What's Up Wednesday (On A Monday): December 2024

Even though the hosts never publish a "What's Up Wednesday" post in December, I like having the continuity throughout the year. However the last Wednesday of this month is Christmas Day so I'm publishing my post today. My first paragraph in these posts is often a short 'here's where we're at' and, to keep it real, where I'm at right now is...sick again. Womp womp. I got diagnosed with bronchitis last week and it was a week of rearranging, and missing, plans (and work). However, today is the first official day of Winter Break and I am really hoping that two weeks of sleeping in, and having not much on the schedule, will set us up for a healthier New Year.

So here's what's been going on with us this month... I love how answering these questions helps me reflect on the past month and I really appreciate having a monthly record of what we've been up to. I go back and re-read these posts often. The questions come from Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too.

image from here

 

What we're eating this week... This month has been all about the cookies! The kids started the month by participating in the Youth Mentor cookie bake and exchange. Then Janice invited me to do a Zoom baking class with her and Tessa and we baked three different kinds of cookies. And of course, we've baked quite a few batches of Applesauce Jumbles. So we've been eating a lot of cookies this past month!

A shout out to Holly at Pink Lady for our absolute favourite cookie this time of year. You can find the recipe for Applesauce Jumbles here. PS. This tab is constantly open on my computer/phone from mid-November until January.

What I'm reminiscing about... As I've felt under the weather this past week, I've been thinking about other hard Christmases we've had, for various reasons. Christmas 2012, I had the flu for two weeks and cried a lot. Sam was almost four and Rachel was one and a half and it was a very hard Christmas with two young kids. My parents came and I have very few pictures of this Christmas because I was in bed for most of it.

Christmas of 2020 we were all still isolating in the throes of Covid. There was no in person Christmas Eve service, no in person gatherings. It was so lonely. We decided to do Wonders of Winter with Tim & Janice outside but we were all wearing masks and didn't get too close to each other.

Christmas 2022 was the year of the major weather system across most of North America. Our Christmas morning flight was cancelled, and never rescheduled, and we returned home to a sad, closed up house. We bought new flights for a few days later, and those flights were delayed and my dad ended up driving to Calgary on 20 minutes notice so we could have some bit of Christmas in Saskatchewan. We enjoyed a Christmas dinner with our friend Elinor and worked on our skating during that mixed up Christmas.

I think it's good for me to remember that some Christmases are picture perfect but some of them are full of illness, mixed up plans, cancelled flights, and either way, there are still (hopefully) moments of joy and remembering the real meaning of Christmas.

 

And to clarify, me being sick shouldn't mess with our holiday plans too much but last week I had to miss Rachel's dance showing and we had to switch our Christmas celebrations with Tim & Janice to Zoom and I'm not good at changed plans so I've been a little sad this past week.

What I'm loving... Antibiotics, which are helping me feel better! Hahaha! I'm loving that for the next two weeks I have very few things I have to do. No schedules, no alarms, very few plans, -- I probably won't even get dressed for a few days. That is the best!!!

What we've been up to... We've done a couple of puzzles...

...we've played a lot of soccer (and Sam's team won their division!!!)...

 

...Rachel's had four different dance performances...

(an accessory in one show, Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker in another)

 

(aviators in another show)

 

...and we've baked many batches of Applesauce Jumbles for friends, class parties, and to share with co-workers...

What I'm dreading... As always, this time of year, I'm dreading cancelled flights. There's some snow forecast and I really hope it doesn't interfere with our travel plans.

What I'm working on... I've been working on getting better but Sam was working on a history project and Rachel was working on a Secret Santa gift, which is a little more exciting :)

What I'm excited about... I mean, besides the holidays, I'm super excited that our "get out of the house" shelf is currently empty! Yes, we have distributed everything that shouldn't be in our house -- for the time being. Whoooo hooo!!!

 

What I'm watching/reading... I've been watching a lot of Hallmark movies with Rachel. We've watched old favourites (The Santa Summit and Christmas With The Darlings) and some new ones (Leah's Perfect Gift and Holiday Touchdown).

 

As for reading, I took out a bunch of books which seemed Christmas themed from the library so I'm reading my way through those. I'm currently reading Mistletoe & Mr Right by Sarah Morgenthaler.

What I'm listening to... Ah, I don't know what I'm currently listening to...? I haven't really been feeling the Christmas song love this year so I'm not listening to a lot of Christmas music.

What I'm wearing... Matching family pajamas!!! We got ours at Old Navy and I LOVE them!

I don't have a picture of us in ours but this is our pattern this year. (image from here)

What I'm doing this weekend... Instead of writing about what I'm doing this weekend, I'm going to share a little bit about this past weekend. Winter Break started and Rachel had a dance performance.

She reprised her Polichinelle dance from the Chamber Orchestra performance.

We watched Hallmark movies, ate Applesauce Jumbles, and drank Cranberry tea.

We celebrated Channukah (a little early) with Dave's parents. Dave was particularly thrilled that he had to fry latkes outside on the coldest day we've had thus far this year. It was -17C/1F with windchill.

We did some holiday puzzles.

We enjoyed a trip to Stratford to eat some pickles on pizza and take in their Lights On Stratford displays.

We celebrated Christmas as a family, a little early.

 

What I'm looking forward to next month... TULIPS!!! If you're new around here, every January I buy tulips and I love them so much!!! Also, we're going on our church's winter retreat and I'm really looking forward to that too!

So that's what's up with us this (not last Wednesday) in December. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Channukah, and some time doing the things that you love most this time of year. See you next week!