Let the Holiday season begin

How did you spend this year's first advent? we started preparing the house for the holidays. Pulled out some favourite decorations, made the outside look pretty, planned Christmas activities all the while listening to the Vienna Boy's Choir create a festive mood. I also managed to put the finishing touches on this year's Advent Calendar, and just in time. This year's version features a mix of hockey cards and of course chocolate.

The Details? This IKEA fabric caught my eye last year, and I had to have it, as I knew it would be the perfect backdrop for an Advent Calendar. Add in some hockey cards, every 8-year old boy's favourite, and some chocolate, and voila, our 2015  calendar.

Celebrating

Milestones. The sign that one has accomplished something. It feels good to look back, and to be able to see how far you've come, what obstacles you've conquered, the way you've grown and changed.

This particular milestone, is my 10 year wedding anniversary. Ten years of laughter and joy, ten years in which we've watched each other become parents and learn immensely about ourselves, our life and our relationship.

I wondered for a long time what an appropriate gift would be. It's not an easy choice. I wanted something we'd both enjoy, and also something memorable. I scoured Etsy for ideas, and then I found this amazing little shop. 

The immensely talented Sabina makes these custom cartoon-style portraits. The likeness she was able to achieve is uncanny.

The gift was a hit, and I may just make this a recurring tradition. 

Dîner En Blanc

Have you ever been to Paris? It’s a magical city. I have visited a few times now, and it’s forever surprising, always beautiful and increasingly fascinating. I do not think I will ever have enough of it.

One of my favorite memories, is of walking through the streets one night and coming upon this huge gathering of people. There were hundreds of tables set up, all draped in white tablecloths, lights, flowers, music, everyone dressed in white as well, sitting down, having supper under the stars. A mesmerizing picture. 

For years I wondered about this gathering, until a couple of years ago when I heard about “Dîner en Blanc”. Are you familiar with it? It’s an outdoor picnic, in a secret location that changes every year. You dress in white, bring your own table, chairs, and food. You set up, have dinner, after which there is dancing, and it all wraps up at 23:00, when you gather your things and return home. I cannot tell you how much fun it is. We have participated twice now, and it is the perfect date night outing. It’s now being organized in lots of cities around the world. 

I really enjoy the anticipation, the planning that goes into it. Thinking of what type of food to bring (we opted for sushi this year), what to wear, how to decorate the table, it all adds to the excitement of the event.

via Instagram 

via Instagram

What does this have to do with knitting? Well, nothing to be honest, except that, even though the event is usually scheduled at some time in August, I do live in Montreal, and the weather can be  capricious. That made me think, a beautiful occasion such as this deserves a knit. Something beautiful to grab in case it’s chilly. Something special enough for such an event. I am planning on having it ready for next year’s Diner, and I have narrowed it down to  the following 3 patterns. Which is your favourite?

Aisé

Artesian

Bamboo Wedding Shawl

Design Mom Feature

Do you have go-to blogs? Blogs you always refer to when you have a question, blogs that you check in on daily?

I have a few, one of my favorites being “Design Mom”. Gabrielle manages to cover so many topics I am interested in, like parenting, decorating and travel.  Her stories of living in France were amazing.  She also has these fantastic columns about “Living with kids” and “Birth Stories”, stories that you can get lost in, and almost always relate to.

I only quickly mentioned it on the blog, but my daughter was a preemie. She was born 12 weeks early, and spent 2 months in the NICU. It was a very difficult time for us. Not something that I openly shared or felt able to discuss at the time. But a year and a half later, after reading one of the birth stories shared by another reader on the Design Mom blog, I felt ready to write about it. So I started writing, and it felt good, cathartic to write it all out. At first, I simply wrote it all out because I thought it would help me heal from this trauma, because that is what this experience was, but once I finished, I thought that by sharing it, my story may help someone else going through something similar, give them hope, or maybe even help them heal. So I sent it to Gabrielle, and  to my surprise, she found it interesting enough to publish on her blog.

I am of course honoured, and thrilled, and a little terrified…..

If you guys are curious, hop on over to her blog to read about Sienna’s story.

Christmas Abroad

As promised, I am back to tell you about our amazing trip to Austria. We spend three glorious weeks with my family. It had been more then 20 years since we celebrated the holidays with them last. It was a picture-perfect experience. The house, filled with laughter and chatter, the smell of the most delicious home cooking wafting through the air at all times. We feasted on traditional dishes and gorged on the most incredible cookies.

