Category: Happy holidays

Holiday countdown!

With the last of the leaves of the season finally (mostly) raked up and bagged, I could finally turn my attention to decorating the porch this weekend. I swear, I have as much fun (and take as much time!) decorating the porch as I do the inside of the house. It takes a long time to hang 25 feet of garland, lights and balls and affix them firmly enough that they don’t blow away before spring thaw!!

2:365 8 hrs of Christmas 1 pm

And with that, I officially give myself permission to start getting excited about the holidays! I feel like I’m a wee bit ahead of the curve this year, but I’m sure whatever lead on the season I have now will be lost by mid-December. I’ve got the fixin’s for my famous shortbread and peanut brittle in the cupboard, and I bought a new set of cookie cutters so we could try one of those stacked-stars-into-a-Christmas-tree thingees this year. I’ve got some wrapping paper and tags stashed away, and I’ve even started my Christmas shopping. Yay!

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Are you an online shopper, or do you still prefer to head out to the shops? I was quite pleased with myself on the weekend when I knocked off a good chunk of my to-do list with two online stores and a visit to the Third World Bazaar sale here in Manotick. What a great selection they had this year!

If you’re an online shopper, you might enjoy this. As you know, I’m blogging for Fisher-Price this year, and Mattel is pleased to offer this online gift-finder. Or, if you’re more of a hands-on shopper, the Mattel Holiday helpers will be at various stores this Christmas season providing useful advice on appropriate toys for kids of all ages. If you’re in the Ottawa area, you can visit them on the following dates and locations:

  • November 24 – 25, Zellers at Place d’Orleans
  • November 26 – 27, Zellers at Billings Bridge
  • December 3 – 4, Sears at Rideau Centre
  • December 10 – 11, Sears at St Laurent Shopping Centre
  • December 15 – 16, Zellers at Bayshore Shopping Centre
  • December 17 – 18, Zellers at Hazeldean Mall

Mattel has also partnered with Holiday Helper Tarra Stubbins, a professional organizer. Mattel’s partnership with Tarra gives consumers access to expert shopping and organizational advice this holiday season on a series of YTV vignettes and on Mattel’s Facebook page. Mattel’s Holiday Helper will give families everywhere tips for holiday travel with the kids, efficient shopping strategy and advice for gift-giving.

Between now and Christmas, I’ll write a couple of posts with my recommendations for some of the best toys and gear I’ve seen this year with Fisher-Price. I’ll start this week with my favourite ideas for older kids, and we’ll work our way down to the wee ones. Sound good?

In the meantime, tell me: are you feeling the holiday spirit yet? Are you like me, a bit of a kid who delights in the anticipation? Or are you dreading the extra work you’ll have between now and the end of the year? What do you do that makes you feel like Christmas is finally on the way?

Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

The Christmas Eve Photo Project 2010

Last Christmas, inspired by Andrea, I took one picture each hour from 8 am to 8 pm on Christmas Eve — the Christmas Eve photo project. And I loved the results.

This year, since we’re having a quieter Christmas (my brother’s family only joins us every second Christmas) and because I had to work for a few hours this morning, I was going to skip the Christmas Eve photo project. But it’s a lovely day and I think it’s going to be a wonderful Christmas. With the big boys at an afternoon movie with Beloved and the little boy napping, I find myself with the choice between cleaning and posting my pictures. Guess which one I chose? 🙂

The prequel:

Tried to be kind and bring doughnuts for the skeleton team at work today, but the wind caught the box just as I was stepping out of the car. Grandma’s not the only thing that got run over by a reindeer on Christmas Eve!! It’s Christmas crueler carnage!!

Not just Grandma got run over by a reindeer

12 pm: I’ll be home for Christmas!

12:00 pm Home for the holidays

1 pm: I love my porch, and I love my porch decorated for Christmas even moreso!

8 hrs of Christmas 1 pm

2 pm: Aaaand the wrapping is done. Finally!

8 hrs of Christmas 2 pm

3:00 pm: There’s always time for Christmas cookies.

8 hrs of Christmas 3 pm

4:00 pm: The calm before the storm of Christmas crazy!

8 hrs of Christmas 4 pm

5:00 pm: Granny and her elves.

8 hrs of Christmas 5 pm

6:00 pm: They look so grown up to me here — but still not too grown up to sit in Dad’s lap.

