Christmas Traditions - New & Old

I know there are a lot of people out there that love Halloween and go all out with their decorations but I'm not one of them. Halloween is okay and when my future children are old enough to enjoy the holiday I will probably put a little more effort into it.

Now Christmas is a completely different story. I LOVE this holiday and I start my 'season' as soon as I can which means Christmas planning is already on the top of my mind. One of the things my sister and I have been discussing recently is what we want to do now that children are back in our Christmas plans for traditions.

To begin with my family has always spent Christmas together. When my siblings and I moved to Winnipeg to go to university, we either travelled home or our parents came to us, depending on our work schedules. In 2008 when my sister and her husband moved back to our hometown, we decided to do Christmas in Winnipeg (where D & I live, as well as my brother-in-law's family) one year and The Pas (where my sister, brother-in-law, and parents live) the other year, and we have flipped back and forth every year since.

Technically my brother moved to a third city and recently having his Christmas schedule mesh with ours hasn't been as easy, this year may be the first year that we don't see him until after the holiday due to schedule conflicts but hopefully this works itself out in the future.

Since we are together every Christmas, agreeing on what traditions we want to keep from our childhood and what we want to add is important. Having cousins get completely different experiences wouldn't be fun for them, when both of our children are old enough to understand whats going on.

Also I'll be honest...a lot of these traditions are for our benefit. I love doing the things that we do and have put up fights when its discussed that we might stop any of them.

Currently our Christmas Traditions include:

1. Opening one gift on Christmas Eve which is always a new pair of pajamas (this way we look 'nice' for Christmas morning photos...not that this does anything for my messy hair and lack of makeup in the morning)
2. Stockings - now that we are all adults we decided that it wasn't fair that our parents front the cost of this alone, especially since we are the ones that didn't want to stop, so we all are responsible for getting stocking stuffers at $10/person. We each pick a theme to purchase so we have some variation in our stockings (kitchen gadgets, bathroom toiletry, books, games, candy, etc)
3. Reading a Christmas story on Christmas Eve - our father usually does this.
4. Christmas Eve dinner includes traditional Norwegian dishes. (Lutefisk & Lefse - one is delicious and one not so much...can you guess which is which? My grandma reminded us once that at least we don't still prepare blood pudding which was another dish her parents always prepared - good point! the idea of eating thick, congealed blood stuffed into a sausage liner sounds less then appetizing)

My sister and I have been thinking of new traditions we want to introduce at Christmas, including:

• Elf on the Shelf - I picked up a boy elf & book this year for my nephew (it doesn't look like the Elf on the Shelf website ships to Canada but luckily Chapters bookstores stock them). Pinterest as great ideas of ways to stage your Elf on the Shelf each day.

• Advent Calendar activities:
• Wrapping up Christmas stories and opening one a night to read, & making ornaments that correspond with each book. (Examples: A Day of Wonders and The Crafty Crow)
• Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (via Katherine Marie Photography)

What type of Christmas traditions do you continue to participate? Favorites?

Planning the nursesry

Knowing that we will be having a girl allows me to start planning the design of the nursery. I'm leaning towards a vintage decor in neutral colors, which I'll keep you update on as I find details but two item that I am leaning towards are from Ikea.

Luckily November means that our local Ikea will be opening, I'm not sure I'm prepared to enter it until at least January due to the craziness that will probably surround the place but when I do, I want to buy the Hemnes Daybed and Sundivk Crib. They are ridiculously inexpensive together compared to the cribs, alone, I would purchase at Babies 'R Us or eChildren (a local high end baby store). I like the idea of have a daybed that has a trundle bed in it so it can convert into a back up spare bed for company and be moved into my office once our daughter grows out of her nursery and needs her own twin bed.

My only issue right now with them is that there isn't a lot of color options for them. I'll either go white for the daybed and white or the grey-brown for the crib but I was considering painting them as an option, just not sure if there is a baby friendly way to do that. Maybe if I paint I'd only do it to the daybed?

