PIkku Joulaa (That's Finnish for "Little Christmas" and Diva-ese for the "Gong Show Continues!")

Ahhh, traditions. Aren't they a wonderful part of Christmas?
This year I was adamant to create some sort of Christmas tradition including my heritage: Finnish roots!
We already have a little Finnish tradition in our advent celebrations-we open our gifts on Christmas Eve and our stockings on Christmas morning. But I wanted something a little more. I remembered that Pikku Joulaa is celebrated in the first week of advent-so I decided to do a smaller, less elaborate version of Pikku Joulaa.
This was the plan:
Invite Grandma Jill over to join us for a traditional Finnish meal of Mojakka (stew) and rice pudding with prune and raisin soppa (sauce). Make Finnish ice candles and decorate our tree together while singing Christmas carols (all in English because I don't have any Finnish music)
This is what actually happened:
**Jill helped make the rice pudding and soppa as I had to walk Annie's little friend home. Failed to mention that it was brown rice that Jill would have to work with and that she should boil it longer than the recipe suggested. It took over two hours to cook and still had quite a delicate crunch--this was after the attempts of cooking it on the stove top, in the oven and in the microwave.
**We take out the Finnish ice candle from it's mold and with great jubilation dance about rejoicing that it is all in one piece and has not broken. Anne is given the honour of lighting the first candle and we place it outside to send a warm and friendly glow to our neighbours. We also decide to put on our outside lights--which need to be plugged in from the inside since we have no outdoor plug--the door won't shut. This doesn't bode well. We compromise and have the door as shut as it can be and stuff towels around the open orifice trying to squelch any hopes of the cold air coming in.
**I had planned on making fish mojakka but when Peter got home after a full day and saw that he would have to clean the fish (rainbow trout) scales, head and all he opted out of cooking preparations--which left Jill and I to decapitate and de-scale the fish. New solution: Downgrade dinner to a meal of milk potatoes and fresh cut veggies. Is it Finnish? I don't know--both my Finnish grandmothers would make it for me so there's always the possibility
**Jill and I congratulate on how scrumptious the prune and raisin soppa looks and set it to simmer. Put the milk potatoes to boil as it is time to set the tree up!
**Peter wrestles with the tree stand for 10 minutes and abandons hope in search of some hot cider to settle the nerves. Jill decides to tackle the tree and untangles the lights....for ten minutes! Peter and Jill threaten...ahem...agree that my light fetish needs to be scaled back. To quote Jill when I agreed to two strands of lights : "Quick, Peter, take it. You aren't going to get a deal like that again...maybe not for years!"
**Forgot to watch the milk potatoes, milk evaporates into soft curds. With this knowledge Jill whispers to me the cooking secret her mother told her: "What the eyes never see, the heart doesn't grieve over." We decide to keep the disaster to ourselves and add more milk. Set to simmer.
**Jill and Peter join forces and try to set up the tree. They decide that someone needs to invent an Acme tree stand that is in the cartoons-you open the box and it's all set up. The tree finally stands while Anne announces that she has just found a new use for the scissors and Brienda chucks an ornament across the room. It falls and breaks. It's broken pieces lay scattered in Anne's newest creation--her My Little Pony Barber shop! The ponies have just undergone radical hairdo's!
**With the tree half-standing-half being held up by the corner of the wall, we eat our meal of twice cooked milk potatoes. Everyone is ravenously hunger, as the hour is late, and no one notices the milk curds until the end. Time for dessert...thrice cooked rice pudding with--oh no--simmered-too-long soppa sauce. I forgot to turn the sauce off--all evidence of liquid has evaporated leaving a thick mess of prunes and raisins. Oh well, everyone eats up. Peter dodges the crunchy rice, while Jill and I compliment eachother. "Allie, this sauce is delicious and perfectly made."
"Why Jill, this rice has almost a nut-type texture to it. Well done!"
Anne pipes up,"Hey, not bad."
And Brie throws rice across the table.
**Nearing two hours past their bed time and a half-empty box of chocolates eaten the girls start to dance and jump around...and Brie throws an ornament across the room. It's time to put the ornaments on the tree. Anne goes first, followed by Grandma Jill and Brie. Everyone places their favourite ones on and whatever ones they happen to catch as Brie launches them across the room. Grandma Jill places her special ornament on. Then the girls finish trimming the tree with their special daughter and Dad tradition: taping Hershy kisses onto all the branches.
Stepping back, we all wait with baited breath as the tree is lit. It would seem that my light fetish has paid off.
The room twinkles and sparkles as we sit and laugh about best intentions for the evening. We say, "Merry Christmas" and duck as Brienda finds an ornament on a low branch and hurls it across the room.
Houska Joulaa!

