Thanksgiving

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

We just returned home from a lovely Thanksgiving weekend away at Whistler together.  We almost pulled the plug on our time away, the forecast was looking pitiful and Paul and Sydney were both sniffling away with colds, but I so desperately needed a change of scenery and a few days R&R that we jumped in the car and headed up for what ended up being a fantastic weekend away.


I was dying for a turkey dinner, a real turkey dinner complete with all the fixings, so we headed to the Wildflower restaurant at the Fairmont Chateau for the most delicious Thanksgiving meal, made all the better by the fact that I didn't have to cook a thing!  It was the highlight of our weekend!

We went for walks, did a little shopping, ate some good meals, watched hockey, played games and relaxed in front of the fire before snuggling up to bed early enough to get what felt like a sleep in.  Loveliness.

The village was so beautiful with leaves changing colour all around.

Sydney collected a leaf bouquet for our hotel.

We loved all of the great fall fare for sale at the Whistler Farmer's Market too.

Sydney went swimming about a dozen times over three days, she simply could not get enough of the pool and hot tub!


Sydney told me this afternoon that she wanted to make a list of things that she was grateful for.  Here's her list, made all by herself without any prompting from me:

1.  Family
2.  Friends
3.  Birthdays
4.  Baking
5.  Grocery Shopping
6.  Flowers
7.  Painting
8.  Exercises
9.  Cleaning
10. School
11. Making Dinner

She asked me to title it her "Thanksgiving Day Thankful List".  I'm thinking a new, wonderful Thanksgiving tradition has been born.


I too have many things to be thankful for today, here's a few from this past week:

Thanksgiving Card

Sydney came home from school this week with the most adorable Thanksgiving card for Paul and I.  She had made a turkey with her handprint and inside was the sweetest poem.  Loved it!


Dinner with Sarah

Sarah and I again celebrated our birthdays together this year and went for the most amazing dinner at Oakwood restaurant last week.

Sarah gave me the most beautiful silver earrings from Folli Follie, I absolutely love them!

So grateful for our friendship and celebrating together every year!


Artwork

Sydney's passion for painting at home has taken a resurgence again after the back to school lull.  She made three beautiful canvases the other day and continues to come home with some gorgeous paintings too.

Parcel from Brandie

I got a very special parcel in the mail this week from Brandie for my birthday, a gorgeous scarf and a list diary with the most beautiful letter tucked inside.  Brandie is my most long standing and dearest friend, she is so thoughtful in every way. 


New Parents Dinner

Last week Sydney's school put on a beautiful dinner to welcome new parents to the school.  My fellow Mom and new friend Kim and I went together while our husband's put the kids to bed and had a lovely time of visiting with other parents and hearing from many important people at the school.

I had the good fortune of sitting next to one of Sydney's teachers and chatted with her for most of the night.  I left feeling like I had made a new friend. 

We all came home with a DVD of a home movie that they had filmed of all of the new students during the first couple of weeks of school.  Just loved the shot of Syd and her teacher snuggled up together working on something smiling and happy.  Such a relief to my heart to know that she is happy in her environment.

My Girl

Just love this shot of Sydney snuggled up doing a sketch on her favourite chaise lounge couch in the hotel this weekend overlooking the fire station.  Dreamy! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Days

I have to admit that since Sydney has started Kindergarten the weekends have taken on a whole new meaning.  After years of enjoying having full days together with Sydney to write as we pleased, I now treasure two full days with Syd at the end of the week to just hang out.  Suddenly being in our pajamas at 10:00 in the morning is such a special treat as is taking as long as we want to wander around the neighborhood collecting leaves and enjoying a perfect fall day.

This is what our neighborhood looked like this afternoon:

Sydney and I had barely left the front door when she spotted the most giant mushrooms growing in our front yard.

She was thrilled!


Last weekend my sweet friend Christina left a bucket of freshly baked banana chocolate chip muffins on our front porch early Sunday morning.  It was such a lovely treat and I've had the bucket sitting on the kitchen table ready to return to her for a few days.  Sydney couldn't resist using the bucket as her leaf collector for our nature walk this afternoon.

