Year in Review:2019

As I sit here and write this, it’s New Year’s Eve. James and the boys went skiing, but I volunteered to stay back and watch Leo. I’ve got Desperate Housewives playing in the background and the dog beside me chewing on his bone and not my shoes. A little alone time is the perfect way to end a busy 2019. After months of being quiet on the blog, it felt good to hammer one more post out before closing out the year.

January

On a very cold and snowy weekend in January, we used Santa’s coupon to take the boys to Edmonton for a weekend of fun at the mall. I think this may easily be Grady’s favorite place in the world! Santa splurged on a theme room and we spent a full day at the water slides. A great family weekend away! 

February

The girls and I go to Edmonton every fall to shop so when the Justin Timberlake concert was supposed to be the same weekend, we bought tickets! Then JT got sick, and the concert was canceled. While at first we were disappointed, the bonus was that we got an extra trip in February for the make up concert! JT quickly became one of my favorite artists and is a frequently played album on my play list. Ironically, I am wearing this sweatshirt right now. What a memorable night!

March

March is always a heavy hockey month for us. Each March for the past three years our team has hosted a tournament in Banff, and this year was no different. Grady’s team made a run in city playoffs, and Cooper’s Team headed to the mountains!

After the hockey season wrapped up, we headed to Maui for two weeks. This was the first year that the boys really appreciated Hawaii, which makes James and I happy since it’s our happy place!

April

In April, I made a trip to Saskatoon to celebrate my BFFs 40th birthday. I love that as part of her celebration she chose to have professional pictures taken of all of us individually, and most importantly, together. When I look at this photo, I still see the girls that I’ve known for 20+ years. Though we’ve aged, we’ve gotten married, we’ve had children, I know these gals will always have my back.  Always. 

May

The highlight of the month for me was attending Grady’s spring camp at Fort Steele. Though I don’t get to spend a lot of direct time with him, I get to watch him with his friends and his teacher and experience first hand what he does at camp.  The fact that he lets me keep volunteering means that I don’t embarrass him quite yet. Soon enough, soon enough…

June

The biggest event in June is this dude turned 11! Enough said.

July 

July was a big month.  Big.  HUGE.  In July, I turned the big 4-0! We celebrated by going on a biking pub crawl and a house party.  We also made a trip to Saskatchewan, had weekend visitors, and headed to Kelowna for our summer vacation! We crammed in ALL the fun.

August

In August I ran my third half marathon and earned a new PB. The next weekend, after burning all those calories running, we headed for our annual camping trip where we consumed nothing but hot dogs, chips, and beer.  My kind of combo!

September

The boys started grade 3 and grade 6. Its the last year they’ll be at separate schools! I’ll no longer have to color code my calendar, all smiles here!

October 

We always look forward to Thanksgiving weekend when my Dad and family come to visit! We watch hockey, shop, and attempt to do a fall walk, weather permitting. This past Thanksgiving we were dog sitting a black havapoo named Lovey which made the weekend extra memorable with all the pee I had to clean up! We’re lucky we got a dog after that weekend… Ha!

November

November may go down in the books as one of the best months ever! We did a family trip to Disneyland, I had a trip to LA with my girlfriends, and we welcomed Leo to our family. It will be a long time until another month tops this one.

December 

This year, because of Leo, we drove back to Saskatchewan for Christmas. We had a great time celebrating with my side of the family.  We are so lucky to have so many people to celebrate with!

2019 was a great year, and though I haven’t had time to document as much of it as I would like to, I will always remember it as a good one.

2019 was great one, bring it on 2020... Happy new year!

2019 Tree Ornaments

Each year, we accumulate new ornaments to add to our 'memory' tree.  It started years ago when I would buy one ornament for each of the boys that represented their interests for that year. Often, it was a different version of the same ornament.... this year included.  Then, I started adding ornaments purchased on vacation, and now I buy them just because… I always write the year on the bottom in sharpie so we know how old it is.  Decorating the tree is one of the traditions that the boys have embraced at Christmas time and I love it! We pull ornaments out one by one and remember when we bought them. Well,Grady and I more than the others, LOL.

This year, the activity of the year with scootering. The kids literally scootered until the first major snowfall in November. They would choose scootering over anything, gaming included, except maybe hockey! It was only fitting that a scootering ornament be added to our tree this year, or two!  I find these personalized ornaments on Etsy.

Last year we painted ceramic ball ornaments, and this year I bought these wooden ornaments (at Grady's request) that we colored with markers. Grady can be so thoughtful and made an ornament for his dad and his brother, of course not his mom.... insert eye roll. I made one for myself and added it to the tree!We still have half of them in the box ready to decorate next year.

We found this snorkeling Santa in Maui in the spring. I chose this one because the kids snorkeled for the first time and loved it. Though we couldn’t get them on a snorkeling boat, we hope to next time.

The skiing moose was purchased on New Year’s Day 2019, as we left Kananaskis after celebrating NYE with friends. We force the kids to ski at least one time per year and it’s often on this trip. The kids are with James skiing as I type this from the same hotel exactly one year later. Someone had to stay back and take care of the dog.....

This one isn’t actually an ornament but we turned it into one. I bought this on the field trip I attended with Grady’s class in the spring, hopefully I’ll get to go back with Cooper in a few years and buy a second one.

The Friends ornament was purchased at the Warner Bros. store in LA when we celebrated our 40th birthdays together. It seemed only fitting that I bought this one since we’ve been friends for decades and watched the sitcom together while in university.

Obviously, Leo gets an ornament or two on the tree as well! I ordered mine on Etsy before he even arrived home, and my MIL surprised us with one when we brought him home. Lucky dog!

I let each of the kids choose an ornament to represent our trip to Disney. Surprisingly, Cooper chose zero from nightmare before Christmas. Not surprisingly, Grady chose a Donald Duck ornament. I’m surprised this one made it home since he broke the first one he picked up in the store, Oops!

Often, a mom on the hockey team will make ornaments for the players, and this year was no different. We will probably have Cooper hanging on our tree in 30 years as well. There is still a picture of eight-year-old Christy in my girl guide outfit hanging on my mom’s tree in SK!

Last but not least, Cooper got this unicorn ornament from his auntie Bo for Christmas. She nailed it on this one as Cooper was a unicorn for Halloween, and still wears his onesie costume as pajamas. It was hung on the tree immediately!

Some years we add an ornament or two, and others, like this year, we add a lot more. I lost count of how many new ornaments we purchased during 2019. I like to think that that means it was a good year! Our tree is essentially at full capacity but it won’t stop me from buying more! Maybe we just need a bigger tree…