I was glad that Aidan got to experience a different kind of Christmas traditions. It was refreshing for us grownups as well. A celebration away from the hustle and bustle of shoppers and malls, from the pressure to find the latest, trendy gift. 

We instead were able to focus on family and togetherness.

I have always lived in a big city. I am used to being one among many, incognito if you will. Even living in the suburbs there is a certain anonimity that can be reassuring. But experiencing the holidays in such a close-knit community as the one of my family lives in, was refreshing. 

They live in a small village about 50km outside of Vienna. Everybody knows each other, helps each other. Every day, a new neighbour would call at our door with home-made goodies. (I suspect that we were also a curiosity to check out... the far off relatives, you know. ) My uncle, the beekeeper, shared his bounty with villagers as well. On Christmas eve we all joined in a little church ceremony during which our Christmas tree magically appeared at home, to the children's delight. They were in awe, their belief in the magic of the holidays renewed.

This Christmas will remain a cherished memory for our little family. I can only hope that we will have others like this in the future!

via Instagram

via Instagram

Happy 1st Advent

For our little family, first advent has always marked the beginning of the holiday season. This weekend we pulled out our Christmas decorations, started playing Christmas carols, and even managed to make salt-dough ornaments.

And, as I have done every years since Aidan was born, I made an advent calendar. This year's I am especially pleased with.

As I have found out, first graders are especially fond of Pokemon trading cards, so I decided to use those as my advent calendar fillers. Cheery wrapping paper and pretty tags helped complete the project. And finally my new chalkboard wall turned out to be the perfect backdrop. 

Aidan is already itching to rip open his first envelope.

Happy Advent!

Finningan's Market- Love where you live

In catching up with my blog reading recently, I was thrilled to see that Gabrielle, also known as Design Mom, is bringing back one of my favourite "columns", called "Love where you live". (Hop over for lots of fun blog posts!)

When I first read about this series of posts, I was really inspired to make an effort to explore fun and beautiful places close to home. We will be spending this summer in Montreal, so I am certainly determined to "love where I live" even more.

For a while now I have wanted to check out Finnegan's market. It is an outdoor antique market that takes place every Saturday in the summer. We thought it would be a fun outing with the kids, that we could finish off with a picnic. 

It seems that I completely forgot how chaotic it is to travel with babies in tow. Our day was not off to a great start. It took forever to get out of the house as it was impossible to get organized. In the end, my son left wearing the T-shirt he had slept in, and I had no time to make anything for our picnic. ( A big thanks to my sister here who rescued our lunch and made sandwiches for everyone! AND remembered to bring my dad!!!) But, we made it out of the house and believe me, that is something to be proud of these days! The 30 minute drive served to cool everyone's tempers, and by the time we got there we were all smiles and ready to explore.

The weather was perfect for a stroll through the stalls, for admiring, chatting and enjoying. I saw so many knick-knacks that I would have loved to bring home with me, here are a few glimpses.

Lovely garden accessories

                                                   

                                                 Happiness in a popsicle

                                                      Endless treasures to discover

                                             And of course something knitting related

                                                         Cousins

And last but not least, the reason I am not getting any sleep these days

Here, here, here  and here are my other "Love where you live posts". 

'Twas the night before Christmas

I am quickly checking in tonight, to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas", a most joyous of holidays alongside your loved ones.

The past few weeks have been a blur of planning, shopping and cooking.

We did manage to make our yearly visit to the Montreal Christmas Market, and I snapped a few photographs. It was a typical Montreal winter day. Freezing cold with a crystal clear, blue sky. We warmed up by huddling together on the train ride for little ones, with a glass of spiced wine (recipe here), and around the fire-pits that were strewn around the market.

Santa made his appearance and for the first time ever, Aidan was fearless, sat in his lap, and spoke to him.
We enjoyed lunch at a little french cafe around the corner, and headed back home. One of my favorite winter traditions we've started.

Perhaps, if I find some time during the holidays I will post about my knitted Christmas gifts. Now, I will go enjoy Santa's cookies and milk, but to be honest, I am thinking Santa deserves a glass of wine. Perhaps, this is a tradition that I will start next year!