Thanks to our awesome sales rep, we have a little giveaway package for you!  All you have to do is tell us why YOU love DC to be entered to win this package, featuring a backpack, youth hat and 3 stickers.  Draw to take place Monday, February 6, 2012.

Backpack, stickers and youth hat

When my in-laws were at our house for Christmas, they asked us a few times if we were all okay for passports.  I knew that mine and the girl’s were okay, since we had just renewed them for travel.  The husband knew his was okay…and nobody checked on the boy’s.

So on Thursday night, we opened the passport drawer just to make sure and lo and behold, the boy’s expired in April.  Of 2011.

There are 5 Passport Offices in BC – all quite close to the border – and none are anywhere near us.  After a quick phone call, we determined that we could get the boy a new passport in a day, which requires a flight to Vancouver.  Flying direct from our little airport is always choice #1; it’s usually reasonable when I book in advance.  And therein lies the rub.  Booking a flight from anywhere to anywhere with 4 days’ notice is going to cost you in this province – $639 and change will get me a flight.  A few dollars in SkyTrain tickets, plus hot chocolate at Mink and hopefully Cocoanymph (can I time this any better?  The Hot Chocolate festival is on!) and a lot of money for a last-minute passport is the cost of our stupidity.

Lesson learned?  Put passport expiration dates in my smartphone.  Be grateful the husband is taking the blame for this one.

Cross your fingers for me – all the drafted Plan B’s seem to involve more money and/or plenty of swearing.  We can’t afford either as the girl charges us for bad words.

So on my day off today, I worked on the girl’s Hallowe’en ninja costume and on editing pictures for the website while the husband took the kids off to the bush to collect firewood and possibly harvest some wildlife.  The husband, you see, has just about finished his Garage Mahal in the back of our 0.5 acre property – a 50×30 foot shop that makes all the subdivision husbands green with envy – and it is heated by both a gas furnace thingy mounted from the ceiling AND a wood fireplace.  Said wood fireplace requires many downed trees to feed its’ belly through the fall and winter, which is when the husband is most productive out there.

They all got home in time for dinner; we ate, played and then the kids went to bed.  I finished loading some sleepers onto the website and then we started talking about tomorrow (Sunday) and what needed doing.  The unloading of the firewood was first on the list and so I suggested we do it now.  At 10:30 on a Saturday night.  The husband commented on what a couple of wild ones we have turned out to be in our middle age.  I agreed and then proceeded to put on work clothes, boots and gloves and opened the shop door.

It’s probably not a vision I ever had of my life when I was younger – my future self bundled up against the chilly fall air, climbing in and out of the back of a pick up truck then creating taller and taller stacks of firewood – but oddly enough, it makes me pretty happy.  Plus I’m counting it as exercise in an otherwise sedentary day.  Happy late Saturday night to you.

To celebrate and to help our friends and fans go a little greener this fall, we’re going to do some giving away.  One of these magnificent lunchbags (which, by the way, the bopeeplady uses Every Single Day at work) is going to a fan:

Balanced Day lunchbag

And that fan gets to pick their own pattern from our complete collection.

We’re also giving away one of these babies:

Goodbyn lunch box

And to fill both of those containers, lucky fans will also receive a snack-sized and a sandwich-size Lunchskin to complement the colour scheme of whichever lunchbag/box they choose!

Lunchskins!

All you need to do to enter is tell us why you think you should win, whether it’s because you’re trying to reduce the amount of garbage your household creates or just because you’re a great person – give us a good reason for helping your family get ready for the new school year!

A little background: I grew up in Vancouver, and when I was 10, my mother took me to NYC for a week.  We went with my best friend Ellen and her mother, and to this day (and much travelling since) it remains one of my favourite trips of all time.  What a luxury, having my mother all to myself for a full week!  New York was just as exciting as it’s always been – full of people, taxis, monuments, theatre and sweet sweet treats – it really is an amazing city.  Was there some way I could recreate this magic for my small town girl?

