Month: November 2007

Christmas in the Capital

Edited to add: Click this link for the 2017 Santa Claus and holiday parade info!

I love Christmas. I love parades. I *really* love pink-cheeked children wrapped in snowsuits lining the streets for the Santa Claus parade. I look forward to it every year, and am just happy now that at least I have a good excuse to go every year… maybe to more than one!

Just as I did at this time last year, I’ve compiled a list of local Santa Claus parades. If I’ve missed one in the greater Ottawa neighbourhood, drop me a note and let me know!

38th Annual Ottawa Help Santa Toy Parade
Saturday November 17, 2007, starting at 11 am. The parade will start at Elgin and Laurier, City Hall. (Edited to add: note the revised parade route! Parade will now travel from Elgin Street down Laurier Ave to O’Connor, and follow O’Connor – instead of Bank Street – as far as Gladstone. The route will then follow Gladstone to Bank, and follow Bank Street to Landsdowne Park.) Bring toys for collection and distribution to Ottawa’s less fortunate families.

Barrhaven Lions 11th Annual Santa Parade
Saturday November 17, 2007, starting at 6 pm. Follows Strandherd Drive from Beatrice to Greenbank.

Kanata Santa Claus Parade
Saturday November 17, 2007, starting at 10 am. Parade runs from Castlefrank to Abbeyhill Drive to Hazeldean Mall.

Gananoque Santa Claus Parade
Sunday November 18, 2007, starting at 1 pm. Come and visit Santa and all his reindeer at the annual Santa Clause Parade down King Street.

Gatineau Santa Claus Parade
Friday November 23, 2007, starting at 7 pm. A tradition that goes back several years, this light-filled parade in the Aylmer Sector attracts crowds from the entire region. Departure from the marina at 7pm.

Santa’s Parade of Lights, Orleans
Saturday November 24, 2007, starting at 6 pm. Once again the Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association will be hosting Santa’s Parade of Lights on St-Joseph Blvd. in Orleans.

Carleton Place Santa Claus Parade
Saturday November 24, 2007, starting at 5 pm. Sponsored by the Carleton Place BIA, departing from the Carambeck School/Pool location.

Stittsville Parade of Lights
Saturday November 24, 2007, starting at 7:30 pm. The floats will line-up at the Ottawa School Board parking lot across from Brown’s Independent Grocers, beginning at 6:00 pm. The parade is set to begin at 7:30 pm. and will travel along Stittsville Main St. to Carleton Cathcart St.

Smiths Falls Rideau 175 Santa Clause Parade
Sunday November 25, 2007, starting at 1:30 pm. Annual parade featuring marching bands and floats celebrating the Rideau 175 theme as well as the local arrival of “Jolly Old St. Nick.” Location: Community Centre.

Rockland Parade of Lights
Sunday November 25, 2007, starting at 4:00 pm. The Clarence-Rockland Chamber of Commerce is proud to invite businesses and community groups of the City of Clarence-Rockland to participate in the 2007 edition of the Parade of lights, departing from Héritage Avenue. Children are invited to the Knights of Colombus Hall after the Parade to meet and take pictures with Santa Claus.

Pakenham Santa Claus Parade
Saturday, December 8, 2007 starting at 2 pm. Join Santa and the Pakenham community for the annual parade followed by free hot dogs, hot chocolate, free skating and a visit with Santa.

Perth Santa Claus Parade
Saturday December 1, 2007, starting at 5 pm. (Sorry, no location details on this one, but I’m assuming if you know Perth, you know where to go!) (Edited to add: thanks to Hugh Chatfield, who provided a wealth of information about the parade and other events in Perth, including a Facebook site and a Flickr Photo stream. Detail from the Facebook site: “The Perth & District Children’s Santa Claus Parade will wind its way through the streets of Perth on Saturday, December 1, leaving Sunset Blvd. at 5pm. The theme this year is “A Nursery Rhyme Christmas.” Join the hundreds of people on Foster and Gore streets watching this classic parade.”)

Almonte Santa Claus Parade
Sunday, December 09, 2007, starting at 2:00 pm. Join everyone on Bridge/Martin/Ottawa Streets in Almonte for an afternoon of Christmas excitement as Santa Claus pays a visit.