Which inevitably ended up with a trip to the playground at the end of our street on the way home.

I was just looking over pictures of our weekend and let out a happy sigh.  It really was a good, fun weekend with lots of great memories along the way.

On Friday afternoon I met up with my sister for a special birthday lunch at Biercraft restaurant, a local haunt that I've been wanting to try forever!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch and an even more precious visit together.

Liane gave me the most beautiful box of David's tea as a birthday gift.  I just love all the little tins and am so excited to have some of my old favourites restocked and to try some new ones!

It was the perfect compliment to the beautiful bag of tea, chocolate and biscuits that my friend Lori left on my front porch this week to wish me a happy birthday.  I foresee some great tea parties in the future for Sydney and I!

Friday evening we joined Zach and his mom at the synagogue for the Kol Nidre service.  It is a long and late service and Sydney did so well, holding out as long as she possibly could before we had to head home.

Sydney enjoyed another great art class on Saturday morning, finishing off her canvas which included some splatter toothbrush painting.  She was covered head to toe in paint by the time she was done!

We had another riding lesson on Saturday afternoon as well, the farm was all decked out for fall with pumpkins everywhere!

We couldn't possibly leave without one for Sydney.

Which she promptly asked me to carve open so that she could scoop all the seeds out.  We enjoyed roasting them and having them for a snack.

This morning we joined Sydney's classmate Elizabeth at the Choices market in Kerrisdale to sell raffle tickets for Sydney's school.  The girls had a great time and I was so proud of Sydney talking to perfect strangers telling them that she was selling tickets for her school and that they cost 'five bucks.'  She sold almost her entire booklet during her shift, it was such fun!

Sydney's greatest request for today was to go to the family swim at Aquaventures so we obliged and took her to the pool for the afternoon.  She had such a blast diving and splashing in the pool until she was exhausted.

We headed to Granville Island for some lunch afterwards to enjoy the beautiful, sunny day. 

It was a nice weekend, lots of great time together, I feel content.

A Special Lunch

This morning I had the pleasure of volunteering in Sydney's classroom for the first time since she started Kindergarten.  Once a month the class has what they call a 'special lunch.'  This lunch is special in many ways, the girls get to help prepare lunch using fruits and veggies that they've harvested from the school garden, they set specially decorated tables and eat all together with their teachers and invited guests.  It is a wonderful tradition.

I was given the task of making french fries with beautifully fresh harvested potatoes from the garden that Sydney and her classmates washed off just this morning.  Another parent made stir fried zucchini and summer squash and a third made sliced apples in yogurt dipping sauce with apples from the trees on the school property.

It was so neat to get a little peek into what Sydney has been doing during the day at Kindergarten while I was in class today and to meet many of the staff members at her school that I hadn't yet met.

I just loved how her classmates Olivia and Emma decorated the tables with fresh flower bouquets, leaves, bark and chestnuts.

The highlight of the lunch was the arrival of some delicious pasta made by the school cafeteria which they ate for their main course.

It was a very special lunch indeed!

Sydney loves waiting after school for her buddy Julia's class to get out for the day so that they can see each other.  I just loved watching them hang out on the school steps together chatting and laughing!

Yesterday was my 39th birthday.  It was a pretty ordinary day by most standards, taking Syd to school, working at Paul's office, shuttling Syd to swim lessons and then home.  We did manage to sneak out for dinner together at Thai House and Paul gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers which definitely brightened my day.

Sydney is loving being back at swim lessons and has rediscovered her passion for painting again over the past couple of weeks.  I picked her up some new canvases and a watercolour book to paint in today, she was so thrilled she literally stripped her school clothes off and started painting naked right away!  Reminded me so much of when she was a wee one and would do 'naked painting' as she called it, sitting naked on the floor of the kitchen on her splash mat just lost in her painting!

What a girl!