Holidays
My blogging is s little sporadic right now, but it’s a busy time is year for us with the holidays here.
Social gatherings and time with family are turned up to 11 and it’s my favourite time of year.
This is also Miss Moo’s first Christmas and seeing her react to so many new things and first experiences is a lot of fun.
Well, the holidays are upon us. It seems like as soon as Remembrance Day has passed, the next holiday (primarily Christmas where I live) tends to dominate all retail locations, television commercials and soon Christmas songs will flood the radio stations.
Not everyone sends out Christmas cards, but it’s a tradition that I still really enjoy. Since our wedding six years ago, I’ve basically kept a list that’s updated from time-to-time and modified with additions and deletions.
If you’re Canadian and French was taught at your school (which is pretty much every school since I think they all had at least core French), then this time of year you would have heard the infamous song C’est l’Halloween.
I love that a CBC Music post from last year is floating around Facebook this week. It brings back an air of nostalgia where you can’t help but sing along enthusiastically when the song’s chorus starts.
Growing up, I always enjoyed Halloween. Whether I went trick or treating in Kilbride when we lived there, or in Cowan Heights after we moved; it was always so much fun.
One tradition I loved was going to my aunt and uncle’s house where we’d trick or treat in the neighbourhood and then go back to their house and enjoy some treats with family.
This is from the early 90s… not sure what year. But aren’t we so cute?!
Based on how little my cousin Adam is, I think this photo is from 1987. So much cuteness!
Halloween in Newfoundland and Labrador often included costumes that were either extra big so that you could wear a snow suit underneath, or sometimes you incorporated your extra layers of clothes into your costume.
I mean, we didn’t have snow every year, but wow – it was pretty cold some years! Yet in the name of candy and the desire for a sugar high, it never did stop us and it certainly doesn’t stop kids today!
This year, we’re giving out some mini candy bars, but for the younger kiddos, we’re handing out little Halloween bags that have a Rocket and two mini Play-Dohs. Lots of candy will be acquired tonight, so I like the idea of giving something that will not simply give a sugar rush (OK so the Rocket will be guilty of that), but the Play-Doh is something fun.
This weekend in Canada is our Thanksgiving weekend. While our American friends celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of November, we typically celebrate the second weekend of October.
The Monday of the weekend is a statutory holiday (yay long weekend!) and traditionally there’s a feast of turkey dinner and other traditional treats depending on where you live or what your family enjoys.
I mentioned in a recent #ThrowbackThursday and I want to make sure we have lots of family photos for Missy Moo to see when she’s older. I can easily admit that it’s not always easy to accomplish quickly!
On Wednesday we attended the Royal St. John’s Regatta, the oldest continuous sporting event in North America. It’s a holiday that is weather dependent and will shut down businesses in St. John’s based on the judgement call of the Regatta’s organizing committee (which consists of volunteers no less).
It’s definitely a unique situation to say the least. You can wake up on Regatta Day and even if there isn’t a cloud in the sky, if it’s very windy, that’s not going to work for the rowing races, so the committee will have to delay it until the next day (again weather permitting). You could also wake up to a morning with lots of overcast and light rain, but if the winds are good and the rest of the day’s forecast seems ideal, then the city will likely shut down for the day.
Anyway, since this was the first Regatta for little miss, we wanted to make sure a few photos were taken. I attempted to take some selfies of Matt, Missy Moo and I and there were mixed results. I imagine that little miss had some interesting thoughts going on in her head as we tried to have her cooperate.
Here’s what happened…