Up until very recently I was always something of a sponge. If I met someone new who was into philosophy, I would be out for coffee with them debating until the coffee shop closed. If a friend had discovered Mystery Science Theatre 3000, I would be at their house until 2 AM watching movies with them. I even went so far as meeting the coke dealers of some of my friends who were going through scary phases, because if that’s not blogging fodder down the line I’m not sure what is.

And if my boyfriend was into sports, we’d throw on the football game! What’s the big deal?

You know what the big deal is? I married that boyfriend.

Mister’s family is, decidedly, a sports family. They’re decidedly a lot of things actually - American, loud, passionate, fun loving, out going - and meeting them, initially, I was terrified. I had never really met people like them before. All my family friends are more quiet or more exclusive. Mister’s family was so down to earth it was jarring - they didn’t just want me to date their son, they wanted to really get to know me. They wanted me to come over whenever I wanted.

So in week three of our relationship the first offer came.

“Come over on Sunday to our football party!” Mister’s Mom shouted from the kitchen.
“This Sunday?”
“The Vikings are playing! There’s food! We’ll teach you football!”
“Sure, that sounds good.”

It sounded good for having no idea at all what I had signed up for. I pictured a Super Bowl party with twenty people gathered around the TV. I was already picturing myself trying to find a way out of the party at the last moment. I pictured not understanding a thing that was on the screen. They would know I was a hopeless anti-fan, and I would be bored and upset for however long the game lasted. It would end our relationship. On Sunday we were going to break up. I was doomed.

“I don’t know what I’m getting into here! What should I wear? How long does it last? How many of these do I have to go to?” I asked all of my friends but no one had any answers. Apparently I was dating the only NFL fan in a CFL town. God save me, I was really doomed.

I drove over to the party by myself with the music on loudly so I couldn’t think too much. I had gone online to find out who the Vikings were and came over wearing something purple under a sweater so no one would have to know if I’d worn the wrong thing. I was doomed, I could feel it. We were done for. At least I would have one last afternoon with his family before we broke up.
But instead of the scores of people, the shouting, and the drama - it was just his family. They sat me down between his mom and his dad, each making separate diagrams on pieces of paper, talking about different things on top of each other and overflowing with excitement to explain while Mister laughed and covered his face with his hands before pulling me away when I started looking really overwhelmed.

But eventually I got it, someone explained the downs to me and I kind of got it. And I kind of liked it. Football was like having the Olympics on TV again, it became very comfortable background noise and part of our weekend routine.

Last year was the third year that we were dating I was finally allowed to join the family football pool. For the first time in 17 years, Mister’s Dad didn’t win - because I did! And I won again this year too!

I haven’t tried to push myself into following it as closely as I did the first year I played the pool - I’m not a sporty person and I’m not trying to be. As much fun as it was being a sponge, it was exhausting too and it left me spinning, grasping for interests of my own.

But sponginess aside, my football pool career has taught me a few very valuable things:

• Sports really are amazing live.
• Sports on TV are a great chance to knit - just don’t forget to look at the score every now and then.
• If your mother in law’s Mom is a fan of the Browns, once and a while you should just take them. It will do your relationship good.
• If you pick based on record you can break anyone’s 17 year win streak.

I’m never going to be a superfan, but football is part of the background noise of my life now….and because I won the pool this year, football just bought me a new bag. Between that and the snacks? Football and I are totally cool.

Just for fun I’m taking part in an interview meme that Nilsa and Tara have done - I asked Tara to interview me and I couldn’t resist!

The Rules

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address, please.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

It’s still the holidays until Monday, so I’ll write individual questions for everyone and everything if you want to play along!

1. Since I think you have a unique viewpoint, being married to a dual citizen, yet being Canadian, what do you think the United States is doing the most wrong? What would you tell us to just stop doing right this very moment if you could? Be honest!

You all should definitely eat more poutine. And send more kettle corn up here, because it doesn’t exist in Manitoba which is an out and out crime.

When I start to think about this question seriously my knees start to buckle a little and I get kind of swoony. My B.A is in politics, and took lots of classes on the US so I’m informed enough to be intimidated by answering it.  My response might be a typically Canadian perspective, but I would say that far and away, I think health care has to change.

