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Tag Archives: tradition

Valentine’s Day Tea {2018}

2 / 17 / 182 / 26 / 18

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My goodness…  Our EIGHTH annual Valentine’s Day tea.  Can you believe that?  This little tradition started when Miss G was just a tiny little nugget and we were living in an apartment building in Kuwait surrounded by all of our closest friends and colleagues.  I think back to that time when there were 5 of us first time mamas, all on leave from work, all living in the same building, all with wonderful housekeepers to help take care of our homes…  How lucky were we to have our journeys as mamas start out that way?  We filled our days with coffee mornings, walks along the gulf, potluck meals, and loads of conversation about motherhood, babies, marriage, life abroad, and everything in between.  It was lovely. And while hosting gatherings and little events was certainly easier back then, I’m so glad we’ve kept up our Valentine’s Day tea tradition.

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In my post about last year’s Valentine’s Day tea, I finished off with:

My goal for next year?  To take at least one photo of our Sam and maybe get to planning our little tea earlier than a few days before the get together – hah!

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Well, one out of two isn’t bad, right?!  This year I DID manage to get a photo that includes our sweet Sam {albeit a bit out of focus – oy}, but did I manage to plan the tea out with time to spare?  NOPE.  Not even close.  With Brad gone the long weekend before Valentine’s Day {the weekend we’d usually host it}, I decided there was no way I was managing 5 days of solo parenting, plus preparing for the tea, and having our house not look like a tornado had run through it.  I didn’t know if we’d just skip it or do it at a later date, but after spending most of the week playing catch up, Thursday night I decided that tradition is tradition and we were going to pull it off.  On Friday I grocery shopped, did some snack prep, and cleaned the house a little bit, on Saturday morning I got the house ready, and on Saturday afternoon, we hosted our tea!  It was certainly a tight timeline, but I’m so glad we pulled it off.

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I kept things incredibly simple this time around and set out a few big batches of our super squishy homemade chocolate play dough with some heart shaped cutters and lose parts…

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Placed some fresh tulips and heart-shaped balloons around the house…

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And then focused on the food, although even that was kept very simple.

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Our friends brought a big platter of crackers, cheese, and fruit which was a total hit, and then we had some simple heart-shaped pb&j sammies…

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A variety of our favourite Love Child Organics snacks and a few of our favourite bliss ball varieties {we did a seed / fruit free version of our chocolate cranberry pumpkin seed bliss balls, a pecan version of our date-based chocolate almond bliss balls, and a batch of our oatmeal chocolate chunk energy balls}.

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We also had some root veggie chips…

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Some homemade banana muffins, some not homemade multigrain croissants with butter and fruit juice sweetened strawberry jam…

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And some dark chocolate dipped strawberries. Plus a fruit and veggie platter.  Plus coffee.  Lots and lots of coffee for us tired mamas and papas.

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And that was it.  I think all of the kiddos spent some time playing with the chocolate play dough, everyone got something to eat and drink, and the majority of the afternoon was spent down in the play room with the kiddos running amuck and us adults chit chatting over the mild chaos.  It was great fun and I cant wait to do it all again next year.  Though I WILL throw my plans together a little earlier next time (*I think I can, I think I can, I think I can*).

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Our Valentine’s Tradition

2 / 12 / 172 / 16 / 17

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Today we hosted our 6th {or 7th?} annual Valentine’s Tea…  The tradition started in Kuwait when Miss G was just 5 and a half months old and has happened every year since, except for last year.  Last year our sweet Sam was fresh out of the NICU and as much as it pained me not to follow through with tradition, having people over just wasn’t worth it with our bubba’s health.  We were well warned by our NICU nurses to make it through cold and flu season without him getting sick, so we weren’t taking any chances.  A little family celebration over the weekend it was.  

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Our 5th Annual Mamas and Munchkins Valentine’s Tea

2 / 15 / 152 / 19 / 15

When Miss G was just a teeny tiny fuzzy-headed 5 month old, we began the tradition of having some mama and munchkin friends over for a Valentine’s tea.  It was nothing fancy… Just some coffee, tea, treats, and little cuties rolling around on a carpet while us moms chatted over cups of caffeine.  After that first tea, we took the tradition home to Canada with us where the tea became more about mamas chasing their busy-bodied toddlers and less about visiting while sipping hot cups of coffee, but we loved it just the same {2012 | 2013}.

