I’m starting a new tradition in my family.  Why? Well, I just don’t think we have enough traditions.  In fact, I don’t know that we have any.  So this year I’m starting a new one by giving my kids something every day from February 1st until Valentines Day that says just how much they’re loved.  Again you may ask why? It’s not because I’m mother of the year, in fact quite the opposite.  My New Years resolution to be more patient  seems to have fallen my the wayside, along with my resolution to lose 10 pounds.

So for the past few weeks I have been planning and scheming and coming up with 14 different things that I can do for my kids, and then it occurred to me that I could do a better job showing my love for my husband.  But don’t think I’ll be doing that for 14 days straight.  I wouldn’t want him to think that’s even possible!  Instead, I have a few things up my sleeve for him.  And why not show my sister, my friends and my family too.  Hell, there’s gonna be so much love up in here y’all are gonna gag!

I would love for you to check in every day for the next 14 days to see what I’ve been up to.  I will have done them all a day ahead of me posting them so that I can post their reaction.  That way you’ll know if they’re a dud or winner.  It’s very important to note, that while everything may take some effort, everything is costing very little money.  My goal is to make everyone feel special while easing some of my guilt, and if in the meantime I can help show my boys what women really want, that’d be great too.

So here goes:

Hot chocolate and Marshmallows in their lunch boxes.

Ok- I wouldn’t normally send my kids to school with a thermos of chocolate.  I mean, I respect teachers far to much to give them chocolate during the day.  But this day was frigid and the start of my new tradition.  I included the little marshmallows in the lid. I imagined them opening their thermos and having kids gather from all around the cafeteria offering up their best thing in exchange of this sweet surprise.

I could barely wait to find out how it went.  I asked they what they thought of their first 14 days of love surprise.  This is how it went:

Evan: What are you talking about?

Me: In your thermos…I packed you hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Colin: Oh yes, Mommy thank you, you da best mamma in da world.

Evan: Oh, I didn’t open it.  I thought it was soup….I hate soup.

Ok, so all subtlety is lost on my boys.

Tomorrow, I shall include instructions.

We get together with friends once every two months or so.  We pick a region, we each pick either an appetizer, dessert, or booze, and we eat.  We eat and laugh and pretend that we’ve travelled there, even just for the night.  Sometimes we learn a word of two of their language, and we’ll say it all night long!  Like “Opa” when we did Greece, or “kaneicha” when we did Japan, and yes, occasionally we make up words too. And for the next two months, we plan our menu and look forward to our next food adventure that we’ve decided on during dessert.

I look forward to our theme dinners, and I’ll soak them up from now until this summer when Nadia moves to New Zealand.

This night we got together  and toasted Thailand.   What beautiful food, what a beautiful place, oh and the people were wonderful!  See, sometimes we take it a bit too far.  Like next month when we do Cajun from New Orleans and exchange beads for a flash like they do during Mardi Gras.  You know what they say…when in Rome…

For our Thai dinner I was in charge of dessert.  Thanks to Google, I found out the people of Thailand love rice pudding and eat mango with everything! So we had a little rice pudding buffet.  It was sweet, creamy, light, refreshing and comforting.  And here is the recipe:

2 cups of sticky rice, rinse and put in a pot with 3 1/2 cups of water.  Simmer for 18 minutes.  DO NOT lift the cover.  Don’t.  You’ll want to but don’t.  After 18 minutes, stir and add 1 can of coconut milk, 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 cup of sugar.  Serve with fruit and nuts, warm or cold. Enjoy with friends and special coffee.

This weekend, along with a million other things, I went to my friend Christine’s fiftieth birthday party.  It was a surprise, and surprised she was!!  She was asked to bring an appetizer to a small casual dinner with the girls and was then surprised with about 50 of her closest friends.  Thank God there was a medic on hand.

There was family,locals, old friends…not old as in old…but old as in they’ve outlasted the new ones.

The food…holy the food.  It was fabulous!  It was catered by Mary Ann Feeney of Sweet and Saucey.

