Posts made in December 18th, 2008

Innovative or Insane?

Posted by Michelle on Dec 18, 2008 in Babywearing, Observations | 6 comments

So while continuing my hunt for a replacement diaper bag, I came across the Kemby Sidekick Baby Carrier. Wait, wasn’t I looking in the diaper bag section? How’d I get to baby carriers? Thinking that perhaps my love of babywearing had made me read something wrong (again), I squinted and double checked the description. Yes, folks, it is a baby bag and carrier in one.

I honestly don’t know whether I am impressed or horrified. The concept looks simple enough — kind of like an SSC carrier and a diaper bag had an accidental love child. Not having tried it on myself I can’t testify to its effectiveness but just had to comment on the fact that it exists. The Kids-n-Cribs store is actually not too far away from me so I could, possibly, run over and try it on tomorrow if my curiosity (and boredom) demands that I do. Which it might. Stay tuned!

Creating Christmas Traditions

Posted by Michelle on Dec 18, 2008 in Family, Life | 7 comments

Though The Hubster ™ and I have been together for over 7 years, the holidays have never been a big thing in our household. The Hubster ™ professes to hate the holidays for reasons I’ve yet to understand but he does indulge my own love for the holidays so I can’t complain. My love for the holiday stems from my childhood holidays when Christmas was always a magical time of the year. We would always have a tree and lots of goodies. The magic began to wear off sometime in my teenage years for reasons I’m still sorting through.

With the addition of The Little Empress to our family, I’m determined to reclaim some of that holiday spirit and giving TLE magical Christmases as well.

One tradition I know I want to do every year is the Noche Buena feast on Christmas Eve. Literally translated as “Good Night”, Noche Buena is one of those traditions that the Spanish passed onto the Filipino people during colonization. Of course, it is a little different in the Philippines and consequently wherever you’ll find Filipino diaspora. In the Philippines (and in the US, parishes that have a large Filipino population), you’ve got a novena of Masses (Simbang Gabi) in the 9 days leading up to Christmas. Finally on Christmas Eve, you have Midnight Mass. After midnight Mass, everyone goes home and stuffs themselves silly with all types of Filipino goodies.

For me, Christmas just isn’t complete without a plethora of Filipino sweets to stuff my face with. Luckily, I live in the Bay Area and we’ve got a ton of Filipino bakeries to choose from. And even more luckily, The Hubster ™ loves a lot of the Filipino cakes and sweets that my parents pick out because some of them are close to the Vietnamese sweets he grew up with.

Aside from Noche Buena, my family never quite had any real traditions for the holiday so there’s nothing else to really pass on. So it is up to us (read: me) to create traditions for TLE. We’ve done all the “usual” stuff: took photos of baby screaming with Santa-san; bought a Baby’s First Christmas 2008 ornament; made photo cards with TLE’s photo on it to send to friends and family. (Which, I must confess, I only ordered today despite creating it weeks ago. Yes, I’m slow. These cards may not make it to my doorstep until the 23rd and then go in the mail the next day. But hey, if the cards make it to their destinations by January 6… IT STILL COUNTS AS CHRISTMAS I love my screwed up rationalization sometimes.)

I’ve thought of a few different traditions we could start when TLE’s older — making her Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas Day; making special pancakes on Christmas morning; some sort of family-only event to do on Christmas Day since we won’t be attending Church and gift opening will be done on Christmas Eve. And while I wrung my hands over all of this, wanting to start a tradition now, I began to realize that there’s no hurry. We’ll make our traditions are they come to us over the years and maybe TLE herself will suggest something she wants to begin when she’s old enough.

What are your family’s Christmas/holiday traditions? What did you start on your own or plan on passing on?