Na na Na na hey hey good bye 2009

The year 2009 has left the building.

The years seem to be flying by like days. Already Kieran is 4-1/2. A non-stop chatterbox right up until he falls asleep in the car seat. Almost narcoleptic.



What did we do this year?
Well Sukaboy turned 40. Woo Hoo. It felt like the 40's along with a bottle of ibuprofen - extra strength.
We visited sin city - ie. Vegas. It was hot and dry. Felt like hell. And without the kid, a first.

2009 was the year of the Eco-Audit. Well the bulk of the renos related to getting a rebate was done in 2008, with our windows and furnace. But the last two and half months of 2009 were spent doing a reno directly related to getting a rebate. It's all I can think of. Cuz I've been working on it every evening and weekend. Even the last day of the year was spent getting the laundry room prepped for painting. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished and not having having drywall dust in my eyes and inhaling paint fumes. I was hoping 2010 would start off with out working on it. But it's not looking like it.

2009 The Cup champs. After 3 long years. And I made that trophy.

Kieran graduated from the training wheels and zoomed into 2 wheel riding. This paved the way for his first triathlon race. I did my first triathlon (before I turned 40) and survived. Then I did it again in the fall and got beat by my brother. But more importantly we got to see Kieran race his first triathlon.

Tresa did her first race in a long time. And it was a 10k. No training. How'd it feel? Afterwards.

We all got H1N1 and survived. Although we did miss Halloween.

It was the year of the Cirque. 2x. A first for the kid.

It was the year of the Frial cottage.

It was another cross border shopping year of CDN $ parity.

It was the year of DIY everything from car repairs to home repairs and taking your own stitches out.

It was a year of ice skating. Although it seems like Kieran this year has been making leaps and bounds with his coordination in sporting activities.

If 2008 was the year of traveling. 2009 was a year of reno and house stuff and overcoming my fear of the open water and all with a hamstring injury.

Wonder what 2010 will bring our way? Changes I'm sure.
2010 for sure we'll see some $$$. That's because our eco-audit 18 month deadline is at the end of Feb. Plus we get a tax refund on all our 2009 renovations.

Bring it on 2010.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Champions - 2009

These aren't the winners. These guys lost. Big time.

Series Summary:
4 games to 1
Game   Home   Away
   #1        2           5
Shots     41         63
- The warm up

   #2        5           1
Shots     49         46
- TSN turning point

   #3        4           2
Shots     39         46
- All lines firing

   #4        7           6
Shots     59         62
- Not good enough

   #5        6           1
Shots     ??         ??
- Total domination

This is the winning team.
After losing 3 series, we can finally put our names on the Cup. We tried playing the latest EA NHL 2K9, but it was too complicated for our middle-aged minds. We were reminiscing of the days of N64 and Sega. And some of the moves we'd make on the ice.

We agreed to quick 5 min pre-game warm up and then It was GAME TIME! It was time to be serious. It was du-mano du-mano (I wanted to say 2 guys vs 2 other guys but I think I have it in French and Spanish, whatever, my kid's in Montessori).

Derrick didn't want to face Antonio. But I think Hong did and had jealousy in his eyes.


We lost the first game but we didn't panic, we looked at the video figured out what we we needed to do to neutralize them and regrouped.

We also ate some food, had some beers, cleaned our noses.
Saw some travel photos of Anne and Antonio's trip to Japan, HK and Philippines. You know to relax a bit before Game 2.


Game 2 was the reverse of Game 1. It could be the TSN turning point of the year. Had our whiteboard strategy worked? Could we execute in Game 3?
It was time for a break. Regrouping on one side and tuning a formula 1 engine on the other. Who was coming out for Game 3?


Antonio showed us his new grey fake polo shirt from the philippines. Only a trained eye can tell it's fake. But here's how you know. There's no man on the horse on the shirt. And the tag says Pola. But it fits him like a glove. Medium up top and XL around the mid section.

Price was right. 5 pesos. Includes alterations and 5 free washings and a massage by an old filipina (man or woman, depending on availability).