Yahoo! Advent calendars open up today!

Hooray! It's December 1st.
As soon as my girls woke up and came to our bed for a cuddle I was whispering to them about the surprise that awaited them in the living room.
"What is it?" SuperGirl asked, wide-eyed.
"Come see, girls," Daddy said.
They raced out to the couch and ta-da! There they found there pocket calendars, complete with a scripture to read for today, a winter activity that we all do today and, of course, a little treat--misty mints!
We are all very excited as today's activity is to decorate the house. Everyone has their own little jobs and excitement is in the air!
Crank up the Christmas tunes!

Today's Favourite Carol: The First Noel

Being put...or rather reminded...of my place

"Mom, what 's a butler?"
"A servant."
"Do I have a butler?"
"Well, what do you think?"
"Yeah."
"You do?"
"Well, yeah. You serve me."
Touchez.

It's been a while since I've written anything about Facebook

Grrrr!
(Fist raised at the sky)
Forget you!You addicting , time consuming thing that has stolen yet another friend into the grips of your vortex of wasting time!
Grrrr!

Gentle words meet with a sense of humour

Proverbs 15:4 Gentle words bring life and health; Griping is discouraging.

That verse was today's devotion lesson for my girls. I'm doing a new thing with them called "A Person of Excellence...". And for the next little while we are focusing on the fact that a Person of Excellence honours and respects others. This week's feature is kind speech. (I'm using Instruction in Righteousness to help me with the scriptures and stuff --http://www.doorposts.net/instruct.asp)
It was a fun lesson this morning and we practiced saying gentle words to each other or imagining different things to say to other people. I was told that I was the "beautifullest Mommy and the bestest one."
Then comes the afternoon...I have a lady over to discuss some things about homeschooling. SuperGirl practices her manners and invites the lady in and says that it's nice to meet her.

Gentle words.

The girls play and prance around us while we talk about homeschooling, our passion for our kids and integrating life and learning and all the possibilities available to us as we walk down the road of home education. SuperGirl politely asks me for honey in her tea, makes a fuss about someting then apologizes for her attitude.

Gentle words.

My guest and I flit off the track we're suposed to be on and start swapping stories of life and dreams and Christmas traditions. We share a mutual laugh over Missie Moo's sudden appearance and announcement "I'm naked. I like it!"
I quickly dress my streaker, and settle down for more cozy conversation,gentle words and a cup of warm vanilla tea.

SuperGirl springs up from no where and says, "Mom, why is that lady fat?"
Rude words.

Rude words!

Horrifyingly, embarrassingly rude words.

If I had a button that would open my floor and swallow me whole, I would have been pressing it like a panic button to end all panics!

I quickly put away my lukewarm tea and stood up from my lopsided couch. Hauling Anne by the hand, I brought her over to our "A Person of Excellence" poster sheet.
I had her repeat Proverbs 15:4 "Gentle words bring life and health; Griping is discouraging."
SuperGirl, when you asked that question, did you bring life and health to that lady?"
SuperGirl's eyes were wide. "No." She looked down at the floor.
"What did your words cause?"
"Um...Discouragement."
"Yeah. What should we do to make it right?"

