Category: Holiday and Traditions

Major holidays and traditions

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

🎄Ornaments, Giggles & A Mama’s Cozy Christmas Home

Posted on by Mama

It’s been a minute, but this month has been weirdly busy, especially with birthdays. Not complaining just saying.

Plus, I decided to decorate yesterday for Christmas which had me and my mom searching a bunch of stores for a Christmas tree that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Which was a feat let me tell you! She generously bought it for us because she wanted Valeria to be able to crawl under the tree Christmas morning to get to her presents and to help decorate since she understands now. I also needed to dig out our Christmas decorations from the basement, that was…..something…. All I have to say is thank goodness for my husband and his muscles. Those bins were heavy!

Valeria loves Christmas, it’s official and she takes after my husband. I enjoy Christmas too, there is something so magical about it. Family, friends, the twinkling lights, the incredible aromas from baking all the way to spiced wines, and even the snow (yes, I love having snow for Christmas, but then that horrible frozen water can shoo!). It’s a wonderful time of year and in our house, we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

But the tree went up and Valeria was super excited, she helped daddy unpack it and touched the leaves going “tickles, no hurt” repeatedly. It was cute and funny and when the tree was standing tall at 7 feet, she looks up and goes “BIG ONE!” Anthony and I started laughing at that one.

She decided after that to start taking the tops off the bins and remove whatever decorations her little hands could pull out. The toddler way is to make pure chaos and to assume mommy and daddy understand her method. How could we not right?! Eventually we changed her focus to decorating the tree, handing her ornaments and she would place them where she please and of course daddy would pick her up if she wanted to put one near the top. It was really nice to be able to decorate the tree together as a family. Not to mention, we made some some homemade salt dough ornaments together as well.

I opted to not buy any new ornaments, but instead utilize what I had, could make or were given to me and honestly, I absolutely love how everything turned out. I dried out some fruit as well and made some garland and ornaments as well. I also made Pomanders too! Oh my goodness the smell of orange and cloves is incredible! Unfortunately, the cloves were a bit pointy and too difficult for Valeria to help with this year, but while I worked on the pomanders, she proceeded to run away with a handful of my cloves and shove them into her toy calls. As she did that she would tell me “mmm nice smell!” She is such a funny little girl. Maybe next year she can help with them.

Hi from the t.v.!
My garland laid on-top of the faux greenery and Santa and his gnome helpers

I just wanted a more rustic, natural, nature based style with some old vintage feels. I think we nailed it on the nose. But we are pretty much done decorating for Christmas, and my faux fur tree skirt came in today, however the photos I’ll be posting here are from Sunday night.

But enjoy the photos and hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

What’s Been Going On…

Posted on by Mama

Before you think, ‘Ugh she said she’d post every week…” I am, but with the holidays were a whirlwind and I just got back from being away for two weeks seeing family. I hadn’t brought my laptop so I could really enjoy the time with everyone and the memories we were making with my daughter.

But let me just say…

Now, let’s do a bit of a recap since Christmas shall we! My family was suppose to celebrate Christmas (my parents, my brother M, my brother A and his wife and kids and my Nonna Santa), unfortunately due to certain circumstances, my Nonna ended up going into the hospital due to having issues with her mobility very suddenly. Her arthritis flamed up so badly, that it caused her to be unable to walk (which when it first occurred, we weren’t sure if she fell and broke a hip) and with her Dementia. Well she is still in the hospital to this day. It’s been very difficult and we ended up not celebrating all together.

My brothers and I still got together so the kids could be together opening their gifts. It was really nice to see them and be together, even if it was only for a few hours and watching my nephews opening up their gifts, helping Valeria and playing together was a wonderful memory. Valeria has finally understood the concept of gifts! She gets to excited to rip them open. Later that same night, she also opened up the gifts from my parents and we exchanged with them as well. Anthony and I exchanged gifts privately, just the two of us.

On Christmas, we were suppose to leave for my mother-in-law’s place to spend Christmas with my husband’s side, but….I got sick with a head cold. Unfortunately, we had to let them know Christmas morning we weren’t going to make it. I felt absolutely horrible and the sadness I could see on my husband’s face broke my heart. But Valeria and my husband got to video chat with everyone that night, which was really nice to see everyone. I promised we would go for New Years Eve and celebrate to make up for us missing Christmas. I took a few days to recover, thankfully the head cold passed quickly.