8 hrs of Christmas 6 pm

7:00 pm: Papa Lou is adjusting his antenna to make sure the alien signal comes through clearly.

8 hrs of Christmas 7 pm

8:00 pm: A favourite Christmas tradition — the viewing of the annual family photo calendar.

8 hrs of Christmas 8 pm

The post script: Christmas morning!

8 hrs of Christmas post script

And finally, the picture that I was going to post as my Christmas greeting to all of you to make the project an even dozen photos:

Happy Christmas

From all of us to all of you, Happy Christmas! May all your dreams come true.

.

The one with her annual reindeer rant

Hmmm, something’s just not quite right. The tree is up, the stockings are hung, the malls are filled with frantic holiday shoppers and Magic 100 has switched to all-Christmas-music-all-the-time format. I’ve blogged about Santa parades and the Portable North Pole. I’ve got all my bloggy holiday traditions covered, but it feels like something is missing.

Oh riiiiiiiight. It’s time for the annual reindeer rant! 🙂 If I can educate one misinformed soul every year about the correct names of Santa’s reindeer, my mission will be a success.

“You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen;
Comet and Cupid and DONDER and Blitzen…”

As you might know, my last name is Donders. As such, it has been my lifelong quest to set the record straight and right the wrongs entrenched by Johnny Marks and Gene Autry.

Reindeer TtV

Here’s a little history lesson for you. The poem “A Visit From St Nicholas”, commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas”, was written back in 1823 and is generally attributed to American poet Clement Clarke Moore (although there have been recent arguments that the poem was in fact written by his contemporary Henry Livingston Jr.) The original poem reads, in part:

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on Dunder and Blixem!

As explained on the Donder Home Page (no relation):

In the original publication of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823 in the Troy Sentinel, “Dunder and Blixem” are listed as the last two reindeer. These are very close to the Dutch words for thunder and lightning, “Donder and Bliksem”. Blixem is an alternative spelling for Bliksem, but Dunder is not an alternative spelling for Donder. It is likely that the word “Dunder” was a misprint. Blitzen’s true name, then, might actually have been “Bliksem”.

In 1994, the Washington Post delved into the matter by sending a reporter to the Library of Congress to reference the source material. (In past years, I’d been able to link to a Geocities site with the full text, but sadly, Geocities is no more.)

We were successful. In fact, Library of Congress reference librarian David Kresh described Donner/Donder as “a fairly open-and-shut case.” As we marshaled the evidence near Alcove 7 in the Library’s Main Reading Room a few days ago, it quickly became clear that Clement Clarke Moore, author of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” wanted to call him (or her?) “Donder.” Never mind that editors didn’t always cooperate. […] Further confirmation came quickly. In “The Annotated Night Before Christmas,” which discusses the poem in an elegantly illustrated modern presentation, editor Martin Gardner notes that the “Troy Sentinel” used “Dunder”, but dismisses this as a typo. Gardner cites the 1844 spelling as definitive, but also found that Moore wrote “Donder” in a longhand rendering of the poem penned the year before he died: “That pretty well sews it up,” concluded Kresh.

So there you have it. This Christmas season, make sure you give proper credit to Santa’s seventh reindeer. On DONDER and Blitzen. It’s a matter of family pride.

It’s a 21st Century Christmas

This post was inspired by a CBC article about how Shaw Cable moved its beloved Yule Log channel to a Video On Demand channel. The previously free stream featuring nothing but a Yule log burning in a fireplace, now entering its 25th year, will now cost 99 cents. The fee, plus a matching amount from Shaw, will be donated to charity. Thanks to the Twitter conversation about the change to Shaw’s Yule log channel, I discovered that of course there’s an app for that. And then I fell down the rabbit hole of iPhone Christmas apps.

Here are five of the most interesting Christmas-themed apps I found. (Caveat: I have not tested many of these. Use at your own risk!)

1. The Yule Log app. As soothing and oddly compelling as Log itself.

2. Christmas Music by Nutsie. Thousands of Christmas songs wrapped up in dozens of playlists like Top 100 Christmas Songs, Children’s Christmas, Krazy Kristmas, and (I’m so curious, I may just have to fork out the $1.99 for this one) the Jingle Bells Playlist.

3. Postcards from Santa. This one is getting such great reviews that I think I might have to try it myself! “Select from a number of charming santa images, use our pre-written santa message or write your own, and enter the name and mailing address of the child you want to send the postcard to. We will print the customized postcard and drop it in the mail. Your child’s postcard will arrive only a few days later in the mail.” Fun!