Oh, and speaking of fabulous…check out this little nugget that I whipped up as a gift for my friend.  I wrote fifty and fabulous in sugar cookies.  How fabulous is she? She’s so fabulous that I actually spelled out forty and fabulous, until I re-read the invitation to find out what time the party started only to discover that she is in fact turning fifty!  But fortunately Evan pointed out that I had spelled fabulous wrong. I only made one u, so I used the u in forty (I know, forty doesn’t have a u, I really am a shitty speller) and the o I gave to Colin (at least he appreciates a shitty speller).

That meant I had to make an i and another f .

But isn’t it fun?  I secured the letters to the squires with burnt sugar, which I know won’t taste so great, but I thought it would taste better than glue from my hot-glue-gun.  Then I said a hail Mary and prayed that the letters wouldn’t fall off.

Son-of-a………!!!!!! Then I dug out the hot-glue-gun.

And this is where you come in.

Because I love to give things, I’m going to give you all a chance to win this to give to one of your friends, won’t that be fun??  Well, it doesn’t have to say fifty and fabulous, unless of course they are both fifty and fabulous, but what are the odds of that?

Simply comment with what you would like the cookie-gram to say.  It must be no more than 18 letters, so it can say CONGRATULATIONS ANN, GOOD LUCK SARAH, I’M PREGNANT, THANKS COACH, THINKING OF YOU. The possibilities are endless!  I will put them all in a hat and draw one week from today at 5pm.  You don’t need to tell me your name or who they’re for.  Frankly, that’s none of my business.  Just make sure that when you fill out the information for the comment that you use your correct e-mail address.  I’ll then e-mail the winner and arrange delivery to you or your friend, whatever you’d prefer.  I will deliver or courier as far as Halifax and Liverpool.  It can be for your office, your kids school, a friend you miss… anyone!!

So have fun, be creative, and think of someone who might really need some love…and some sugar.

What would my sister’s in-laws be to me?  That’d be by brother-in-law’s parents?  My nephews grandparents?  Anything?  Maybe…in-law’s once removed?  Whatever they are, I adore them.

My sister organized a wonderful afternoon of lunch at her house and then a sleigh ride at Hatfield Farm with her family and mine, her in-laws, Paula and Sheldon Poole and our parents, Bruce and Nancy.  There are no pictures of my father as he was whispering to the horses.

Have you ever been to this place that I speak of?  Hatfield Farms?  It’s great!  I felt like The Pioneer Woman.

We arrived and paid in the Sheriff’s office. The guy who took our money, the Sherrif if you will, was funny, rugged, my kind of Sherrif.

The kids played while we waited for the sled.

Then we went into Fort Clayton where rustic cottages lined the trail.  In the middle was the hall where you get your grub if you were planning on staying.  Beans, chili, ham, my kinda food.  And one of those mechanical bulls.  That just sounds like my kinda night.  I WILL be going and doing that at some point.  I believe I could take-on that bull.

The guy controlling the sleigh was much like the Sheriff.  Funny, rugged, a big lumber-jack type guy.

I could have lived in the Pioneer era, thou I would have missed high heels…and the internet…or as my mother calls it, “the world-wide-web.

We’re doing a home improvement project and I have been sanding stairs.   We’re living in disorder and it makes me anxious which is crazy, because in the best of times our home in not in great order.  Even David, who never complains, has been complaining.

But one only has to watch CNN for a minute before putting it all into prospective.  Really?  It’s dust.  Who gives a shit when you think of what is going on in Haiti.  I decided to spend my Saturday night at the South Shore for Haiti benefit.  It just seemed like the right thing to do.

With camera in hand I got these images of people giving; people giving money, their time, their talents, their love, their support.  Their were kids, teens, adults, seniors.

The people in Haiti don’t love their children any less than I love mine, and the thought of standing beside a building where my child was buried made my heart hurt.

I paid $20 for a cup of coffee, and it might have been the most satisfying cup of coffee I’ve had in my life.

Click here to give. Give what you can.  Even $20.

I was starting to panic thinking I had nothing to post in my midweek blog.  I turned to my enormous photo gallery looking for inspiration, thinking it would jog my memory about something that happened over Christmas.  Had my life become that boring and predictable?  Have I told you every story there is to tell?  Well, except those stories?