I would love to move to the states, and we could - it would be a huge process and would mean starting wholly from scratch….but to live somewhere like Austin or Chicago I would do it in a moment. Except that I can’t fathom the health care system. I think you’re all incredibly brave. I don’t know what would fix the system, but I’m hoping that something comes down soon so I won’t worry so much about my bloggy friends in the States.

2. Are you already looking forward to what your marriage will look like on your first anniversary? Are you wondering already what it will look like through the years?

I am! Especially because I’ve never really been around a functioning marriage.

I watch his parents more now when we’re with them and try to pick up on their coping mechanisms and how their relationship works. They’re the only married couple who I really know, because they’re his only family in Winnipeg and everyone in my family is divorced.

I’m really interested to see how our relationship changes over the years because I never saw my parent’s or grandparent’s or aunt’s or uncle’s relationships go beyond a certain stage. I’m attempting to not doom us to failure, in spite of not knowing how these things function is what I’m saying. So far my rules are: be nice & clean up after yourself. It seems to be working!

3. If you were given $100,000 dollars and told that you had to give away at least 80% of it, who would you give it to and how would you spend your share? You cannot give any part of the 80% to your family members. Or your husband’s family members. Or your friends.

I would definitely give the money I had to give away to charity. I work for a not for profit, so I would make a donation there and I went to a private high school that was really outstanding so I would create a bursary fund there so that someone who couldn’t afford it could go. I would look into Aboriginal communities in northern Manitoba and see if I could help fund greenhouse building projects to offset food costs.

If I could spend it on friends but not family, I would help all of my friends become debt free. I would help Emily Jane got to school for whatever she liked.

With my portion I would pay off our car and put some aside. I would buy Mister another suit. I would buy another pair of boots and a tripod. I would have my iPhone plated in gold and lowered, and I would check my bank account balance just for fun.
4. If I offered you a month long all expenses paid luxury vacation to any destination you choose, would you take it if I asked that you go and spend a month working to help out somehow in a third world country? I would even let you choose what country and what sort of work you wanted to do. One month’s work for one month’s dream life?

Without a moment’s hesitation yes. If the work was 80 hour weeks at 7-11 then I would think about it more, but I would love to go abroad and help build houses, or audit World Vision to make sure that all the Christmas goats that were purchased for villagers were actually being delivered. I would probably do that even without the vacation, if we could pay the mortgage with me not working for a month.

5. In 2008, what was your biggest achievement, and what was your biggest disappointment?

My biggest achievement in 2008 was buying our first home. I love it here, and that we’ve been able to make it happen from three years of crazy saving. It’s perfect for us.

My biggest disappointment… Between everything that happened I was always so focused on just getting the next thing done, I couldn’t focus on the negative things that were happening - so I really couldn’t tell you what my biggest disappointment was. While I won’t set out to have another year that was this big, I don’t mind that as being one of the side effects of moving that fast. But I will say that every house we lost out on in bidding felt like it was the biggest disappointment of 2008, every time.

So this is the new year.
And I don’t feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

The New Year - Death Cab For Cutie

I’m not sure how 2008 went by so fast. It was the rush of a new job, getting engaged on Christmas Day, planning a wedding while finding a house, buying a home, and bringing home a puppy the day after we took possession and bringing his brother home the next week. It was starting a blog, friends coming out of the woodwork to say hello and wish us the best, starting an etsy shop, it was old friends drifting further away. It was getting married, it was a divorce, it was Edmonton, it was downsizing to one car, work on the house, and recuperating from the whole thing at the end of December.

I spent the New Year at my in-law’s place with the puppies running around after dinner. We watched a movie, came home, watched the east coast New Years celebration and saw the 10 pm fireworks light up the prairie sky. I’m not big on New Years so I didn’t expect to feel anything in relation to it, but as midnight crept closer I started feeling a little heart sick.

After fuss of the wedding, a number of friends have started to fade away again - just as fast as they were fading this time last year, and the year before that. I try not to mind, and to slow it down, but it seems like everyone is preparing to move away some time in the next two years and is slowly disengaging in the mean time.  It’s hard to be the person who is staying, but I’m thankful that at least one of my close friends is staying in Winnipeg and involved.

While I’ve never been big on resolutions, I’ve been getting really down on myself about the above so I figure a resolution or two might help me figure out the next few months of winter.