4. Talking Santa. “Talk to Santa and he will repeat your words. Poke, swipe or tickle Santa to see his various reactions. Run Santa over with a huge snowball. (I can hear my boys howling over this already!) Give Santa milk & cookies. Touch the bag to see more than 20 gifts. Shake your device and see what happens.”

5. The Christmas Tree Decorating App. No space for a tree? This seems like a silly little app to help you feel like you decorated the tree. “Decorate your tree however you choose with colored lights, ornaments, candy canes and icicles. But be careful not to drop any ornaments or you will hear that dreaded shatter! Watch your individually decorated tree sparkle as you countdown the days till Christmas.”

And, for those of you who don’t have an iPhone or an iPad, here’s four more 21st Century Christmas sites and services!

I’ve said before how much of a huge fan I am of the Portable North Pole application. Upload a picture and make a few specifications on Santa’s site, and Santa will e-mail you a link to a personalized video that mentions your child by name AND shows a picture of him or her in Santa’s big book. This is a delightful service and my boys are already asking if Santa will be sending them a new message this year. (Um, note to self — next task on list = upload pix to Portable North Pole!)

Along the same lines, Sympatico’s Magic Santa is an online video service you can use to make free personalized videos messages from Santa for your kids. Sympatico.ca is partnering with Kids Help Phone and will be giving $0.25 to them for every video made up to $50,000. There’s also is a contest… one family will win a trip to Walt Disney World by capturing a photo or video of a child’s reaction to a Magic Santa video and submitting it to the contest site by December 19, 2010. And there’s even a Magic Santa iPhone app.

The NORAD Santa Tracker site has been around for awhile, but now there’s a mobile version, too! This Christmas eve, join NORAD to track Santa’s flight from your phone. On December 24th, open Google Maps for mobile and do a search for “Santa” to see his latest location.

And of course, you can always follow Santa on Twitter!

Completely serendipitously, just as I was finishing this post, my brother e-mailed me this amazing video of a Christmas concert staged entirely with iPhones and iPads. As my brother said, how could you NOT want an iPhone or an iPad after you see this?

We’ve come a long way from letters the editor, haven’t we Virginia?

The Great Christmas Tree Quest 2010

The alternate title of this post is “In which she becomes convinced that natural trees are the best possible option for Christmas.”

It was about -10C with the faintest hint of snow in the air when we headed out to Ian’s Evergreen Plantation to find our very first not-plastic-and-metal Christmas tree. Did I mention it was cold? Free hot chocolate and a bonfire helped to take off the chill.

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

So did running around like goofballs on the play sets.

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

We took a hayride just for the sake of taking a hay ride, but one of the staff told us the best pickins’ were to be found out front of the plantation.

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

It didn’t take long to find the perfect tree. I’d worried that this part would be messy, but Beloved handled it in a manly way. “Hey Dad, don’t poke yer eye out!”

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

The boys were fascinated with the whole process, including the free “Christmas wrapping”.

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

“We are ridiculously proud of ourselves for going into the forest and hunting down and conquering this tree!”

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

It’s a little soft because I maxed out my ISO at 1600, but there’s just not a lot of natural light to be had in December. And besides, Lucas and noise just seem to go hand in hand.

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

He’s almost tall enough to reach the top of the tree. How did that happen?

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

This? Is worth everything.

553:1000 The Great Christmas Tree Adventure 2010

So here’s my final thoughts about the natural versus artificial debate — now that I’m all professional about the formerly-live trees and all.

  • It was not nearly as much work as I thought it would be to go out and cut down our own tree. Tying it to the roof, also something I’d dreaded, was a non-issue.
  • I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to find a perfect tree. I’d expected to have to settle, but there were many, many great trees to choose from. Ours is perfect and full and lovely.
  • It’s easy to underestimate the size of a tree in the forest. Using Beloved’s 5’11” height as a yardstick, I was aiming for 6 1/2′ to 7′ tall. I thought we’d settled for one on the small side, but it very nearly reaches the ceiling. Did I mention it’s perfect?
  • I’m really glad we went the extra mile to actually head out into the wilds to cut our own tree, instead of just getting one from the corner lot. It was definitely worth the effort, and made the whole experience a memorable adventure.
  • I Swiffered up needles not once, not twice, not three times but FOUR times in the first four hours. I expected some needles, but yeesh! Beloved, who had expressed early reservations about the mess and amount of care required of a natural tree based on experience with them during his childhood, could not resist throwing in a few “I told you so!”s, even though he does admit to liking the final product very much.
  • The boys, who to my surprise were strongly advocating the purchase of a new artificial tree, also agree unanimously that this is the best! tree! ever! (I hope we have not set the bar too high for future years!)
  • The glorious and festive tree smell that everyone goes on about? Meh. Smells kind of like my grandfather’s car from the mid-1970s. Not bad, but not quite what I was expecting.

