East Coast Christmas Part 1: Christmas Eve

Here are some pictures of our celebrations so far...

Our authentic Newfoundland spruce and berry garland 

Goat cheese and green onion souffles on Christmas Eve Morning

A walk downtown at dusk on Christmas Eve

Water Street

Rocket Cafe and Bakery (through the window)

Down on the docks

the bows... don't they look like whales?

Christmas Eve church service

Our goodies for Christmas Eve

Part of the package from Mom and Dad Claus

                                                           
Merry Christmas!

10 more days...

Until my official due date. My arbitrary end date to these 9 months... it's hard to believe!

Though it could be a while yet.

I don't really know what to think right now. I would love to meet this baby, but I think it would be nicer for him or her to have their birthday after Christmas... to have your birthday in the 4 days before Christmas just seems a little unfair.
I would love for him or her to be born next week sometime, but then Mum won't be here yet. But the week between Christmas and New Year's is just such a nice relaxing holiday week... and we will be relaxing and waiting, and waiting....
The house is spotless. The freezer is full. The little clothes are washed and the baby room is ready. I have a couple of little Christmas presents for my dear husband. We did 'Christmas groceries' last night so we are all ready with treats for the weekend.

I need to be patient! And trust that this little one will arrive at precisely the moment he/she is meant to.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.


How else would you know patience without the waiting?

And every hour that goes by,
every wakeful night spent wondering if this twinge you're feeling is the beginning,
every shift of an ever-growing babe lower and lower and lower,
every ache and pain and knowing that something is changing even if no one can tell,
every day waiting and wondering,
opens the windows of a life to let all of the grace-love in.


How else would you have known the grace of life long love
without some longing and some waiting,
some space for one to give and the other to receive?


- Sarah Bessey, www.emergingmummy.com

O Christmas Tree!

After church yesterday we went up in the wilds of Pippy Park to look for a Christmas tree.... 

It didn't take very long to find a good one... Newfoundland specializes in short, stubby evergreens that are well-filled out.

So proud! A fine-looking tree.

At home... on goes the first ornament

The finished product! 

Tourtiere, aka meat pie, for supper... yummy!

And a shot of the baby for good measure.... 12 days till my due date! 

We had a lovely Sunday yesterday... with tree-hunting and decorating, snow falling outside, coffee and biscotti in the afternoon, and chats with family- also delicious dinner and some good books! Savouring these days...

Tick tick tick...

Sometimes I feel like I have an invisible oven timer floating above my head. But, I can't figure out how many minutes it has been programmed for... so it will be a surprise when it goes off!

Brian finished presenting the research proposal portion of the comprehensive exam for his PhD today (yes, it is complicated just like it sounds). And passed. This means that his reviewing committee likes what he is researching and is giving him the a-okay to delve right in there and figure out what he has told them he wants to figure out. In a simplified nutshell. Hurray! Congratulations my dear husband! Also, it means that this baby can come anytime now... because that is out of the way.

Though, technically speaking, s/he still has a couple more weeks to 'bake'. Oh the suspense! I have cleaned the whole house, I've made soup for the freezer, pasta and a bit of baking too. Gathered up addresses/ phone numbers, thought about birth, thought about names, washed and folded little blankets and sleepers.

So what else is there? Well-- read some more, there are a pile of books on the coffee table. Bake and cook more (I feel like a squirrel!), stock up on grocery staples/ snacks, maybe even figure out how to make a birth announcement on Paintshop. Write some more thank you notes. And go swimming!!

Speaking of pregnancy exercise, it's hard to do sometimes but I do think it is extremely beneficial in making this whole journey a little easier! I think my biking days are over- not because of my current state, but because of the weather. I still biked yesterday and was quite fine. But it was chilly and started 'flurrying' right after I got home. (good timing!)  It's nice for the back and no one can tell I am pregnant and give me funny books because of the leaning-forward posture of the bike. Walking is still fine- hopefully s/he drops down milimetre by milimetre with every kilometre? haha. But I want to try swimming... I've heard some gentle laps are pretty good for pregnant ladies. Plus, imagine not feeling the weight of a baby belly- hurray for water! Perhaps I'll go tomorrow....

