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

It's very startling to already be in December. Weeks melt away so quickly and now Christmas is here and the year is practically over. What did you wish for in 2021? All I really wanted was more freedom and I do think that I got it. The year was far from perfect but the strangle hold over many of the things that I wanted to do has certainly let up. I have enjoyed a much more normal life this year, and for that I am grateful. Oh, the pandemic. It never seems to end. I'm annoyed about the new variant but also not willing to overreact about it. Things have actually been doing really great and I'm choosing to hold onto that positive momentum. As things currently stand, in Edmonton there is 0.08% of the population with known active cases. The other exciting thing that happened this month is that kids who are 5+ can now get vaccinated. Archie isn't eligible for another 46 days but it's soon. Of my six nieces, two of them are over five years old and both of them have now been vaccinated. I keep joking that Archie is really going to love his upcoming birthday present, ha ha. Jokes aside, I did have an honest conversation with Archie and asked him if he would want to get the Covid vaccine and he said yes. (Which says a lot, because like most kids, he HATES getting vaccines.) We have officially gone into holiday mode and everything that we've been doing lately has been holiday-related. We always put up our Christmas tree in mid-November and this year was no different. We normally travel at Christmas so if we want a decent amount of time to enjoy our tree, it's gotta go up fairly early!

We finally celebrated Nicole's Birthday Girls Night, which had been put off for six months! She picked to have dinner at Rebel Food and Drink, which was quite delicious.

Archie went to see Santa at West Edmonton Mall and was very excited about it. It was still very much a pandemic Santa situation but I actually kinda like that we'll always have memories of this crazy time. Archie had a great time chatting with Santa and told him all about what he wants for Christmas.

Our schedule is stacked every weekend with holiday activities and it has already begun. We went to the Winter Whyte Light Up (and met Edmonton's awesome new mayor, Amarjeet Sohi there) and the Edmonton Christmas Market in the Army & Navy building. There is so much more to come!

Last month I mentioned that we are trying to be healthier and break some of the bad pandemic habits that we had picked up. We are already seeing so much progress! I swear that as soon as we stopped eating fast food regularly I immediately lost six pounds. I am also finally settled in at a new yoga studio that I love, Yoga Within, and have a really great rotation of classes that I attend every week. I feel so much stronger and full of more energy. My body feels more toned. It feels amazing to get back to what I consider "normal" for my body because I was not feeling very good before.

Some pretty cool things have been happening in my food blog world. There have continued to be Yelp Elite events, which are very fun and result in a bunch of free food for me. Then I was contacted by Narcity because they wanted to use some of my content for one of their articles. And then I was contacted by a marketing company because they wanted me to try a new restaurant in town (for free). They said that I'm "one of the most prominent food industry influencers in Edmonton" and that felt pretty good. I also wanted to share this photo. These are my six nieces! They're all growing up and they're all so beautiful. I'm very curiously waiting to see if there will be any more. I think that there's a chance that there *might* be one more. Another boy would be pretty awesome! I can't wait to finally see these kids in a few weeks!

Amelia, Madison, Laura, Evelyn, Mackenzie, Penelope.

Life with Archie: Archie is clearly LOVING the holiday season. He is definitely more into Christmas than he has ever been before and wants to be a part of all aspects of celebrating. We had a good month that included plenty of nature, as always. We love getting outside in every season, even now that the snow has arrived.

Was there another themed preschool snack? Yes, there was. It was BLUE DAY and we crushed that blue snack. (The crackers have blue cream cheese on them.)

Archie can now count to ten in three languages; English, French and Spanish. (Actually, he can count to over 100 in English.) I can't wait for him to start elementary school in the French Immersion program because I feel like he's ready! He also knows how to spell his name. It's pretty surreal watching your child go from a helpless blob to an entire human who keeps learning new things and is becoming so smart. Archie also saw his first movie in a theatre since he saw Onward, before the pandemic started. We took him to Encanto and he really enjoyed it! (I liked it a lot too!)

And back to Christmas... We're just doing constant Christmas stuff and Archie loves every minute of it. I hope that he feels the magic. I am VERY serious about magic. Ha ha!

And now it's mother f*cking December! Ha ha, I'm in a mood. There's just so much to be done and our schedule is packed and I'm too organized for my own good. We've got Christmas parties and tons of holiday activities. BioWare's parties are happening virtually again this year but should be fun none the less. Plus Christmas Girls Night!! Like usual, we are celebrating our own Christmas at home early and Santa is making a special early visit to our house. Then... On the 18th... WE ARE GETTING ON A PLANE AGAIN!!! I am so excited to fly places once again. It feels like air travel has been a piece of our life that has eluded us the most. I can't wait to be in an airport. We haven't been on a plane in 16 months and that's very unusual for us. We're flying to Toronto first and renting a car and driving to Niagara Falls. We're spending two nights at Great Wolf Lodge which is a thing that Ontario families love to do and we have never done. It's a little mini family vacation for us before all of the Christmas mayhem begins. We're sure that Archie will love it. Then we're taking the train to London to spend the week over Christmas with the Golems. We haven't seen them in a year and a half. It will be pretty special to spend the holidays with them again. Then we're flying to Regina to spend the week over New Year's with my family. And we'll do another Christmas with them too. I'm really looking forward to seeing as many of you as I can while I'm in town! I really can't wait for all of this. This is what a "normal" Christmas looks like for us and we didn't get to do it last year. Finally, some of you have asked me where my house is located on the birthday card that I sent to you this year. So here it is! My house is where I put the purple star! South of the river for life!!!

I loved 2021 because I got to see a lot more of you this year and we got to hug again. I often see myself as a bit of a solitary creature but the pandemic certainly made me miss and appreciate my friends like never before. If anything, I think that it brought us closer and more in contact in many ways. It's when you can't have something that you truly realize how much you need it. I'm grateful to you all for being there. Even if we don't talk all the time and even if we haven't seen each other in a while, I value you and you are important to me. I'm in your corner and you're a part of my heart. <3 PS - I literally had to lock myself in the bathroom so that I could hear myself think and finish writing this. Mom life, amirite?