He jumped on the deal like a starved filipino cat on a 5 day old dead rat.

Game 3. Was close but a repeat of Game 2. The execution was there. 2 early goals put the Away N.Amer all-stars in a hole. How many times can they give up the first goal and still think they can come back. It's not a good strategy, what were they thinking? They are now 0-2 when giving up the first goal.

Game 4. The Away N.Amer all-stars are down 2 games to 1. No one has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit and won. At least not that I can remember. We can barely remember which house we played at last year. The Away N.Amer all-stars were on the ropes. They needed to win or face huge odds. Communication was key to winning this pivotal game. But Hong was now recruiting a new team member for 2010. Derrick was left in doghouse. Maybe he'll test free agency in the off season.

Game 4 was crucial. It either meant all square or the Elvis was getting ready to leave the building and sing his 'na-na na na, hey hey good-bye' song.

It was close but no cigar for the Away N.Amer all-stars. Again they gave up the first 2 goals. We were always ahead. But a few late goals in the 3rd period made it close. They were storming back and running our goalie trying to tie it up. Derrick even thought he had the game tying goal. But ah..too bad. We were still up by 1 with a minute left. But those early goals by the Home N.Amer all-stars was too big of a hole to dig out from. Victory was a game away. Sweet.

Sweet as the home made ice cream and pie that Anne brought out for us for the intermission before Game 5. Awesome pie by the english Martha.

Game 5. It was time to finish them off and put them out of their misery. We had them on the ropes and they were talking to each other but neither was listening.

It was a rout. Pure domination. What was set up to be an evenly matched series was surgical precision on the part of the Home N.Amer all-stars and the dismantling of the Away N.Amer all-stars. They got schooled.
You could say that team is now in a rebuilding phase.
The GM and Head coach are on borrowed time.

Thanks for the great dinner Anne. Maybe next year we do pot luck? So the spouses don't have to do so much and they can enjoy themselves. That's if the other spouses show up.

This is what a boy's night out is like post 40.
Click me for a few more photos
Video interview of the losers.

Almost a New Year - new laundry

It's been 16 months since we did our eco-audit back in Sept of 2008. I've just about completed the last major reno project for our audit. You get 18 months to complete all your renos to qualify for the FED & PROV government eco-rebates.

It's winter now and I can't do anymore work. Luckily for me the snow storms have held off. Last year by this time we'd had more than 3 ft of snow. It's like Mother Nature was cutting me some slack.

This last project is taking me the longest to do. I really underestimated how much time it would take me to redo the basement laundry. Our laundry room was ok before. It was neat and clean. But uninsulated. So in the winter it was always freezing. And the snow was always melted 2 to 3 inches next to the house from heat escaping through the brick walls.

The old owner had taken out part of a cinder block to install a clear glass block when the gas meter was still in the

house and meter readers didn't have to enter the house to read the gas meter. That's now outside and at that back of the house and now that glass block has been painted and is like a conduit of cold air in the winter months.

The audit indicated that if I insulate this part of the house, I would get back $1000.00. That's what the eco-auditor told me. So back on Oct 20th I started this project. It was a big project that involved everything. From framing, to plumbing, to electrical and drywall installation. I basically learned how to do simple plumbing and electrical. I'd never done framing before so this was a first too. Good thing there's Google and YouTube. That's how I learned how to do it. Came in handy.

I originally estimated that it would take me a full week to get this project complete (man, was I ever off). But right off the bat I had a dilemma. In order to frame I had to remove the pipes. But then we'd have no water for at least a few days to a week. I can't put the pipes in until I have the framing done. What do I do? I call Billy. There's no way I can put the pipes back, in a day. So he suggests a product called Shark Bite. These are fittings that will connect on to the same size copper and flexible plastic tubing. It's awesome. I could use this to temporarily mo

ve the water supply out of my way so I could frame. I framed everywhere I could until I had to redo all the plumbing. The framing and plumbing probably took me about 3 weeks complete (Nov 13). Not including the 10 days of H1N1. Boxing in all the pipes took longer than I thought. There was a lot of measuring and cutting.