All in all, we definitely made the right choice and found the perfect tree. Another successful example of living my life according to the will of the bloggy peeps! 😉

Enjoy an “olde fashioned” Christmas in Manotick this weekend

Looking for a great way to kick off the countdown to Christmas? Why not come on down to Manotick this weekend and enjoy the village that has completely captured my heart?

Manotick Olde Fashioned Christmas

On December 4 and 5, the village transforms itself into a Christmas village with horse-drawn carriage rides, a crafter’s market, breakfast with Father and Mary Christmas, strolling carollers and yes, a Santa parade. There’s also a Victorian penny sale, face painting, pictures with Santa and a family Christmas party with games and crafts. Seriously, can you imagine anything more delightful? And the weather should be perfect, cool but clear and perfect for hot chocolate and apple cider! Click this link for a .pdf with the full schedule.

If you do come out to Manotick, make sure you check out some of the great little shops and businesses. There’s My Toy Shop, a great little independent toy store, and The Gingerbread Man — a bakery that specializes in, you guessed it, gingerbread cookies and houses. Yum! And don’t miss the Manotick Village Butcher for locally grown, sustainable and ethically raised meats that are completely affordable and cut to your specification.

So you know I love Santa parades, right? We find one to attend each year. But this year, the boys will actually be participating in the Manotick Santa parade, riding in their school float. I don’t know who is more excited, me or the boys! Stay tuned, I’m guessing there may be a photo op or two to be had! 🙂

O Christmas Tree

Okay bloggy peeps, here’s another debate that started on Twitter but simply needs more than 140 characters to be fully explored.

I am in the market for a new Christmas tree. I have an ‘artificial’ tree that is one of the last surviving remnants from the practice marriage. It’s nearly 20 years old (holy crap, is that true? OMG, it is. Oh my sweet lord, I am getting older faster with each passing year!) and it is a gorgeous tree. It’s just over seven feet tall, full and bushy and lovely. Every year I looked forward to putting it up — it was truly one of my most treasured holiday heirlooms. And, if you’ll remember, last autumn it was infested by rodents. And by infested I mean I found small amounts of mouse turds in the bottom of the Christmas tree bag that the mice had chewed their way through, and shredded bits of the festive red bag woven into some of the branches.

It’s a tainted tree now, even though I put it up and decorated it last Christmas and it was indeed lovely. After I shook the (literal) shit out of it. But ever since the mousecapade, I’ve just lost that lovin’ feeling for my beautiful tree.

I’ve been perusing trees in stores, online and in flyers, but none of them are as lovely as mine once was. I’d actually intended to sanitize our tree by leaving it out in the blazing sun for a couple of days this summer (did you know UV rays neutralize hantavirus?) but alas, I never got around to it. Sigh.

And then this week, it occurred to me that there was another option entirely — a (formerly) live tree.

You can see that I struggle with nomenclature here. Some people call formerly live trees “real” trees, but I can assure you that my plastic and metal tree is entirely real. And I can’t bring myself to call them live trees because, well, they’re well on their way to dead the moment you hack through their trunks. Hmmm, let’s go with “natural” and “artificial” for the distinction. Does that work?

I have never had a natural tree at Christmas. In fact, my father (never to be confused with an environmentalist at the best of times) used to say “In the spirit of Christmas, let’s kill a tree!” I have no idea how to care for a natural tree, and really know nothing about them except that people seem to complain a lot about the mess of getting them out of the house.

I asked the Twitterverse for their opinions on natural versus artificial trees, and got nine responses. Six were enthusiastic promoters of natural trees, one considered switching to a natural tree until she saw the amount of accessories that would have to be acquired, one happily switched from natural to artificial and never looked back, and one lamented the year when the natural tree was knocked over four times, spilling water over the hardwood each time.