Fortunately I stumbled on something…pictures of Mary Ann and Kyle’s annual Boxing  Day leftover party.  Shit..that’s right, I blogged about that last year. Well, I guess that’s it…no more stories.  Guess I’ll resort to re-runs.

This is Kyle on the left, and Bob on the right.  Kyle is Mary Ann’s husband; the couple that host the event.  Bob is Christine’s husband; normal, regular, dependable Bob.

This is their offspring, in that order. Ethan belongs to Kyle and Ben belongs to Bob, but I bet you guessed that.  They’re good boys.  When I met them they were younger than my boys.  Doesn’t seem possible.

And these are their woman, and a few others, making the famous turkey sandwiches.  I think David is in the corner crying somewhere because this is his most favourite day ever.  Even more so than Christmas or the day the boat goes in the water or the day he’s officially allowed on the golf course.

And while I haven’t been afforded the privilege of joining the assembly line yet as the ‘mayo spreader’ or the ‘salt shaker’, I was promoted to server.  This awkward smile is from nervousness. With great power comes great responsibility. My responsibilities were few; make sure everyone has a sandwich in their hand at all times; and show lots of cleavage.  Well, that last one I added, but by the looks of it, I succeeded at that one at least.

And then there are these two, Colin and Karl.

They’re special friends, which is hilarious because Colin still can’t say his R’s or his L’s.  He calls for him like a bird…Kah..Kah!

Colin adores Karl.  I think the feeling is mutual.  In fact, if Colin ever goes missing, I know the first place I’ll look.

Come to think of it…this pictures looks familiar.  It seems to me I took this same picture last year at the leftover party. Let me look…

I was right.  And just like the great company and delicious food, very little has changed.

A few months ago, Lighthouse Media Group was asked to participate in a conference in Toronto hosted by the Conference Board of Canada.  The topic was workplace wellness and I spoke about initiatives that we’ve done here.  While there I was asked to be on a panel and speak to members of the insurance industry.  The session was called something like, “The Insurance Industry, Small Business Partners in Workplace  Wellness.  What I discovered is that the insurance industry really doesn’t feel they are our partners in workplace wellness because they’re not convinced that businesses buy into it.   I was taken aback, thinking, why am I here?

When I explained why businesses should buy into it and that their insurance company should be encouraging them to put effort in a wellness plan, someone from the audience said something like, “But not every business has someone like you, Tina.  Someone to help facilitate workplace wellness stuff.”  I’m not sure they said stuff.  Anyway, I said…”I disagree.  Every business has someone like me.  Just very few take advantage of them.”

On Wednesday I had a conversation with a co-worker about the snowshoes my family got for Christmas.  She mentioned she had trails near her home and that she often goes snowshoeing.  And just like that, we decided we were going to invite the Lighthouse team to go snowshoeing at her home up in Union Square that Saturday.

There were kids

And dogs

Staff, spruces and other family members.

Some kids led the pack

Others had to be carried.

We walked to Liana’s treehouse

and others continued on to the river.

It was beautiful!

Stunning really.

Then we ended up at Liana’s  home for chili, chowder, rolls, casseroles and cake.

I’m posting this to say to the insurance industry and to all businesses, wellness in the workplace doesn’t just look like giving your staff a gym pass or flex hours.  It’s isn’t about what kind of coverage you are given or if you tolerate smoking in the parking lot.  It’s about having fun at work and having flexibility to organize these things, and being able to include family and friends too.  It’s about using the talents and strengths of the people in your organization to strengthen the organization as a whole.

Wellness is but one of the rewards that may be reaped.

**Special thanks to Janice Rand at the Recreation department at the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg for the show shoes.**

I thought it’d be fun to share with you a few of the really great gifts we got for Christmas and for a few, where you yourself can get them.  We got some really great gifts!  Apparently, we were very good this year.  Sadly thou, we got some duds.  But we gave Santa a pass, seeing as he had so many house to visit.

Awesome book light- Fultons Drug Store.

