Love note.

Lucky Grandma.  Unlucky Sheldon.

12 on 12.

January  :  Saturday

01.  Oh.  Good morning.
02.  I got out of bed to discover that Peter had already made the fruit salad for our brunch.  He's a good man...
03.  Josh arrived hungry - both these boys can pack away cereal like nobody's business.
04.  Sheldon drinks hot chocolate every morning.  He makes it homemade using his recipe from his Grandma B.
05.  Need something to go with the salad?  How about Peter's quiche?  Fresh out of the oven.
06.  Josh is a good sport, letting us all sign his cast.
07.  Sidney never misses a chance to get her belly rubbed.  Whatever it takes, really.  (I don't think that Jillian even realizes what she is doing!)
08.  Twin cousins!
09.  At the arena celebrating Jillian's goal after her ringette game.
10.  "Are you hungry?"
11.  It's strange to keep entering into these new phases with the kids.  Tonight when Josh stayed over, I dropped the boys off at the theatre to see Skyfall together...
12.  ...while I stayed home and watched Young Adult on Netflix.

Challenges.

About that 12 on 12...

While I managed to successfully document 12 days last year, I wasn't sure that I was up to repeating the challenge again this year.

I mean, it was hard.  Twelve random photos is a lot for one day.  If it was a busy day, then I found it hard to remember to snap the photos.  If it was just a regular sort of day, it was hard to find 12 moments that seemed worthy of documenting.

I was undecided.

But on January 11th, when I looked back over my 12 months of collages, I  realized that even though some days were duller than others, and some days seemed to be 'more of the same', it really was a great reminder of what life has been - the highlights of our days, the books I was reading or music I was listening to, our moods, or the latest trend in our family.

Plus, it's called a photo challenge.  A challenge is not supposed to be easy.  It's meant to be difficult.  To tax my brain.  With that in mind, I decided to do it again.  I was all in.

Until I woke up the next morning and was challenged in a different way by one of my kids.  I was told, in no uncertain terms, that my camera was out too often and that they were no longer going to participate.  Only it wasn't said quite so simply.  It was said with a raised voice and in a pretty animated, lengthy, one-sided conversation.  My reaction to this was to put my camera back in the bag, suck it up because we had guests arriving for brunch, and hold back my tears and disappointment.  12 on 12 would be done.  If I didn't have the support of my family then what was the point?

Then, when my sister was visiting, she asked me what photos I'd taken so far and I burst into tears.

I hadn't fully realized how much it meant to me.  Not just the challenge but that simply taking photos is one of those that things that I truly enjoy. I'm not a photographer. But I'm learning and I'm getting better.  And it was wrong to think about quitting because of someone else.

I explained it like this:

I would never ask you to stop playing the drums because they are too loud.  Or to put away your guitar because I don't like the songs you are playing.  Or to quit hockey because I don't like sitting in the cold arena to watch.  I would never.  The truth is, I love listening and watching your face when you're doing those things.  Seeing the freedom you feel when you are completely immersed in the things you love.  Because those things are part of who you are.

So.

I will pick up my camera again.  I will keep on taking photos.  I will continue another year of 12 on 12.  I will respect your request that I not take so many photos of you.  And then I hope that you will remember that even though I am your mother and would do anything for you, I will not sacrifice one of the things that makes me Jennifer.  One of the few things that is just for me.

*  *  *

Tomorrow (or maybe the next day) I will post January's 12 on 12.  They are a collection of photos taken mostly with my iPhone when my heart wasn't really in it.  But that's the whole point, isn't it?  A reminder of that day in January when I realized how important it is for us to do the things we love, to support others in what they love, and then to enjoy the day for what it is.

New Year's Eve.

Other than our annual feast of take-out chinese, we're not really big into celebrating New Year's eve - Peter is usually asleep long before the midnight hour arrives, leaving Sheldon, Juliana, and I to watch the ball drop together.  

This year we took the dogs for an early evening walk to check out the Fantasy of Lights in our local park.  Every year the displays get bigger and brighter and it's fun to see how creative they are - can you tell which one Juliana helped with?

Back at home, post-Chinese food, we settled in for a rousing game of Pictionary - boys v. girls.  Despite his best efforts, Tucker was not picked for a team :( 

Pictionary asked me to draw champagne.  Juliana yelled "girls night out!" Oy.

By midnight we had lost Sheldon so the three of us crawled into bed to countdown to 2013.  At the stroke of midnight Peter and I popped a mini bottle of champagne and Juliana wrapped up her text-fest with Jillian.

Fifteen minutes later we were all asleep.

Welcome 2013.  Here's hoping it's a good one!

Scenes from Christmas

It seems like such a long time - too long - since I've been here.  Apparently, I've got some catching up to do...

Let's start with the few weeks before Christmas.

After decorating the tree (we had a little help),

the wrapping (I had a little help),

the baking (I had a little help),

and an impromptu clarinet concert,

we were ready for Christmas.

Skating with Santa was, as always, a great way to start our Christmas Eve.

If you were Santa, wouldn't you be excited to stop here?

Christmas morning was full of very happy, spoiled, grateful faces.  Sort of like these ones:

And then, just like that, it was over for another year.

It was time for the post-Christmas hangover to begin.

 

It was a beautiful Christmas.   It was quiet and it was family which was awesome.