You can find us in the belly button of the province of BC

Back to the scheming: we had the airline points, we had a place to stay (Ellen now lives in Brooklyn with her family) and we had the perfect excuse to go from one wintry place (home) to another (New York ain’t no Mexico) – work!  An added bonus to all of this: my aunt and uncle were willing to come from Buffalo for the weekend we were there, so we would work, eat and visit.  Let the travelling begin.

How to get from Point A to Point B

The Girl is 9 and loves to read.  I knew the long trip would be fine and it was – we had a delay in Denver, so she practiced her dance routine.  She also found the electronics plug-in station and made herself comfortable while playing Harry Potter LEGO on her DS.  Resourceful, my girl.

Space is at a premium

Finally, we arrived at La Guardia and The Girl got to experience a first: revolving doors.  We definitely don’t have these here, but they are EVERYWHERE in New York.  If I had let her, she would have stayed in there for multiple rotations.  As it was, the novelty didn’t wear off over the course of a week, and she insisted on doing 1.5 rotations every time we went through one.

The first of many revolving doors

We got to Brooklyn safe and sound and had a great night’s sleep.  While I had a ridiculous amount of pegs in my google map, she had only one:  the LEGO store.  So first thing on day one, we jumped on the subway and headed into The City – straight to Rockefeller Centre where the newest LEGO store is.

Mommy, is this what heaven looks like?

After custom making her own LEGO figures, buying LEGO Star Wars keychains for her friends and investing in some more Star Wars LEGO, we were off to take a souvenir picture for my friend Marc.

The Girl says "David who?"

Then to lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the waitstaff are all starving artists thespians .  The Girl was serenaded by this lovely man – and just about died of embarrassment.  For someone with a budding career on the stage, she certainly doesn’t like attracting attention to herself!

If I could disappear into my Chicken Pot Pie, I would.

Off to the MOMA to see some fabulous art.  Her first Andy Warhol – Soupcans, Elvis and Gold Marilyn – and I got to appreciate Jackson Pollock, as I was lucky enough to be standing next to someone explaining it to his friend.  We briefly met up with my aunt and uncle to make plans for the next day, saw Times Square for 5 minutes at night, then headed back to Brooklyn.  I had worn out The Girl on the first day.

This pace is too...hectic...for....me.....mom.....

Day Two saw us back at Times Square – and the beginning of my practice taking self-portraits with my Blackberry.

I promise not to give up my day job for a career in "photography".

We met up with my aunt and uncle and jumped on a City Bus tour.  My facebook page started filling up with photos and Fun Facts, thanks to some great tour guides.  I think I still have friends.  Anyway – first stop of the day:  the top of the world!

The Girl with her great aunt and uncle atop the Empire State Bldg.

We lucked out – it was chilly, but clear, so we had great views of New Jersey, the Boroughs and even the Statue of Liberty sitting out there in the harbour.  I’ll spare you the pile of pictures we both took in all our excitement.  However, you have to see this one: I love architecture and New York is filled with Art Deco, as much of the city went up (and up and up) in the early parts of the century.  Form, function and Style.

A not-too-terrible photo of the dedication panel in the lobby

From there, it was time to eat!  I was armed with lists from friends and family – including 4 “must-tastes” for my chocolate-loving palette from Marc at Mink Chocolates in Vancouver – and so we were headed for Max Brenner’s.  On our way, though, we passed this little shop and had to go in.  Mini cupcakes!  How can you say no to that?

Yum.

We couldn’t.  A little more walking and then we passed a man setting up a sidewalk shop – all purses.  Lucky for us, he announced that all of his merchandise was now $1!  That’s right, $0.96 CDN would buy you a perfectly good handbag!  The Girl decided she needed one, so she dug out her $1 and got right into the fray.  She emerged with this beauty (and TOTALLY impressed her great-aunt):

The thrill of the hunt!

Around the corner we went, into the world of Max Brenner.  The place is an experience.  The food was good, the music was loud and it was PACKED.  150 people on two levels (not to mention those in the lines or in the chocolate shop), all ignoring the recession.  Fantastic.  Oh yeah – and it smelled like (my idea of) heaven.  Chocolate bliss.

Note the chocolate bricks on the banquette. Chocolate shop in far background.

