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

The holiday mayhem is officially behind us and it's 2023! I hope that you all got to spend some relaxing and memorable time with your families. December was FULL OF HOLIDAY STUFF because that's how December do. First, this photo was taken in November but it took me a while to receive it. This is us with drag queen Mrs. Claus. I love her.

We celebrated Christmas Girls Night and it's always one of my favourite annual traditions. This time we had dinner and exchanged gifts at Westlake Grill in Red Deer, followed by a horse-drawn sleigh ride. Hilariously, it was -32° outside which was a bit cold. We had a wonderful time together nonetheless!

We went to Luminaria, which is probably our favourite holiday event of all. We love attending it each December.

We spontaneously decided to go to the FIS Snowboard Big Air World Cup which was being held in Edmonton. They built the largest man-made snowboard jump ever! Being three snowboarders ourselves, it seemed like a very fun event and it was cool to see.

We also went to the Edmonton Christmas Market, which is another one of our favourite holiday activities.

There was one week where we hired our babysitter three times, for three different nights! We're putting that girl through college, I swear. First, we attended a private movie screening for a film called 'How to Ruin the Holidays.' It was really good!! I was impressed at how decent of a movie it was.

Then we attended The Yelpies 2022, which was pretty much like the Yelp Christmas party. Unfortunately, I did not win an award this year (but I also got the impression that they are trying to give other people a chance, not just the same people every year). However, I was given a shoutout for my 2021 award, which was nice. It was a fun and sparkly party! Speaking of Yelp, I just found out yesterday that I have been awarded my 2023 Yelp Elite Squad badge for another year (not that there was any doubt, ha ha). I'm very proud to have it and this means that I will continue to partake in fun foodie events for another year.

Next was BioWare's Year End Party, which was steampunk themed. It was held at The Westin hotel downtown. This was the first work Christmas party that we've attended since 2019 and it was so great to return to normal fun once again! As usual, the party was over the top. There was an open bar, food, live music, and various activity and game stations. We had a great time!

And then finally we had our own early Christmas at home in Edmonton, which I love very much. I love that we get to have our own family celebration before we bust into all of the other stuff with other people. It was cozy and nice and full of the traditions that we enjoy.

And then we were off to Regina! Which did not go according to plan. We were supposed to fly to Regina and our flight got cancelled with NO option to book another flight before Christmas. So we were fucked. Our literal only option was to get in the car and to start driving, which is what we did. However, we did make it to Regina and we had a great Christmas with my family.

As usual, we always celebrate the January birthdays as well, since Archie, my dad, and myself are all born in January.

And of course I got to see friends too! We had our Regina Friends Christmas Party (that no one attended except for Sarah and I, HA HA) and I managed to squeeze in as much other friend time as I could. I loved getting to see you all! <3

After spending a week in Regina we were then supposed to fly to London to spend time with Tim's family. Once again, our flight got canceled. However, they were able to re-book us for the next day. BUT THEN we found out that Tim's brother tested positive for Covid. The whole family decided that we should postpone our Christmas together until later because with Jeff's family "out" we wouldn't all be together. Thankfully this development happened before we flew all the way there!! (Our canceled flight turned out to be a blessing in disguise.) Our new plan is to get together over Easter instead. We are planning to go to Muskoka for a week (the family cottage isn't sold yet) and it just so happens that we will have THREE cottage units available to us at that time, which will mean that we'll have plenty of space for everyone. I'm super excited about this new plan and I definitely prefer it. So because of this, we decided to stay in Regina for New Year's and then drive back home to Edmonton afterward. We spent a very fun New Year's Eve out on the town, toasting with champagne at midnight! As per tradition, I also lit my intention for 2023 on fire after midnight as well.

Needless to say, my track record for air travel has been poor at best lately and that stresses me out greatly. I really need that ship to turn itself around! My wish for 2023 is NO MORE air travel drama!!! We ended up spending 12 days in Regina and it was a very good Christmas and New Year's! If you're curious about what I got Tim for Christmas, it was this stuff. He seemed pretty pleased with it!:

If you're curious about what I got for Christmas (and for my birthday from my parents), it was this stuff. I'm very excited about all of it!:

Overall, It was a great month. I couldn't have asked for more from a month of fun holiday celebrations and time spent with family and friends. Life with Archie: Archie loved the entire holiday season and happily soaked it all in. I really love getting to watch him experience the magic of it all.

Archie lost his second tooth and this time we actually got the tooth and it wasn't lost.

He got to meet football mascots and feed birds and continued to have a great time at school...

Unfortunately, Archie's school decided not to have an in-person Christmas concert, which was sad. Instead, they recorded each class performance and we got to watch the video. This is how I dressed Archie for concert recording day. He did a really great job and the video was SO CUTE!

Archie had a great early Christmas at home and loved all of his presents!

During spirit week at school he got to participate in Holiday Head Gear Day and Cozy Socks Day.

And you know that on his last day of school before the holidays that I sent him with a very holiday-appropriate snack!

Archie also had a great time in Regina and LOVED spending a bunch of quality time with his grandparents and uncle. He was very excited to get even more Christmas presents, as well as birthday presents.

He was definitely very spoiled this month and we haven't even seen the Golems yet... Archie is very excited to get back to school to see his friends!

January started out with us in Regina and then we drove back home. (Another plus to staying in Regina was not having to figure out how to get our car back.) This month is a pretty exciting one and I have been looking forward to it very much. First on the 10th is my 41st birthday! BIRTHDAY!! On the very same day we are leaving on our way to DISNEY WORLD in Florida, USA!! You might have noticed on my Facebook that we have spent the past year and a half watching ALL of the Disney/Pixar animated features in chronological order... As of right now we have two more movies to watch... And then Disney World on Tuesday! We are actually flying to Toronto on Tuesday and spending the night and then flying to Orlando on Wednesday. We are going to be staying on-property at Disney's Art of Animation Resort in a Cars Family Suite. We have six days of parks and plan to do two days at the Magic Kingdom, two days at Hollywood Studios, one day at EPCOT, and one day at Animal Kingdom. I have booked all of our restaurants and I think that everything is ready to go! I feel like I have been preparing for this trip for over a year and I'm very excited for it to happen! Archie will also be celebrating his 6th birthday while we are there! Tim will be going to London (by himself) later this month for a weekend because he and his siblings have a bunch of cleaning out and work to do on his parents' house to get it ready for sale. I'll be celebrating my birthday Girls Night with my friends and presumably Tim and I will also go out to celebrate my birthday later in the month once we have a free minute. Archie will be having a birthday party with his friends at Cineplex to eat pizza and cake and to watch a movie. And then Tim will be leaving AGAIN on a work trip to Los Angeles. It's a big month! Welcome to 2023! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: January 30th is Enobong Anstey’s 41st birthday!

We are officially IN our 40s! I absolutely loved getting to spend time with you in Mexico!! I am so glad that we got to share such a fun-filled adventure together! It's too bad that our Christmas plans didn't work out but I know that we will be together again soon. Wishing you an absolutely fabulous day complete with a steak and lobster dinner! I love you very much! <3