a peek inside the fishbowl

Day 11
We saw Nativity at the NAC. The girls love getting dressed up and going out. Live theatre makes for some great family-friendly entertainment (maybe something to do with Grandma and Grandpa?) but do heed the age recommendation for this production. Younger kids might enjoy the singing coyotes but wouldn’t understand some of the jokes. (If this isn’t your style, check out some of the other Decembery events coming up at the NAC. Psst. Stuart McLean is sold out. Boo.)

Day 12
The actitivty du jour  was shopping for Christmas clothes* followed by the taking of the pesky Christmas portrait I insist on doing every year. Not much fun, I know (why is it harder to take photos of my own family?) but we went to an afternoon Christmas party afterwards, which made up for the photo-taking torture. (And I didn’t get tipsy and stagger home afterwards! Or suffer from a 7:00 p.m. hangover! Not that that has ever happened. No sirree.)

* which – although this was not a pre-planned advent activity – also included a surprise ear-piercing for Sarah’s earlobes, which now look very sparkly.

Day 13
In an earlier post I mentioned that I’ve been deliberately cryptic with the advent activities and decided to write them as clues, or at least very vague hints. On the 13th I wrote “Bark Bark,” which they puzzled over for some time until I told them we’d be making chocolate bark. I used this recipe as the basis, but essentially we just melted two kinds chocolate (bought at the Bulk Barn) and embedded roasted almonds or crushed candy canes into it. And instead of bark we made bitesized puddles. They turned out really well. Too well.

Day 14
I’ve been suffering with a cold and sadly didn’t have energy for very much at all. We watched the Grinch who Stole Christmas on TV and Mark took the girls to the library after dinner.  

Day 15
Another low-energy choice – this time because Mark was getting sick too. We went to see the CHEO lottery house in Manotick. It is, in a word: HUGE. I secretely wondered if they’d sell more tickets if it was a smaller gorgeous home instead of a monster-sized gorgeous home.

So if you want to win, buy your ticket now because the last day for ticket sales is tomorrow. 

Day 16 – today!
I’ve promised we’d make baked goods. Now I just have to find something festive and easy to make! 

It’s December 15 and I’m in Gift Giving Mode.  And I have one for you too.

I am so grateful you’re here. I truly appreciate the time you take out of your day to come here, leave comments, get me thinking, get people talking, cheer me on, cheer me up, and lend your support in a myriad of different ways.

As a very very small token of my appreciation I made up some fun retro-looking circus-themed bookplates (a.k.a. “Ex libris” or “From the library of…” labels) to share with you. (Actually, if you must know, I am regifting. I made something similar for a little friend some time ago and am revisiting the idea. So there.)

I know at least some of you have children who love to read and don’t mind defacing a book in this way.

How to:

• Download the PDF here.
• There are two sheets of labels (with a few repeats because I had the space). You can either print them out on regular paper, cut them out and affix them to the inside front cover of a book with a glue stick OR print them onto 8 x 10 sticker paper and THEN cut out. Both options would work fine.
• Don’t forget to personalize it!

I would love to know if you offloaded it and used them in your books, so please let me know if you did!

Thank you, and happy book labelling from the Fishbowl!

xo,

andrea

I’m sick today, and feeling rather downtrodden with a headache and sniffles and a cough that leaves me feeling exhausted. Piper and I are lying on the couch with Mark’s laptop, keeping warm.

I hate being cold. And the older I get the more I hate being cold. I’ve slowly been (a) finding and investing in warm winter wear and (b) stopped caring about hat head. And I tell ya, both things have made me a much happier person during the winter months. (Which is a long time here in Ottawa.)

What also helps keep me warm:

– slippers. I have a pair of sock slippers I bought in Syracuse last year; pink knitted things that are mid-calf with a soft leather sole. I love the slippers. When my feet are warm, the rest of me is warm too.

– hot water bottles. The girls are crazy about hot water bottles. They happily fill them up and trot off to bed with them. In fact, I am seriously considering putting some new ones under the tree this year.

– tea. Right now it’s plain Red Rose with a couple slices of lemon and a dollop of honey for my throat.

– hot snakes a.k.a the kind of heating pads you heat up in the microwave and apply to necks/shoulders/other sore body parts. (We call these things hot snakes here at Casa Fishbowl.)

– coats and sweaters and hats. I don’t care about hat head any longer. I’d rather be warm. I bought a beauty of a hat (black knitted trapper-style hat with faux fur) at Old Navy the other day. My coat was a big investment. It’s a big down-filled 3/4 length coat. It’s like walking around town with a duvet thrown over your shoulders. Expensive, but worth every single penny.

– electric blankets – Is it eco-friendly if you turn your household heat down and preheat a blanket a little bit? I feel guilty, but I love it and use it sparingly. Sunbeam sent us one to try last year and every once in awhile (like now) I’ll turn it on now and snuggle under it. I turn it off after awhile, but man, for those of us with perpetually cold feet is is pretty sweet. I used mine the most back in October before we turned the heat on here at home.

– adding more warmth to our closets i.e. pjs, long underwear, sports socks and hard core gloves. The kind folks at Mark’s (remember them from here?) sent me a package of warm things awhile back which contained a sample of each of the aforementioned. I love the pj bottoms, they fit me better than the top does (pictured here – and on sale!), the long underwear has been a godsend and the gloves will probably get their first workout in the snow later. ETA: there’s a big sale on tomorrow (Dec 15)!

I’m watching the snow pour from the sky today, grateful to be under a cozy blanket with a mug of tea and a puppy by my side. How are you keeping warm today?