I was more uneasy with doing plumbing more than anything else. But I took my time and made my share of mistakes and redo's. My brother came by to get me started on the plumbing layout when I was ready to install the new piping, and give me a hand from time to time, like when I put in the ceiling and the first potlight. Before I settled on going copper, I was debating on using the plastic piping vs the copper, but with the research on chemicals leeching from the plastic swayed me and I went with the tried and true copper. Also the costs are slightly in favour of the copper. Copper fittings are 30 cents and 12ft lengths of 1/2 inch pipe are about $15.00 or so. But plastic would have been much faster to do. But I'm not building 200 homes. Just one laundry room. Faster isn't always better you know. Just compare the new homes of today with the ones built in the 50's and earlier. The shark bite fittings are almost $10.00 each (there are others but this is a cool system, no $200.00 PEX crimping tool required, they push-on to copper or plastic of the same size) but the piping is cheap 17.00 for a 50ft length. With the plastic you don't have to solder which scares most people, but with practice it's not that hard and will last a lifetime. Plastic can degrade and become brittle over time. The pipes I removed were original to the house circa 1956.

Besides the copper pipes are nice and straight and smaller in diameter than the plastic. The plastic system sags and IMHO isn't as nice to look at. With copper you can paint it, or leave it bare and it's not as bulky as the plastic system. The fittings for the plastic piping is 4x larger. Also with copper once it's in. That's usually it. Billy is a professional plumber, I was concerned about how do I know if my soldering jobs were any good. He mentioned a couple of things 1) pressure test - once the main is on you'll know right away and 2) tap the joint with a wrench, if it doesn't leak it's good. And so far, no leaks. The last of the drywall didn't go up until last weekend. And we've had water almost every day except for 1 weekend when I turned off the water on the Saturday morning and didn't finish the piping until Sunday at midnight. And I had to make a run to HD before they closed cause I ran out of solder. But I got it done.

I had completed all the bulkheads by Nov 30. Insulating took me a few hours. It was by far the easiest part but the itchiest. Then in the middle of all the construction, Tresa said she wanted pot lights. So down came the ceiling. I had initially bought the potlights from HomeDepot, but returned them after we spoke to Carmen's boyfriend who is an electrical contractor and he prefers to install another brand that you can't get at the big box stores. One thing I discovered was that a lot of products from Home Depot come from China. I asked the fellow at Wolf Electric why the pot lights at HD looked copper-ish even though it says brushed nickel. And he told me it's their plating process which is cheap. It's like paint. So it was originally like brushed nickel but tarnishes quickly. You can really tell the difference between the China-made stuff and the Canadian made stuff. It's way more money, but if it's your house, it's worth it. Unless you're some cheap asian. By Dec 8th I had installed all the ceiling drywall and the potlights. And it's 100% Canadian. Made in Quebec. If you're going to get potlights, get them from Rona. Most of their products come from Quebec. Don't go cheap.

The laundry room was like opening a can of worms. Pipes were like a tree. Electrical was like spaghetti. It was really a challenge. Although I used way more colourful words to describe what I went through on this project in dealing with the way things were done.

The other thing I did was install an exhaust fan to vent the moisture from the shower. When we did the audit I asked the guy why the basement was smelling a little musty. It was not like that when we took ownership of the house 7 years ago. He told me it was because of the moisture from the shower. The water droplets fall down on everything causing that musty smell. So one Sunday afternoon was spent drilling holes to install a new 4 inch pipe for the new dryer vent. I reused the old one for the exhaust fan.

I used to notice that if I left clothes in the dryer overnight, in the morning I'd take them out and they'd feel super cold. Indicating that there was a big draft coming from the vent. So the new dryer vent that I installed on Nov 14th, is a Broan Eco-vent. It has a round styrofoam ball that moves out of the way when the dryer is on, but plugs the hole when it's off. It took me a few hours with a hammer drill to make the new hole. My hands and body were numb from the vibration.