In addition to the parades, here are some other ideas for Christmas fun in the national capital region:

Upper Canada Village – Alight at Night
November 29, 2007 to January 5, 2008
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)
Bundle up for an evening stroll around the this gorgeous 1860s-era village, and see heritage buildings all magically lit, with over 200,000 lights – a true winter wonderland! For an additional fee, take a horse-drawn carriage ride, skate outdoors under the stars or ride on an illuminated toy train!

Christmas Lights Across Canada
December 6, 2007 to January 6, 2008
Launched in 1985 by the National Capital Commission (NCC), Christmas Lights Across Canada is one of a host of unique programs which was created to liven up the winter months. Originally only Parliament Hill was illuminated, but the program has grown to include 16 NCC sites and over 51 other sites along Confederation Boulevard.

Canadian Pacific Rail Holiday Train
See the Holiday Train as it stops in Smiths Falls and Perth, Sunday December 2, 2007.

Got any other tips or ideas to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me at danicanada (at) gmail (dot) com and I’d be happy to add them to this post.

All about Beloved

This went ’round the blogosphere about a month ago and I filed it away for just such a brainless Friday during NaBloPoMo as this, but I first saw it at Slouching Mom’s place so she gets the linky love.

1. Who is your man?

Beloved. (When I started blogging, everyone had a pseudonym. Tristan’s middle name is Louis, so he was Luigi, and Simon’s middle name is Francis, so he was Frankie. It took me about two weeks to realize I couldn’t blog about them without using their real names – it was too awkward and fake, and we don’t have a drop of Italian blood in our combined family lines – but I kept Beloved first for an affectation, and now purely with affection.)

2. How long have you been together?

Twelve and a half years, since March of 1995. Married since July of 1999.

3. How long did you date?

We didn’t exactly date. We lived in separate cities (me in Ottawa, him in London) for eight months but were exclusive from the day we met. For most of that year, I’d drive to London every second weekend. He moved to Ottawa and into my apartment on New Years Eve, 1995.

4. How old is your man?

Two years younger than me. He’ll be 36 at the beginning of December. (Family trivia: with the exception of my mom and dad, in every couple in my extended family – both sets of grandparents, my brother, my cousin, my aunt – the woman is older than the man.)

A kid on Christmas morning


5. Who eats more?

He does. His favourite snack, as a ‘starving’ student back in the days when we first met, was an entire chocolate freezer cake or a dozen doughnuts washed down with a litre of milk.

6. Who said “I love you” first?

Um, can you believe I don’t remember? I *think* it was him.

7. Who is taller?

He is, just barely. He’s got about two inches on me. I love how we fit together.

8. Who sings better?

Him, no contest. He has a lovely, resonant singing voice that comes from deep in his chest. I couldn’t carry a tune with a wheelbarrow to put it in. Although I do have a better memory for lyrics, which seems patently unfair.

9. Who is smarter?

A couple of years ago, I might have said I am. Now, I’m not so sure. He has more edumacation than me (a university degree in fine arts, a college diploma in animation, and a couple of semesters in a prestigious illustration program) and a much better memory, but I think I’m a little bit quicker of wit — but just barely.

10. Whose temper is worse?

Oh, dangerous question. We both have temper issues. Mine is quicker to flare and blaze out, his is more dramatic when escalated. We are constantly working on this.

11. Who does the laundry?

I’d say it’s a 75/25 split, with him on the 75 side.

12. Who takes out the garbage?

He does. That job is attached to the cat litter in our house, which is all his. One of the niceties of being regularly pregnant!

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

Um, we both do. On the right side of our own beds, that is. He snores and twitches, and I’m a light sleeper, so for now he sleeps in the guest room. I think we’re headed for twin beds once the Player to be Named Later claims a room of his own.

Daddy and his mini-me, 2002

14. Who pays the bills?

I do, which suits both of us. I have obsessive control issues over this one, thanks to my practice marriage.

15. Who is better with the computer?

He is, by far. He even teaches programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. When we first moved in together in 1995, I had a little 486 with Windows 3.0 and knew way more about computers than him. It took less than a year for him to be more facile with computers than me, and he’s since left me in the dirt. I’m good with social media but a Luddite with everything else. Thank goodness for live-in tech support that works for dirty favours!

