake. It was one of the mousse style cakes. There's still some in the freezer!


















These guys. It may have been a football day... can you tell?

I love this picture!! This was sent to me by the daycare provider on Halloween of all the kids dressed in their costumes. Logan did not want his costume on! Ha! and I love that all the boys are super cool with their superheroes and a vampire and Logan's costume is a massive frog prince! And the strawberry's trying to help Logan (she's always his little helper).

And Halloween night, Logan and I gave Aleksy his Illbury and Goose presents, had some chili (which Logan surprisingly loves) and garlic bread, then headed over to Aleksys parents for our prince frog to do some trick or treating.

We surprised Aleksys parents by showing up at their door and Lorraine came out while Logan went to a few houses.

Logan loved the bucket and held onto it tight the whole time we trick or treated. And he was so much happier with the hat that kept the costume out of his face (got the idea from a co-worker).

He had so much fun trick or treating. We went to about 5-10 houses and he got maybe 20ish candies and he thought it was pretty awesome going up to the houses and them giving him things in his bucket. We thought it was awesome that he was hooking us up with candy. And funny that the people were suggesting we grab more candy for the 1 year old who doesn't eat candy.

It was hard to get pictures as it got later but here' the troops on Halloween.

We got home a but later than the usual start to our night routine - we were out from 6:30 until about 7 then got home around 730. When we got home, Logan was still excited about his bucket and was playing with all the candies inside!