If you haven’t been in this drug store before, you have to go!  It’s one of the best gift stores I’ve been in.  It’s kind of like a mini department store.  And everything is very unique, like this book light.  The store is crowded with lots of great stuff from house wears to Lug bags.  They have handy kitchen gadgets and a great selection of drug store stuff too.   This light attaches to the back cover of your book.

Mini alarm clock- also Fultons Drug Store.

I just thought it was cute, and anything that helps get the kids up works for me.

Sand and stamp art-

Their aunt Ra-Ra is a great at finding unique yet useful gifts.

Colin actually made this sand picture on Christmas Day.  Very messy but fun.

Frames family photos

My sister- my God, she takes the best pictures, and because she know’s how lazy I am and that, while she gave them to me on a disc after taking them, I’ve never gotten around to actually having them printed and framed.  So bless her, she had these framed.  And yes, Deanna, I’m aware, they’re on the floor and not on the wall.  I need a better hook because they’re heavy and yes, they’ll be up before next Christmas.

Message in Cookies- Williams-Sonoma

These are the coolest things EVER!  They’re cookie cutters that write a message in the cookie.  I’ll write more on that later when I actually make the cookies.

Hot Chocolate maker

This is great, because as you all know, we make a lot of hot chocolate!

Family Trivia Pursuit

Evan loves trivia and I have already been forced to play several times.  And after asking me questions form the adults pile, he quietly started asking me questions from the kids pile.  Damn you useless trivia!

Are you smarter than a firth grader game

Evan has played it non stop since he got it.  He occasionally asks me questions if he’s stumped.  I’m no help…re-useless trivia comment.

Coles gift card

Because Evan got a $50 cole gift card he was able to almost complete his Geronimo Stilton collection, which is great because he averages about a book a day.

Lego

Colin loves anything lego and gets very excited watching his father put them together.

Lemonchilla, the real stuff

You may remember that I make Lemonchilla mostly because I can’t find it in the liquor store?  Well someone clearly reads my blog and gave me the real stuff, and while my home made stuff is pretty good, it’s not as good as this stuff!

Hand made mug

My Nephew made it for me.  On three…one-two-awwwww

Herbal tea

Perfect for my new mug.  There are a variety of teas which are all awesome and it’s perfect because I recently cut back on coffee and am slowly dying inside.

Snow shoes

As a family, we all got snow shoes and polls from LLBean.  Haven’t used them yet, but can’t wait to.

I’ll write about the dud later, but I’m still trying to give the company the benefit of fixing their problem before I write about it.  If they fix it, then all will be forgotten, well except for the little 8 year old who got a rotten Christmas Present.  But like I said, I’m still holding out hope for a happy ending:) Aren’t I cute?

It’s January first and all evidence that we just celebrated Christmas is packed away, and that makes me really happy.  Does that  make me an atheist? I hope it just means that my tree was dead and I was tired of sweeping up needles.

Hey, you wanna know what David gave me for Christmas?  A salad spinner.

To his credit, I warned him within an inch of his life not to get me anything because we’re trying to save for a home improvement project.  So why a salad spinner?  Sure we needed one.  Our spinner was broken, but still…how am I not to read too much into this?  He might as well have answered the question, “Does my ass look fat in these jeans” with, “Now that you mention it, a lil-bit!  Now go eat some salad, fatty!”

But I am NOT making a resolution to lose weight.  I’m not.  Nope.  Not gonna do it.  Why?  My strategy is reverse physiology, but if that doesn’t work, I’m taking up smoking.

I thought I’d share with you some pictures.  Pictures of our life this past year. The people, the places, the things that we’d seen and done.  In going through the hundreds of pictures one thing stood out; I am very lucky.  We’ve had a year without tragedy or catastrophe.  We’re all happy and healthy.  Our home is filled with love and laughter. I have terrific kids, not without their faults, but who isn’t.  I still greatly love and am still married to David and neither of us have landed in a mental ward.  And the people in our lives; our friends, family and acquaintances, they continue to let us be in their lives.  If I can get through 2010 able to say all those same things, than that too, will have been a great year.

Enjoy.

Happy New Year.