Well, today we hosted our fifth annual mamas and munchkins Valentine’s tea {hard to believe that’s even possible!}, which means we’ve officially had more of these little celebrations here in Kuwait than at home in Canada {sort of crazy also}.  Sadly, Miss G woke up with a nasty cough yesterday and despite my willing it to disappear overnight, it didn’t.  She woke up sicker than ever this morning, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to go through with the tea, of course.  Luckily, I had messaged all of the moms yesterday to give them a heads up, and since almost all of Grae’s friends go to nursery or school and are exposed to sick germs daily, they still wanted to come {woohoo – what a sad tea it would have been with just the two of us!}

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A Yearly Tradition: Handcrafted Christmas Ornaments

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I know I’ve said it before, but becoming a mama has given me an overwhelming urge to create special traditions with our little family of three.  Things that we look forward to each year…  Memories Gracen will hold onto for a lifetime.  The holidays are extra special when looked at through the eyes of your child, aren’t they?

Looking back on my own childhood, the holidays were filled with special traditions I still remember vividly now as an adult.  Trudging through the snow out at Imperial Oil (where my Dad worked) in the freezing cold and selecting the perfect tree to cut down and take home…  Having a special evening dedicated to decorating the tree together…  Visiting ALL of my grandparents’ houses over the course of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day… Staying up as late as we wanted on Christmas Eve with our cousins…  It all seemed so magical. The thing is, the times I remember most have nothing to do with wish lists, Santa visits, or presents received.  All of the memories that stick out in my mind are about doing things as a family…  Just us spending time together.

And that’s my hope for Gracen when it comes to the holidays…  That she’ll come to cherish the time we spent doing things together more that any of the material indulgence that inevitably comes with Christmas.

Handcrafted Christmas Ornaments

This past weekend, we carried on a tradition that we began last year… An afternoon filled with holiday music and handcrafted ornaments. The hope is that one day we’ll have a giant tree filled with beautifully mismatched homemade ornaments that mean more to us than store bought ones ever could.

Here are this year’s additions…

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First up are some very simple, but very beautiful beaded candy cane ornaments.

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To make these, we used sparkly pipe cleaners cut in half and colourful iridescent pony beads Miss G selected at the store herself.

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To get started, I simply folded over one end of the pipe cleaner to create a little nub to hold the beads on, and Grae began adding beads.

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The wonderful thing about making these ornaments is that little ones get to sneak in a ton of fine motor skill practice while making them.

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Once the pipe cleaner is nearly full, just flip over the open end to create a nub on the opposite side.

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Then gently bend your beaded pipe cleaner to form a candy cane shape. (This is the one that Gracen made – start to finish – by herself).

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Next, we did a remake of an ornament we made last year… A glass bulb decorated with a family of thumbprint reindeer. To make this one, select a solid-coloured glass bulb (one with a matte finish will photograph much better – duh!), then cover your thumb with a thick layer of brown crafter’s acrylic.

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Carefully press your thumb onto the glass ball.

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Hang your ball somewhere or carefully set it on a small cup and allow it to dry completely.

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Once dry, use red crafter’s acrylic to add noses and a black paint pen or Sharpie to add eyes and antlers. Easy peasy!

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The last batch of ornaments we made were out of cinnamon dough (2 cups of applesauce, 3 cups of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla mixed like mad by hand ).  With these ones, we used extra cinnamon to prevent sticking, assorted cookie cutters, stamps, straws to create ribbon holes, a rolling pin, and parchment paper.

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This dough was quite tough and much easier to work with than last weekend’s baking soda clay.

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It could easily be rolled, handled, and stamped without sticking at all, which was nice.

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On the downside, handprints and thumbprints were out of the question.  The dough just simply didn’t have enough give to it.

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Once we’d filled our baking sheet, we popped the ornaments into the oven on the lowest setting and let them stay in there for several hours, flipping them once and a while.

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I wish I could somehow bottle the smell of our house while they baked and share it with you all here… It was divine.

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Before going to bed, I turned off the oven and let the ornaments sit in there overnight, just like I did with the baking soda clay ones.

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When we awoke, they were fully dry and hard as a rock, but still smelled delicious.  (These are a few of the ones G made all by herself).  We added small loops of baker’s twine, and voila – they’re ready for hanging.

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And how sweet is this little initial bunting Bradley made for Gracen?

Now we just have to get a tree so that we’ll have somewhere to hang all of these beautiful new ornaments.

♥

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I am so thrilled to be sharing this family tradition as a part of ‘12 Days of Christmas Traditions with Vancouver’s Top Mommy Bloggers‘.  If you haven’t already, please pop over to JulieNowell.com to read her post about carrying out traditions in a new home, and be sure to pop over to The Write Mama tomorrow to read all about Lori’s Christmas Village tradition.  Enjoy!
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