THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - December Edition

Welcome to my new blog platform!! With Facebook removing the way that I have been writing my personal entries for the past 13 years it only made sense to move my blog over to the site that I already own. This way I'll know that my content is safe and that no one is going to decide to take it all away from me. These personal entries are hidden and can only be accessed by the link (which I will provide you with each month). And because I don't trust Facebook anymore, I am also (slowly) moving all of my old past entries into this new space as well. (It's a big project! Approximately 156 posts to transfer over, so I'll be working on it for a while!) As for my monthly Covid report, things are pretty grim. Alberta is a huge mess. I am often back to feeling the stress and dread that I used to feel at the beginning of the pandemic, which I thought was gone. Right now in Edmonton there is 0.5% of the population with known active cases. This doesn't sound like much but the city has 7,857 active cases which is way more than ever before. It's hard not to feel scared and to keep irrational fears at bay. Thankfully, the elementary school that Archie’s preschool is in still has not had any recorded cases at all. For the most part we just stay away from all people, except for the fact that Archie goes to preschool. We got our annual family photography back and I am so happy with how it turned out! The shots capture our vibe as a family so well. I've shared all of them on Facebook but here are a few of my favourites.

Because of the worsening pandemic situation my yoga studio shut down (again) in mid-November. Although it hasn't been too bad because they are continuing to offer the same classes virtually. It's been nice getting so much use out of my private yoga room! One crappy thing that happened is that I developed a UTI (urinary tract infection) and I had to go on antibiotics. Thankfully it cleared up pretty quickly once I was on the meds. The first part of the month was pretty quiet. Just trying to keep doing the usual things that make me happy.

We even had a girls night and I saw other humans! (Shortly after this the shit hit the fan and now no one is seeing anyone ever.)

The second half of the month was dedicated to getting ready for Christmas! Definitely one of my favourite parts of the year. We put lights up on our house, put up our Christmas tree, and have been partaking in as many cute (and safe!) holiday activities as we can. So far, things have felt pretty normal. We try to do something festive every weekend!

Apart from the pandemic stress, it was a really nice, cozy month.

Life with Archie:

Archie is doing well but I think he might be sensing the tenseness going around. He has been sleeping in our bed with us a whole lot and has been acting out a bit in different ways. I'm pretty sure that it's just a phase that will resolve once things are more easy-going again. Which I hope is freakin' soon.

Archie has been absolutely loving preschool and I am so grateful that he has been able to continue to attend.

Tim reading to Archie's class.

Archie being the Special Helper of the day, which he loves.

He even got to see some of his friends!

He has been loving the winter and spends most of his time eating snow...

And yes, Archie DID get to visit Santa, which was a great experience. We went to West Edmonton Mall and I was so impressed at how well they were able to make this work. It felt so magical and the Santa was SO excellent and engaging. But most importantly, it felt really safe. I'm really glad that Archie didn't have to miss out on this because he is literally SO EXCITED about Christmas this year.

December is here! WHAT A YEAR! It's so crazy to think that this time last year... We had no idea what was ahead. I truly hope that by this time next year everything is back to normal again, and we'll all be planning our happy, normal Christmases. As for this month, we will continue to enjoy cute holiday activities and make the best of things. Unfortunately we've had to postpone our Christmas girls night because we aren't allowed to eat in restaurants with people that we don't live with. I look forward to making it Christmas whenever we can! As usual, we will have an early Christmas at our house with just the three of us and it should be wonderful. After that, our intention is to drive to Regina to spend real Christmas (and the rest of the year) with my family. As you can imagine, the logistics of this are very stressful as well. We are planning to go into isolation for two weeks before arriving and will be taking Archie out of school early as well. (This makes me sad because he'll be missing out on all of the fun Christmas stuff that they'll be doing.) Then the three of us will be getting Covid tests before going to Regina, to be extra sure that we do not have the virus. The absolute last thing that I want to do is get my parents sick. Once in Regina we'll be joining my parents' household and will be isolating at their house for over two weeks. I don't see how we could be any safer about this. I haven't seen my family in a YEAR, since last Christmas. It's really important to all of us that we can make this work. On that note, I'll be in Regina for a good long while! Something like December 22nd until January 7th, give or take. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get together with friends... But maybe an outdoor distanced walk could be alright if anyone wanted to do something like that. Of course we had to make the decision NOT to go to London this year because it's just too dangerous. We didn't want to get on a germ-filled airplane and bring that to Tim's family. So that's sad. But at least we have seen them several times this year before leaving Toronto. (Unlike my family who we haven't seen at all.) I truly hope that whatever your Christmases end up being, that you're able to find the joy and beauty in this season. Everything is so difficult right now and I know that we all just want it to be over. I want to thank each and every one of you, my dear friends, for getting me through this year. Knowing that I have you in my corner and that we're all supporting each other is so helpful. I wish that I could've spent more time visiting and hugging you all this year! I intend to make up for all of this lost time as soon as it's possible. I am sending you all so much love. <3