Where to even start with what December has been like in our house?
December is always a busy month at my job and of course there are also the usual household and family things. Add to that lots of extras at school and busy times for Peter in his work too. My boss passed very suddenly at the end of November and I had to take on a lot of extra responsibility at work and work a lot more hours than I normally would.
With all that though, we managed to fit in some fun and some Christmas magic for our girls.
We counted down to Christmas with baking, Christmas books, and some Christmas movies. We went out and cut down our own Christmas tree and we decorated our house. The girls had Elf Day and Pyjama Day at school. They made gingerbread houses and had Secret Santa gift exchanges. And they shared a song and some memory verses with the congregation at church.
We managed to take a weekend away at the beginning of December and went to Whistler. We found out about a program that offers free ski lessons and rentals for kids and were able to get Pearl and Rose registered for a Saturday. We’ve had a very mild winter here but the day we were there happened to have a lot of snow. Peter and I took the opportunity for a date in Whistler and had a lovely snowy day while the girls got to ski for the first time.
Christmas Day we had a lovely morning at home, just the four of us. Pearl and Rose got their traditional matching jammies to open on Christmas Eve and I made cinnamon buns to eat Christmas morning. In the afternoon we caught a ferry and arrived in time for a delicious dinner with my parents and my brother and his family.
We spent two nights in Vancouver and the girls got to play Mario Kart for the first time. (Perks of having teenage cousins!) We did a family walk around Deer Lake and ended with the 112-year-old wooden carousel at Burnaby Village Museum. Before catching a ferry home we did a trip to IKEA and this week have finally changed the 1980s light fixtures that our house came with.
And now it’s January and 2024. We rang in Newfoundland New Year (four and a half hours early and therefore more kid-friendly) last night with a few folks here on the Coast. No big plans or goals or resolutions for the new year but a few new routines we hope to set and a couple of bad habits we aim to mend. (I’ll share some bookish goals in another post, I think.) It hasn’t been the easiest holiday but there is a lot of fun and joy in it and it is a true delight to see how much our kids enjoy and embrace the wonder of the season.
Happy new year to each one of you! Wishing you an abundance of joy and peace as you enter 2024.
Karissa Reads Books 
That first picture looks like a beautiful summer day, which made me happy and then immediately sad about climate change. It snowed here today one inch and then it immediately rained and made the snow into “held together” puddles, as I kept thinking of them.
I love the idea of Newfoundland New Year. My parents went to a Moose Club (I believe they have those in Canada, too), which closed at 8PM, and my mom was so grateful. My dad will party until 3AM if he has his way (which he usually does), so she was happy as the perpetual DD.
Christmas felt weird this year. I just don’t think my family has many traditions around the holidays, and my brother and his wife won’t really plan anything. It all feels thrown together, so I get a bit sad. For example, the kids came running over on Christmas day (we were at my parents’ and my brother and his family live next door). We kept waiting, but my brother and his wife didn’t show, so one of the kids ran over to tell them we were all waiting. The kid came back and reported that mommy and daddy said, “They can wait.” Yeesh. We got started immediately after that comment. I’m trying to figure out how to make Christmas really, really special again.
If it makes you feel any better, it was very cold the day I took that first picture!
I’ve never heard of a moose club – why is it called that? It was nice to know from the beginning of the party that we weren’t expected to stay until midnight.
I’ve come to accept that Christmas is a lot of work. We go back and forth between families every year plus trying to eke time for the four of us. It gets exhausting but I know it’s valuable at the same time. To be honest, a lot of our family traditions revolve around the religious aspect of Christmas. I’m fine with my kids getting secular Christmas at school but I do like to emphasize at home that we focus on the birth of Christ. So we do a lot for Advent and read certain books together. It’s funny how quickly kids hold up traditions. Rose was telling me in November to be sure to remember that we have cinnamon buns on Christmas morning!
THE MOOSE FRATERNITY:
An International Organization of Men and Women Dedicated to Caring for Young and Old, Bringing Communities Closer Together, and Celebrating Life.
It also says they have Moose Clubs in 4 providences in Canada, so they’re somewhere up there!
Thank you for reminding me how much work is involved in a successful, beautiful Christmas. I also like that you shape the holiday for your family, and that you girls (and I assume Peter!) appreciate the traditions you are all making together around the birth of Christ.
That sounds fun! It looks like there is one in Kamloops which is…not close to me!
I find Christmas to be a real balancing act of multi-family traditions, making our own nuclear family traditions. I always end up feeling it is worthwhile but it takes effort for sure. Peter is very involved too! He’s less of a traditionalist than I am but he’s definitely a dad who knows what gifts the girls will be opening Christmas morning and who always makes sure my stocking is full too!