2009 Christmas play

We live near(ish) to a small town that has a community supper every Christmas.  We had done a quick nativity play last year and a couple songs.  It had been a "hit" with the crowd, so they asked to do "a little more next year".  There were 4 homeschool families involved by now in our little weekly gatherings, so we went to work adding some more songs to our nativity play.  This year we even had some music to accompany us via stereo! 
My girls, Kate was a shepherd, Ruth was Mary and Mei was a sheep.  They did a spectacular job, despite the butterflies in the stomach before hand.  Ruth's biggest concern was being able to discreetly remove the baby Jesus from inside her robe to put him into the manger.  Joseph was a big help, dropped the stick horse and grabbed Jesus, returned Jesus to Mary and they turned around to place him into the manger.  Needless to say, the crowd enjoyed that!  Thankfully we had prewarned the girls they MAY laugh, but because they are loving the entertainment.

We received many compliments on the children's behaviour, the play and the singing.  One man had been in Canada for 40 years and this was the first year he "felt what Christmas was really about".  That was what Christmas was about for us, and why we put on the play.  The children are already thinking about what to do for next year, their confidence is soaring!  yeah for educational fun and community service!

They always have a few door prizes as well as a lovely free meal served to you.  Ruth and Mei both received porcelain dolls. 

Mei's looks like her Nana did when she was a girl.

Ruth's is a blondie, who looks like Nellie Olsen

Can you tell this was one of our "wise men"?

My hubby was still in Calgary, but I ended off my evening with "some sugar" anyhow!

Missing Christmas in Manitoba

How can tears come so unexpectantly just by talking about carolling and baking dainties?  I find myself overwhelmed by a feeling of loneliness and sadness of missing out on the festivities I used to so enjoy.  A bible study potluck lunch windup, school concerts, carolling and baking and hot apple cider with friends.

I promised myself to make this Christmas special in the Cariboo, but I am still so lonely for things of the past.  Maybe it is in realizing that is gone and will never be the same.  Those same feelings come when your child takes their first step, when someone gets married, when someone moves...life is about changes!

I will invent a tele porting machine and just POOF be somewhere else for a day or two and then POOF back again.  Tonight calls for hot apple cider.

Smart Canadians

Well, you can imagine my delight that a few weeks ago while waiting for my hubby to renew our car insurance....I found...yes, oh yes, I found....a whole shelf at the library of FINANCAL books!  So I decided to make my way through them this winter!  The first I picked for the "read out loud to your hubby as you drive to Calgary" book was

Smart Canadian's Guide to Building Wealth by Pat Foran from CTV's Consumer Alert

We have in the past read "The Wealthy Barber", "the Millionaire Next Door", "Rich Dad Poor Dad".  This book actually talks about those briefly and interviews the authors some 10-20 years later.  VERY nice, it summarizes everything.

I am loving the straight forward, easy approach to basic daily financial decisions everyone makes.  It is not a "you are so stupid" book or a get rich quick scheme. 

The first thing we are putting into practice is something to better our credit score...mind you, it is not in the toilet or anything, but we realized something through this book.  Having a credit card we NEVER use just makes the bank think "oh, they COULD use another $10,000" because that is the credit limit, so to them, we are already in DEBT that much.  I am cancelling a bunch of cards we never even use...that means phoning them and actually cancelling, not just getting rid of the cards.

It is very exciting.  He said our credit score should go up and that is good!  Yeah for us!

Sorry, this is me and this stuff really makes my world go around.  Also just found another website that looks good too.  Tells you how to make your own cleaners, budget worksheets, recipes, gifts etc.  Only found it tonight.

http://www.momsbudget.com/