Resolutions for 2009

1. Apply for new jobs.
2. Don’t be agitated by current job, try to enjoy it as much as possible. Stop fixating on all of the overtime and late nights when I can help it.
3. Attend a workshop! Photography, social marketing, new media - just get more engaged in one of my interests.
4. Make curtains for the house that you have been procrastinating for a number of months.
5. Cook more meat based meals for my omnivore husband so he doesn’t waste away!
6. Stay on the healthy eating/weight loss band wagon and figure out a target weight to work towards.
7. Stop letting the turkeys get me down. People come and go, they have other things going on in their lives, it’s not all about me.
8. Really enjoy what Mister and I have & have been working so hard for.
9. Watch more old movies.
10. Take a honeymoon!

Anything topping your list for 2009?

Every year as New Years eve approaches, I cautiously start to make plans. I’m not a big partier, unless you count parties thrown at home between The Mister, myself, and our puppies but I like to get up to something a little special. This year I think that something special is going to be very simple: thoroughly breaking in the new martini set that we procured on boxing day and then convincing Jesse to let me style his hair a la Don Draper.

Which is a battle I seem to be winning, by the way!

Starting out on holidays this year was rough for me. I’m a busy body. I like routine. I like things to be the same, and this year for the first time I’ve had a lot of stability in spite of all the upheaval. My resolution for my  extra week off was simple:

• Update my resume so it’s as perfect as I can make it.
• Make a professional portfolio site so I can wow potential employers with a selection of my project management/design/social marketing work.
• Apply for jobs.
• Spend Monday and Tuesday dissolving into tears when one of the puppies looks at you sideways, because it’s probably about how you’re thinking about changing jobs. Again.

I am a very good employee. I am someone people would like to employ - I’m friendly, professional and creative. I’ll get behind what I’m doing and I’ll shoulder in. I want to train more, I want more responsibility, I want to work. Maybe it’s just the people I hang out with - all who have had their jobs for over 3 years, but if I’m a monogamist in my personal relationships, I have been an all out polygamist in my working relationships.

Can you promise to judge me with a sense of humor?

From 2006 - 2007, my first year out of university, I had five jobs. Five. Where do I even begin?

1. The Government Job - They started you as a summer student but when the program ended you stayed on! Everyone except for you knew you were being paid under the table by your sneaky supervisor who didn’t tell payroll you were still there! Shock/awe/horror reaction when two years of employment turned out to be….illegal!

Resume Result: Two years of steady employment + a couple union friendships.

2. The Design Start Up Job - Cute boy overload! They are sweet, you’ve known them for years, you even know their parents! There is start up money, Angel Investors, and an office space! Month One: Gain access to banking information and discover….zero money. Angel investors turn out to be parents. Office space turns out to be in parent’s basement. Month Two: Work hard to get the lead balloon off the ground!! Come on!! Month Three: Realize that you’re the only person not living at home, who needs income. Leave.
   Resume Result: Bruised friendships & three months of record design/web project management. And debt shaped like a Macbook Pro.
3. The OMG I CAN’T MAKE RENT!! DAD!! HALP! GIVE ME A JOB! Job - Because not being paid for three months while perusing what could have been a dream job take guts. And walking away does too. And althoguh he was a very nice man, my landlord Harold didn’t care about either of the above statements.
   Resume Result: I realize how lucky I am to have a business in the family. Nurture post-design job seething anger &  Dad’s filing systems. Resume Result: I have been a legitimate office manager for a finance office.
4. The Crazy Cool Television/Advertising/Movie Job That Turns On You So Fast Your Head Spins Job -  Cute boy overload jackpot #2! Become friendly with some of the most talented 2D and 3D artists in all of Canada, learn how to speak developer! Fall in love with company and all of the people at said company. Get a promotion! Start working 6 day weeks, planning kitchens for the executives, and booking corporate travel 95% of the time. Watch heads roll left right & centre in corporate buy out. Learn that position will be completely changing into an executive assistant role. RUN!
   Resume Result: Have one of the hottest companies in town on your resume & remain close with your old time besties over there, who may or may not be on the path to working at ILM or Pixar.
5. The Comfortable Not For Profit Job You Can Stay In So Your Resume Doesn’t Look Like You’re Some Kind of Drug Addict Who Is Stealing From Her Employers and Being Forced Out Or Something - Because the above was starting to become a real concern, and if I changed jobs again, I might have collapsed.

