Welcome weekend

Sometimes it just happens. For whatever reason, whatever last minute detail falls through, whatever window of opportunity suddenly opens, finding yourself on Monday after a spectacular weekend is a great feeling.

Now the adjective spectacular to describe a weekend is obviously relative. For some it could mean your son or daughter scoring a winning goal in a hockey tournament and basking in the resulting high smile wattage glory for the rest of the weekend. For others it could be mean joyfully cascading in the surf along the shores of an all-inclusive resort that was saved for all year.  For me, it was a decision to stay home after declining an invite north to ski at a private hill with a family we adore, just so the four of us could hang together after a very harried and social holiday season.

So what did we do?

On Friday we met on Yonge street near our Toronto house immediately after me getting off work to go exchange some wrongly sized Christmas clothes. Doesn’t sound exciting, but for me, I was able to find two shirt and tie combinations to certainly mack daddy me up for a  couple of months. The boys were patient and friendly with the staff, charming even, never once complaining about a task that was not totally about them.  Shocking but true.

Next it was off to a restaurant for dinner. Nothing overly fancy, but not fast food either and we stuffed ourselves with crispy beef and cashew chicken and sushi pizza, deftly handled with chop sticks by our increasingly cultured boys.

Then the walk home, boys throwing snow at each other, Tasman clumsily tripping over sidewalk cracks and all of us giggling in a brisk but not oppressively cold city walk.

Jackets and boots now off, Alice the dog barking at us excited we are home, we all scatter to our respective screens of choice, enjoying the fact that yes, sometimes we are a digital family and no, we will not apologize for it.

Bedtime and sleep come easy and I popped up at six o’ clock in the morning (I gave myself a stretch and morning yawnin’) to load the car for our 7:30am departure to Mount St. Louis Moonstone for our first ski of the season. Arriving and on the hill before 9:15am, with barely anyone there, we skied for two and half hours in perfectly zero degree weather until stopping for a not surprisingly awful cafeteria lunch which we didn’t care about but will remember to pack a lunch next time. Another  couple of hours on the slopes trying to catch up to psycho Tasman before heading home, quickly with no traffic or nasty weather to deal with.

Steph at the summit

Car unpacked and everything wiped down, we loafed for a spell, with a deal made that nothing responsible was to be accomplished until the next day. I made a chicken and cheese ravioli with basil and Parmesan and the boys went upstairs and watched Home Alone 3 on the computer. Steph and I lit a fire and watched a delightfully dated and over the top British Alfred Hitchcock thriller Frenzy before putting the boys to bed. Both went down easy, no complaints, drifting off with smiles on their faces.

We went to bed soon after and put a smile on our respective faces as well.  Meow.

Sunday!

Productive day!

Screen free Sunday mornings is our rule so after gutting the fridge and cupboards clear of holiday and leftover crap, I made a list, checked it twice and took off to grocery store to load up. Hud came with, leaving Steph to tackle the mountain of laundry that accumulated over the holidays. Upon returning to unload, the vacuuming was done and everything was organized.

I put the groceries away and proceeded to make two turkey pot pies, pulled pork and a beef stew, all split evenly between immediate consumption and easy freezer meals for the week.  Hud then worked on a huge geometry project and Tasman read his last assigned holiday book. Steph monitored both while folding now clean laundry and chipping away at the clutter.

We played Battleship and Scrabble in the afternoon and went tobogganing on hills that were almost devoid of snow (thanks Toronto winter). Alice got a run in and we came back home, kids playing for another hour in the backyard making snowmen and chucking snowballs.  It was perfect packing snow.

Dinner was a choice from the day’s menu, including a huge pancit, a Filipino noodle dish dropped off by the boys nanny. Hud had a pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw, Steph and Tasman enjoyed the pancit and I had a slice of turkey and fennel pot pie.   

It wasn’t that busy. Wasn’t that expensive (skiing…well a bit, but Hud skis free on a grade four/grade five Ontario ski program and an air miles card gave us 10% off. Bonus!) and it wasn’t that exciting in the grand scheme of things.

But after Steph and the boys left right after Christmas to visit her side of the family (I had to work) and staying at the cottage after New Year’s (I, again had to come home and work) finding a weekend to connect was exactly what I needed to kick this year off right.

Happy New Year everyone.