Some of This and Some of That

When my dad and I were driving to the restaurant for the annual Dad and Daughter Dinner Saturday, we noticed that at 6 p.m. it was not yet dark. In the mornings, light has broken the night by about 7:20.

So while today may be Blue Monday – the considered the most depressing day of the year – the fact that it is not dark all the time, makes me quite happy.

Helping pass the winter blahs is the fact our ice rink is everything we had hoped for.

While our guy still has no interest in using it with skates, he has discovered the joy of being pushed around on a chair.

You can get great speeds, particularly if Daddy is pushing while he is on skates.

We are trying to get out as often as possible. Last night we went for about a half a hour before my toes got cold and bed called my name.

I have decided the sound of blades on ice is one of the most wonderful sounds.

I am not much of a skater but I certainly have improved. I can now slow down and do little twirls without landing on my bum.

And I purposely slide my skate across the ice just so I can hear the sound of it.

During our bathroom break at the Real Canadian Superstore, I discovered cooking classes for children.

I am so excited. There are three I am considering signing our guy up for. I think he will love it.

We made Oscar the Grouch Garbage Pail cookies Friday night.

The recipe was found in a Cookie Monster cookie book we bought for our guy for Christmas.

Oh how times have changed.

According to Cookie Monster, cookies are a sometime snack and you should always eat your fruits and vegetables first.

It seems sad to mess with Cookie Monster’s diet of cookies, lots of them, all the time and eaten at an incredibly fast pace.

I Love This Mop

I hate house cleaning. I can list a dozen things I would rather be doing than spend time cleaning my house. But each Saturday morning, while my boys watch TV in the shed, I clean the bathroom and vacuum the floors.

Prior to Christmas, I saw an advertisement (where I am not sure as I don’t watch TV) for the Vileda ProMist mop. And I wanted it. I wanted it so much I put it on my Christmas list.

What I liked most about the mop was that I could fill the container with my own cleaning solution – vinegar and water. And it sprayed rather than requiring me to use a bucket.

I didn’t get the mop for Christmas but I found it on sale after and picked it up last week.

I LOVE THIS MOP.

Can you say that about a mop? Well, I did – often – as I cleaned all my floors.

In addition to loving that I can use my own cleaning solution, the microfibre clothes (which I also love) are attached with Velcro so they do not pull off in mid-clean. The head swivels so I can get into corners and the spray is oh so fun.

The only thing that didn’t occur to me is you do need to buy the microfiber cloth refills. But the mop does come with one cloth that can be washed 100 times and a second cloth, which the company says is for messy cleanups, three times.

It’s floor-washing time.

My Heart Swells With Pride

Last night my son wore skates on the ice for the first time in his life.

At 6 p.m., I put him in the arms of one of his skating instructors. He was pushed to a spot in the middle with other children who obviously had more experience on the ice than he did.

While the other kids were getting up and falling down (ouch), our guy stayed close to the instructor - on his bum.

For the rest of the class he stayed close to one instructor who held him and skated with him around the ice.

Eventually, she started teaching and he started learning.

She let go. Our guy stayed standing. I am not sure he even realized he was doing it.

He fell down. She showed him how to get up. She pushed him around the ice with her arms around his middle and he was using his feet. He stood with his arms straight out.

And then, he was skating.

She let him go and he would take several steps on his own before losing his balance and falling into the instructor’s arm.

Then it happened. He skated several steps into her outstretched arms and he arrived there without falling.

In the course of a half hour lesson, my guy was skating – and having fun.

You Can Do It, Sam

Santa brought my son a bunch of new books including You Can Do It, Sam by Amy Hest.

It was a hit the moment we first cracked it open, reading if about five times that day – and three times in a row.

You Can Do It, Sam is about a little bear and his mom, who makes cakes for their neighbours on Plum Street.

On Saturday after the nap that didn’t happen, my son and I baked chocolate cupcakes.

And just like Sam, my guy waited impatiently for the chocolate goodness to bake, then waited until they cooled so we could ice them and decorate them with the dinosaur sprinkles we got from my aunt.

We then placed them on plates, put on name tags and, like Sam, delivered cupcakes to our friends on our street.

If You’re Happy and You Know Shout Hooray

I am also stamping my feet and clapping my hands that it is the weekend.

My son, for the first time, is also excited about Friday. I think it has been a long, short week for all of us.

We were off for more than a week for the Christmas holiday so it was hard getting back at it.

This weekend there will likely be some baking. My son requested to make both cupcakes and cookies and wants to use the new dinosaur sprinkles my aunt gave us.

I hope it also involves some backyard skating, some outside walking and some indoor playing.

Happy Weekend.

And We Have Ice

It wasn’t frozen by Christmas but two days later we were skating on our ice rink.

At least Jamie and I were skating.

Our guy gets as far as attempting to put his helmet on, then deciding skating isn’t fun and asking to go inside for hot chocolate.

That attitude is a little concerning considering he is signed up for skating lessons beginning Wednesday.

What our guy thinks is really fun, however, is sitting on his new sled from Nana and Poppa and having Daddy send him flying around the ice.

I must say it does look like he is having fun with a grin that reaches from one side of his face to another.

Welcome to a winter of fun.

A Tradition – Evolved

That's what the nieces and nephews called it - a tradition evolved.

My grandmother died in October. As Christmas approached, my sister-in-law and I chatted about a New Year's tradition that has been taking place since before I was born – New Year's oliebollens.

Oliebollen are Dutch deep-fried doughnuts that we dip in icing sugar.

As a child, every New Year's Eve, we would go to my grandparents' house and bring in the new year by eating oliebollen, skating on the pond and hanging out with my aunts, uncles and cousins.

When my grandfather died more than 10 years ago, the tradition changed and we celebrated New Year's day at my grandmother's house, eating oliebollen and clementines and chatting with my aunts, uncles and cousins.

Yesterday, the tradition changed again.

The nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews hosted a New Year's Day celebration at my brother and sister-in-law's house with oliebollen, clementines, munchies and soup.

There was sledding, snowball fights and snowman making in the rain.

There was talk about – mainly by me - how my grandmother should be have inducted into some sort of hall of fame because another tradition evolved this week. The tradition of making oliebollen on New Year's Eve day.

That fell to me and, while delicious, oliebollen is a lot of work and takes a lot of time.

But I can see why Grandma continued doing it after her children grew up. It's one Dutch tradition we actually do and I am happy we are continuing the tradition – evolved.