The shower exhaust duct has this door that only opens out, so when the fan is on it opens, and seals shut if outside air tries to enter in. Both do the same thing by preventing any drafts and I've noticed that the clothes aren't cold anymore when they are in the dryer overnight.

I installed the same draft blocker damper on the kitchen hood vent. Now our kitchen isn't so chilly any more. Even today (Dec 29) it was -15 deg C outside and usually the kitchen is freezing due to the draft. It's no where near what it was before.

By Dec 20th (with some help) I had put up the last of the drywall. Now our laundry room isn't so cold any more. It's a little dusty, but I still need to sand and prime and paint the walls. But the bulk of the work is done.

I've been pretty much working every evening and weekend to get this done because winter was on it's way. It's crappy working out in the cold. It was a race against the seasons. In the middle of it all I replaced the lights in the garage because one of the lights stopped working. I found out during the replacement that a wire was broken, but these lights have a newer ballast that works better in lower temps. I had fun (sic) doing that in the dark too. By 5:30pm it was already night. But I needed to do this just in case I had to do some work in the garage, I needed a reliable light to work by. Good thing too. I've got still got trim work to do.

This is my last project for the eco-audit and for the year. And was the biggest. And I'm almost there. Almost donno. Glad I had a little helper around.

[x] main floor and 2nd floor windows (Sept 2008)

[x] attic insulation (Sept 2008)

[x] new furnace (Sept 2008)

[x] awning - repainted (May 2009)

[x] garage - new paint and floor coating (June 2009)

[x] back bedroom Kieran's playroom reno - wall insulation (July 2009)

[x] basement laundry reno (Oct-Dec 2009)

[ ] front basement reno

[ ] upstairs bath reno

[ ] stairwell wall insulation

[ ] master bedroom wall insulation

[ ] kieran's room wall insulation

[ ] new front door

[ ] new side door

I'm like halfway through our project list. It's not in any order, but I'm taking a break for a while.

For the first month of this project my hands were raw from cutting and soldering pipe. After a while I was sick of plumbing. Tired of mopping up water. Tired of re-soldering joints. In the end I got pretty good. But I wanted to move forward and get this done.

Then it was debris falling on my head from taking down the ceiling. Now I'm tired of getting drywall compound dust in my eyes, mouth and nose. And I'm just tired of doing my day job and this reno job. Looking forward to getting this done and having our house clean again. Tresa and Kieran have put up with the inconvenience of the reno, the dust and sometimes not having water from time to time. If I had known how big of a job this was going to be, I may not have done it.

But I do it because I like realizing Tresa's vision of transforming our home. I'm just the grunt. She's the one who picks the colours and all the nice looking things and has the concept that pulls it all together. I just use the tools to execute. And it's looking like it was worth the effort.

Click me for WAY more photos of the basement laundry reno
I put lots of comments in the photos.

Trying to get this done before 2010 gets here.

Season's Greetings

So far it's been a mild winter. I've shoveled snow once.



Last year we had a winter storm that dumped a few feet of snow in a matter of a few hours. This year it's looking like a green and dry Christmas. Which I'm not complaining about.



I needed the Indian Summer and the lack of snow. Mother Nature has got my back.
I've been busy every weeknight and weekend working on the last project for the eco-audit. Just wanting to get it done before the heavy snows hit, and we can put our basement back in some kind of order. I'm tired of the drywall dust and itchy insulation. Soon it'll be sanding and priming and painting. But our basement laundry will be usable again. And I can do something else in my evenings instead of cutting wood, plumbing or drywall.

But we've still managed to put up our tree and see many versions of Santa.

Happy Holidays folks.

This is our Ikea tree. This is what you get when you go on a Sunday when the promotion starts on a Friday. You get slim pickings. And this tree would have been alright but it's got a chunk missing from the backside. But what do you expect for 20 bucks and a $20.00 coupon off your next Ikea purchase in Jan. We were planning on getting cabinets for the basement, so we took the hook. Our timing was just off. We'll know better for next year.