Resume Result: Proof of stability!

+ Freelance graphic design work all year round, which kind of makes it 6 jobs. But I’m not counting that

If anything, that year taught me a lot about what I need in a job, what I need in a workplace, and what the red flags are in work situations. For example, If your future employer says they can interview you anytime between 7 AM and 8 pm they aren’t being accommodating - those are their unofficial hours. There is an expectation there. And if you’re getting involved in a start up, ask to see the bank records immediately!! It taught me how to make friends fast, and how to read the cliques. It taught me when to bring a lunch and when to go out with work friends - and it taught me who you want to be friends with and who you want to avoid.

Staying in one place for a year taught me a lot too - that not for profit really can attract a different personality type all together. That at the end of year, if there is money left over they have to spend it! On things like new monitors and unicorns that you just don’t get in a lot of other places. And the built in community you can access is phenomenal. The kind of phenomenal that will make you really want to go to work every day. And at the same time, the organizations can be small and claustrophobic. If everyone has been there for 8 years and there is no middle management, what place is there for a twenty something who wants to dig in?

Looking into new possibilities is frightening. There are only questions for me, and I don’t know if I’ll even find what I want in the next year or three. But I want to be ready when something does come my way, because I think I can do one job change in 2009. Just not five this year.

Again.

I’m just very employable, I swear!

When your family is getting together for Christmas dinner as a whole group for the first time since your parents were divorced 18 years ago, and mom’s new boyfriend is coming along, your Christmas Day could go one of two ways: you would be filled with an overwhelming sense of foreboding or you could relax and enjoy the madness.

For a very long time I was completely unable to let go. Any time my step dad was around at dinners, I was on edge. If my grandma was a little wonky, I was on edge. If there was too much wine consumed, I was on edge. And poor Jesse, just meeting my family for the first few times couldn’t figure it out - what was making me so upset? The short answer was that everything was. I didn’t want to have Christmas Day be an endless running from the house of one parent to the next. It was all worry and concern, and synchronized watches. It was Christmassy too, but it was also stressful and strange as I am a sensitive duck from time to time.

Over the past (almost!) four years since Jesse and I started dating and living together, I’ve calmed down a lot. Being able to make decisions on how I spend all of my time, being independent, working full time, building a life with Jess… it has all done me such good! And it has allowed me to let up control where I couldn’t before. As a result, Christmas dinner was wonderful - great food, lots of reminiscing, lots of laughing, and lots of dessert.

Life is so much easier when you don’t need it to be perfect. I would rather have squirmy puppies, phone tag, and laughter any day.

The Highlights

• Jesse’s presents to me were circular knitting needles, a sketch book and drawing tutorial book, and slippers for our cold hardwood floors. We went out together and found amazingly cold weather rated thermal cups for walking the puppies together in the mornings, and opened those on Christmas Day too. So wonderful!
• I gave him (among a couple other items) an argyle sweater that he is very handsome in, which is like a Christmas present for me too.
• I have 10 days in a row off for the first time in two years!!! I don’t go back to work until January 5th, and for the first time both Mister and I have the same amount of time off! His work only allows him 7 days off a year (!!) so that we both have the time off is huge. We are in heaven.
• My sister gave me a vintage Hudson’s Bay wool coat and that blazer I’d been searching for because she’s amazing.
• Jesse and I went off boxing day shopping and treated ourselves to new flannel sheets for the bed - and I found season one of Mad Men on blu-ray for $25.
• Baking 144 cookies, one apple pie and one chocolate cake in 12 hours.
• Celebrating that one year ago on Christmas Day we got engaged. And then celebrating that we never have to get married again!

Having time off work for the first time in a long time is kind of like falling off a cliff. I don’t know what to do with myself exactly, but I’ve already finished a cowl for myself while watching Mad Men. I am voting for more of this over the next week. I’ve been desperately in need of time to myself so I can regroup, and finally having that?

Lets just say I’ve been having chocolate cake for breakfast every day. I’ll be back to regular posting next week - hope yours has been a merry one!

Thank you all so much for the kind comments on my glasses! I have to say that I was really surprised by the amount of interest in seeing my new frames - and I’m glad I’m not the only one who was geeking out over them just a little.

