Best of the Best 2013

It's my favourite post of the year...my Best of the Best list! This is where I get to reflect back to what has made the past year special to me.

Best Volunteer Moment:

Always a tough one to pick because I get the opportunity to volunteer at so many wonderful organizations. I actually have to go back through my calendar to remember where I'd all been! This year I think I'd have to say my Best Volunteer Moment was taking all these diapers, wipes, formula, etc., to the Edmonton Food Bank. For about 3 weeks I drove around the city collecting these items from fantastic folks so had asked for diapers instead of birthday gifts, or formula instead of hostess gifts. What amazing people! I'll likely host this again in 2014, so watch for updates if you'd like to help out!



Best Mr. Cole (AKA HAM) Moment:

My favourite moment with Mr. Cole was his first day of Kindergarten. He was excited and confident to finally be going to the same school as his big sister. He quickly became a favourite amongst the girls as he's willing to play house, puppy, and do crafts with them as well as play blocks with the boys. It makes this mama pretty proud to see him carve his own path.




Best Miss Jocelyn (AKA Turkey) Moment:

I think one of the happiest moments I experienced with Miss. Jocelyn was when she joined the race club at school. We've watched her do many sports and activities but for some reason this one really struck home, maybe because it was her first club to belong to at school. Oh she's growing up so fast!! I love watching her run and cheering her, and her teammates, on!




 Best Moment Spent With Hubs:

This one was easy to pick, it was renewing our wedding vows on a beach in Hawaii to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. I think each and every year of marriage should be celebrated but we wanted to do something special to mark the big TEN. It was a romantic ceremony (and I'm not a terribly romantic person) but watching the sun come up while standing on the beach was beautiful. Most beautiful were the words we exchanged in Hawaiian, so moving! Loved every minute of it and it was sweet to share the experience with several other couples; some had only been married a few weeks and others had been married for over 30 years.

Top 10 Books I Read in 2013 (In No Particular Order):

1.Ru - Kim Thuy
2. In The Shaddow of the Banyon - Vaddey Ratner
3.The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker
4.Power and Terror - Noam Chomsky
5. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
6. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
7. A Nation Worth Ranting About - Rick Mercer
8. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared -Jonas Jonasson
9.I am So the Boss of You - Kathy Buckworth
10.Gregor the Overlander: Book 1 - Suzanne Collins


Best Trip I Took:

I have to pick two! The best family trip was going to Disney World with the kids and their aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. The kids adored every minute of it and it was priceless to see their faces light up when the met new characters, or got to go on some pretty fun rides with their cousins.

For our 10 year wedding anniversary we left the kids with the grandparents (THANKS MOM AND DAD!) and journeyed to China, Hong Kong, and Hawaii. It was a life-long dream of ours to see the Great Wall and for me especially to see the terracotta warriors. We had a fantastic trip where we met many wonderful people and saw some pretty breathtaking sights. I LOVE having a husband who enjoys learning about the world and different cultures as much as I do.









Best Nerdy Moment:

Once again the best nerdy moment was brought to you by the Calgary Expo! This year we attended it VIP style with our my SIL Katie, my (at the time) almost 3 month old niece, Katie's mom and our friend Maria. We had a BLAST! One of the best moments though was when we all got to meet the cast of Walking Dead and finally meeting Nathan Fillion (input squealing little girl noises here)

Best Concert I Saw:


Muse. No two ways about it this was THE BEST concert  I saw all year. We went to a handful, not as many as in past years, but this one left me speechless. I still get a little misty thinking about how awesome it was!





Best New Restaurant We Went To:

My favourite this year is Phoenicia. It's a Lebanese restaurant that makes my mouth water just thinking of their food. The best deal is to go with the 8 or 10 course meal. We went 3 times in 5 months we enjoyed it that much and it simply isn't often enough for my tastes. I'd say my 2nd favourite was Corso 32. We had to book 2 months in advance just to get in there but the food was delicious!

Best Time Spent With Friends:

We had a fantastic time getting to know some of our neighbours better. They, like us, really enjoy trying new restaurants, doing wine tastings, and just hanging out in the backyard. Other memorable moments were having a huge BBQ for our friends and neighbours, hosting a Christmas party for the parents and kids from school, and celebrating my birthday at Guru. 

Best Personal Moment:

So many to choose from! I'd say my top 3 were: being nominated for a YMCA Peace Award, standing on the Great Wall of China, and my top moment would be completing the Walk to Fight Arthritis with my family. All meant a great deal to me and I will carry these moments with me into the new year.

It is always difficult to pick out my favourite moments from the year and I'm sure I'll think of even more after I post this. Hope you all had a wonderful year with special moments you can look back on fondly.

Make Kindness a Lifestyle

It's that time of year where you see many people going out of their way to spread a little kindness or Christmas cheer. It's a wonderful thing to see and definitely spreads the warm and fuzzies.

But after Christmas is done will people go back to their normal lives? Heads down and focusing on their immediate surroundings? Sadly the majority of people do but this shouldn't be the norm. Kindness should be a part of your lifestyle no matter what the season.