It's smaller than our tree last year. Kieran kept saying. Why don't we just get the tree we had last year.
We can't cuz it's land fill now.

And we thought our lights were busted because parts weren't lighting up, but all I had to do was replace some bulbs.
I had gone to CT to get replacement set, but I got our old ones working. But I kept the multicoloured ones for Kieran since he's been asking for coloured lights since last year.
He was happy.

I also had to replace our tree stand, because the two sharp things that stick into the trunk came off leaving a hole in the bowl. I was happy because now I could get something better and simpler.

I went to three different stores. And 2 were sold out of stands. What I ended up getting was a newer model of the same thing that we had, because all the other tree stands were humongous. They were meant for 10ft douglas firs.

What can you do? I had no choice.
Bah...humbug.

Learn to Skate

Being a figure skater, Tresa wanted Kieran to be as good as she, only no skirts. We've been taking him skating on a regular basis down at Rennie park for the past 3 seasons. He started with the bob-skates for 2 seasons and then last year he was into the hockey skates but with the skating aid for little kids. But he didn't really need it. And he was trying to do the Antonio shuffle on the ice. We were trying to teach him to use his edges, but you know kids don't listen to their parents.

So Tresa, this season, found this CanSkate program at the West Toronto Skating club over at McCormick arena. So we signed him up. I wasn't sure if his skates would still fit since we've discovered he needed size 10 shoes. And his skates were a size 8. But skates should always be smaller than your shoes and the same applies for kids. I took him and our old skates to SportChek and SportMart and both guys helping me out with skates said that his current skates were perfect size for this season. Too big and they won't feel stable on the ice. So we were good to go. I got these skates brand new for a bargain. Actually it was a clearance item but with a fat fingered discount. The SportMart near my work was moving to a different location so things were priced to move. And items were an additional 50% at the cash.

These skates were marked at $30.00 plus an additional 50% off. So I told the cashier that the guy over there told me these were 50% off, so $15.00, which was a steal. She asked the guy and he nodded. And she proceeded to punch into the register $15.00 + 50% off. So $7.50 + tax. Woo HOO! I was thinking what else do I need? This cashier was like out of an Ikea commercial. START the CAR!

Anyways. I won't need to get new skates till next year. Seeing the prices of the skates. I should have gotten another pair of size 10. But who knows what his foot size was going to be next season. So better to wait and trade these ones in.

So 14 weeks later. Noticeable improvement in his skating. He's able to get up on his own, he is now using his edges. His report card was a mix of E's, G's, S's and NI's.

There's a comment there that he needs to work on following instructions. Ah well. Must have been when he was down on the ice and scraping his cage on the ice. Him and one other kid were the two smallest kids in the group. We knew he wasn't always listening as we watched his classes, we'd badger him to listen, but we stopped he's only 4 he wants to play. But, hey as long as he was having fun skating, that's what matters.

This past Saturday after his last lesson. There was a mini olympics held at the arena for the fall session kids.

Click me for more photos

And after the students had their 5 mins of mini olympic trials, there were skating performances by the WTSC members. I didn't take any photos of this, but it was very good. There was even a really young ice dance pair. Wish I had taken pics because they were all impressive. And also because Kieran said he didn't want to play hockey but he wanted to figure skate instead.

And afterwards there was pizza, food and drinks for all. And the ice was open for all to go skating.



It's better he falls down now and learns to skate versus learning later in life. As a little kid his bones are still flexible. I've seen him and other kids fall on their bum and wince in pain. You get so used to them falling with a diaper that you expect them to be all smiles. But no diaper and less padding and a less baby fat to cushion the fall equals pain. But it's way better than learning later on in life when falling can lead to pain plus broken bones or missing teeth.

Just waiting for my ride

It was a busy Saturday. From early in the morning we were busy as a bee.
We had breakfast, and then we had to drop mama off at the subway so she could go to work.

So it was Kieran and I at least until auntie came and picked him up.