I’ve been blogging seriously since June now, and I have to say I’ve been a little overwhelmed by you guys. The community through 20 Something Bloggers, my twitter friends who are stuck with me all day…you guys e-mail me during the day, you chat with me on gchat, you’re so much fun! I have blogged twice before under the name Kyla Bea, and never found a community. I started this up as a way to remember the crazy time before my wedding and before we bought our first house, and maybe an official blog partner for my Etsy shop, but with no intention of being able to keep it going with regular content beyond monthly updates. It’s been six months now, and I couldn’t be happier to spill my guts on a daily basis to a better group of people. Thanks so much!!

That being said, I think it’s time for some fun stuff…like a Q&A and keyword mania!!

A little while ago I opened up to questions, and I didn’t get many but I did get one! Nory asked:
So I have to ask, did you inherently learn your craftiness, were you taught it by a family member or did you take classes? I’m always jealous of your creations. If I made myself clothes, they would look like a sack, of this I am sure!

I have always been good at things with my hands - I can put things like IKEA billy bookcases together without crying too much, and I can think spatially, if that makes sense. As my high school psychology teacher put it “If anyone in the class needs help with math they should ask anyone in the class other than Kyla. If we need the desks rearranged, we should ask Kyla.” I’m more than a little right brained.

I’ve only been playing with crafty things for a couple of years, I got my first sewing machine in August 2008 which I’ve figured out with the help of Mister, and I started knitting the year before that with encouragement from a family friend and my unspeakably cool work supervisor at the time. I work as a graphic designer & do some photography work as well, but I’m self taught - everything I know is pretty easily gleaned off the internet. My main goal for 2009 is to get into some workshops and kick my handiwork up a notch, but I’m very beginner level and trial & error in what I do.  But I’m glad you like it!

And without further adieu, that leaves My favourite search terms!

Chicago salon’s offering breast massage - I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that. Anyone know any places around the windy city?

Wedding boobs, DIY boobs, 45 degree boob bounce, exploding wedding boobs, and DIY Boob Job - Your wedding boobs will look much like your normal boobs. But not if you attempt a DIY Boob Job. You at least need an As Seen on TV anesthesia kit for that. And an A cup is not capable of a 45 degree boob bounce, you’ll need to find another blog for that. And exploding wedding boobs? I… Um… I’m not sure. This blog probably isn’t for you if that’s what you’re looking for.

I am in 10th grade and have never felt a boob - That’s okay! Please don’t rush the boob touching. But I’m married and, you know, not down with that, so I really can’t help you with. Any 10th graders out there want to help this kid get hooked up? No? No one? I’m going to watch my search terms next September to see if this carries over to grade 11. I’ll keep you informed

Cut my hair off, cut it all off, shave my head, so cute pixie, I hate my pixie cut, how do I grow out a pixie cut, how long is a pixie cut? - A Pixie cut is, judging by the other hair related terms that get people over here, shorter than you probably think it is! The best way to grow it out is to stop cutting it and wait three years. Sorry, but it’s the truth. And it is very cute, when you get used to it or if your name is Ev’Yan.

Is tofurkey any good? - Do we need to ask this? OF course! It’s heavenly!!

lots of making out - I’m all for that, especially if the young gentleman has recently bought you a tofurkey!

Activities to do to strengthen a relationship - I’m a fan of heat embossing on this one. But I have a feeling that it could be a make or break bonding activity. Maybe you could start with having your partner help you send out your etsy shipments before you give him a craft heat gun.

Can you alter a snowsuit for a dog - ….No, humans and dogs are built differently, I would go for the animal version, which is more like a blanket with straps.

Cute little dogs that don’t have to stay inside - Yea that’s an accurate description of my puppies!

Dementia and full moon personality changes - Yep! That’s an accurate description of my insane neighbors!

Duct tape dress form, duct tape dress, duct tape fashion, I duct taped my boyfriend - Please let the poor boy go!!

How three legged cats adapt - Well! My mom’s cat is drinking out of the toilet again and he only gets stuck in it from time to time.

Pay hot girls to give you a piggy back - If this is an emerging market, I’m SO in! $125.00 per piggy back. I’m not above that in the least.

Kyla - Golden Delicious - I think I may have to change my blog tagline.

Thanks again guys, you make the internet a better place.

