Happy House-iversary!!

So this past weekend marked the 1 year anniversary of us living in this house... I coined it our "House-iversary" This to most seems like a simple thing. No big deal. Not worth commenting, mentioning or especially blogging about. BUT that's where you are wrong!
For me and particularly Hudson (my oldest) this was a very big deal. You see, in my 29 years of life, I have moved 24+ times (that I can remember) and of those 24+ moves, 7 were in the last 7 years since Hudson was born. My 7 year old-second grader, has been to 3 schools, lived in 3 provinces and lived in 7 different houses. That is an insane amount of instability. Sooooo, when we (Alex and I) went house shopping last year, I refused to settle for anything less then our "forever" HOME. I made it perfectly clear to everyone involved, I would not me moving again.




 I was very excited to see the SOLD sign  go up! Meaning it was SOLD to US

On October 18th, 2012 we moved into our forever home. It has all the things my forever home required....

   A main floor office for my business

A huge master bedroom. I have always had a king-size bed and its difficult to find a room that doesn't get eaten up by bed

The perfect master bathroom, my own sink, and my own bathtub. No more kids toys in my tub :).

We have a huge dining table. It will seat 10-12 people very comfortably when all the leafs are in. So having a big family dining room that could accommodate the table was a must.

Bedroom level laundry is AMAZING!!! Not having to carry baskets of clothes up and down stairs is awesome! (don't mind the messy laundry room. Laundry is never done in my house so finding a picture of a clean laundry room is impossible.)

You wouldn't believe what you can store in a walk in pantry! I am a bargain shopper, when it goes on sale, I stock up!

This house has a grand total of THREE linen closets. You have no idea how much you need a linen closet until you don't have one. (sorry, no pics of my closets, that's just boring) 

 My kids have their own bathroom! Even though I NEVER use it, it's probably one of my favorite rooms in though house. It keeps the kids stuff out of my way, their messes aren't in my face and it was SUPER fun to decorate. 

I have never had, but always wanted a fire place. The reason for this request was silly and probably juvenile BUT I wanted one non the less.... when I read my favorite Christmas story to my children and the line reads "Stockings were hung by the chimney with care"  I was always saddened that I have never had a mantle to hang my stockings from. 

I was very excited about decorating the mantle last year. :) 

And to nobody's surprise, I am sure, that leads us to my kitchen! I had told my real estate agent when she was doing her searches for me, "I want the WOW factor kitchen" 

 My kitchen has more cupboard space then I will ever require. Not one, but two islands. One for cooking, chopping and prepping at and the other for sitting, eating or homework. My kitchen over looks the living room to the left or the dining room to the right. There is nothing I cant see while prepping supper or making lunches. The flooring in my kitchen is so forgiving. It has the perfect color pattern to disguise and dirt that may be lurking

After spending the last year, cleaning, decorating  painting, adding back splashes, finishing the basement etc. I can finally say I have a HOME. There will be no more moves. This is # 25.  I want to grow old here, watch my children grow, go off to collage, get married and come home for the holidays. I have big plans for this house in the future, lots I would like to do, things I would like to add. But, there's the beauty in having a home, we have all the time in the world to get it done.

~Holly

Remember:

Christmas: Past, Present and Future

I know we just finished Thanksgiving and Halloween is literally still weeks away but I want to talk to you about Christmas. It’s the big one.

I am going to start by explaining Christmas Past.

Christmas in Arthur Ontario: circa 1988(ish) to 1993: (I have no memories of how Christmas was spent prior to 1987-88)

From my earliest memories, I remember the traditional Christmas.  Mom and Dad like everyone else were on a budget. They scrimped and scraped but made sure we got spoiled.  I remember Dad and me putting up our horrific artificial tree.  It was “old” even back then. It always had bald spots and branches that never stayed straight. A few of the clips on the bottom were broken so no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t stop the bottom of the tree from sagging.  Looking back now though, I remember thinking it as the most amazing thing, filled with magic and pure beauty. When Daddy would lift me up high to place the star on the top, I was always the queen. It was the most important part and it was MY job to get it up there.
Christmas morning was spent opening gifts and playing with toys. Christmas afternoon was spent making the hour and a half drive to Grandma and Grandpas house.  Grandma would make turkey with all the trimmings. Leek soup was served first and Grans (my great grandmother) Sponge cake for dessert.  There were always more gifts at Grandma’s house waiting for us. As well as one of Grandpa’s old socks filled with an apple and an orange, an old tradition of theirs that never quiet took off in our house. But we smiled and said “Thank you” all the same.
Yes, Christmas as a child was GREAT.

Christmas Brampton Ontario: circa 1994-1997ish

In August of 1994 my family moved from the country to the city. Christmas slowly started to change for me around then. During the move Mom tossed our old artificial tree. So that was the first and only Christmas I remember having a “real” tree. I remember going to a city parking lot and picking it from a bunch of already precut trees that were leaning against posts. (However I don’t remember how we got it home)  The tree was set in the strand and beautifully decorated, all but the star. I was excited to place the star atop like I had done so many years before. But this year was different.  This year my lil sister Kelsey was handed the star. When I cried about it, I got the simple explanation of I was 10 years old, she was 4, and It was her turn, and something along the lines of “grow up” came out of my father’s mouth.  I HATED that tree! So the next morning when we awoke and found the tree knocked over by one of our cats through the night I was not even a little bit up set. Vicious I know. But I was 10 and I was bitter.  The holiday went on, this year Grandma and Grandpa came to us. There was no leek soup and no old socks with apples and oranges.  