We did some grocery shopping. We were low on the red juice. It's funny how you plan to go grocery shopping and buy just one item and leave with 9 and you're 1 over the express lane so you have to line up with the others with a full cart with what must be 50 items (like they were shopping at Costco getting ready to hibernate for the winter).

Kieran helped me get stuff we needed. Next time we need a list.

Next stop was home. And I had planned on changing my snow tires on the subaru. It was Dec already and usually this is already done by now. But it's been so warm that I could delay it. And good thing too. I had been so busy with reno work that I didn't have the time. It's like mother nature was knowing I had lots to do and was her way of giving me a hand.

So outside. Hydraulic jacks ready, I got the tires out. And Kieran got ready to help me. He wasn't content on just playing with the other lift and jack up his cars. He pointed to the real car that I was working on.

It was at that point that as a parent of a montessori student it was my responsibility to ensure that he has a safe environment in which to provide Kieran with the experience of doing real world things. An example we got was giving a child a play kitchen. It's pretend. There's no real feedback. Play toast won't burn (well not in the play toaster). But real toast will. You see smoke, you smell burning, you hear the smoke detector, you taste charcoal. You have real feed back. The reasoning is this. Kids between the ages of 0-6 learn through their senses. TV and those learning DVD's provide sight and sound. There's no smell, touch, it's an incomplete experience. They think things live in that box with the power button on the bottom right. Much of what they teach is that I put in this DVD in that box and I see and hear things on that other box in 2D.

Think about how we as adults learn. By experience in the real world. We can read and watch videos all we want, but until we put that first nail in the wall or cut that first piece of wood. We will never know how to build anything. It's the same thing for these little people.

They need to be part of day to day activities, be it shopping, cleaning, laundry, wash the car, renos. Whatever you are doing. These are things they will be doing later in life on their own. Why not let them do it from an early age when they are sponges for learning?

However they need to be involved in a safe way. And we have been doing that from as soon as he could walk (although early on we didn't realize that was the montessori philosophy we just had laundry, yard work and reno work to do as well as sports and travel stuff and it wasn't going to stop just not happen as fast). I recall doing the front lawn and ripping it out to prepare for laying down sod. Kieran was outside in his stroller watching me work. Later we find out this was the right thing to do. He may have been just over a year and barely walking, but he can see me working and share the experience of working the soil to prepare it for laying sod. He was laughing at me while I struggled, but the important thing was that he was involved somehow. He was learning about what people do in this world.

Parents want to protect their kids. Because when they are born. They are defenseless. They cannot survive without us. And so we protect them from harm and train them to be dependent on us. But as soon as they can crawl they are becoming explorers and learning to be independent. It's our responsibility to allow them to explore the world, for their benefit, but the key is safety. Otherwise we hamper their learning and development. They will make mistakes, but that's how we all learn. We do something and we see the effect. Tip a cup full of water over and it spills and we get wet. What do we do? We clean it up together. Give them a sippee cup and they fail to learn this simple skill. Why do we do this? Because it's more convenient for us as parents.

So back to the car. I had changed 3 wheels already. I had the fourth already jacked up. Kieran said he wanted to do the real thing. So I lowered the car and set it up for him and instructed him that I need that wheel off the ground. He knew how to use the hydraulic lift. It was just a matter of ensuring things were safe. He asked questions about jack itself. What was this? What's that do? I explained. I thought he would ask for help. But a few minutes later. He had by himself lifted the car so that I could remove the wheel and put on the snows.

So next step was to remove the lug nuts. And I showed him how to use the tools, he did it himself with some guidance from me. He asked for some help and I helped, but did not DO the task for him. He did it.

And so when they are young adults and you notice they do not know how to cook, do laundry, do their bed. They watch TV while you work and wash the car or clean the house. Or when they say "I can't do that" without even trying. Remember who trained them to be that way.

