Holiday cheer

For the last couple of days I've been avoiding the blog because I just didn't know how to 'come back' so to speak. But I figure 'to heck with it!' I'll just pop in to say hello, Hello!, and get the ball rolling on all this holiday goodness. Turns out that my mom is coming up for Christmas so it won't just be Alex, Ayla and I enjoying the good cheer. I'm pretty happy about this as we'll also be visiting family I didn't know I had in Calgary. There will be lots of running around trying to get her to all the important places before she leaves (ie. Banff, West Ed Mall and the many vegan eats in and around Calgary and Edmonton). Should be fun!

So this holiday season I've been thinking about my whole handmade pledge and I've got to say, I don't really have any handmade trinkets up my sleeve! I'll be making a doll for Ayla as I found a really cute pattern online (I should actually be doing this now that I have a spare moment) but that's about it! I can't think of anything handmade that I can make for Alex that he actually really needs or would want. Truthfully. Same goes for my mom. I don't want to make something just to make it and say it's handmade. I want it to actually have a useful function. I'm not very fond of clutter and I know how it is to receive a handmade gift that just winds up being clutter, unfortunately. Mind you that's probably better than a typically 'commercial' gift winding up being clutter. Last year was really fun because I had so many people to make gifts for and I knew they would be well recieved. Alex is not very big on handmade. We'll see, we'll see.

I did cave and buy a toy piano for Ayla. And not just any toy piano because you know we don't do plastic over here so it had to be of wooden construction. I got her a Schoenhut, the My First Piano II in red from Country Moose Kids (super fast and free! shipping to US and Canada). I ordered it last Monday and it arrived today!

It's heavenly beautiful but it's all wrapped up in plastic so I didn't take a picture of it. I don't want to undo it until Christmas when I give it to her. I'm so excited it comes with a little music book and even has two Christmas carols thrown in. I also got her some Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles and I bought a toy radio flyer wagon on Ebay before she was born, I'll assemble that as well. New ideas keep popping up for her everyday so we'll see what else is thrown in by the time the big day arrives.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before buy Christmas is my favorite holiday! I just love the holiday cheer that's pretty infectuous all around. And I also love the bah humbugs out there too because for some reason it fully completes the magic of Christmas and the holiday season. And speaking of 'bah humbug'! This isn't Ayla's official Santa picture but I sure hope it turns out better when the time comes! (And Santa could have looked a bit more jolly himself! Humph!)