This weekend was home made waffles and glasses and thrift shopping. It was finding out that one of my best friends in the world will be moving into a beautiful house five blocks away from me. It was scheming about meeting up for ice cream and lemon aid and bike rides. It wasn’t a blazer, but it was a cheesy Christmas cardigan. It was being woken up by the puppies at 5 AM on a Saturday, followed by seven puppy accidents in the house before noon, and blankets and boots and jumping through the snow.

It was planning holidays for next year and weighing the benefits of staying with my current work for another year so we can take two holidays next year (and finally get a honeymoon!!) versus perusing more challenging work. It was not receiving my SIN card of birth certificate back in the mail, which canceled our post-Christmas trip to Minneapolis. It was old fashioned mail.

This weekend was Mister falling down the stairs and hurting himself, it was limping and hopping and icing and concern. It was losing our internet connection on Saturday morning and not regaining it until 7:58 AM on Monday. It was French fashion magazines, making butter tarts, and shopping for Christmas cookie supplies. It was dinner out and a late night run down town to buy presents for each other. It was puppies barrleing upstairs to find me and leaping over a foot into the air when they found me.

It was too cold. It was almost Christmas. It was kind of perfect.

This week I’ve been under the weather, and while I can be single minded at best some times I really locked in on making myself comfy but productive - because I had a problem that needed fixing. I lose my bus pass. Frequently. There’s something about my jacket pockets that make them literally expel my bus pass into the street, my workplace, the bus on a regular basis. My solution is that I’m constantly clutching my bus pass in my huge gloved hands, concentrating on making sure that I have it - and when I’m not I’m patting myself down trying to find my buss pass.  As the bus service can be in this city, I hate losing $75.00 - so if I go looking for my pass and I can’t find it right away, I kinda wig out

You don’t want to sit next to me on the bus, is what I’m saying.

So while I was sick on Wednesday I decided that enough was enough - I was marrying up my two constant companions: my iPhone needed a case, and the fear of losing my transit pass would no longer need a case.

Result:

Materials:

1. Blue felt ($0.99)

2. Gray end of roll fabric ($3.00 for 2 yards)

3. Old button

4. Trading card protector

(soft, flexible plastic for bus pass to slide into)

Time Required: ~30 mins.

This weekend one of my best friends, the beautiful British Emily Jane, and I are going thrifting for work clothes in honour of her very new job. My non-profession related mission is to find a blazer so I can look like this:

Streetstyle blazers by kylabea via lookbook.nu

…but more awkward. I’m so excited! Especially because last night, moments before they closed I picked up my new glasses! They’re like 1950’s horn rimmed black and white frames, but just the tops - the bottoms are all lense, no frame. All very exciting stuff - and then there’s the Christmas baking this weekend, and my first chunk of time off work since April! I can barely contain myself.

Have a good weekend!

A few weeks ago I read a number of pre-holiday posts by people who were getting excited for Christmas, but wondering who these people are who celebrate Christmas but who aren’t really Christian. These posts made me very excited because I was able to wave my hands above my head in the comments sections and go “OOH!! OHH! That’s me!! Went to Hindu temple for three years but haven’t really been to a real church service!! I love the holidays!!”

Around my house Christmas wasn’t about religion - it was about being together, as different as we were. My dad’s side of the family was big into the United Church, my mom’s side of the family was Ukrainian Catholic, and the rest of us were kind of in the middle. We didn’t speak Ukrainian, and didn’t live near any churches other than the very small town, intensely tight knit ones in the country. We never really went to church, and as I got older my mom got more and more interested in Hinduism and Buddhism, and ended up going to India a number of times before I was 10 years old.

I was fascinated by her stories. I could smell the heat and confusion of Delhi. I could see the bare light bulbs dangling from the airport ceiling, the beggars holding up sickly babies to the tourists and shouting for money, the merchants trying to pass off torn rupees - worthless once they’re torn - onto the Westerners.  She told me about men standing on ladders smacking transformers with poles in the rain trying to fix the power, and just how fundamentally different life was. I wanted to go so badly, and my parent’s respected my interest. I learned how to write the alphabet in Hindi immediately, started living on milky chai, and went to Hindu temple to celebrate Diwali, be hugged by the ladies in the temple basement, and eat sweets that dripped in syrup.

And then suddenly I was a teenager, and religion kind of dropped off my radar.

