I am in the process of writing a few posts that will appear soon…
“AP may be my religion but Sears is not my god”
“Parenting and Guilt”
“Holier-then-thou? who’s really doing the judging”
and “100 things about me”
But for now….
Add your self to the Map
&
Open question period… Ask me anything and I will answer!
First of all… in light of tomorrow… happy turkey day to my southern neighbours…For the rest us you… well… happy Thursday!
I was thinking about the Traditions of the holidays and what my family traditions have been and what traditions I want to keep and make for my own…
To begin with…
I come from a typical Catholic French-Canadian Family.
When I was younger Xmas was celebrated by having a late supper at my grandmother’s on Xmas Eve with all of the traditional French-Canadian dishes…
– Ragout de boulette et de Pattes de cochon (meatball and pig feet stew)
– Tourtiere (Meat Pie)
– Turkey
– Cranberry sauce
– Mashed Potatoes and Peas (I didn’t eat the peas)
and for desert Sugar pie and Ice Cream Yule Log
At midnight we would all gather around the tree and exchange gifts…
At about the time I met Simon, my grandmother moved into a smaller home and we stopped going there for Xmas eve… us kids were growing up and having other places to go and it was just becoming a lot of work for my grandmother to do by herself…
The traditional supper was moved to New Years day…
For 2 years I went to Simon’s mom’s and sister’s home for Xmas eve while my mom started a new tradition… she and my step dad would invite a few friends over who didn’t have families to go to and have a Chinese Fondue and just eat for hours on end… with entrée’s of all different kinds of cheeses and bread, smoked salmon and escargots…
The third year of this I decided to stay and partake of this supper also and since then it has become a tradition…
When Xavier was born we no longer had the extra friends come over and instead invited Simon’s mom and Sister and we started to do this at our home instead of at my mom’s home…
This has been our tradition since…
With the death of my step-dad last December it was a hard time last year and wasn’t a very joyous occasion at all… and this year my mom’s new boyfriend will be the new face… and I am still not sure of my reaction to this…
Because Simon’s mom and Sister don’t sleep over Xmas eve the kids get their presents before they go to bed and the rest of the gifts are opened on Xmas morning…
What traditions I miss and want to bring back or introduce…
-the traditional supper… it is the supper that my great grandmother would make when she was the head of the family and the one that I have just always associated with Xmas… I think it is one tradition that I would love to bring back… it may be a weird menu for people that have never tasted it but for us me it brings me back to my roots… and the smell of sage, savoury and thyme just mean Xmas for me…
– putting the presents out while the kids are asleep… usually they just accumulate under the tree appearing when they get wrapped…
– I would love to make it a big deal of telling stories that deal with the traditions of the holiday… Why we have a tree, why there are lights on the tree, the meaning of the star why we exchange gifts and all of the pagan roots of the holiday etc.
What are your traditions? I would love to get more ideas…
In the Jolly old man I mean…
This is the dilemma that we are now facing as the holidays come up…
Like you have read (or maybe not) in my profile, I am an Atheist and so is Simon… we celebrate the holidays and Xmas because it is something that is traditional in our household and we believe that there is a certain magic to Xmas and we don’t want to leave it behind. We also don’t see anything religious about Xmas either… (Besides the name)
Santa Clause is an icon of Xmas that I have not always been comfortable with… I have always seen Santa as being a lie and I don’t want to lie to my children but on the other hand I like the magic of the stories of St. Nick…
At this moment Xavier believes in Santa just because that is what he is learning from his environment… this is what the kids around him are led to believe and what the other adults that he knows tell him…
Simon and I are still at a loss of what to do… do we tell him about the magic of the season and the origins of all the stories and symbols… or do we make him believe in something that is just a lie… Do we have him write to Santa so that he can get a letter back for his scrapbook and have presents under the tree from Santa or do we just tell him right away that there is no such thing… or do we let others talk about it, not say a word, not encourage it, not lie but not tell the truth and let his imagination do the rest… isn’t that as bad as lying though?
I would really love to have ideas from others…
Can the magic of Christmas be without the lie of the jolly old guy?
I deleted a comment on the last post because it was just full of insults and nonsense and I just won’t have it… I really don’t mind people disagreeing with me… I actually like exchanging ideas with people that I don’t agree with so that I can see the arguments that they are presenting…
However… I won’t let someone outright insult me… not here anyways…. so I have put the moderation mode on the comments… I won’t delete a comment because someone doesn’t agree with me but I will not let it go through if it is insulting….
As for the comment it was from an anonymous poster…. and pretty much said that formula by prescription was so dramatic that I should be writing for soap operas and that I was stupid, didn’t have an education, can’t read studies etc etc….
side note…
All the comments that I make are not at all against the users of Formula, it is about the substance itself (I know people might see it as being the same but it really isn’t) … and the Hate that I have is against Formula is mostly toward the companies that make it…. they are the ones that have made people actaully think that Formula is an equal (and good) option…. they are the ones that hide the dangers of Formula etc…. We all want what is best for our children… I just want the truth about formula to be known and the truth is that it can be very dangerous and is not at all a equal choice as the Formula companies make it out to be…
I gave a Pre-natal last night and I got home at 10pm!… The nurse asked me if I could present some wraps and slings at the end of the class and I of course gladly accepted… We did the whole class, there was about 10 couples one of the biggest groups that I have had to date and also the most talkative. One mom in particular was very off the idea of breastfeeding and really had a head full of outdated info and tons of myths… she is having her second child 20 years after her first and I think is still dealing with guilt issues of her first parenting experience… Anyways I suffered through the stupid breastfeeding video from the 80’s that they have to show (I have seen it at least a dozen times now and it is just getting old!!) and then at the end of the class I showed the wrap and sling… everyone thought it was great and they all took my card… just as I was packing up a mom came up to me, asked about price, when she could call, where I live etc… and then asked if I always have some at home… I had brought the slings that I have left with me so I showed her what I had and she bought one right away…
The nurse came back in the room at that point and we started talking… the girl that bought the wrap is a local police officer and she and the nurse our friends… we started talking and something she said really surprised me… she HATES giving the classes because she doesn’t like what she has to say… she has to stick by the rules and they are the rules that she herself doesn’t adhere to… We talked about how hard it was to have to recommend things, teach things that we just don’t agree with. We have to put our own feelings and experiences aside and give the ‘blanket recommendation’ (Vit D supplements, co-sleeping etc)
We talked about how hard it was to talk about breastfeeding, talk about how important it is, talk about how easy it can be, talk about it being the best when you know very well that you are wasting your breath….
We both wished that we could stop talking about the importance of breastfeeding and could just focus on the dangers of Formula….
If Breastfeeding reduces the risks of :
Cancer (breast, ovarian, and uterine for mom and baby girls), obesity, asthma, Crohn’s disease, diabetes (and insulin requirements in diabetic mothers), Allergies, Helps prevent post-partum hemorrhage, Ear infections, diarrheal infections, bacterial meningitis, respiratory infections, rheumatoid arthritis, Hodgkins disease, protects baby against some vision defects, osteoporosis etc…etc…etc….
AND Breastfeeding is the NORMAL way to feed our child…
Then it can be easily concluded that Formula is a CAUSE of many of these diseases…
Again… I am Tired of talking about the benefits of breastfeeding when it is the dangers of Formula that we should be focusing on… but that will never happen because we don’t want to make moms feel ‘guilty’ and there is no money to be made by breastfeeding….
Anyways… it felt good to talk with someone that is in the same situation and it makes me feel good to know that there are more and more with the same ideas as me, people that I can share with and have great conversations with….