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

And we're BACK! I feel like I'm living a Christmas hangover right now and I'm trying to reintroduce myself into real life. I am so, so grateful that our Christmas tour went ahead as planned and was a big success. Seeing both our families was the best thing that we could have gotten for Christmas this year. Sadly, I didn't get to see any of you but given all of the Covid drama as of late, I do think that not seeing each other was in our best interest to keep each other safe. I hope for hugs later on this year!! As for the pandemic... Welp. Shit is kinda hitting the fan right now with Omicron. Although, I personally feel that this is a good thing and that it's going to be the "end" of the pandemic. Omicron is burning too bright and it's going to burn itself out. It'll replace and push out Delta, the cases won't be very severe, and soon we'll be done with it. I predict that cases are going to tank just as quickly as they shot up. Then again, I'm no scientist, but I really do feel quite optimistic right now. I'm not keeping track of the case counts anymore because they no longer matter and are not accurate. All that matters now is hospitalizations, which have gone up a bit in Alberta but not that much. Alberta is giving out free rapid antigen testing kits and we're supposed to use them instead of going to have a PCR test done (I have stored up LOTS of them). I was also able to get my booster dose of Pfizer while I was in Regina which is a pretty big relief! I'm triple Pfizer!

December was jam-packed and was ALL CHRISTMAS ALL THE TIME! We had BioWare's Family Holiday Party, which happened at home but was still very cute and fun. It included a virtual visit with Santa and he told Archie that he would be coming to our house early.

We celebrated Christmas Girls Night and it was such a blast!!

We took a Family Yoga class at my yoga studio.

We went to Luminaria, one of our favourite holiday activities.

I still made time for nature adventures even though it's been snowy and cold.

We checked out the INSANE Whoville gingerbread house at Duchess Bake Shop.

We visited the Edmonton Christmas Market at Fort Edmonton Park.

And then we celebrated our own Christmas at home, which was wonderful. I love my family so much and I love that we got to have this special time just for the three of us. <3 Archie was VERY excited about all of it!

We also went to the Winter Wonder Forest.

Then we were off on our annual Christmas tour to spend the holidays with our families!! It felt so amazing to be able to do this once again. I had missed being inside of an airport and on airplanes so much!

I mentioned last month that the first part of our trip was supposed to be a little mini vacation to Niagara Falls for two nights. We decided to cancel this part of the trip due the pandemic situation. We didn't think that it was a great idea to be collecting more germs and then bringing them to Tim's family. So instead we went straight to London and spent more time there. We had a great time staying at Tim's brother's house!

I got to have a little holiday Zoom party with my Toronto besties! (So close yet so far!)

Our time in London was great but it turned out to be pretty stressful because there are so many people to manage. All of the kids got sick with a GI bug at Jeff's house. Tim's sister's kids were suck in isolation because of a close contact at school. We were all rapid testing to make sure that no one had Covid... There were points when we were pretty doubtful that everyone was going to be able to get together for Christmas at all. But in true CHRISTMAS MIRACLE fashion... It somehow all worked out! Spending Christmas Day ALL TOGETHER, for the first time in a year and a half, made everything worth it. It was pretty emotional to get to see everyone again, especially all of my nieces who had gotten so much bigger.

Then we were off to Regina! We had a great Christmas together, celebrated the three January birthdays, and also had New Year's there. Sadly, all of the plans to hang out with friends were cancelled. But I really loved the low-key, relaxing time that I got to spend at my parents' house.

AND THAT WAS CHRISTMAS!!! Phew. I'm just beyond relieved that it all worked out and that no one caught Covid. Life with Archie: Archie basically had the best month ever. We got up to our usual stuff...

He got to attend his friend Alex's birthday party...

And there was tons of fun school stuff going on before the kids were off on break. His class had a Christmas Pajama Party on their last day and of course there was another epic themed snack to go along with it.

Archie LOVED Christmas at home and was so excited that Santa brought him exactly what he had asked for. (He told every Santa that he saw that he wanted a Hot Wheels Massive Loop.)

Archie took his 25th, 26th and 27th flights!

Other than all of the presents, I am positive that the best part of Archie's month was getting to spend time with all of his cousins again. They all love each other so much and it's incredible to see. I was worried that maybe Archie would be left out since the rest of them see each other more often, but that wasn't the case at all. They all spent the entire time playing and hugging and it was adorable. It made the whole trip to Ontario super worthwhile in my opinion.

I can't believe it's January and a fresh new year. I feel a strong desire to "get my life back on track" but January is a bit of a wild month and "normal living" is going to have to wait. We started the month in Regina and then made our way back home. We have a few days at home to unpack, take down the Christmas decorations, and recalibrate. Then my parents are arriving at my house and Tim and I are leaving for BARBADOS!!! I can't believe it. We go for our travel PCR tests tomorrow morning and as long as those are negative we will be heading off on Friday for eight nights! This is my 40th birthday trip and I will be turning 40 while we are in Barbados. We are staying at Sandals Barbados, an adult-only luxury all-inclusive resort. (When I turned 30 we stayed at Sandals in Jamaica, so this is a thing now.) We decided NOT to cancel this trip because unless the airline/resort cancels it, we will lose all/most of our money. And they haven't cancelled it. I am not concerned about catching Covid and getting seriously ill. The only possible problem would be if we catch Covid while we're there and are forced to stay in Barbados for longer. Worse things could happen, ha ha! Archie will be safe and cared for at home with my parents, although being away from him for so long does seem a little scary. I can't wait for hot weather and gorgeous beaches!!! And no child for a whole week?!?! And romance with my husband!!! (Tim was supposed to have his post-vasectomy sample tested in January. So he dropped that off yesterday and he got a call to tell him that the vasectomy was a success. WHOO!) So yes. I am turning 40 on Monday. Forty. I feel amazing about this most of the time. But sometimes it does blow my mind a bit. I loved my 30s (especially the first half) so much. I hope that my 40s are even better! I hope that I can look forward to more freedom and adventures. Now that Archie is older I want to bloom into the best version of myself. Archie is also having a birthday and is turning FIVE! We're returning from our trip on the same day as his birthday and I'll be so excited to see him and to celebrate his day! THEN the month will become quiet and things will settle down and the pandemic will go away (ha!) and we will get into our groove for 2022. THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: January 30th is Enobong Anstey’s 40th birthday!

We haven't seen each other in WAY too long and it's super sad!! We were supposed to see each other in Regina and we know how that turned out... I really hope that this year allows us to reunite. I miss you very much! And here we go, the second member of the 1982 40 club to come join me!! You're gonna crush being 40. I'm so proud of the wonderful life that you have built and my wish is that you will be able to get back to doing plenty of traveling SOON! Love you so much, my friend. <3