My Christmas Wish List for 2011

Now that I've already received all my Christmas gifts, I thought I should write a list of things that I would love to have next year...not necessarily for Christmas but just randomly throughout the year please. And I'm looking at you, universe.

1. A family trip to a beachy place. The more sand and all-inclusiveness, the better. And if only for 3 or 4 days, that's fine with me.

2. Acceptance to a certain society, within a program at a certain school. Please oh please and a little more vagueness. This should probably be number one but let's do this in order of most recent to later in the year.

3. A smaller waistline and smaller head circumference (I swear my head gets huge as I gain weight). I need to work hard at this one so what I'm really asking for is the motivation and ability to advance plan my time at the gym. Oh and that 60% eating clean thing...I need to get on that.

4. Baby music and dance classes for my baby lady gaga. I'm not a Gaga fan by any means (although I do remember secretly cleaning the house to Just Dance when it first came out)...but she's a good reference for singing and dancing with attitude, like my little monkey pants.

5. More time to spend with Bella. I wish I could have at least an extra day a week to spend with her. Or at least be able to work normal days (meaning: no overtime). And no, Universe, I do not mean I want to lose my job. I want to keep my current job but have more time to spend with Belly.

6. To be able to provide Bella with the best and most exciting experiences throughout the year (i.e.- sledding, Christmas lights in Stanley Park, gymboree (not), watching mommy cross the Sun Run finish line (that might not be exciting for her...more so for me), lots and lots of swimming at the aquatic centre, beachy vacation mentioned above...etc.).

7. The diligence to be frugal and save every extra penny we come across. And hopefully we run into a bit of money to help with the growth of our savings and/or payment of those damn student loans that never seem to go away!

8. A new wardrobe including two new pairs of pants, one new skirt, one dress and...um...three pairs of boots. Oh and tops! I need more tops. 5 is a good number. And lots and lots of cute baby clothes.

This list is getting ridiculous. And I got too lazy to search for pictures for those last few. And 6 and 7 totally contradict each other. So I'll leave it at that.

PLEASE Universe - #2 especially.

Thank you, Gracias, Obligado, Danke, Domo Arigato

PS - I think I need more sleep too (let's add this as #9).

On the 18th day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me - all my gifts before Christmas Day. Yep, all my Christmas gifts have been given to me sporadically and spontaneously throughout this month. I've received a flat iron in a plastic bag, a travel mug while at Starbucks (surprise!), and a gift card while at the store we were shopping in. Victor has little capacity to keep things under wraps until Christmas Day. And unfortunately, I'm the same way.

So how do you think, between the two of us, we're going to keep Christmas gifts a secret from Bella until the big day? We both love to witness the look on people's face when you give them a gift. We just simply can't wait weeks upon weeks. And how are we going to give someone else (Santa) credit for those gifts when it comes time to introduce the Santa tale? Major dilemmas ahead.

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And so, I've been working towards changing my career and things are going well. This is the reason why I've been out of the blog world for a while. I still have a couple of hoops to jump through but I'm remaining optimistic. I think life moves in the way you want it to if you put all your energy into it. I dream about this change in my life, I eat it and drink it every day. It's a big deal for me and even if I have moments of doubt, I remain optimistic. I think that's the key to life - if only I could be like this in every area of my life!

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And back to Christmas, HOLY JINGLE BALLS, we have spent a truckload of $$$ on Christmas this year. It's OUTTA CONTROL. Excuse the CAPS but I need to emphasize the magnitude of the expense. Does it not seem like everything costs so much nowadays? Everything adds up so quickly and without realizing it, you've spent your budgeted amount. And then decide to go over a tad. And then another tad because your Uncle Jim, or Cousin Fred will feel left out if you don't buy him that useless sweater on sale for $19.99. Oh and ofcourse Bella can't live without those stacking cups which are only $7.99.

For a while there, I was acting like December is a write-off. Like what you spend in December doesn't really count because "it's Christmas". But then it hit me that I'm delusional. And we'll leave it at that. Next year, I promise myself that the Christmas budget will be my bible.