We went a day before New Years Eve to my mother-in-law’s place so we can spend time together just the four of us. New Years was nice though, his brother and sister came over to celebrate with us and his sister’s husband brought his mom as well. It was great celebrating with them for as long as I could, but Valeria and I crashed early to say the least. Anthony still came into the bedroom a few minutes before midnight to give me my midnight kiss. It was incredibly sweet and I love him so much.

We stayed a few days in Hamilton and then we ventured up north to see my cousin Antoinette. It was so wonderful seeing her, she is like my sister and it always feels like no time has passed when we are together. We do text all day ever day though to be fair. We were there from Thursday to Sunday and then back we went to Hamilton. But I have to say, we love it up there where she lives.

My husband started back to work on the 6th, so being in Hamilton was a better option than going home, especially because he had to pick up his laptop in Toronto. Which is a nightmare to drive to on a good day, let alone during winter. Plus the bonus was that we got to spend more time with his mom. My husband picked up his laptop Monday, stayed at the office for the day, attempted to work from home Tuesday but couldn’t, had to go BACK to Toronto to get his VPN fixed and came back to the apartment to work the rest of the day, Thursday we were suppose to go home but Valeria took a super late nap and my husband fell asleep as well (they were both really exhausted) and when they woke up, we made the decision to just stay another day and leave Friday night. It was nice because Friday is one of my mother-in-law’s days off so she got lots of time with Valeria. We left Friday and honestly, it has been nice being home.

So, there you have it! A quick run down of everything that happened since Christmas with minor details.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Years!

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

Happy ….Canada Day?

Posted on by Mama

No I’ll be honest it isn’t a happy Canada Day and I sadly no longer have any patriotism for this country. I’m ready to go to be frank.

Hope whomever celebrated had a good day, but I refused to celebrate this year.

On the plus side, we spent the day with my husband’s family; kids running around, sun, walks, BBQ and quality time. It was a good day in that sense.

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on by Mama

I want to wish all the beautiful, patient, tough, loving and caring moms out there a wonderful day! You are truly loved and appreciated for everything you do and go through, even if it’s not shown right away. I hope you enjoyed the day with your family/friends and got to relax, even if it was just a little.

Sending you all positive energy and love!

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

Easter Fun!

Posted on by Mama

This weekend was crazy busy for us with the traveling and spending time with family.

We arrived at my mother-in-law’s late Friday night, spending some time with her and than off to bed for all of us.

Saturday we spent most the day with my mother-in-law, which was great because she got to spend some quality time with Valeria. Later in the evening, my husband’s brother, wife and the two boys came over to hang out for a bit. The kids played while Buni (grandma) held Valeria. Valeria had lots of naps and even went down super easy for bedtime.

Then came Sunday, Easter Day and it was beautiful and sunny. A gorgeous spring day with just a little bit of a crisp fresh air to cool you down. We even thought about taking Valeria for a walk, but than got distracted by other things.

My mother-in-law cooked up a feast; lamb, appetizers of all varieties, roasted potatoes, roasted mushrooms, salad, cozonac (Romanian sweet bread), and a Romanian style cheesecake. And oh my goodness was it ALL DELICIOUS!

Cozonac

His sister also made Varza (which is a Romanian Cabbage dish) and his sister-in-law made a carrot cake, both dishes equally delicious! Though I have to admit, I didn’t have room on Sunday for the carrot cake, but you bet your ass that I had some today!

Varza

Valeria fell asleep in the early evening, so I stayed with her in the bedroom until she woke up, though I wasn’t feeling too great after eating. My tummy hasn’t been in the best shape. I feel like a number of things are contributing to my tummy issues, some good and some bad. Quitting smoking is definitely one factor for sure.

I stayed in the room for a bit and rested, but it sounded like everyone was having a great time out there. The kids played a board game, even Valeria got in on the action with the assistance of my husband’s brother. Lots of videos and pictures taken and just a lot of laughter. Eventually I felt well enough to rejoin the festivities. We played this card game, which I can not remember the name of, it could possibly be called Worst Case Scenarios. Don’t quote me on that though.

Valeria started to get sleepy and a little bit cranky while we were playing the game, she was ready for her bedtime, so my husband was nice enough to put her to bed. Shortly after everyone was getting ready to leave and bringing the evening to a close. Valeria started to fuss as his sister was about to go, so I went in to stay with her while my husband went to say goodbye.