Christmas Brampton/Cape Breton/Brampton: circa 1998-2005

The next few years led me on downward spiral in my family life. Adolescent rebellion, hatred and the fact that I was very angry little girl, lead to me spending the next few Christmas’s in foster care. Not a lot of fun. Timed weekend visits home with the family. My parents and sister had created this whole new life without me and I would a guest in their home over the holidays.  

Sometime in 1997-1998ish I left the system and moved to Cape Breton.  I spent years there, bouncing between my biological father and his family. People I knew nothing about.  They tried their best to make Christmas special for me. It was never the same though.  They were a big family and I never really fit in. I moved a bunch of time in my teens, trying to find myself a “home” but it never actually came.

After high school I moved back to Brampton.  Stayed with Mom and Dad for a while but it didn’t last long. At 18 I got my first apartment.  I remember that Christmas being very depressed. I was working at bar, living in a basement apartment and Christmas was going to be very lonely.  All I wanted for Christmas that year was a tree.  Nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, but it had to have a star.
One night after a long work shift I got home to my normally dark apartment, to find it all a glow. In the corner stood a 2 foot tall lil tree. It was pre lit with fiber optic branches that it lit up the room and on top was a star littlest star. I remember staring at that tree for hours that night. Many a tear were shed. One of the best-est friends I have ever had broken into my house, to give me my own little piece of Christmas that year, and for that I will always be grateful.  I kept that little tree for years into adulthood and lit it up every year, always remembering my dear friend Phil. What he did for me that Christmas I will never be able to repay.

 
 
In November 2004 I started dating Brad. The cool MUCH older guy, who had a truck! I was in love! And by April 2005 we were engaged. A few months later in June I found out I was pregnant.  I spent our first real Christmas together bare foot, 8 months pregnant in a different basement apartment but with that same tree.  Hudson was born in February 2006. And 8 weeks later in late March we moved to Nova Scotia.

 

 

Christmas Porters Lake, NS/Bahamas: circa 2006-2010

My parents and sister had moved to Porters Lake, NS sometime in 2004. After having Hudson I re kindled a relationship with my parents and moved my new family East to be close to my old family.  Christmas’s were FAR from traditional now. My parents and sister had gotten into the habit of skipping Christmas. Going south, Dominican Republic for a few years, then eventually they settled into the Bahamas. My parents’ house didn’t look like Christmas at all. No tree, no lights, no decorations or food. What was the point? No one would be there to enjoy it. Brad and I would do a “fake” very rushed Christmas with the kids. (Logan, AKA Boots came along in August 2007) Santa would leave gifts under my 2 foot tall tree sometime around the 20^th. We would open gifts and then fly away to warmer weather.  As much as I loved warm vacations, sandy beaches, deep sea fishing and swimming with dolphins, it wasn’t exactly Christmas.
 

This leads us to Christmas Present.

Christmas New Brunswick: circa 2011- present day.

2011 was a very hard year for my family. My parents announced their divorce, that NO ONE seen coming. Brad and my relationship finally imploded and in September Brad took his own life.  There was no questioning it, we needed a change. In late November Alex packed me, my 3 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats and all the belongings we could fit into a little trailer and moved us to New Brunswick.  
Alex comes from a BIG family. One filled with love, compassion and tradition. My children and I were welcomed into this family with open arms. 

Christmas for me that year was very special. It was a year of firsts.  I left my little artificial tree behind, and headed to a tree farm, to pick the perfect tree.  We tagged the tree, brought it home a week later and spent the day with my new family. We decorated the tree, and in the end Alex lifted Hudson into the air to place the brand new star on top.
On December 24^th, the real Christmas Eve, Alex and I played Santa. We laid out the presents for the children under our big beautiful real tree.  We didn’t have a lot that year, but we made sure the children got spoiled. Christmas morning was spent opening gifts and playing with toys. Christmas afternoon was spent at Grammie and Grampy’s house (Alex’s parents). Grampy made turkey with all the trimming and for desert there were more homemade cookies then a person could possibly imagine.  There were tons more presents waiting there for us and the children. It was as close to my child hood that I could ever have dreamed of getting back to. It finally felt like home.

October 2012 Alex and I bought the new house.  Last Christmas was AMAZING! I went out of my way to make sure I nailed every corny tradition! I swore from that year on, Christmas was going to be special for my kids EVERY year, for the rest of my life.  I went completely over board with Christmas decorations!  We had TWO beautiful Christmas trees, as well as colorful little 2 foot tall ones in the bedrooms.  Every room, wall and door was decorated for Christmas.

**Sparkle** (our Elf on a Shelve) found us that year and has vowed to return each year on December 1^st.   The kids got spoiled, the turkey was eaten and memories were made. New traditions formed and old ones re-created.
This year I am already planning Christmas. Thinking of exciting mischief for **Sparkle** to get into, carefully planning the perfect gift for each person and anticipating the warm feeling of love and cheer that warms the house over the holiday season.

 

I have no idea what Christmas Future will bring. I hope it will be Alex and I that get to be Grammie and Grampy someday.  And have all the children and their new families return home for Christmas afternoon.  Where we will have turkey, more presents and the completely ciaos of the big family Christmas.  I hope our kids take some of our traditions to their new families as adults and I hope my children look back at this holiday and remember how much they were loved each year.

 

~Holly

 

REMEMBER: