Bluebird's Nest

So that lucky wee babe. She had two first birthdays (that she’s not going to remember). One in Switzerland and one in Canada.

The one in Switzerland was held on her actual birthday at Maminou and Papinou’s house in the afternoon. It was considered a “Canadian Dinner” which translates to a potluck (I have no idea why we coined the phrase but I guess it’s probably like French fries.) There were many of our friends and family there. We shared wine, cake, presents and good food.  The wee babe did great. It also served as a bit of a going away party for us as it as 2 days before we left the country after being there for 5 months.

To be honest, it was a nice transition because as we said goodbye with a birthday party to one part of our lives, we came back to Canada and said hello to the family and friends we had been missing.

After a couple of weeks, we celebrated again at the Lion’s Hall just down the road from us with another potluck. Colleen had made the wee babe’s first birthday cake (It was only fitting since she made our wedding cake – and she did a fabulous job too by the way). We ate food, cake, opened presents and George snuck a beer (even though there was to be absolutely no alcohol in the building – there’s one in every bunch). And again, the wee babe did great.

After the party, a few of us went back to our house and had some fondue! I was all fondued out but it was nice to see our friends coming together under our house and celebrating with us.

The video captures moments from Switzerland and moments from Canada’s goodbye and hello parties.

And with this post, I think I’ve finally captured all the Swiss stories I wanted before movin’ on back to Canadian soil.

And thanks to Scott Rose for this video clip as well.

I know, it’s spring now. But I haven’t had a chance to record what our incredible, memorable Christmas season was all about. There was food, new traditions, food, family, food, crafts, presents and more food.

First up: Chirstmas crafts.

Since we didn’t have a lot of money near the end of our trip (isn’t Christmas always the most expensive time of the year?) I decided that I wanted to make crafts for presents. You read how well the cookie episode went, thankfully the wreaths that me and the tweenager made went a lot better then the cookies.

Here are some photos of our “couronnes”.

Christmas

Then there was Christmas. I gotta give my mother-in-law a big shout out for all the wonderful food she prepared for Christmas eve, Christmas day and boxing day. Honorable mentions go out to my father-in-law, sister-in-law and Luc’s aunt and boyfriend. The following are photos that we took through out those 3 days.

Traditions

There are many traditions that the Swiss have that I had never heard of. I don’t think I mentioned yet the day of Saint Nickolaus. This falls on the 6th of December. You put your shoes outside so that St. Nick can come by with candies, oranges, peanuts and little treats.

There is also the Couronne de l’advent. This is a wreath that is placed like a plate and four candles are placed on it. The 4 Sundays before Christmas, one candle is lit each week until on the last Sunday all four candles are lit. It’s really quite quaint.

Most people open their gifts on the night of the 24th. And when I say the night, I mean like 11pm! I had to put my Canadian hoof down with the girls… The tweenager would never be able to stay up until then and the wee babe would just cry. I was told that the girls could come down in the morning and open the gifts without us (as we would have opened them all the night before) but for me, Christmas morning is about sitting around the tree with family and watching everyone open presents.

Candles on the Christmas tree. You heard me right. I think I might have mentioned that I was pretty excited to see real candles on the tree. As well, maybe my apprehension that our whole house might come burning down with this tradition. I made sure that the tweenager and I knew where our closest fire exits were in all situations. I would like to tell you that it all went off without a hitch – except when my mother-in-law was bending over to pick up a present, she caught her blouse on fire. She was pretty lucky as her hair wasn’t that far away… We laughed but come on people! Can you say fire hazard? Below is a photo of my mother-in-law with a little corner of her blouse missing.

Oysters… I never would have thought that oysters (in a land locked country) were such a delicacy at Christmas time.

Disclaimer

Last night we had a fire around the campsite. It was nice and warm. Tank top and shorts. Same thing we slept in. It’s a bit uncomfortable in the morning when you’re kind of sticky from the humidity I guess. But I’m not complaining.

We made some sandwiches and ate some breakfast and hit the road to Toronto.

I really don’t know how you would do it, driving around on the freeways without a GPS. There’s no signs say “Toronto” anywhere. It’s almost like the signs are now designed to work with the GPS units.

Once we arrived downtown we looked for parking. There’s parking EVERYWHERE. The first spot we saw we asked about price. Turns out that U2 was playing in Toronto that night. Man oh man, how much did I want to go. I heart U2. But with the wee babe and probably the price of the tickets, it wasn’t meant to be. But you could feel the vibe in the city that day.

Once parking, we unpacked the car and loaded the stroller. First stop CN Tower.

The heat wasn’t too bad at this point. It was around 10am.

The price for the tower was crazy expensive. $99. To go all the way to the top. Which we had to do. It wasn’t too busy either at this point.

I admit that I was feeling a little queasy and I felt a little intimidated standing on the glass floor. But the view was pretty cool. Bird’s eye view to say the least.

We ate our lunch at this point in a little couch area in the CN Tower which was neat. Bathroom break, diaper change and we were on our way again.

Now the heat was stifling. So about a half an hour later we stopped in at a Starbucks to pick up some iced drinks. We still had a gift card left over from our wedding (two years ago!!) and coincidentally we didn’t even remember that it was our 2 year anniversary until the next day. Doh!

Toronto reminds me of Vancouver only a bit bigger and HOTTER.

Off to Eaton’s Centre to do a little shopping. The tweenager found one of two dresses we need to get her for two weddings we’re attending in Switzerland.

The hubby picked up a hat. It’s a fedora. I’ll get a photo soon.

After that, back into the heat and off to Chinatown where the smells and atmosphere changed again.

The onto Kensington Market. Wow, the heat was really getting to me at that point and I was a bit worried about the heat for the wee babe so I stopped to breast feed her to make sure she was getting enough fluids. We had also packed a bottle with water for her.

I think I hit my peak sweating capacity in Kensington Market. Stupid me, I thought it would be a good idea to do some clothes shopping then too. Just one reason why you should always launder your clothes before you wear them after purchasing.

I’d had enough with the heat and we’d made a reservation at Milestones as we had a gift card from the hubby’s work. So we booked it there a half hour early to sit in the air conditioning and cool down.

All in all we were on our feet from about 10:30 to 4:45 so we were exhausted and hot. I can only imagine how we looked and smelt. I had the whole sweaty butt crack again.

For our anniversary dinner (that we didn’t know it was our anniversary but it worked out perfectly anyway) I had steak. MMmmmm…. It was delicious.

Luckily, the car and Milestones wasn’t that far away so we trucked back to the car just after 6 and packed up and headed home.

After we got back to the campground, the tweenager absolutely needed to have one last swim in the pool, so I fed the wee babe. After the tween and the hubby returned I headed off for a well deserved shower.

Early to bed so we can be early to rise for our 5 hour trek to Ottawa to visit Allison and Dave where we fully anticipate taking full advantage of their hospitality. Laundry, showers, electricity Oh MY!

We may have missed U2, but it was still a beautiful day.

EXPENSES:

Camping: $32
Dinner: $77
CN Tower: $90
Parking: $12
Item lost/found:Gold Necklace
Wee babe disposition: Really good considering the heat. I worried more about if she was hydrated enough.
Weather: Stinking HOT and humid: 32 degrees. AGAIN.
Stress level: Pretty even keel.

Take two. So I wrote my entire blog post last night before bed and when I went to publish it there wasn’t a connection to the internet so I lost the whole thing. Sigh…

Lesson learned: write in word first and copy/paste when ready to upload.

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A big shout out to Kelly and her family in Richmond as well as the Campbell Family in Coldstream.

Now where did I leave off…?

Right, we left Kelly’s house after a warm goodbye and headed East. (I guess I don’t need to specify that we headed East, that’s a bit of a given no?)

We hit the road and the wee babe pretty much fell asleep pronto.  The hubby took the first leg and he sussed out the best use of the Cruise Control. If you can believe it, he even did research before we left on how best to use it for the least gas consumption. And he calls me a control freak…

We stopped on the Coke somewhere and it was freezing! Ok, maybe not 0 degrees, but 7 degrees was frosty. After a quick diaper change and toilet stop we continued on. I guess that was too much for the baby, because about 10 minutes later she started to howel. Luckily, we were about 20 minutes away from Merritt so she screamed until we got there. My nerves were fried by the time we arrived at lunch.

After some yummy pizza and Greek salad we soldiered on and the wee babe fell asleep again and slept until Vernon.

A quick pit stop to get some Okanagan cherries and we arrived at our destination: Campbell family home. We were greeted by my cousin (or is it my second cousin. Maybe he’s my first cousin once removed or is it second cousin twice removed… anyway he’s family.) and his family. A short while later his mom and dad showed up and then his wife and her mom.

The we had dinner. Man, were we spoiled. 3 different kinds of salad, beef skewers, chicken, corn, and deviled eggs – did I miss anything? It was so amazing.

We went for a walk to the park and the local fire station (my cousin is a volunteer fire fighter) where I took some photos and we were infested with mosquitoes (mozzies die!!). We returned back to the homestead and had a wonderful trifle. So delicious. Thanks Reen!

We watched the photos of a trip that my cousins son, took about a month ago, took of Egypt. I was inspired to say the least about our trip in October. He’s a wonderful photographer!

The wee babe was still not asleep by 10 (argh!!) so it was time for lights out for the family. I was spent and pleasantly fed.

That night the wee babe only woke once in her tent (YES!) but sadly the mattress that I was sleeping on deflated in the night so it was rather sucky for me. My wonderful husband offered up his bed (thanks baby) but there was no point in both of us suffering the next day.

Rise and shine at 6:30 with the sun streaming into the bedroom from the East J. After a shower we were faced again with coffee and a full spread breakfast of pancakes, bacon, strawberries and scrambled eggs. This cousin of mine better watch out or he’s going to have a house full of relatives if the rest of them get wind of how amazing a cook he is.

Packed up we set sail again after another warm goodbye. Thanks guys y’all ROCK!!

The Swiss mister is really loving Vernon and the lakes. What is it called a 4 season city with activities for all seasons. I think I would like to rent a cottage on one of the lakes next summer for a week or so with some friends. That would be grand.

We’re back on the road again (a little behind schedule but albeit good) heading to Calgary. We think we’ll stop in Lake Louis for a photo and somewhere for lunch.

The weather is beautiful. Sunny, a few wispy clouds and the traffic’s not bad (yet).

EXPENSES:

Gas: $20 @ 1.25/litre
Food: $33 lunch and $12 cherries
Wee babe disposition: pretty stellar
Weather: 7 on the Coke, 22 in Vernon
Things that have already broken: air mattress
Stress level: a solid 100% when the wee babe was howling. Back down to a normal 5% for the rest of the time save for mozzie attacks when it would creep back up to 75%.

1. Today was the first day since I’ve been on mat leave where I’ve actually been bored. There’s only so much fun to be had by an almost 6 month old. I found myself actually watching the clock waiting for my tweenager to come home to keep me company. I did a load of laundry, walked to the store, had breakfast at a local coffee shop, laid in bed and breastfed, played outside on the grass with the wee babe, did some more packing… Sigh… only 52 minutes until I’m not alone anymore.
2. The wee babe is working on her 3rd tooth!! That’s 3 teeth in one month. Crazy. This time it’s the top left front tooth.
3. She’s so almost there with crawling. She actually pulls her knees up and forward and then doesn’t do anything with her arms so she falls forward but she’s getting herself propelled forward so I guess that’s good enough for her for now.
4. She’s doing lots of talking today. Dadadada. Babababa. For the first few times she listened to this podcast (below) she totally looked perplexed. It was priceless.
   
5. There’s only 2 more sleeps until we leave. Can you say excited? Tomorrow will be more of an action packed kinda day so I won’t be bored for long.
6. I’ve been checking things off my lists like crazy. Feels soooooo good. I think I have about 17 different lists and every time I get to erase something, there’s such a sense of accomplishment. Oh yeah baby.
7. I’ve been trying to think about things I want to blog about on the trip. Like every day I want to take a photo of the place where we lay our head. I want to record the gas prices, the distance we’ve gone, how the wee babe is doing, the temperature/weather, people we meet, things we eat, etc… I’m sure a lot of this will be short lived but I can dream.
8. The weather here has been the shits for quite a few days now. It’s seriously bumming me out. At least it’s not torrential down-pouring.
9. It’s only 2:19pm. Is it too early to have a glass of wine?
10. Oh something else. We started her on yams on Sunday. She didn’t like them very much but when we came home I added in formula and blended them some more and they seemed a bit more yummy. I gave them to her this morning too.
11. Speaking of upping to two feedings a day, how do you know if your baby is ready? When she seems hungry? She ALWAYS seems hungry.
12. I got smart and put a towel on the side where she throws everything off her highchair so now it doesn’t thud on the tenant below but lands softly. I’m onto her.
13. I might be the smartest mama/traveler around yo. I’m sharing a suitcase with the babe. You might think that I would share with the hubby and then the tweenager with the baby but no. You see if I shared with the hubby then I would be constantly nagging him to tidy up his side and then when I went into the other suitcase to clothe the wee babe then I would constantly nag the tweenager to tidy up her side. Double nag. This way they can whine at each other and I. Don’t. Care. Pure. Genius.
14. Just got an update. The tweenager is delayed by 30 mins. Sigh. And sleeping teether on my lap. I’m going to publish now, move the babe into her play pen and attempt a shower. Wish my luck.

We had a BBQ yesterday. We had an awesome, amazing, stellar, kick-ass BBQ yesterday.

It definitely helped that the weather was stunning. The most stunning day of the year so far.

It definitely helped that the 2nd game of the finals was on. Canucks vs Bruins. It helped that they won too.

What made it so incredible was that so many friends and family showed up. People who we really wanted to see before we leave. After all, the party was so we could see our friends before we go. (25 days and counting.)

We had new and old work colleagues, friends, book club friends, neighbours, cousins, parents, our realtor and his bride, tenants and our new tenant who will be looking after our home while we are gone.

I reflected at the end of the night, the people we missed. For a few minutes I was forlorn. Even disappointed by some people who said they would come but didn’t. People replied maybe and didn’t. People who didn’t reply and didn’t.

But then I turned it around and saw all the wonderful people who came. My cousins family came all the way from Kirkland (and he didn’t cheer for the Bruins even!). People who said they might come and they did. People who didn’t reply at all and they came.

What was also interesting was the way people said they would try and see us again before we leave. I think people find it hard to say good-bye. So instead they say that they would like to get together again for one last drink before we leave. I think in all honesty, we aren’t going to have time to see people again before we go, because that’s what this party was for.

But the good times rolled. We had: hot dogs, hamburgers, steak, pork chops, baked potatoes, bocci, badminton, sprinklers, music, and the game on.

There was beer, near beer, ceasers, ciders, wine, and even slurpees spiked with Vodka.

And there was sun. Glorious sun.

We ate from our regular BBQ and when the propane ran out, we ate from the brick BBQ that burns wood (and my wonderful steak) my hubby built.

When the sun began to set around 9:30 and it started to cool down, we moved the fire to the fire pit and we all dragged chairs around to keep warm.

In the morning, we cleaned up. We found sun glasses, a water bottle, steak rub, a sweater, a book, two hamburger patties, 10 beer, oodles of leftover salad, some smokies, a diet coke and some sun tan lotion. We’ve since eaten some of the left over salad and both of the hamburger patties. Thank you to whoever you are who left those yummy patties.

Tomorrow night we’re having smokies.

What was truly the greatest part for me was seeing all our friends and family come together and laugh and play in the sun. There wasn’t any segregation, people who knew each other from various events we’ve had along the way, all chatted together and it felt like one big happy party where everyone knew everyone.

What a great memory to start our trip with. I’m already looking forward to the coming home party. I guess since our wee babe will turn one just before we come home, our coming home party will be her first birthday party.

And we’ll get to see all those wonderful people all over again.

Woot woot!!

If you weren’t able to attend the BBQ, you were missed. Hopefully, you can make it for the wee babe’s first birthday in 2012.