The Girl and I both had unique drinks – her hot chocolate came in 3 pieces: one bowl of chocolate shavings, one container of hot milk and one container with a candle in the bottom.  She mixed the milk and the chocolate over the flame with a metal spoon, which then doubled as a straw.  My chocolate chai came in a pitcher that didn’t dispense out the spout, but rather out the bottom when it was placed on top of a mug.  Original ideas like those two built just added to the whole experience of lunch.  We were then off to the Strand – where I started stressing about how we were going to get everything home.  18 miles of books?  (Okay, maybe THIS is my idea of heaven).  I showed such incredible restraint, and so The Girl brought home 3 times as many books as I did.  Back onto the Subway for the ride home to Brooklyn.

It's out of focus, but maybe I'm getting better at centering?

The next day took us back to The City for our next monument:  the Statue of Liberty.  This was in Battery Park – it is a piece of the World Trade Center, and this is where it landed (roughly 600m from impact site).  It took two weeks post-blast to cool off.  We didn’t go to the Site, as the monument has not been completed yet.  My personal opinion?  This piece of shattered, molten, bit of building makes a devestating monument and would have been worth the relocation costs – but nobody ever asks my opinion.And we were off!  After we went through security of course.  I have mixed feelings on all this security.  I know post-9/11, America doesn’t feel safe.  I really really appreciate that, but I have to wonder if there isn’t some other way – all this “take your shoes/belt/watch/jacket/backpack off so we can scan you and make sure you’re not a threat to us” starts to get tedious.  It feels like I’m guilty before I’ve been proven innocent, like I’m inherently untrustworthy because I’m a human being (and that I definitely SHOULDN’T wear an underwire bra, because damn if they don’t set off security every single time) – and I’m a tourist.  I would be more resentful and miserable if I had to do this every day on my way to work.  If I treated my staff like they were potential tourists, I think I could count on very low productivity – or else a super high turnover rate.  It doesn’t do good things to your psyche to be treated like a potential criminal, but again, just my opinion.

Lady Liberty is beautiful and a feat of engineering.

Beautiful and inspiring as always.

The exhibit was fascinating.

Another beautiful day in NYC and a great visit with my aunt and uncle, who we don’t get to see very often.  Back to Brooklyn we went for dinner with another childhood friend who also now lives in NYC.  (Why didn’t I sign onto this neighbourhood program?)

Uncle Elie and Clem play on his iPhone.

The next day took us to Magnolia in Greenwich Village because I have their cookbook.  Failsafe cakes and cupcakes, I swear.

Perfect breakfast dessert.

Tasty treat under our belts (um, over my belt, but whatever), we wandered through the village and found ourselves two more bookstores.  Amazing how well our bookstore homing devices work, wherever we go.  It’s like a genetic superpower.

We had a list of 4 chocolate shops from Marc, and so far we had managed Max Brenner.  Today we were going to add Jacques Torres and possibly Kee’s, if we didn’t get too distracted.  This was the sight in Jacques Torres:

Jacques Torres extraganza.

The treats were tasty, too.

And then…we got distracted.  We found Evolution.  They had shells, fossils, rocks and skeletons for sale.  Hector the Collector The Girl was in a new heaven.

The Evolution Store

We found Rice to Riches.  She didn’t believe me that she’d like rice pudding, but she did.  Tasty, full fat and The Best. Signage. Ever.  Really.  I need to figure out how to do this to my store.

It's worth zooming in to read the signage in the bathroom. Really.

We trekked to Kee’s, where I didn’t take any pictures.  The location we went to was very very small – enough room for a couple of display cases, a few customers, and oh my goodness, some of the nicest treats we’d had anywhere.  If you take your chocolate seriously, you need to go to Kee’s.

At some point, I recognized that we’d have to go the gift show.  That’s why we were here, after all!  So the next day found us at the Javits Centre and here’s a taste of what will be showing up in Quesnel pretty soon:

Everything else is top secret, lest the competition is watching me.