SuperGirl nodded her head with the knowledge of what to do and then promptly went back to our guest and apologized for speaking rudely. Gentle words.
As my guest accepted SuperGirl 's apologies, SuperGirl said thank you.

Gentle words.

I sank back into my seat and summoned the courage to look my guest in the eye.
With a twinkle in her eye, she tilted her head and said, "Well, I'd answer her question but we'd be here a long time!"

Ah, gentle words.

The ever delicate dance of the fish and the bird...

You know the Jewish proverb? The one that is quoted in the film, "Ever After" : A fish may love a bird, Senora, but where would they live?"
Sometimes, I feel like the fish. I love to swim around, do my thing, no schedule, no order...just free to be a fish. However, life...and in particular, married life requires a certain amount of routine and order for the practical day to day living.
This past week I was complaining to my husband about how I just didn't feel "on top of" a few certain things. His honest reply--and oh, how he is always so honest!--was simply,"it's because you have no system or routine in place for these things."
Grrr!He's right. I love to be spontaneous and go with the flow. But the truth of the matter is, I am best able to be spontaneous and go with the flow when I have an organized mind and an organized space.
For the past week, I've put everything on hold and just focused on re-organizing everything that has been a stumbling block for me. I've rooted out the things that were low priorities for me but I felt I needed to hang onto them because, well, insert a reason here. It's a vague one, at best.
The point is, now that I am "getting on top of things" so to speak, I do have systems in place. I am realizing that most of the things that set me off-kilter was just a collection of non-essential things trying to grab for my attention. But now everything is finding it's place again-in my head and my home.
And now I know where a bird and a fish would live.

"Just saying, is all."

I miss my husband. Just saying, is all. (wink)
Ok completely random thoughts that have ran through my head in the past...since I was born

*The day--well, life, really--never happens how you picture it in your head.
*www.trinnyandsusannah.com is my new website fave!
*I really could watch the film Ever After three times in a row and still love it. I'm convinced of it. I've watched it twice in a row--so far so good.
*I have an easy time making a list in my head of all the things I want and need to buy. But I am very picky and like to take a long selection process when I actually spend my money.
*The lady who runs the consignment store is my new best friend--she honestly told me what she thought when discussing my clothes. And her assessment was bang on. A great arsonal weapon for any woman trying to figure out her sense of style.
*Sometimes I feel better about myself when I know someone is jealous of me. I want that to change.
*I can impact a lot of people just from inside my house
*Sometimes I eat food like a Hoover vacuum. Suck it all up and make a lot of noise.
*I wish Cory and Martha lived closer
*Adults make choices with their lives. We can't stop them. We can encouarage them, we can speak into their lives but at the end of the day, they make the choice. Consequence is a nasty tonic for friends who make bad choices.
*There is always enough time for what is a priority to me.
*Cash doesn't just talk--it makes people sing and dance.
*Sometimes I feel like Dorothy from the Golden Girls--a desire to be intolerably, sarcastically cruel to the dumb blonde "Rose" in the room.
*Sometimes life is like a box of chocolates and you never know what you are going to get. And sometimes life is like a box of Ferrero Rocher: you know exactly what your getting. Same thing every time. First two are heavenly, the third you just have to have, the fourth one you feel is unnecessary but you justify. The fifth you say, "I've gone this far, why stop now." And the sixth is the one where you say,"How can I love and not like something at the same time especially when it is exactly the same piece of chocolate I have been eating time and time again." Life's like that sometimes. Addictingly normal and routine...and yet so frustratingly normal and routine.
Just saying, is all.

Photos that didn't make the cut!