16. Who mows the lawn?

Mostly I do, because I like to. Same with shovelling the driveway. He does it maybe one time in five.

17. Who cooks dinner?

I cook, he cleans up afterward.

18. Who drives when you are together?

Early in our relationship, I drove the majority of the time. Since the boys were born, I’ve relinquished my hold on the steering wheel – with the exception of road trips, and especially through Toronto. See temper question above!

19. Who pays when you go out?

I think he does most of the time, but I’ve never really noticed.

20. Who is most stubborn?

Me. I’m also more opinionated. And who is most easy-going? That would be Beloved, thank goodness.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?

Probably me. I like closure and official endings to disagreements, whereas Beloved likes to just pretend nothing happened. Unfortunately, this prolongs and even escalates a lot of disagreements into full blown arguments.

22. Whose parents do you see the most?

Mine, by far. My folks live around the corner and we have dinner together at least once a week. His dad and stepmom visit us, or we visit them, a couple of times a year, but we haven’t visited his mom in a couple of years.

A new daddy

23. Who kissed who first?

Aren’t these things usually mutual? Neither one of us could resist the magnetic attraction, but I guess he was the more forward of the two of us.

24. Who asked who out?

There was no ‘asking out.’ We met in a bar, and he (no joke) invited me back to his apartment to see his sketches. We were a couple from that first night.

25. Who proposed?

The more of these questions I answer, the more I realize how non-traditional our relationship is. There was never a proposal, from what I can remember. Marriage was always on the table, it was just a matter of when. When we finally went out and bought an engagement ring together, he carried it around the mall and dangled it in front of my nose like a carrot as he went into all his favourite (electronics) stores, knowing for once I was at his mercy. He finally slipped the ring on my finger in the parking lot of our favourite restaurant just before dinner.

26. Who is more sensitive?

Too close to call. We’re both soppy romantics, but I think I’m a little tougher in some respects.

27. Who has more friends?

Me. I’m a social creature, and he maintains that he hates people.

28. Who has more siblings?

We each have one – he has a sister and I have a brother. Having a three-child family is unprecedented in our immediate families.

29. Who wears the pants in the family?

Ha! I’m not answering this question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

Daddy's crazy!
One of my all-time favourite pictures.

My rebellious streak

I am, for the most part, a law-abiding citizen. I don’t knock over liquor stores, don’t carry concealed weapons, and rarely roll my stops – even when making a right-hand turn. I’ve never been pulled over for speeding. The only time I was ever actually inside a police car was when a very nice officer escorted Beloved and I home from the site of an accident Beloved had making an ill-advised turn into oncoming traffic. I am, in short, a good girl.

There is, however, one set of laws I will flagrantly flout. Not only will I break them from necessity, but I will break them for the sheer thrill of it. I am incorrigible.

My name is DaniGirl, and I am an inveterate jaywalker.

Even though the nearest intersection may be mere metres away, I will cross the street in the middle of the block. I will cross against the light. I will dodge moving vehicles, standing on the yellow line in the middle of the road, waiting for a break in traffic. I’m sure that I commit some sort of jaywalking offense at least a dozen times in the course of an average day. One very, very stupid day back in my ill-informed youth, I crossed (Mom, look away please) twelve lanes of highway 401 through Toronto.

I find it somewhere between quaint and annoying that people actually stop when the little white walking dude disappears and the red hand starts to flash. Even when no cars are coming! It never fails to perplex me, and more than once I have nearly crashed full speed into the back of someone who stops at the curb, so intent am I on crossing at my own leisure.

Jaywalking as a habit is so deeply ingrained into my psyche, I have to remind myself to obey the rules of the road when the boys are with me. Oh, the agony of walking aaaallllll the way down to the corner to cross the street on the way to the park, when we could just nip straight across from the end of the driveway. It’s excruciating.

What a rebel I am, eh? Life on the edge, I tell ya! So, what about you? What laws do you see as “optional”?

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Today is (thank goodness!) the last day to vote on the Weblog Awards. You can click through to vote (hint, hint) or if you’re on the main page, scroll down to the poll embedded in yesterday’s post. Polls close at 5 pm EST.

