Tag: tree

Decorating the tree should not be stressful???

Fess up!  Do you let your kids help decorate the tree and then rearrange the decorations once they’ve gone to bed?  I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to things like this.  It may be the Libra in me, everything has to be balanced.  Prior to having kids my tree wasn’t perfect, like Michelle Obama’s, but all my decorations were colour coordinated and strategically placed.

However, since having my daughter, the first couple of years were fine, as she was too little to get involved and was happy staring at the shiny bulbs and flashing lights.  But for the last 2 or 3 years she has been fully involved with decorating the tree including making her own decorations, resulting in a tree that looks like it’s had decorations thrown at it from across the room, causing me a mild amount of inner angst.   If I’m honest, the first couple of times she helped I did do a bit of rearranging when she’d gone to bed.

I’m pleased to announce and without therapy, I have not moved a single decoration this year, now that she is 5.  But I have to confess, it may be because she did a rather good job herself and not that I have chilled out; maybe she’s inherited my obsession.

And on a side note, does everyone else have difficulties taking  decent photo of a Christmas Tree?

Disclosure:   The Warm Cone Lights were Compliments of Notcutts

We are family!

My mum comes from a family of nine.  I have 22 cousins on one side and we’ve lost count of how many great-grandchildren.  However, the oldest great-grandchild is 19 and the youngest is 3 months.  Like most families we only ever get together at weddings and funerals but this summer we had our first family reunion ever and it was brilliant.

Seven out of the nine families were represented.  It as held at my aunt’s rather large house in Aldergrove, BC, Canada which is just outside of Vancouver.  They opted to keep it fairly simple and we had a BBQ, each adult threw in a tenner.  One of my aunts had the genius idea of each family wearing a different colour shirt.   This was a godsend as you could work out who belonged to whom and check out the apple tree my aunt and cousin did!

My family, as you have guessed, are slightly mad so there were loads of laughs.  At one point they used a rope and tied one of my aunts into the port-a-potty!  Everyone enjoyed it so much they are threatening to do it again next year.

A big thank you to my Auntie Mary, Cindy and Marg for all of their hard work.

A Wealth of Useless Knowledge

I’m a curious soul, one of my only traits I hope my daughter inherits.  This week I’ve learned that:

Baked Beans are Haricot Beans, which are sometimes called Pea Beans, hence why some people think they are peas.  Both peas and beans are Legumes which are fruits or seeds of anything that comes in a pod.  But what I really want to know is how to pronounce Legumes. Is it lay-goom, lee-goom, lie-goom or some other way?

Paracetamol is available as a suppository???  In Spain and Lapland this is the norm, even for children.  If my daughter is ever that sick and in need of one I hope we’re in a place with medically trained staff as there is no chance that I will be doing this!  Just seems wrong to me!

Tree Nuts are nuts that grow on trees (walnuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, chestnuts).  I know that is fairly obvious but didn’t realise there was a difference.  Interestingly, some people can be allergic to one and not the other.  I was also reminded that peanuts grow underground.  Not sure if I already knew that or had just forgotten.

Now if I could only remember these things I’d be a great quiz team player!