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Showing posts from November, 2015

Christmas calendars ANYONE can make (and enjoy!)

Just as soon as our clocks fall back, I like to spring forward and soak up every single merry second of the holiday season.  It's just so much easier than starring bleakly at a cold, damp, darkened, leafless streetscape at 5pm dreaming of April. In our family, once the Halloween candy is still freshly wedged into tiny molars, the kids are already addressing envelopes to the North Pole and dotting the "i"s on their wish-list of Apple products.  As parents, we know that December means answering the thrice daily question, "how many more days until Christmas????"  A Christmas calendar makes the countdown (or count-up) fun and making your own reusable calendar can be a really nice way to kick off a new tradition as well as usher in the festive season.  With budgets in mind (you won't need a credit card for these purchases!), I've come up with two easy (I promise), fast (I promise) Christmas calendars using supplies that cost less than $30 total- one is f

Arena readiness 101: A parents guide to surviving minor hockey (and other chilly sports)

315 long, cold, endless, bum-numbing hours.   From September to March, each year, it's the same routine, every day of the week and most weekends: load up the gear, get in the car, drive, drive some more, keep driving, arrive at arena early, sit, wait, watch, freeze, cheer, freeze some more, load up gear, get in car, drive, drive and drive some more.  Then repeat. Yes, this is life in Canada as a rep hockey parent, and I am not alone.  If you add up the parents of kids in house league hockey, rep hockey, figure skating, speed skating, skating lessons, curling and other ice sports, hundreds of thousands of Canadian parents are doing much of the same - essentially freezing their baguettes off for what can amount to (in my case) 315 hours, 13 entire days of one's life spent in an arena (not including playoffs and tryouts and summer camps).  And it is awesome!!! If you're spending approximately 11.25 passive hours per week in a vast, steel, fluorescent-lit meat-locker des