The one with the hallucinogenic toys

On the first day of voting for the Weblog Awards, for a glorious (if delusional) hour or two, I was in first (!) place. Now that it’s the penultimate day for voting, I’m in penultimate place. Sigh. Vote today to make sure this insidious trend doesn’t leave me in last place tomorrow, okay?

Visiting for the first time? Welcome! Here are a few of my favourite posts, randomly selected for your bloggy pleasure:

***

Yesterday, we talked about the Canadian Toy Testing Council’s best toys for 2008. I had also bookmarked another “Best Toys of 2007” link a while ago, and was thinking about writing about it, but quite frankly, I didn’t find any of the toys on that list too appealing. (I have a hard time sanctioning a list that would approve the Fisher Price Smart Cycle. My 3 to 6 year olds do NOT need a stationary bike hooked up to the TV, of that I am quite sure.)

The one toy from this particular list that I had been contemplating for the boys is one of those new Aquadots sets. I’d never seen them before, but recently they’ve been everywhere and on several favourite toy lists. Now I know why. Apparently, they’re under massive recall, not because they’re a choking hazzard – which is what gave me pause – but because the little beads release a hallucinogenic drug when swallowed! No wonder it was every kids’ favourite toy last year!

***

Did I mention the voting thing?

Best bet toys for 2008

(Edited to add: looking for the 2009 report? I’ve got a post about it here!)

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Every year, the Canadian Toy Testing Council releases its picks for the best toys of the year, as selected by the more than 1000 families that are part of the toy testing network. The CTTC provides a full report on all the toys they test (sorted alphabetically or by age), and also provides a list of award-winners in categories like Best Bets, Children’s Choice and Great Books. They base their rankings on design, safety, battery consumption, durability, ease of assembly and “play value,” meaning whether young testers remain interested in the toy after weeks of play. I love these lists and get great ideas from them every year.

This year, “Best Bet” toys include Diego’s Animal Rescue Centre for ages 3 – 5 years, My Real Digital Camera by Little Tykes for ages 3 and up, a Thomas Making Tracks Board Game for ages 4 and up and the Big League Hockey Manager game for ages 10 and up, to name just a few. (For the full list, check out the CTTC website.)

They also give the nod to my very favourite gift for any child age 6 months to 2 years, the Playskool Busy Ball Popper. We got one of these for Simon two years ago, and both boys still love to play with it. I’ve since given at least three of them as gifts, and have at least one recipient in mind this year.

Some of the other great toys we’ve loved in the last year or so include Cranium’s Superfort , Hullaballoo and Cariboo (I totally love Cranium and am looking forward to giving the boys more Cranium stuff this year), just about anything Lego, this “fun in a drum” percussion kit, card ganes like Uno and those concentration-type matching games (we’ve cornered the market with Wiggles, Toy Story and Bob the Builder versions) and all things Star Wars.

On the other hand, we’ve been rather disappointed by a lot of our Leap Frog toys (I really wanted to like this company) including the Leap Pad and My First Leap Pad – but ours keep malfunctioning and though the boys want to play with them, the darn things work less than half the time. We thought getting the boys a DVD player-based game would be a good idea last year, but we’ve been disappointed by Zoooos. It’s simple enough to use, but maybe a little too simple – both boys were bored with it, despite the Bob the Builder and Thomas themed games. Also a bit of a disappointment was Mr Bucket, which Simon pined for between Christmas and his birthday last year, and then when we got it, it was so noisy that he was afraid to play with it.

Hmmm, favourite toys have no batteries in them and disappointing toys are all electronic. Coincidence? Maybe not!

So, bloggy peeps, the holiday buying frenzy season is upon us. I plan a few more posts on best gifts and other holiday-buying thoughts, but what have been some of the best and worst toys you’ve seen recently?

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And if you’re so inclined, you still have a few days to vote!

I’m a big girl now

I’m getting a little worried. I’m only six months (technically, 27 and a half weeks) pregnant, and by all accounts, I’m friggin’ huge. No, really? Huge. Huge, like people ask me when I’m due and when I say “February” they go through this disbelief-shock-pity series of expressions and ask me if I’m sure there’s only one in there. Like, my own postal code huge. Like, I’ll soon have a gravitational pull equivalent to Pluto huge.