Thoughts?

The jury is in...

Two weeks ago today I went for my first ultra sound and we asked to know the gender but I didn't want to announce it until I had my doctor confirm that she agreed with the ultra sound technician, which happened this afternoon.

Its official....we are having a GIRL!

Conveniently for this post our ultra sound pictures were also ready for pick up at the hospital (we opted not to go to a private clinic as our hospital and doctor would confirm gender but it meant we had to wait for the pictures for a few weeks).

Above is a profile of our girl, its pretty much the only picture that doesn't look like a blob to me hence why its the one you get to see. Didn't think you needed to see the picture determining gender...you can take my word for it. ;)

Preparing my 1st Weekly Meal Plan

One of the biggest 'unexpected' I want to avoid is living on a reduced household salary during Mat Leave and going into debt because I'm not managing my food budget, as I talked about previously. So I've decided that with 4 1/2 months left before I'm slicing my wage in less then half, I'm going to start living like I have less to spend on food already.

Currently I have our food budget set at $550/month (this includes restaurants, take out, coffees from Starbucks & Tims, as well as our groceries). I went over this 'budget' by $200 last month but I want to cut it down to $350/month in April, for a year. Obviously I'm doing something wrong right now and this future budget is unrealistic based on our current purchasing habits.

The biggest problem is I don't plan and prepare grocery lists and meals a head of time. I'm constantly reacting to my stomach's cries for food at the last minute and never feel 'in the mood' to make dinner for D, so I'm resorting to takeout, restaurants and packaged frozen dinners (pizzas) from the grocery store.

Yesterday I decided to take charge and break this habit. D was going to the grocery story anyways so I had him pick up a few items I needed to make dinners for the week from stuff I have on hand in my pantry and freezer.

This week's meal plan (Monday to Sunday) looks like this:

• Monday (I'm home late because I have my Sparks meeting until 8pm)
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Leftover Chinese Takeout(D packs his own lunch from stuff we have in the house)
• Dinner: Crockpot Chili (start it before I left this morning)
• Tuesday (I'm home late because its our first week running payroll with a new software)
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Chili leftover 
• Dinner: Lasagna & salad (made Monday night, D can put in oven when he gets home)
• Wednesday (I'm home late because its our first week running payroll with a new software)
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Lasagna leftovers
• Dinner: Bean Enchiladas (made Tuesday night, D can put in oven when he gets home)
• Thursday
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Lasagna leftovers
• Dinner: Garlic Teryaki Stir Fry
• Friday
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Provided by employers - every Friday is catered
• Dinner: Tortellini with Alfredo Sauce
• Saturday
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (not home until after 1pm though)
• Dinner: Veggie Breaded 'Chicken breast' with Vegetables & Potatoes
• Sunday
• Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Bagels or Oatmeal
• Lunch: Chili leftovers
• Dinner: D's parents

I want to try a weekly budget of $75 max for the two of us, which means I will start relying a lot on the food we already have on hand and reducing spoilage of the perishable items. I don't want to say that this is a 30 day challenge though, as I think the real test will come after the 30 days once I've used up a lot of my stockpile in the freezer. I'm curious to see if I can stay below $75/week ($300/month) and not leave my cupboards bare or start eating unhealthy.

One of my biggest challenges in meal planning is I need to rely on crock pot and prepared casserole dishes every Monday and Tuesday (aside from this week, this is the day I normally meet to do group assignment work for my CMA program) but with D being a vegetarian I find my choices are limited as veggie meats for the most part don't hold up to slow cooking all day (with the exception of ground round) so I'm stuck rotating only a few options. Any one have recipes they want to share that are meatless for my make a head nights?

Homework

Currently I am in my final year of the Strategic Leadership Program which will end in my attaining my accounting designation as a CMA (Certified Management Accountant). I chose CMA over CGA (Certified General Accountant) and CA (Chartered Accountant) as this program focuses heavily on the managerial aspects of accounting, like cost accounting, rather then financial reporting like auditing and tax preparation...personally the latter doesn't interest me at all, although I tend to have to do a lot of it in my position at work as a means to an end.

