New Year 2009

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope 2009 is filled with love and happiness for you all. 

We had a very quiet New Year. Will and I and the girls stayed up playing the Wii until midnight. My arm still hasn't recovered. A few people in our neighbourhood set off some firecrackers, but by 12:15 all was quiet and we were in bed. I keep expecting midnight to bring enlightenment and big displays of fireworks. But instead, it's very anticlimactic and I go to bed thinking, "I stayed up for that?" This year was more fun, because the girls were up and Moira was so thrilled to still be up when the new year started. 

A new year always brings a sense of having a clean slate, to fix the things that need to be fixed, of making a fresh start. It's a time for wanting to make improvements and, boy, do I want to make a lot of those. This year I made myself a little book and wrote down all the things that I want to do this year. I left myself plenty of room to add things as they come up and as I get things crossed off. Here are just a few of the things that I want to accomplish this year:

• Need I say more? I was hoping that, by posting these pics, I would embarrass myself enough to make a real effort into getting these two areas cleaned up. I wish I could say that I had been sick lately or that the kids did it, but the truth is, I have no one to blame but myself. I'm an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of gal, so when things are neatly put away in drawers and cupboards, I tend to forget that they are there. Hence the piles. Plus, I admit, I just have way too much stuff. The first picture shows my work area downstairs. Will went to a lot of trouble putting those shelves up for me so I could see what I have and I still have stuff everywhere. It's awful. So, my goal for the year is to get these two spots cleaned up and keep it that way. 
  

• I also want to put more effort into my Etsy site and now my Polka Dot Dreams site on my cousin's MoodsXpress site (which goes live today).

• I have two quilting projects that I've started and really want to get finished. 
  

• I want to apply to the Library and Information Technology programme at the University of the Fraser Valley. They now have this programme on line and I can complete the whole thing from home. 
  

• I want to keep in touch with my friends and family better than I have been.
  

• I want to donate to Kiva. 
  

Those are just a sample of the things that I want to accomplish this year. I have many more things listed in my book. It's going to be a busy year!

Poll Results

Here are the poll results for what is your favourite snow day activity.

     1 vote building snowmen

     2 votes sledding

     4 votes staying indoors

I selected two choices for this one. I really like to go sledding with the kids, but I also love to stay indoors and watch the snow falling. Here are some views from our big family room windows.

Check out my new poll.

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We opened up our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve after dinner. 

Liam with his new dump truck.

The girls opening up their new Wii.

Feather boa from Liam. 

Some more Littlest Pet Shop for her collection.

A new book from Moira.

A gun for the Wii. Will bought this for himself, but did a good job of acting surprised when he unwrapped it.

Before bed, the kids hung up their stockings on the Christmas tree...

and we set out a little treat for Santa and his reindeer, including a bottle of Fat Tire. 

Santa must have enjoyed his snack because everything was gone, including the bottle of beer. 

On Christmas morning we opened up our stockings. 

Kyla got Dora, Boots and Swiper characters that fit perfectly into her dress pockets.

Later in the afternoon we went over to Will's parents' house to open more presents. 

Kyla got a new Fisher Price Little People castle from Grandma and Grandpa.

Moira gathered up all of her presents into one pile before she started opening them. 

Kyla got some new lip balm. She really likes it!

An Outdoor Adventure game for the Wii.

Chillin' out in her new jammies after a long day of opening presents. 

On Boxing Day I had everyone decide what their favourite gift was. Moira chose the Littlest Pet Shop virtual pet game, Will chose his new music stand (from me), Liam is with his new dump truck, and Kyla's favourite gift was a new Hello Kitty wallet. 

As for me, I'm having a hard time deciding what my favourite gift was. I don't know if it's the new calligraphy pen that came with six different tips (that I really wanted but never mentioned) or the new glass kitchen storage containers that I've been wanting for years but only casually mentioned once, or the stationary set that was handmade for me. Everything had such wonderful meanings for me. Or maybe it was the big box of boozy chocolates that I got... 

Santa Around the World

Father Frost and Snow Maiden from Russia.

Sinterklaas from The Netherlands

Father Christmas riding a goat.

When I was young, every year at Christmas time my sister and I would spend the weekend with Nana and Papa. We would go to downtown Vancouver to the Hudson's Bay Company to go shopping. After we were done and had lunch (and tried out the adjustable beds), Papa would drive us to Woodward's and we would walk around the building looking at the fancy displays in the windows. They were all scenes of winter and Christmas with automated people and animals. One display in particular always fascinated me - it was the different Santas from around the world. I thought that it was interesting that other children had different versions of a gift-giving visitor. 

In North America, we have Santa Claus, who lives with his wife and toy making elves at the North Pole. He delivers gifts to good boys and girls on Christmas Eve, flying through the air on a sleigh pulled by eight (nine if you include Rudolph) magical reindeer. 

 In Italy, La Befana flies through the air on her broomstick, entering homes through the chimney and delivering gifts and candy on the eve of January 6th. 

In Russia, the kids are visited by Father Frost and his granddaughter, Snow Maiden. He leaves gifts under the New Year Tree on New Year's Day and travels on a sled pulled by three horses. He also carries a long magical staff with him.

In France, children leave their shoes by the fire, filled with treats for Pere Noel's donkey, Gui (French for Mistletoe). Pere Noel will leave gifts in their place if the children have been good. 

In some parts of Europe and South America, Christkind, a sprite-like child with blonde hair and wings, is the gift bringer to children. 

I asked my friend Terhi to tell me about her experience as a child in Finland. This is what she wrote to me:

To tell you about my own experience with Santa Claus… Finnish Santa Claus is called “joulupukki”. Direct translation would be “Christmas goat”. In Finland Santa knocks on the door on Christmas Eve.  The younger the kids the earlier Santa comes. A good Santa stays for a while, asks the kids to sing to him, and then delivers presents before leaving. The way you get Santa to actually come to your house is to ask a relative or a friend to act as Santa. Usually parents leave a sack of presents outside the door and Santa grabs it before coming in.