Some of my favourite people and charities are spreading much kindness which I hope to see carry on into the new year. For example The Deliberate Mom is raising money for the homeless by donating $1 every time she talks about the cold weather. You can follow and support this endeavour through the twitter hashtag  #cashforthecold .

And today the Ronald McDonald House Northern Alberta is encouraging people to spread good will through random acts of kindness using the hashtag #RMNARAK . It's wonderful to see people do things like shovelling snow for neighbours, making goodies for the local fire station, and plugging meters for others on the street.

So let's try to keep all this goodness up throughout the entire year. MAKE kindness a lifestyle, not just a seasonal whimsy.

October and November Book Reviews

I've been plugging away trying hard to meet my goal of reading 75 books this year. I'm so close I can taste it! I'm going to have to be picky about my last few books to make sure I don't select a long, boring book that takes me extra time to read. Here's a short summary of what I read in October and November:

1. The Cuckoo's Calling - J.K. Rowling: I have a hard time describing this one to people. I enjoyed the story about a hard-luck detective asked to look into the death of a famous model. The writing was well done, and the characters were interesting but I felt the book was too long. I think if she could have taken a few scenes out she could have taken out 100 pages which would have made the story move a little more quickly.

2. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater: This was a YA book selected as one of our book club selections for the year. I found aspects to this book to be refreshing and different that many, many other YA books. I like that the author steered away from the traps I feel many YA authors fall into. Unfortunately I can't get into great detail as I will spoil the plot but it was a good read. My only beef with it was that I had no idea it was going to carry on into a second book so I was disappointed I didn't have any closure, yet!

3. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods - Suzanne Collins: This series just does not get old! I am really enjoying each book and the new missions Gregor ends up on. Suzanne does a great job coming up with interesting settings and new characters. This journey has Gregor in search of a cure to a deadly virus. Read the series, it's a great one!

4. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood: I have always wanted to read this book ever since seeing part of the movie back in the 90's. This is the first book of Margaret's I've ever read and all I can say is that I can't wait to read more of her work. Her story of a future America where women are used essentially as concubines to reproduce is bleak and yet moving. I can see why it's considered a classic work of literature and made it onto the 501 Must Read List.

5. Coraline - Neil Gaiman: With every book I read of Neil's the more I fall in love with his work. The tale of Coraline is so wonderfully creepy!! I can't imagine reading it to my kids as it's a little too scary for little ones but I sure enjoyed it. Coraline discovers a new door in her house which leads to another home very similar, and yet very different to her own. Her other mother and other father want her to stay in their version of her house but Coraline soon realizes this is not a good idea. Original and creepy, a great mix!

6. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card: I'm on a roll with books that I've enjoyed! Again I felt this story had many original concepts and honestly an ending I didn't see coming until very close to the end. This story is about humans training children to help fight a race of bug-like aliens that attacked Earth in the past. I haven't had a chance to see the movie yet but hear it's a good adaptation to the book. The only thing I had trouble with in this book was the racism.

7. Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne: Annnnnd here my streak of great, enjoyable books ends. I really struggled to get through this book. I know it's a classic but I found it to be very difficult to get through at times. While the idea had merit, Verne got so bogged down with the initial trip details that when they finally got there the centre didn't seem like a very interesting place to go. I'd have to say if you're going to read about the centre of the Earth go read the above mentioned series in #3.


November

1. Divergent - Veronica Roth: Finally! I waited over a year for this book to come out! Sadly there were so many details I didn't remember about the ending of Insurgent that I was baffled by a few things. I really did myself a disservice by not reading the last few chapters of Insurgent before picking this one up. Of the trilogy I have to say this was the slowest moving one but I think the ending fit the series so well done Veronica!

2. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn: This is the story of a young girl who had her family murdered when she was 7 and she was the key witness in getting her teen aged brother charged with the murders. As an adult Libby is paid to go back and talk to some of the people from her past to see if she really saw what she thought she saw. Gillian does a good job moving back and forth in the story from the sequence of events from the past to how Libby is discovering new facts in the present. Interesting and easy read.

3. When did you see her last? - Lemony Snickey: This is the second book in the series that follows Lemony as a preteen as an apprentice in secret society. In this story he's searching for a missing young promising scientist. It's  a super enjoyable series!

4. Beatrice & virgil: Yann Martel: What a weird book! Generally it's about a successful writer named Henry who has suffered a writing setback and floats through a series of jobs and hobbies. The weird part is he stumbles upon a fan who requests Henry's help with his own writing about Beatrice and virgil, a story about a monkey and donkey who are friends. The story takes a turn I didn't expect and leaves you feeling a little creeped out. It's an odd book for sure!

5. Gregor and the Marks of Secret - Suzanne Collins: Book 4 in the Underland series and just as good as the previous books. I can't really say much about it without spoiling parts of the book so I'll just say it's really good!

6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox - Roald Dahl. Roald is another author I like who comes up with the most unique stories to tell. I enjoyed reading this one with my 5 year old son. I like how ingenuitive Mr. Fox was to keep his family and friends alive. Cute book.