No doubt, my inherent lack of willpower has been a contributing factor, as has been my willingness to play fast and loose with the definition of “good nutrition.” And the fact that while I didn’t suffer overt morning sickness, I did feel like crap on toast for the first four months of this pregnancy, during which time I heavily self-medicated with my twin addictions to Coke Classic and potato chips. On the good side, I’ve compensated by continuing my weekly visits to the gym; on the bad side, a rather painful recurrence of my latent patello-femoral syndrome (translation: ouchy knee) has made me more sedentary than I would otherwise been.

All that to say, I’m huge. Don’t believe me? Ask my regular evening commute bus driver. I really quite like him and the personable way he greets every passenger with a smile. Last week, he used that “lower the bus” thingee for what I thought was a person getting on behind me. The next day, when I was the only person at the stop, I realized he was lowering the bus FOR ME. Either he thought I was too big to haul my ass up the step, or he feared my extra weight might blow the tires if he didn’t release some pneumatic pressure to account for my extra bulk coming on board. No joke. Huge.

This morning, as you read this, I’ll be going for my gestational diabetes glucose test. No one-hour screening test for me, though. Due to two overt “risk factors” (the fact that I am prone to large babies in the first place, and our old friend “advanced maternal age”) I get to skip the screening test and go straight to the no-messing-around test. First I have to fast for eight hours – and right now you should be snickering, because the only thing more cranky than a pregnant woman is a pregnant woman on a fast, especially if that pregnant woman on a fast is ME – and then I have to go in for a blood draw, drink some sugary concoction with a strong resemblance to orange pop, and then hang around for two hours metabolizing it before they can take another blood sample. Fun times!!

So it will be well after 10 am before I can have any food – or, gasp! coffee – after having fasted since bedtime the night before. And what do you want to bet the boys will continue to not adapt to the lack of daylight savings, leaving me awake and with neither food nor caffeine in my system for up to five hours or more? Oh, the myriad joys of pregnancy. (And you know I wouldn’t trade it for the world!)

***

Ahem. Only three days left to vote – hint, hint.

Time changes suck

All the reminders about the time change this weekend have been accompanied by some reference to an extra hour of sleep. Bah! Sleeping in. If you don’t have kids, maybe. It’s just before nine o’clock on a Sunday morning, and we’ve already been up for more than four hours. We’ve watched a video, played a rousing round of Candyland, had breakfast and a snack. I’ve read the entire Sunday paper while the kids played video games, and had two cups of coffee. Four hours later, and I’m still bitter about dragging myself resentfully from my warm and cozy flannel sheets at 4:43 this morning. The day stretches out like an endless desert horizon before us with no relief in sight; it’s not even 9 am and we’re already bored and sick of each other and climbing the walls.

Time changes? Suck.

It’s my fault that they’re early risers, I know. I get up for work every day just before 6 am, and I’m hardwired for early mornings now. (I’ve said, only half-joking, that my brain power and energy levels peak sometime around 10:30 in the morning, and it’s just a long, slow slide to bedtime from there.) It’s been years since I’ve slept as late as 8 am, and even if I did, I’d feel like I’d wasted half the day. But even for an inveterate morning person like me, wake-up times that start with a four are inhumane.

I know, I know, someday they’ll be teenagers and will sleep through the morning straight on into afternoon and I’ll be complaining because I can’t get them out of bed. And nobody has ever actually expired from sleep deprivation, right? Right?

***

Save me from last place! Have you voted today?

Humble pie

I should have taken a screen print of those few shining hours yesterday morning, before all the other nominees noticed that they were nominated for the Best Parenting Blog thing, and me and my early-rising bloggy peeps were running the voting show. Ah well, at least a few of you immortalized the glory days hours in the comments.

Since after a day and a half of voting, I have less than 10% of the votes of the leading contender and teetering on the edge of dead last, I think I safely call this race as run. If I thought it would help, I’d tell you to vote for my dear friend and bloggy sister, Bub and Pie, but even if we pool our votes I’m not sure we could clamber out of last place.