Many times the father goes out to look for Santa and miraculously, while he’s gone, Santa shows up! That’s what happened to us when I was four or five. We got tired to waiting for Santa and so my dad went out to look for him. And pretty soon Santa was knocking at our door. He brought me the coolest sled! We didn’t have time to open all the presents while he was there, as he absolutely had to go and visit some other good kids. Pretty soon after he left dad came back. Imagine that!

We saw Santa coming to our house only that one time. He always came when we were gone to the cemetery on Christmas Eve afternoon and left a bag of presents next to the tree. Many people visit graves on Christmas Eve. They even have a special bus line from downtown to the main cemeteries that day. People take candles and point settles (sp?) to the graves.

Finnish Santa Claus used to be skinnier than his American cousin and not as jolly  (after all, he IS Finnish! J ) Many times he wore vest made of fur and used a cane to walk – and to tap on the floor. In a way Finnish Santa was a bit scary. I remember running away from the department store Santa, because he was so scary. He would walk around and hand out candy, but my sister and I didn’t want to get close to him. It’s so weird when you think about all the kids over here who line up to see Santa at the mall!

I can’t remember telling department Santas what I wanted for Christmas. They were always walking around so you couldn’t sit on their lap. I guess their main job was to hand out candy.:-) We would write to Santa, though, and tell him what we wanted.

I think these days Finnish Santa  looks more and more like American Santa. I think that’s a move to the right direction! I have always liked American Santa, as he’s so big and happy and friendly-looking. He’s somebody that you really want to go and talk to, not somebody to run away from. J

Most versions of Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, are based on Saint Nicholas, the 4th C Greek bishop who was well known for giving to the poor. Variations occurred when each culture incorporated their own local myths with St. Nick. It is also interesting to note that while the North American Santa Claus lives at the magical North Pole, most of the European and Asian versions live in Korvatunturi,  Finland, a real town. 

A Special Visitor

Last night we had a very special visitor to our house. Santa came and made a surprise visit to the kids. He said that he was making a special visit because they had been so good this year. Moira invited him into the family room to rest his weary feet and to have a look at the Christmas lists that the girls made by cutting out pictures from newspaper flyers. 

This was as close as Liam would get. 

Next, Santa started pulling out presents from his sack. 

Moira got the pink iPod that she wanted. 

Santa even checked his list to make sure that he didn't make any mistakes. 

Kyla got the kitchen that she asked for. 

Since Liam didn't have a list, Santa brought him a very fun set of stacking cups. 

After watching the kids open their gifts, Santa had to be on his way to visit some more children who had been extra good this year. It was such a delight and honour to have Santa in our home. I'm sure the girls won't soon forget it. 

My Little Song Writer

Over the past couple of days, Moira has been working on a song for show and tell on Thursday. Here it is for your enjoyment.

Twelve Days of Winter

By Moira Rogers

(sung to the tune of  The Twelve Days of Christmas)

 

On the first day of winter my best friend gave to me, a present under the tree…

On the second day of winter my best friend gave to me, two flying geese…

On the third day of winter my best friend gave to me, three piles of snowballs…

On the fourth day of winter my best friend gave to me, four penguins…

On the fifth day of winter my best friend gave to me, five candy canes…

On the sixth day of winter my best friend gave to me, six snowflakes…

On the seventh day of winter my best friend gave to me, seven snowmen…

On the eighth day of winter my best friend gave to me, eight cups of cocoa…

On the ninth day of winter my best friend gave to me, nine Christmas trees…

On the tenth day of winter my best friend gave to me, ten coats a’ hanging…

On the eleventh day of winter my best friend gave to me, eleven icicles…

On the twelfth day of winter my best friend gave to me, twelve cats by the fire…

The twelve days of Christmas are from Christmas night to January 6th, the Epiphany. This is how long it allegedly took for the Magi to reach Bethlehem. The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally a "memory and forfeit" game where a leader recited a verse and the players had to repeat it. The leader would add another verse in each subsequent round which would have to be repeated with the previous ones. If a player made a mistake they would have to pay a penalty, like offer up a kiss or a piece of candy. (Remember the game of Minister's Cat that Scrooge's nephew was playing at his Christmas party in "A Christmas Carol"?)  It is believed that the song dates back to the 1600 - 1700's and is French in origin. 

Christmas Lights

Here are some photos of the front of our house decorated with Christmas lights. 

(Sorry that they are a little blurry. I wasn't up for dragging the tripod out in the dark in below freezing temperatures. Lazy, I know.)

A lot of people in our neighbourhood decorate their yards for Christmas. It makes a nice change from our last neighbourhood where we were only one of three on our block who did. A few nights ago we took the kids out for a walk around the block to look at all the lights. It's amazing to see the work that some people put into setting up their decorations. A couple of houses looked like Disneyland with music and flashing lights and all kinds of inflatables. 

In that "light", I am going to add a little history on Christmas lights.

It's not hard to imagine homes being lit with lots of candles to illuminate the long dark days. They were even attached to Christmas trees. In 1822, Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, custom made some electric tree lights. He hand wired 80 bulbs the size of walnuts. By 1900, businesses and the rich often displayed electric Christmas lights, but it wasn't until the 1930's that the average person could afford to have them. In the 1950's Christmas lights started appearing outside, and once a trend begins it doesn't take long for people to go overboard. When I was a kid, lights along the eaves and maybe a tree was about all there was. Now there are musical lights that flash in time to the different notes, inflatable Santas and penguins, and icicle lights. I wonder what my grandchildren will be delighted with.