The Most Wonderful Time of Year

Yesterday marked the first day of December, the most wonderful time of year (other than the end of June, of course ;). Christmas is always a special season.  Here are a few ways we want to make the most of it...

• Decorate the tree
• Build a gingerbread train
• Write a letter to Santa (try to get the kids to visit him, too)
• Attend the school Christmas concert
• Read Christmas stories
• Drink egg nog, tea and other spiced drinks
• Have many gatherings with friends and family
• Watch our favourite Christmas movies
• Volunteer for Christmas Cheer
• Go out and see the Christmas lights around town
• Enjoy displays in local shops
• Craft ornaments with Ari
• Enjoy two weeks holidays at home with the family
• Celebrate the reason for the season; Jesus' birth!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Image 1 / Image 2

Summer Bucket List

It's here....SUMMER!  I am so excited for this summer.  Last year I kind of missed out on a lot of it because Maris was newborn.  This year she's ONE (!) and it's also my last couple of months before I go back to work full-time.  We plan to make the most of it!  Here are some things we want to do...

• Go for bike rides
• Play at the park
• Eat enormous amounts of ice cream
• Tend the garden
• Go to the Winnipeg Folk Festival for one day
• Search for rainbows after storms
• Have a first birthday party for Maris
• Go to a cabin at Clear Lake for a week
• Swim at the pool and/or beach
• Have bonfires and s'mores in the backyard
• Ari wants to have a tent campout with his dad
• Go to the zoo
• Relax!

Happy summer everyone!

Things to do this Spring

It's April!  Time to embrace spring and all of its glory.  Here's a little bucket list of things to do...
(Inspired partly from this)

• Go for a hike once the trails are dry
• Play at the park and take a picnic along
• Plant the garden (and, clean up after winter)
• Knit this tunic for Maris
• Make a bird feeder and/or house
• Go for bike rides
• Make a designated digging spot in the backyard for Ari
• Return to Vancouver with Maris in May
• Finish my decluttering challenge and have my first ever garage sale!
• Enjoy the sunshine

All photos taken Spring 2016...before Maris came along.  This year there are two garden helpers!

Christmas Bucket List

Today, November 22, we finally received our first taste of winter.  The bare tree branches, dripping in ice, and foggy weather have me finally feeling in a wintery, thus Christmasy, spirit.  Today I bought my son his first pair of ice skates and I have begun to bring out some holiday decorations.  Here is a bit of a bucket list of things to enjoy this holiday season:

• Teach Ari how to skate 
• Decorate the Christmas tree
• Do some baking (I already made these - they turned out amazing!)
• Build and decorate a gingerbread train with Ari
• Watch some favourite Christmas movies, and, the new season of Gilmore Girls
• Enjoy time with family and church during Advent season
• Take some classes - I have started a Mommy & Me fitness class and have registered for World Cooking classes to begin next week (first stop Turkey/Russia)!
• Transform the fairy garden into a Christmas wonderland
• Drink eggnog lattes
• Listen to Christmas music in the car (the only place I get to choose the tunes these days)
• Celebrate my husband's 40th birthday next week!

Photo one //  two

Fall Bucket List

So we are already a few solid weeks into fall, but I wanted to put together a seasonal bucket list anyway.  A few of these things I/we have already done this season...it's been an excellent start!  After missing out on much of the summer (ahem, newborn baby), I feel that with Maris being three months old we can really get out and back into real life.  Here are my favourite things to do this fall:

• Take the kids out for walks on warm days so we can all feel the warm sunshine on our faces and walk through the crisp leaves on the ground.  Also...the smell of fall.
• Drink many hot, spiced teas and coffees.
• Craft sale season!
• Cheer my husband on in the MB Cyclocross races
• Hike + drive with the family to take in the pretty fall colours
• Decorate with pumpkins and carve one for Halloween
• Buy more Halloween treats, because, let's face it...I ate the first box.
• Socks and sweaters again!
• Cozy up in bed early with a good book
• Go to Vancouver with Maris to visit my sister and her family
• Get the hot tub ready to go and USE IT!  (not pregnant this fall/winter, yay!)
• Oh, and, clean up the yard to make it ready for winter
• Most importantly, be THANKFUL for every bit of love and kindness we've received this year

Image 1  //  Image 2