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

Happy December!!! We have already arrived at the last month of the year and I hope that everyone is reflecting over the past year with good memories. As I mentioned last month, we had our annual family photography done back in October and now I have the images to share. It was nice to take these photos at our home. They feel like a true snapshot of our current real life.

At the very beginning of the month we celebrated Rachelle's birthday and she chose to have dinner at Taco Loft in Red Deer. It was also a Tuesday. So it was perfect!

And then I was off to Mexico! If you were paying attention at all, you surely noticed that there was quite a bit of travel drama involved in getting us all to Mexico. Unfortunately, we were greatly affected by that WestJet system outage that happened. Only 2/7 of us arrived in Mexico on time. The rest of us experienced a bit of a travel nightmare. BUT in the end we all arrived and we spent a wonderful vacation together in Playa del Carmen! It was very special to celebrate our milestone 40th birthdays all together on the beach!

The resort, El Dorado Royale, was really nice and the food was excellent. The resort had yoga (that was actually good!), we went shopping in the town of Playa del Carmen, I got to go horseback riding and swam in a cenote, we did a really cool culinary theatre show one night, and I had a beachfront massage. Lazing on the beach, drinking cocktails, and swimming in the sea was probably my favourite part though!

I loved getting to spend so much uninterrupted time with Sarah, Candice, Heather, Enobong, Nadine, and Crystal. As adults with families and busy lives, this type of solid girl time is extremely rare and I certainly didn't take it for granted. No kids or responsibilities to distract us, just wonderful, relaxing friend time. I love you guys and it was so nice to connect with you all for the better part of a week. <3

Upon my return home we got into the Christmas stuff right away. First was BioWare's 'A Holiday in Wonderland' kids Christmas party. It was a lot of fun and Archie had a blast!

Then we put up our Christmas tree which always involves Festive Specials at Swiss Chalet.

And we also attended the Winter Whyte Light Up, which is an annual event that we enjoy. Needless to say, we are fully in the Christmas spirit at this point and are in the holiday zone.

It was another fun-filled month and I loved every part of it! (Except for the part when I was attempting to sleep on the floor of the Toronto airport. That part wasn't so great. Ha ha.) Life with Archie: Archie is mostly just full speed ahead on Christmas at the moment. We had a Parent-Teacher Conference with Archie's teacher and it was wonderful to hear that he is doing well at school. His teacher said that he is picking up French like a sponge and that she often has him help out some of the other kids who aren't learning as easily. I am very proud and relieved to hear that our decision to put him in French Immersion was a good one. It has been really fun for me to speak a lot more French at home with Archie too! Archie had the best time at the kids Christmas party with his pal Brendan. It was super cute. Those two tornado'd around like it was their job.

Archie enjoyed helping to put up the Christmas tree and is fully on board with the Festive Special (but mainly just wants the Lindor chocolates at the end).

Archie's first-ever loose tooth fell out! Unfortunately, we think that he swallowed the tooth. It fell out while he was eating a sandwich and before we realized what had happened the tooth was already gone. Regardless, he was very excited for the Tooth Fairy to visit him!

School continues to go really well. Here he is with some of his classmates and their self portraits. They also had a Spirit Day where we made an appropriately themed snack to match the school's colours (black and yellow).

We attended a VERY cute event at the Old Strathcona Antique Mall called the Kids Christmas Shoppe where kids were able to shop for Christmas gifts without their parents. We gave him $20 and he was assigned his own grandma to help him shop and wrap the gifts. I absolutely cannot wait to see what he bought for us.

SANDWICH!

And of course we took Archie to see Santa Claus. It has become our tradition to take him to the one in West Edmonton Mall. And after two years of weird (but still good) Santa experiences, this one was completely normal once again. No masks, no distancing. It was so nice to see!

December is going to be all about Christmas, of course. The Core Four celebrated our Christmas Girls Night right at the start of the month, complete with a horse-drawn sleigh ride. We are looking forward to more of our favourite holiday activities like Luminaria and the Edmonton Christmas Market. We have tickets to a movie premiere that is happening in Edmonton for a movie called 'How to Ruin the Holidays' that was made by two Edmonton improvisors that we enjoy. So that will be a fun date night out! And then there are parties!! First there's The Yelpies 2022 at Glow Festival of Lights. This is a Yelp Elite Event where the 2022 Yelpies are being awarded. (I won one last year.) The party includes a beautiful display of lights, a tasting menu, drinks, a red carpet and of course the awards show! Very excited to attend. And then there's the BioWare Year End Party (for adults)! This is usually a huge event and it's the first one happening in person since 2019. This year's theme is "steampunk" and there's usually an open bar. Good times ahead! We will be celebrating our own Christmas at home in Edmonton early, like we always do. Santa makes a special early visit to our house and I love all of our little traditions. Then we are off to Regina for a week! We will be spending actual Christmas with my family and I'm looking forward to it very much. I also can't wait for the Regina Friends Christmas Party at Avenue!! After that we are off to London for a week! We will be spending New Year's with Tim's family and celebrating Christmas with them as well. It should be a fun and festive month! As always, this tends to be the time of year when I feel a whole lot of gratitude for you beautiful humans that I call friends. You're with me on my life journey and as the years go by I appreciate more and more that I have people who really know me like you. Friendships that have existed for 20 or 30 years can't be duplicated. I can't wait to make more memories with you all in 2023! I love you ladies. <3