3 More Sleeps and Santas on his way!!

Every morning my boys wake up and the first thing out of their mouths is....... Mummy, only _ more sleeps, until Santa comes. The excitement makes me excited.

Although, my oldest is 7 ( almost 8), this is the first year in a long time, that I have had the "Christmas Spirit". Even my husband commented on how different I am this year. Not sure what it is, not much has changed since last year, but for some unknown reason, Im excited this year.

I think this time of year we are expected to get in to the spirit, December 1st and be singing Christmas songs, start baking, get the house decorated etc. But for some of us, its stressful. Whether you are home on Mat leave, making it on one income in order for you to stay home with the kids, its hard to make ends meet this time of year. Buying presents for your own children, neieces/nephews, aunts, uncles, Grandparents etc. Its hard to find the extra money to get through the month of December, all with a smile on your face, and in the "Christmas Spirit".

At this time of year, its important to take step back, look at your beautiful children, and remember, its not about just giving gifts, running around and putting on that smile. Its about, family, being together and taking some time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour over the past year and think about the year ahead.

From all of us here in Momstown, we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and great things for 2010!!

Christmas Party a Great Success

On Saturday December 12th we had our 2nd Annual Momstown Christmas party at Holly United Church. It was a great day, filled with crafts, games, food and of course Santa!

The kids eyes lit up when Santa walked through the door. Some in delight, some in fear. A few of the children ran to give the Santa a hug, while others watched from afar, wondering if their parents were going to make them get close to him. I'm sure some great pictures were captured, of the little ones sitting on Santa's knee ( smiles or not).

As the days pass by, and Christmas approaches, its amazing to see my children's excitement. Both of them are counting down the day until Santa arrives. Justin my 4 yr old, really "gets it" this year and asks every day when it will be Christmas. He cant wait until Santa comes with his Diego Underwater Adventure toy and his Rocketship. Braydon my 7 yr old, is excited as well but I fear the questions will be coming soon, " Is Santa Real?". I have to start preparing my answer, I want to get as many years of Christmas Magic as possible out of my kids. I will lie, for as many years as I need to in order to watch their eyes light up on Christmas morning, when they run downstairs to see if Santa has eaten the cookies and milk we left, only to realize that, this must mean, he has left presents for them. Not that I'm promoting lying to my children but in this case, LIE,LIE, LIE! if it creates magic and memories for them.......... a mothers gotta do, what a mothers gotta do... right?

Christmas Traditions

December is here and in full swing, although the weather outside isn't frightful things inside are starting to look delightful.

At my house most of our decorations are up, we will be putting up the tree over the weekend.

A few years ago we bought an artificial tree, just to be used that year as we had a one year old running around and thought he might get in to everything, well that one year old just turned four in November and we still have the fake tree. I don't mind it actually, less clean up at the end of the Christmas season, no needles to vacuum up and clog up the canister, no fighting with it as we carry it up the stairs from the basement. Just pull it out of the box and decorate!

Speaking of decorating... its a process at this house! My husband, is a perfectionist when it comes to tree lights. How it usually works is, I take the tree out and set it up, we leave the room for a few hours while he puts the lights on ( no wire showing and every branch with lights on it), then we all come together as a family and start to decorate. The kids love looking at the decorations as they put them on.

Every year I buy my boys a decoration according to their interests that year. So, for my 7 year old we have everything from Bob the Builder, Little Bill, Hot Wheels, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones! If I can find a Lego one this year he might just fall over! I hope that one day when they have their own trees and they are putting it up with their families, they will look at their box of "childhood decorations" and it will bring back memories for them.

Whatever your Christmas traditions are, its nice at this time of year to think back and remember our own Christmas memories as children. We can pass them on to our little ones and hope they will do the same with their children one day.

Christmas is coming!

November is more than half over, and that means the count down to Christmas! But where is the snow?? Last year at this time we had snow, and lots of it! But even without the snow, we all can feel the approach of the holidays!

The Santa Claus Parade season has started and my oldest twirled Santa through Richmond Hill this past weekend and will be doing the same in another town this coming weekend. Barrie will also welcome the big guy in red this Saturday to the delight of all the children (and Parents!) in Barrie! The young and old will line the streets of down town Barrie to watch the festivities with growing excitement and anticipation of seeing Santa!

So with the fast approach of Christmas and the dwindling days of shopping, are you ready for the big day? My answer...nope! A slow start to shopping this year for us, we are usually more than half done by now and I am starting to feel the pinch as people remind me daily of how many days are left until Christmas.

And with all the festivities and celebration around town, momstown is bringing to all the kiddies some fun crafts for Christmas, our Annual Christmas Party with a special visit from Santa and a New Years Celebration just for the young ones!

Count down to Christmas with Momstown!

Spring like weather and new events!

So Mother Nature is throwing us one surprise after another! Snow last week and temperatures reminiscent of May this week! The welcomed warm weather has been great the past few days! The kids can play outside without dressing in layers, the boots can stay away for a short while longer and no need to fight the kids to wear their hats and mitts!!
The question that lingers in the back of all our minds though is, just how long will this warm weather last??

So this week with the warm weather putting a spring in our steps momstown embarks on some new activities with new partners!! Crafts to welcome the coming winter at one of our new indoor locations, music lessons for the kiddies at Dar's Stars, a Play and Learn session with Maple Hill Montessori and so much more!!!

We all know that snow is coming, and soon enough the blistery cold winds of the North will be blowing, but for now lets all enjoy this warm weather and get out for some great momstown activities!!!

November already!

November is here already!! As we all come out of our candy comas from Halloween, it's hard to believe we are in November already.
Summer is now a distant memory, the leaves are covering the lawns and the trees are bare. With Halloween over we move on to thoughts of Christmas...yep, I said it - Christmas!

This is my favorite time of year! November first begins the annual nagging of the hubby to get the Christmas lights hung before the ice and snow come. Thoughts of decorating and tree trimming are bringing excitement for me and the kids...and I know my hubby loves it too!!

Every year we decorate earlier and earlier... call us crazy, but this is the one time of year where a holiday can last for weeks on end and we never get tired of it!!

Christmas is fun time for all especially around momstown!! With Christmas crafts, field trips and parties there is no better time of year to spend time with the momstown mama's.

So here we are on November 1st, and already my mind is wandering to the boxes upon boxes of Holiday cheer in the basement...how early is too early???

Happy Hallowe'en momstown!

Our 2nd Annual BOO BASH was a HOWLING GRRRREAT Time on Saturday morning. It was so great to see so many people come out.

The kids were amazing in their costumes, and all look way to cute. Thanks to all the Moms and Dads that dressed up, it was great to see all the great ideas people have for costumes.

The morning was so much fun. It started off with some parachute games, followed by arts and crafts and then our pot luck lunch. As always with our Momstown group we had tons of food, there was something for everyone. The kids enjoyed munching on all the Halloween themed treats. Everyone is all ready to go for October 31st, I hope everyone has a great Halloween.