Another day found us at FAO Schwarz – a New York institution.  I realized within about 10 minutes that I had brought the wrong kid with me to a 2-story toy store though.  Really, I should have found another fabulous bookstore – this girl is not into toys.  Or maybe FAO Schwarz has lost some of its’ lustre?  Either way, it wasn’t the same experience as it was for me 27 years ago.  She did like the Star Wars characters made out of LEGO though, so all was not lost.

Clone trooper clone.

Best head off to Williams-Sonoma in search of Star Wars cookery tools.  I had read about these on a blog and knew my family needed the cookie cutters, the Stormtrooper spatula, the pancake molds and the cupcake thingies.  That’s right – we went all the way to NYC and apart from a few books and a pair of pants, I spent money on myself by buying Star Wars cooking tools.  All I can do is stare at those words and wonder what happened.

Well, we had an evening date, so across town we went for treats at Dylan’s Candy Bar and really amazing pizza here.

Really really really really good cheese pizza.

Last year, The Girl’s dad and I went to Vegas, where we saw the Blue Man Group.  We knew she’d love them, so we bought tickets when they came to Prince George (an hour north of us).  Due to highway construction, though, The Girl and her dad were stuck in traffic and missed the concert.  As soon as I booked tickets to NYC, I started looking at Blue Man tickets.  We went.  It was just as awesome as it was in Vegas for me – and even better for her.  She laughed SO hard.  And then on the way out, there they were.  All three of them, plus all their musicians.

The Girl and a super nice Blue Man.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen everyday.

Are you counting?  Have we made it to all 4 chocolate places?  Max Brenner’s, Jacques Torres, Kee’s – that only makes 3.  So off we went to La Maison du Chocolat, where the lovely lady serving us our hot chocolate and patisserie spoke French.  We practiced our langue seconde and really really enjoyed the calm of the place.

Seriously good hot chocolate. Much happier girl.

Marc had actually added a 5th – Marie Belle – but that will have to wait for the next tour de New York.  We will bring bigger luggage too, since we really didn’t bring enough treats home with us.

Our last day in NY was Brooklyn day.  Ellen lives right across the street from Prospect Park, but we didn’t go in it, not even once.  (We didn’t go in Central Park, either, so there.)  Why? You might ask.  I think it has something to do with the fact that we left a place all covered in snow and then came to another place that climatically-speaking, felt just like home.  When I came as a kid, I came from Vancouver – no snow, not really cold – and so New York in all its’ cold and snow was very exciting.  We took a horse and carriage through Central Park and it was magical.  When it’s your norm, it’s not so magical or exciting – especially if you didn’t bring your big hefty boots that keep all the water out.  So we headed to the Brooklyn museum, which was beautiful and had a very impressive collection.  Did you know, for example, that Norman Rockwell made his paintings from staged photographs?  I did not, but was happy to learn that.

The Brooklyn Museum

Of course, sqeezed into all of that was visiting with Ellen and her family.  We managed one date out for coffee & treats, but mostly we caught up in their apartment.

What happens to younger brothers everywhere.

It was a wonderful trip but we were ready to go home.

B, celebrating in Pearson Airport.

It may be a few years before we get back – and we might even take the boys – so I am marking up our map for the next trip.  We’ll keep you posted and maybe you’ll even come with us!

With that in mind, I have a few inexpensive stocking stuffer suggestions.  No iPods (or iPads!) here.

This photo has Lunchskins, which make a great gift for adults and kids; eco-crayons; a colouring wallet; Sookie belts (made in BC) and chimpsticks from Fred.  All $20 or less and either practical (belts) or entertaining (who doesn’t like colouring?).

This picture has one of our last precious B’s – handmade in Vernon, BC – as well as a sock monkey.  Some kids just gotta have teddies.   For that difficult-to-stuff sock toe, we have Dimpleskins Sniffles, as it is that time of year, as well as hairclips from Clippo and ponies from Bugalug.  Boys and girls alike are trading the Dandybandz, and who wouldn’t enjoy some glow-in-the-dark flashlights?  Gaia skincare (shampoo pictured here) is the perfect stocking stuffer for babies and we have yet to meet a toddler who didn’t like Plan toys!

For the older kids!