Mr and Mrs Claus at last Saturday's 'Ugly Sweater/ Christmas costume Christmas party'

My favourite little room

Today our maintenance man (Carl, aka the invisible elf!) stopped by when I was out and fixed the closet of the baby's room- and put up shelves! I asked him very nicely, if he had time, if he could put one up. The landlords/ maintenance man of this house have been awesome in that not only do they fix broken things (like the blocked chimney when we first moved in!) but they also do little improvements around the house! Which have included a shelf in the laundry room, a light in the pantry, shelves in the pantry, and now today's latest edition!

I came home and saw not 1, but 2 shelves! And a fixed closet. Now, the baby room is complete... hurray! I like it.
It's funny, a lot of people have asked me "What's the theme of your nursery?" Which I think is funny. I'm not really a theme/ decorating type person. The rest of our house doesn't really have a theme (unless you count stuff-we-like-and-sometimes-got-for-free-but-mostly doesn't officially-match as a theme) so i didn't really want to have a perfectly matchy matchy baby room. I'm not really into that.

So, here is the finished product. It's cozy and I can't wait to rock a baby in that chair! (PS- you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

We plan to use the sheepskin as a little rug for baby on our wooden floors as well...

The sheep is called a Snuggle Me Sherpa... it has a really fluffy blanket inside it! (for the safety conscious, i will remove all objects inside the crib before it is occupied :)

Note the 'diaper cake' on the top shelf! Also, Baby C is already starting a book collection.. must take after his/her parents...

all the washcloths in a basket...

and just because, the latest picture of yours truly. Not the most flattering... I look a little pained because the camera was misbehaving right at that moment/ a good sleep is getting harder to come by... but you get the idea. 36 1/2 weeks. Full term in 2 days!

So excited!!

Today, there was a knock on the door and it was the postman bringing a parcel from Mark and Hillary! And inside was a baby wrap (classic east Van hippie mama here we come-- yesssss), some cute little snowman baby slippers, a lovely bracelet and scarf... thanks M + H!

And then, one of my coworkers picked me up to go to what I thought was lunch together and a movie. We went to pick up another coworker-- turns out that her living room was full of nurses from the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Room! These lovely ladies threw me a surprise baby shower. It was a lot of fun. Now, I don't feel like I can sleep because I am admiring newly acquired baby things and getting more and more excited. I am also really touched by this because I am not super close to a lot of people at work, well outside of work anyway- nursing tends to be like that at times. You are with each other in these super intense situations but that's all you really have in common, or so it seems. We are often so busy that we don't have time to talk about anything besides work. It's special to see these ladies out of context, getting involved in each other's lives more.

Thanks everyone! I feel very honoured.

Will post more pictures soon.

28 days!

Only 28 days to go... aka 4 weeks... until my 'expected date of confinement'. (Did you know that's what they sometimes call your due date? In reference to the old days when you were confined to your bed after childbirth...)

It's hard to describe exactly how I am feeling these days. I am very excited to meet this little person who has been rolling around, kicking, stretching, hiccuping, and performing all sorts of funny movements these days. Is there a boy or a girl in there? What will he or she look like? This little person, our baby- it's all very surreal.

Brian has a lot going on at school these days so in a way it would be nice if he or she waited a bit longer to make an appearance. You know, once things are wrapped up a little bit at the university for the holidays, and we have settled into Christmas relaxation mode. I feel like I am not quite done with this whole 'baking the bun in the oven' process and am quite content to wait at least a couple more weeks. They consider 37 weeks to be full term, so one more week till then, and after that I guess any time is fair game? But he or she will come when they are ready.. it's such a mystery! There are few other events in life that are so monumental but also so unpredictable? So, I'll just sit back and see what happens...

Also, Christmas is coming! It's starting to feel a little bit Christmasy.. we have been drinking eggnog and making sugar cookies and fruitcake (yum!).. and last week was the first Sunday of Advent so that was special. There is something meaningful about being largely pregnant at this time of year... maybe feeling a bit more sympathetic to Mary and her giving birth in a stable? The incredible thing of Jesus becoming fully human and coming to earth as a tiny newborn? Thoughts to ponder....