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

What a whirlwind December was!! I found the month simultaneously lovely and magical while also being extremely stressful (more than the usual holiday stress). On one hand, we still experienced all of the wonderful holiday outings and events that we usually do and it didn't feel as if the pandemic took much away from that. On the other hand, I definitely felt way more overwhelmed than usual dealing with the logistics of making everything work out as smoothly as possible. (Especially the part about getting us to Regina safely and everything that was involved in that.) I can be an extremely idealistic person and I absolutely know that I put a lot (sometimes too much) of expectations on myself and on the way that I want things to go. In the end, it all worked out pretty much perfectly and I am extremely grateful for that. Covid kept getting worse and more terrible in Alberta, which certainly added to my anxieties. A state of public health emergency was called and the province pretty much went back into lockdown. However, since then the numbers have begun to improve and vaccines have started to get administered. I'm feeling a sense of relief and there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel (although I'm well aware that we aren't out of the woods yet). As things currently stand, in Edmonton there is 0.4% of the population with known active cases. The active cases in Edmonton have gone down to 5,983 which is actually a pretty big improvement, believe it or not. (I believe Edmonton hit just over 10K in active cases at the worst point.) It's a big relief to see things moving in the correct direction. Thankfully, the elementary school that Archie’s preschool is in continued not to have any recorded cases at all. (In comparison, Regina currently has 595 active cases, which seems very, very low compared to the pandemic life that we have been used to living in Toronto and Edmonton. I realize that the population here is comparatively much lower as well but it still feels significantly safer here. Coming to Regina has felt a bit like “running away” from the virus to us.) I was not willing to give up our "holiday season" especially since there were plenty of options to do it all in a safe and pandemic-friendly way. We visited the Edmonton Christmas Market, I got my annual Holiday Glow facial and holiday Spa Pedicure, we walked through the magical Luminaria display, and drove through the Winter Wonder Forest. The holiday sprit was alive and well!

We had BioWare's Family Holiday Party! It was great. They sent an entire turkey dinner to our house and there was a whole virtual party that included a personal visit with Santa, Hip Hop with Abby the Elf, Crafts with the Grinch, Catching Snowflakes Draw Along, and Storytime with Santa & Mrs. Claus. It was amazing to see how well they were able to pull this off.

We were supposed to have our Christmas Girls Night at The Melting Pot (which has been an annual tradition for years) but of course we couldn't eat in restaurants anymore. So we had a Zoom chat instead (which was still lovely!) and we intend to have our dinner and exchange gifts whenever restaurants are allowed to open again! <3

We had BioWare's Mars Habitation Mission (adult holiday party)! This party was seriously amazing. As you know from previous years, video game companies go all out for their holiday parties so it was really cool to see how they still made things awesome. They sent a ton of food to our house, cocktails, a bottle of wine and a bottle of prosecco, there was a virtual photo booth, an open chat room to hang out in with everyone, a scientist teaching us how to make the cocktails, a live DJ, a live improv performance, an embroidery hoop art craft, and a virtual escape room! I was impressed. We had so much fun.

We even fit in a trip to our local ski hill (a 10 minute drive from our house) to get us back on our snowboards and to dust off our skills. It felt really great to get back out there and now I'm really looking forward to getting back onto a real mountain!

Then we had our own early Christmas at home! It was great. As usual, we told Archie that Santa made a special early trip to our house just for him and I loved getting to have our own little celebration. Archie got presents from us and from Santa, and Tim and I also exchanged our gifts with each other.

Christmas morning!

Then we were off to Regina! To prepare for this we took Archie out of school a week early and went into isolation for two weeks prior to our trip. We then all had Covid tests done (which was totally not a big deal, even Archie didn't care much about it) and we got our negative results in 24 hours. There was literally no way for us to be any safer about things and we pretty much had 99.9% certainty that we were virus-free. It felt really good to be going somewhere again and it was especially wonderful to be reunited with my parents again after not seeing them for an entire year.

My brother also had a Covid test done before coming to spend Christmas with us but his result took a lot longer to come back than ours did (four days). Because of this we actually had to postpone Christmas for a couple of days because he hadn't gotten his result back in time. (This wasn't a big deal because it wasn't as if we were going anywhere or had anything else to do.) Finally we celebrated Christmas all together as a family! (Santa doesn't come for this one.) Tim made an entire turkey feast for the whole family!

