I'm a little late, but Happy New Year! 2020, not a great year for ... anyone, really, is finally behind us. Let’s see what 2021 has in store. New year, new agenda. I’m not big on new year’s resolutions. I am big on trying to find productive ways to move forward and on setting realistic … Continue reading Welcome, New Year
As I write this, it's 7:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, and I've been awake for hours. The stockings are filled, there's fresh snow on the ground, and I've already had a few cups of coffee. I'm trying to be quiet, but not too quiet because I want my husband to get up. Did I mention … Continue reading This Christmas
When I was a kid, every year my dad lined up with tens of other hard-core parents on a predetermined morning sometime in November. The mission? Get tickets for a beloved event: the Breakfast with Santa that took place on the top floor of the downtown Eaton's in Victoria, British Columbia. For much of my … Continue reading Breakfast with Santa
I thought I'd pop by to reassure you that I'm still enthusiastically—relentlessly, some might say—celebrating the holiday season. Indeed, I'm determined to suck every last drop of cheer out of Christmas this year. I'll go ahead and give myself a big pat on the back for the effort I've invested in the cause. Case in … Continue reading Making Keto Marzipan for the Holidays (Edible Play-Doh for Adults)
My husband and I originally planned to put up our Christmas tree today, the first Saturday of the month. Last Friday, though, it occurred to me that the first weekend of December falls awfully late this year. (This realization may or may not have been linked to the abundance of tree-decorating posts that had begun … Continue reading Oh, Christmas Tree
For the last several years, I haven't even tried to stop myself from being that overly enthusiastic Christmas celebrator you probably try to ignore until December. My husband was a little wary when I announced a few Sundays ago that seeing as Halloween had passed, the holiday season had officially begun. "It's November 1," he … Continue reading Early Christmasing for Fun and Sanity
I was supposed to travel to Ottawa this weekend to attend an event that I'd been looking forward to for months. While acknowledging that there's basically no chance that you don't see where I'm headed with this, I'll nonetheless take the liberty of allowing myself a dramatic, bold-and-italics-style reveal. No Ottawa for me. I'll admit … Continue reading Not in Ottawa, Obnoxiously Festive
Well, it's been an interesting year. I knew that 2017 wouldn't be devoid of challenges: it started, after all, with scheduled neurosurgery that had been looming over me for much of 2016. I didn't anticipate, though—I couldn't have anticipated—how many twists and turns I'd navigate from January (intracranial grids implanted, almost the entire month spent … Continue reading 2017 in Review: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking at the VNS Scar on My Neck Every Time I Look in the Mirror
I started playing the piano when I was a little girl and kept at it throughout my childhood. True to my personality, I (usually) took my lessons seriously, and I got better and better, as is typically the case when one practises—turns out that all those motivational posters are right. By the time I began … Continue reading Keys
This has been a challenging week on several fronts. I'm only going to elaborate on the one that's directly health-related, though, since it's affecting my ability to process what else has happened and since I like to maintain a sliver of separation between my personal life and my blog existence, believe it or not. Last … Continue reading ’Tis the Season! (Christmas and Concussions)