Last but not least, there are those challenging tweens.  For him, there is a great 3-boxer-pack from Quiksilver, or one of their thermoses.  Not pictured, but available in store, we also have Volcom water bottles.  The Quiksilver watch might be your main present….but it will definitely fit in that stocking!  Roxy socks for the young lady are always popular.  And don’t forget mom (or dad!) – we have some great stainless steel coffee cups that just need that perfect picture.

No matter what goes in the stocking, it’s the sentiment that counts.  We are looking forward to Christmas and we hope you enjoy your time with your family this holiday season.

Jessie has been a part of our household since she was 4 months old.  She has been a very hyper Collie-lab cross for most of her 13 years.  She has really only started to not act like a puppy in the past year, mostly since her lifelong friend, Ceidli, died.  If Delanie had posted this two years ago, I would have said, “No way!”  Jessie wouldn’t have put up with it.  But like I said, she’s mellowed a lot and so I figured it was worth a try.

Sniff test

Model dog (ha!)

In the spirit of passing items along and hoping for a photo or a mention, I will be including a bookcrossing book with the pack as it goes along its’ merry way.  I have been a bookcrosser for the past 5 years and enjoy sending my books out into the wild.  The premise is simple:  you register a book, read it, review it and then release it.  I have had books go from here in Quesnel to New Brunswick, Australia and Idaho, as well as places not as far-flung.  The book I am including is a signed copy of Michael Turner’s “American Whiskey Bar”.  I haven’t read it and am hoping it doesn’t offend its’ next reader, LOL!

Fully loaded

All in all, the experiment was kind of fun.  I had no idea how Jessie would take to “wearing” something, as she’s not big on being manhandled by kids – I think I was figuring that would be a similar-feeling experience for her – but she turned out to be pretty unflappable.  She wasn’t too thrilled when we added a bunch of books, so we took some out to make her happier.  Hubby and I had hiking days (pre-kids), but I don’t think I ever would have put something like this on her or her “sister”, as they were just too glorious to watch running free.  I’m looking forward to seeing how other people and their dogs do with this!!  Thanks, Delanie!

Happy dog

You can read lots of information on their website, but here’s our review.

We love them!  They take up less space in our lunchbags and you can really put pretty much anything in them, short of soup or yogurt.

Sarah's Balanced Day lunchbag with sub-sized Lunchskins inside

Sarah’s kids take sandwiches in the sandwich size bag, the whole family has used the snack size, and great big lunches go in the sub-sized bag:

This is a BIG Florida orange in the sub-sized bag

The lunchskins take up a fraction of the space of a traditional plastic container, which is great when you have hungry people to pack for.  They wash up easily – they are dishwasher safe, but we just wash them by hand – and dry inside-out overnight, ready for the next day.

So far, they’ve just been used for food at our house, but we can easily see the kids filling them with other things.  We will be watching for tadpoles in the spring!

All in all, a two thumbs up review from our family.

Enough already with the guilt and the shame!  I have a brief but bittersweet story to share:  my grandmother’s waffle iron bit the dust a few weekends ago.  The waffle iron I’ve been eating delicious waffles out of for more than 30 years.  We figure it must have been at least 40 years old and was chockers full of memories for me of Sunday mornings at my grandparents’ house.  They’d set it up on a TV tray next to the dining room table, so that my grandma could cook AND eat AND serve her family smoking hot waffles – no slaving away in the kitchen for this woman!  When my grandma died several years after my grandpa, I took some of her art…and the waffle iron.  With the old GE logo on it.  With the 2-prong electrical cord.  It hung on for another 15 years, and then died.  In a city where I don’t know of anybody that can fix old school waffle irons.

So today I went to the local appliance shop and bought a brand spanking new Cuisinart waffle iron.  It came with a 3-year warranty – which had me laughing out loud – “3 years!  My grandma’s came with a 40-year warranty!” – which of course I have no proof of, but still.  The owner of the shop wasn’t that impressed.  The picture on the front of the box has me giddy with anticipation for this coming weekend though; we will make Cuisinart waffles, my kids will drown them in syrup and I will fondly remember weekends with my grandmother.