We changed the tire and I tightened the lugs with my torque wrench. We were done. Safely.
And we did all this while Jehova's were chatting with me about God and the world and readings. They witnessed Kieran working on the car, using the tools. It was a nice day and it was a pleasant conversation where the things I've learned from being a Montessori parent echoed many things in various religions, plus Vern is a 7ft giant. He could probably crush me with his pinky. Plus in times of need, like being surrounded by 10 thugs in a dark alley, I'll be asking God to send him. They even were the ones that said "we should let you go". Usually it's me saying "I need to go".

I'm not endorsing Montessori by any means. But from observation in the past year and a half - a lot of stuff they do just "makes sense". And when I compare how they structure their education and what I do today. It makes sense. They involve the parents greatly in the why they do things the way they do. Because everyone knows the child gets most of his education from home. So guidance of the parents from an early stage is critical.

There's a lot of 'stuff' going on in the public school system. I think it's broken. The parents think the teachers should be doing this. The gov't says the teachers aren't allowed to do that. I don't blame the teachers, they are only doing what is being dictated by the gov't. Teachers are between a rock and a hard place. And IMHO the gov't system is severely broken. The gov't is full of people who probably couldn't work in the private sector. You know in a private sector company when they refer to unprofessional behaviour between senior management as 'politics'. It's referring to how it is in gov't. So...you know what I mean? How can something broken be fixed by something broken. I don't know.

Anyways, afterwards I cleaned the car while Yahvi came outside and they hung out for a while playing and discussing real world stuff from a three and a half foot view.
Uncle Atul said to Kieran once he was fixing my car, he could work on his. Even neighbours watching him wash our car would say that he could come and wash theirs.
It was hard to tell because he was focused on the task, but these things provide a sense of accomplishment and add to his self-confidence.
Something money could never buy.

Which reminds me it's christmas time. The spirit of giving. But retailers look at it as the spirit of buying.
Buying gifts we don't need.
Worse.
Getting gifts we don't want. Sometimes turns this season into the season of re-gifting, or re-turning for credit and then re-alizing that the item was on sale or was a closeout or discontinued because no one with a frontal lobe was buying them.
Christmas season will soon add another couple of R's to the whole eco wave.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Re-turn & as a last resort - Re-gift

Almost looks like a wreath?


How much stuff do you need to be happy?
What people really need is to experience life and family, and sharing in that and making it better.

Even little people want to be involved. Not just when YOU want them involved. They want to be involved ALL the time in everything. Not when it's convenient for YOU.

We headed to the car wash when all was done. Because kids think is it's the most amazing thing. It's almost like being in a submarine with all this activity going on outside. Just remember to roll up the window.

So it was a busy working day, and while waiting for his auntie to pick him up for a sleepover so he could have some of 'his' time. He got himself packed and ready to go and waited by the front door.
He said he was ready and asked when are they coming. I knew he was ready for a nap. It was 4pm and within 20 mins of waiting. He pulled up Tresa's bag to use as a pillow and it was nap time.

Notice his hat is on backward. He put it on. There's nothing wrong with that. He did it - all by himself. His choice.

Appointment with Santa

Yep we had a scheduled appointment with Santa today. It was a group thing. It didn't come with the letter or email. You sign up for it and you get a designated time with Santa.

It's a group session, like group therapy. You get a chance to meet others with similar interests and issues. Some are normal, some are hyper and others are just pushy. But they all believe in this guy.


Kieran was really looking forward to it.
I can't remember when Tresa made this schedule but I know it was at least a few weeks back.

While on a window shopping trip.

They tell stories, ring some bells, tell more stories, sing some songs, then they get 1-on-1 time with Santa.
He even did some magic tricks for the kids.

The kids are very attentive. They're always attentive when you wear a red suit and have a white beard and there's the possibility of getting a toy.

Each kid gets the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap to let him know what they'd like for him to bring them for Christmas.

While the parents and grandparents hover like the paparazzi snapping pictures like there's no tomorrow. With a digital camera and a camcorder. That's so instead of watching it live they can watch it later and realize it was recorded in poor light and the photos are washed out and blurry.


In any case, however I didn't hear what he asked for.





Maybe he just asked for World Peace.
Really...what else do you need?