The SLP consists of 3 interactive weekends (one in October, December and March) as well as independent and group work through out September to March that is submitted online for marking. I just got my feedback and mark back for my interactive weekend in October and received a very positive review. Not surprisingly the main thing that prevented me for receiving an AE (above expectation; A+) was the quality of my written submissions prior to the weekend. Although the ideas were good, I tend not to present a 'polished' end product, mainly because its my LEAST favorite thing to do.

I prefer to talk through my ideas and provide back up verbally, in discussions, and let someone else write it all up. It doesn't help that a lot of my online submissions are done the day they are due which doesn't leave a lot of time for proof reading and editing.

Somehow I need to change this tendency of mine to start things at the 11th hour. I need to prepare better...see how I tied this back to my unofficial theme for the month?!

Considering this is a bad habit I've had my entire life, at 30 it isn't the easiest thing to break. Any suggestions on how to better manage my time?

Planning our trip to NYC

So back in the spring of 2011 I went to NYC with my mother, sister and some girlfriends, I truly enjoyed my first trip there. What I wasn't prepared for though was how much walking we would do, in fact we calculated that the three days that we walked around Manhattan equalled the distance of two and half full marathons.

Because I wasn't prepared, I didn't pack accordingly. Rather I had at least 3 completely inappropriate but stylish shoes to choose from, all of which left my arches screaming in pain and me hobbling around on our last day there, when I finally walked into a Reebok store and purchasing a pair of walking shoes. Too little, too late.

Later this month my husband and I are traveling back to NYC, along with his brother and sister-in-law, and I've learnt from my mistake. This time I'm packing appropriate footwear regardless of how much I want to look fashionable walking around SOHO and Central Park.

So I went shopping at one of the larger malls in the city today and started browsing for 'comfortable walking shoes', hoping that I didn't have to resort to bulky running shoes. I can't believe how hard it is to find something that is stylish but practical.

I have been searching online tonight and still coming up with little.

One shoe that I found that might work from this article, although not 'fashionable' but maybe I'll have to give up on that idea, is the Reebok DMX Max Reedirect which is recommended for 'Overweight' walkers as the air pockets in the rubber bottom of the shoe reduce impact for more comfort and less chance of injury.

I figure being 24 weeks pregnant while we are there, I should have as much support for my feet as possible.

I think my next step will be to go to a specialty shoe store, Canadian Footwear, where my husband went to get his shoes when he was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. Although I think I'll avoid the bulky New Balance runners that he opted for!

Any other suggestions?

Preparing to Prepare

Now that I've decided to actually do all the things I've been saying I should do, so that I'm prepared for the unexpected, I am feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the aspects of my life that need to have things 'prepared' for and all the different things that can classify as 'unexpected'.

So today I'm going to just write down the areas in which I need to do something and will write about this month, here they are:

1. Home
• Emergency Stockpile for natural disaster (or zombie apocalypse...)
• Fireproof Safe with important documents stored in it
• Emergency Kit for vehicles (we have one in mine but not my husband's! probably should fix that and I'm sure we can upgrade them)
2. Work
• Exit plan/training process for when I take mat leave (or if I was ever hit by a bus)
• Handling the 'what if' of job lose
3. Financial
• Insurance
• Life
• Disability
• Critical Illness
• Health & Dental
• House & Property
• Vehicle
• Budget
• Normal
• Worse Case
• Emergency Fund
• Rainy Day Fund
• Children's education Fund
• Retirement
• Investments
4. Life
• Will
• Appointing a Power of Attorney
• a binder containing all of the important documents (the will, insurance, warranties, listing of assets, etc) stored in the fireproof safe
5. Travel
• Insurance
• Emergency Contact
• What to pack
• Important documents

I feel like I'm missing a ton of areas and I'll probably add to this as I go. Is there anything you see that I'm missing right now??