Heck, they don’t even have the blog name right in the link list under the poll. They’ve got me down as Dani Girl instead of Postcards from the Mothership. Oh, that must be the problem. I’m suffering from brand confusion. Yeah, that’s it, that explains everything!

(Vote for me, or vote for Bub and Pie, but just vote – help us keep the Canadian contingent out of last place!!)

Congratulations and good luck to all the Best Parenting Blog nominees:

Antique Mommy (Another great blog!)
Notes from the Trenches
Amalah
LookyDaddy
Finslippy
Hollywood Flakes
Dad Gone Mad
I Think This World Is Perfect

Heck, it’s still pretty impressive to be considered alongside the likes of blogs like these, isn’t it?

Rampant with whining

Yeah, this is more like the November I’ve come to know and dread. Apologies to those of you with November birthdays, who bring a tiny bit of sunshine to this otherwise hellacious month, but I really do hate November.

The nanny called me at work yesterday sometime before 10:00 saying she was very sick and could I please come home, so I did. Takes just over an hour to get home on the bus at midday, damn suburbs.

The day passed reasonably uneventfully until 5 pm, when child number one barfed. He barfed again, this time accompanied by the runs, just before 7 pm. Child number two barfed at 8 pm. Child number one woke up crying with the runs and dry heaves (there is nothing more pathetic than a three-year-old with dry heaves) at 10:30. Child number two woke up and barfed sometime around 2:30 this morning. The nanny called in sick around 7:30 this morning.

What do you want to bet is on my agenda for this weekend? And really? I hate barfy viruses. Give me a good old fashioned chest cold any day. Sigh.

The good news is, at least Beloved can stay home with the boys today, because I’ve already missed the better part of two days this week. The sucky news is that I’m cranky and tired from not sleeping while I listened for barfing boys all night. The best news is that, for the most part, nobody barfed in their bed or on the carpet.

So I figured I could at least parlay all this pathetic-ness into a plea for your votes on the Weblog Awards this morning, but the Best Parenting Blog poll is messed up. Two of the 10 finalists are listed as “undefined” or something like that, including my blog. Sigh.

November sucks.

Edited to add: polls are fixed, and my kids have been barf-free since they got up. The day still holds some promise after all. So go ahead and VOTE already!

A great start to NaBloPoMo!

Yay, it’s November!

Never thought I’d say those words. Truly, I hate November. Of all the months, November continues to be the suckiest. Bad things happen in November.

But November means that the arrival of the Player to be Named Later is just three months away. Yay! And November means Halloween is done, so we can talk about getting ready for Christmas. Yay! And November means it’s National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo, where I get to scintillate and entertain you EVERY SINGLE DAY of the month! (I’ll leave it up to you whether that’s a yay or not.)

But yayest of all is this: Postcards from the Mothership has made the cut as a Best Parenting Blog finalist on this year’s Weblog Awards!! YAY!!

The 2007 Weblog Awards

Thank you SO much for the nomination, I’m truly honoured. And not only did Maggie nominate me, but the judges picked me – well, picked blog – out of a field of more than 45 nominees, to be one of the 10 finalists!

*pauses to beam proudly*

You know what this means, don’t you? The polls open later tonight, and you will be pestered incessantly politely asked to vote each day this week. I’m absolutely thrilled to see that one of my favourite bloggers, Bub and Pie, has also made the list of finalists. Another yay!

Winners will be announced November 8, although I suffer no delusions that I’ll be among the top three five finalists — oh hell, I’m just happy to have made the cut. I mean seriously – Amalah and Finslippy? Yeah, like I can compete with that. Really, I just want you to vote for me so I don’t come in last, okay?

And now, I will shamelessly ply you with photos of my adorably Halloweened children to make you more amenable to voting for me. Simon was a fuzzy caterpillar, and Tristan created his own costume of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (from Fantasia). Beloved had the peaked hat as a souvenir from a trip to Disney World many moons ago, and I invested a stellar 66 cents on a pair of white gloves for him. Tristan put the rest together himself. (The little monkey in the bottom left picture is Jordan, our nanny’s son.)

Halloween 2007

So you can see I have plenty to be happy about early on a November morning. What about you? What’s worthy of saying Yay in your life today?