Christmas morning!

We usually throw a Regina Friends Christmas Party each year and have dinner in a restaurant together. Because we couldn't do this we did the Zoom version instead and it still worked out really well and was really nice to spend time catching up with everyone. <3

We've mostly spent our time in Regina hanging around my parents' house relaxing, getting delicious take-out, and going for walks outside. It has been pretty low-key and perfect. It feels like exactly what I needed. For New Year's Eve we stayed up until midnight and had our own little party! It was great! It's 2021!!!

I am completely grateful that everything managed to work out as well as it did this month. There were so many opportunities for error. We are incredibly fortunate to have been able to spend Christmas with my family and I know that many people weren't able to do what they would have wanted for this holiday. (We didn't get to see Tim's family at all, which was different and sad.) We are still currently in Regina and plan to head back to Edmonton later this week. Life with Archie: Archie absolutely loved Christmas and everything about it. He is way into Santa and way into presents. It has been so much fun to watch him enjoy the holidays so much. I feel like he's been out of preschool and on winter break for ages! He still loves going to school and I'm sure that he'll be so happy to return on January 12th. The best thing about preschool is all of the adorable crafts and art projects that he brings home!

We were super excited to get Archie back onto a snowboard! He did really well and it seems like it's only going to be a matter of time before he really starts to get the hang of it. I can't wait! We’ll be able to enroll Archie in snowboarding lessons next winter and we cannot wait to do so. Imagine the three of us shredding up the mountains together! It's gonna be the best!

Archie did really great on our eight hour road trip to Regina. He has always been really chill on long car rides, possibly because we've been taking him on them for his whole life. He's been loving spending time with his grandparents and uncle so much! (He says that Uncle Jamie is his best friend.) He also cleaned up on Christmas, getting totally spoiled by everyone.

I think it's been good for everyone to have a break from the routine at home and to have a change of scenery. It's been good for Archie to spend some time with people other than his parents. On the other hand, I think it'll be nice to return home, back to our normal lives. I love how being away from home refreshes things and makes you appreciate what you have a bit more.

And now it's January and a whole new year! I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I know that things aren't going to fix themselves overnight but I'm choosing to remain positive above the future. I really hope that the pandemic numbers go down in the spring/summer (like they did last year) and that we can all start getting vaccinated in the spring. I hope that a return to normalcy is coming soon! (Or at least something more like it.) I wrote my annual Thoughts, Resolutions, Re-caps, Bests blog entry in case you wanna check that out! We're still in Regina for now and we plan to head home around Wednesday this week. (We'll have been in Regina for like 18 days in total, which is actually the longest amount of time that I've spent with my whole family in years.) And then it's my birthday!! I'm turning 39! Can you believe that this is my last year in my 30s?! I kinda can't. Part of me is still pretty convinced that I'm about 25 years old. Although, I absolutely loved my 30s, especially the first half. My birthday was supposed to involve a romantic dinner at a fancy restaurant (with no child) and a night in a fancy hotel. But since these plans can't happen right now, we are going to postpone them until the pandemic situation is a bit better. However, Tim is still going to find a way to give me a nice at-home birthday. ;) After that it's Archie's birthday and he's turning 4! We have planned an outdoor birthday party on his actual birthday. It's a cabane à sucre themed party because he was born in Quebec. However, right now outdoor gatherings are completely banned. If this is still the case closer to his birthday we'll have to postpone the party until we're allowed to do it. Otherwise, that's about it for the month! Pretty much just recovering from the holidays and getting back into our normal life routine. We're also hoping to do a snowboarding trip to Jasper in January or February but we haven't worked out any of those plans yet. I hope that this year is better for everyone! Bring the positives from 2020 with you and leave the rest behind! <3

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: January 30th is Enobong Anstey’s 39th birthday!

Here we go again! It's you and me ringing in the new year with the first two birthdays! I hope that your day is extra special (steak & lobster) and that Ian and the kids find plenty of ways to spoil you! The last time that I saw you was a year ago and that's too long!! I really hope that this year involves more opportunities to bring us together. Love you! <3