In junior high and high school there was a lot of cultural mingling in my school. We were overflowing with international students, girls from Mexico, mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong, Columbia… and then there were the students from Winnipeg - an immigrant city to begin with. We were Jewish, east Indian, south African, dutch, German and Ukrainian. If you asked where someone’s family was from you were far more likely to get an overview in genealogy than you were to have a neighborhood or city as a response.

As I’ve grown up I’ve celebrated Ukrainian Christmas and Easter by going to midnight mass with my grandfather, I’ve gone to Jewish services with Jewish friends,  Pentecostal services with Pentecostal friends, and meditated with Buddhist friends. I have friends who identify as many different religions - and some of them, like me, who just don’t really identify themselves at all. But religion aside, for me the holiday season has always been just that, about the holidays. Plural. And ongoing. Christmas is important to my grandfather (and my husband’s family), so we celebrate the holidays on Dec. 25th, but we also usually mark the day on Ukranian Orthodox Christmas, which is well after New Years.

This year I’ve been noticing just how Christmas-y my holiday experience is, and I’ve been thinking about the posts asking who would be celebrating Christmas if they aren’t really, you know, Christian. Never mind someone who isn’t really Christian celebrating two Christmases! I think that maybe they have something of a point. So I’m instituting a new holiday celebration in our household. If I’m going to celebrate “THE HOLIDAYS” I really have to stop being so exclusive.

So this year, I’m adding Hanukkah into the mix. Or a big giant Hanukkah style dinner at least.

Both Mister and my Jewish friends are completely amused by my idea, but I think I’m on to something! I’ve found a really wonderful latke recipe, we’re going to get little doughnuts and….anything else that my Jewish friends can throw at me, we’ll do that too!

The holidays are meant to be fun, and about being together - and for me, they’re also a little open ended. And I’m okay with that. If I can kick off celebrating what a crazy year this has been a few days before I usually would with a really great meal, then I’m going to give it my best shot. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll try celebrating Ramadan too.

Wait. Doesn’t Ramadan involve fasting? Maybe I’ll look into solstice instead…because I’m all for new traditions, as long as they involve potato based meals.

Living in our first house has taken more getting used to than I thought it would. In spite of our crazy budgeting and years of saving to make this move, it has been more expensive than we thought it would be. The weather in Winnipeg has been unseasonably cold lately, making it -27° C (-17° F) without the wind chill and feeling like -46° C (-50° F) to your skin, and has made our heating bill jump through the roof - but there is nothing about living here when it’s like this that doesn’t make you feel heroic and thankful to be inside.

But in spite of the heating costs, the new house is really quite dreamy.

It’s full of nooks and crannies where the light seeps in…

And then there’s the antique clawfoot tub that has made every evening just a little more luxurious…

But what has struck me the most has been living in a neighbourhood. My apartments have always been well inside the city, but on major roads. There might be a grocery store or drug store 10 mins. away, but other than that I’ve been off the beaten path - and I didn’t realize how much of a difference a neighbourhood makes.

I can walk to get groceries, ice cream or flowers. There are local restaurants, a library and community centre, cafes, video rental stores, and schools. There are parks and river walks, and we’re right in the middle of the city. My hairstylist lives 5 blocks from me, and her business is next door to a sweet little thrift store. On the way home from my appointment I can buy a $2.00 lemon tart from our local bakery, or say hello to the kittens that the florist has taken in. And the people here know me already.

We’re on the edge of a very old established neighbourhood, on the block where the smaller homes begin and the lower income families live. We are known as “Ash & Mal’s owners”, and have befriended other families who are renovating their 100 year+ homes while the infill homes are built up down the block. On the next block over there is a huge foster home where two little Aboriginal girls have adopted me and the puppies, and we often end up walking to their school together at lunch time. There are families of too many nationalities to count who own businesses in the area, and when I mention my maiden name (HA! Remember when I was a maiden? Me neither.) many of the shop owners were taught high school by my grandfather.

The feeling of connection here is very present and very real. It does my heart good to finally have enough room for my friends to tuck in out of the cold and into our living room, or to spend the afternoon under blankets watching The Day The Earth Stood Still and other black and white sci-fi films with Mister. It does my heart good to know that we don’t have to leave. The move to my first house was my tenth time moving house in my little life - it does my heart good to know that for once, I can relax, and that we can stay.