So, I'm on top of the whole preparing myself for Christmas...or so I think. I got our family photos done two weeks ago. Total gong show...the best part was that we got to hang out almost all day with our friends Cody and the amazing photographer, Amanda. I got a perm four days before our shoot--which promptly fell out of my hair to give me the "just got off a motorcycle but didn't wear a helmet" look or the ever popular "I forgot how to use a hairbrush" look.
Went to get the girls hair cut. Had to cancel the appointment. I did their hair as best I could but by the time we got to the photo part the barrettes hiding any possible craziness had fallen out, gotten lost or were used as a stirring stick for the leaf-pile-pie. This year's photos: we are completely and utterly ourselves! Au naturelle. Here are some pics that didn't quite make the cut. Reasons why are posted underneath.

This one's great. Here are the thought processes of everyone in this photo

A-Mom, I want to get down!

Allie-'Manda, take the picture. My hair is being pulled and I can't keep this smile forever

Jeep-I think my daughter just filled her pants...

B-Heehee! I just filled my pants!

This photo is so great! I love it. From various scheduling problems, our fall pictures ended up being well past the "lovely autumn" and straight into the "rotting fall". These leaves were crisp and dry and Peter and I felt completely fake as we endeavoured to mimic a happy fall leaf fight (that I had suggested). Instead, we mocked ourselves and our idealism of capturing a Martha Stewart happy holiday. And Amanda's camera just kept clicking*:)

Hehehe! Oh, my sis, Ames is sure to comment!

I love this one. Jeep and me being...Jeep and me.

Does anyone believe that this was taken days before November 1st? And, it still looks like this..well, the grass may not be as Photoshop green, but still-the weather's great here. The concept of this shot is fun-I love it.

This picture is our paid homage to studio portraits. You know what I mean. Everyone is looking somewhere, but no one is looking at exactly the same spot.

I sooo wanted to make this one our family portrait. But my Grandma would have too many questions for me to explain and I just don't think she'd get it when I said, "To infinity...and beyond!" (cue superhero theme music)

I actually love this shot. But it's the back of Jeep's and my head with no kids to show for it. My Aunt Edie would see this photo and say, "What a thoughtful gesture. A post card from Allie's hometown."

Hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave!

I love this photo.It came down to the top three pics and we had to go with another (which will be revealed in December--a nice one for the Grandma's and an artsy one for all our post-modern friends). I love how Jeep is surrounded by his girls in one of his favourite spots. My love is one amazing and handsome man. sigh.

Pumpkin pics!

Every Friday night is "Cookie-Movie Night" at my house. Most of the kids in the neighbourhood end up at my house where we make cookies and then watch a movie. Here's the pics from our Harvest night where we made candy apples (crushed oreos and peanuts-ymmm!) and carved our pumpkins.

cupcake treats from Miss Inez!



Inez showed us "how it is done". She made her pumpkin into Cinderella's carraige. Complete with paperclip hinges so her doors opened!

Messy and fun!



The lovely Miss Inez joined our crew and got busy leading the group in the grueling task of unwrapping our caramels. While I made up an excuse--er, I mean, I busied myself with some important non-descriptive task that removed me from any obligation of unwrapping the precious candy.



So delicious!
And halfway through pumpkin carving my little two year old got her hands on the camera and dropped it on the floor. I no longer have a digital camera....hmmm...what to get for Christmas?!

I will not forget

In Grade seven, my friend Kelly and I were responsible for creating and presenting our school's November 11th Rememberance Day ceremony. Looking back, I remember collecting the poems and the details about previous wars that had been fought, trying to keep my voice steady as I spoke in front of the entire student body and listening to the silence echo off the walls of our huge gymnasium as we took a moment to honour the lives of the men and women who fought and still fight to defend our freedoms.

I was honoured to be chosen to take part in remembering the lives of our Canadian heroes. Today I am taking my girls down to the ceremony here in town. We've made giant poppies for them to hold as we march down the street behind the regiment. My prayer is for my children's earliest memories to be ones of gratefulness and a thankful heart for the wonderful country we live in and a respectful attitude to those who serve our country today with the gentle mix of pride and humility.

I will not forget.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.