Water to be spilled? Oh dear. Three rambunctious and curious boys and we’ve never yet knocked down a tree — but then, we’ve never had gorgeous new hardwood floors, either. You just know that those floors will be a magnet for water to be spilled.

So I’m making a list (and checking it twice) of the pros and cons of each kind of tree.

Natural trees:

Pro : lovely scent of evergreen in house
Pro : can make a family expedition out of acquiring one (insert romantic visions of red-cheeked boys, sleigh rides and Rockwell-esque winter scenes here)
Pro : don’t have to store it in the garage where mice can poop in it
Pro : apparently eco-friendlier than I would have thought, as they’re grown particularly for harvest. Nobody laments the harvesting of carrots, right?
Con : must buy a new one each year
Con : you can’t predict what you’ll get with a natural tree (I like sameness, remember)
Con : have to get (potentially wet, snowy, dirty) tree onto the car (insert comical vision of Beloved, several meters of rope, and the roof rack of the Mazda here) and then into the house
Con : natural trees require maintenance and must be watered regularly
Con : gigantic PITA to get it out of the house without a forest of dropped needles everywhere
Con : sad to see discarded trees at the curb, waiting for garbage pickup
Con : have to take down tree according to garbage-day pick-up schedule

Artificial trees:

Pro : flexible schedule – can put up in October and take down in April if I am so inclined
Pro : one investment now should last 20 years or more
Pro : having the same tree year after year has strong nostalgia factor
Pro : no need to be at the mercy of capricious weather for acquisition of the tree
Pro : artificial trees come packed in tidy boxes that fit handily in the back of my car
Pro : no open containers of water waiting to be spewed onto the hardwood
Pro : less needly mess
Con : needs rodent-free off-season storage space

What say ye, bloggy peeps? Natural or artificial and why?

Christmas Parades of Eastern Ontario – the 2010 Edition!

Edited to add: Click this link for the 2018 Santa Claus and holiday parade info!

Last leaves drifting from the trees? Check.

Halloween safely behind us, tucked into bed with a sore belly from too much candy? Check.

Weather turned cold, grey and damp — and snowy?!? Check.

Yay, it must be time for my annual guide to the Santa, Christmas and Holiday Parades of the National Capital region!!

This is the fifth anniversary of my bloggy parade preview, and it’s of one of my favourite posts to write each year. It’s a fun challenge tracking down all the big city and small town events in Eastern Ontario and the Outaouis, and gets me in the festive spirit almost as early as Costco has their Christmas trees on sale!

Here’s what’s happening in 2010, in chronological order.
Continue reading “Christmas Parades of Eastern Ontario – the 2010 Edition!”

The Christmas Eve Photo Project

Inspired by Andrea, a photo-essay of hourly pictures of the most excitement-laden day of the year: Christmas Eve.

First stop, breakfast with cousin Noah at 8:30 am:

830 am

(Can you believe they were up at FOUR am? Yeesh!)

9:30 am: The gingerbread house is decorated, and accessorized with Belgian chocolate Santa, courtesy of my Loblaws advent calendar.

930am

10:30 am: Mother Nature provided a fresh dusting of snow overnight to help Santa’s sleigh land on the rooftop!

1030am

11:30 am: Santa’s cutest reindeer!

1130am

12:30 pm: a bit of last-minute wrapping to do.

1230 pm

1:30 pm: The big boys are at a movie with Beloved, and Lucas is sleeping. Time for a coffee break!

130 pm

2:30 pm: Back from the movie, and making Christmas ornaments for the family.

230 pm

3:30 pm: Wrapping up the last of the home-made peanut brittle and shortbread to give away tonight.

330 pm

4:30 pm: Just about a half an hour until the family arrives for dinner and presents. The calm before the chaos!

430 pm

5:30 pm: Granny and Lucas having a little moment just before the presents begin.

530 pm

6:30 pm: Santa Papa Lou.

630 pm

7:30 pm: Admiring the annual family calendar.

730 pm

8:30 pm: Lucas was so not interesting in sharing his new Sesame Street toddler-sized sleeper couch with his cousin Brooke. He was priceless in his annoyance, and she was persistent in her desire to share his space.

830 pm

That’s it — I can’t believe I made it through all 12 hours. And a Merry Christmas was had by all!