I was ready for bed as well, and trust me once I hit that air mattress I was out shortly after. My husband slept in the little bed with our daughter, I can’t sleep in that bed….so uncomfortable for me. My husband woke up to drive his mom to work for 6:30, well I was up when he got home. He went back to bed for a bit while I got things ready for us when we needed to leave.

We left early this morning to head back home, which when we got home we had a relaxing rest of the day.

So that’s it, that was Easter.

Buona Pasqua (Happy Easter), I hope you all had a wonderful day with friends and family!!

Ciao!!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions, Travel/Vacations

Good Friday

Posted on by Mama

I apologize for not answering to comments this weekend, unfortunately it’s going to be a bit hectic with the traveling and family time, but I promise I will get to them on previous posts!

Today all of my family members had off from work, they get Good Friday instead of Monday for Easter. We had already had plans with my husband’s side to spend the weekend, but we missed spending time with my family last weekend for….personal issues which I will get into at a later date.

Thankfully my mother and oldest brother decided we would have a get together today. Initially it was going to be dinner, but because we were to leave for my mother-in-law’s, I asked if we could have like a lunch instead. They happily obliged.

I wasn’t suppose to be the one to cook, but somehow I’m always delegated as the chef for all family functions these days. I really need to stop being a good cook, I could use a break occasionally. I personally would have made a much simpler spread, but my mother bought it all, so I cooked what she thought everyone would like.

Our tradition since we were kids was to eat fish on Good Friday. My Nonni (which is grandparents in Italian) were very religious and that what stemmed this tradition. I think I was the only one to follow this today in the family. I made the chicken chow mein dish (something I would have never made for today if it were me). Some salmon with cream cheese on bread, cod, all sorts of shrimp preparations, calamari, asparagus, vegetable pancakes, pita with hummus, rice and then later on dessert.

Photo courtesy of my husband

Now, I was happy to do all this and it was delicious, but I will admit my menu would have been a bit different. But everyone seemed to enjoy everything and it was an amazing time together. The kids got spoiled with chocolate and gifts, Valeria gifts and not so much chocolate. Though she did get a small package of Hershey Eggies which I ninja’d. My husband doesn’t know yet, but wait until he reads this!

I always forget to take pictures when I’m busy cooking and running around like a mad woman trying to make sure things are done and people are fed. I really need to start just snapping more photos and carrying my camera with me everywhere. Damn it! Speaking of that, I forgot to bring my camera to my mother-in-law’s. D’oh!

By around 6 PM, people were getting ready to leave and we really needed to hit the road before it got too late. Especially for Valeria. We left the city around 7 PM, making a quick pit stop for grumpy pants not wanting to be in her car seat. Quick diaper check (Niente), but man was she hungry. She wanted to be fed by my husband being held. Let’s just say it was a bit chilly for all that nonsense, though we did it anyway, enough for her to calm down and get back into her car seat. Then off we went. We saw quite a few cops along the way, but the drive on the highway was smooth. It was good and we made it in great time too. I love car rides and traveling, but man I could have napped the whole way! I didn’t sadly.

We made it safe and sound, my mother-in-law got to spend some good quality time with Valeria tonight. They were having a grand old time, laughing and playing together. It was really nice to see. Plus, my mother-in-law bought her a nice little summer outfit. I’ll take a picture when I can of it. It’s too cute!

Anyway the day was amazing and lots of good quality family time. I’m going to call it here because I’m utterly exhausted.

What did you do for Good Friday? Any weekend plans?

Ciao!!

Posted in Holiday and Traditions

La Befana

Posted on by Mama

As I’ve mentioned before, I am very proud of my Italian heritage and a very famous folklore is La Befana – ‘The Christmas Witch’. Just like there are tales of Krampus, the origins of Santa Claus, etc; La Befana is no exception.

As children, my Nonna Santa (grandmother), would dress up as La Befana for holiday events at the church. Before you ask, “Is Santa her real name?” well no, it’s a nickname since she was born on All Saints’ Day.

Sadly, not many Western Italians (for myself Italian/Canadian) celebrate La Befana any more, but I want to bring it back for my kids. My husband is Romanian, so I got to teach him all about La Befana, he found it fascinating and completely on board with keeping this tradition alive. Now, hopefully I can teach you a bit about her.

There are many variations of the story, but all have one thing in common: She comes January the sixth to celebrate the end of the festive season and she visits all the children in Italy, leaving them candies, cookies and small gifts.

Now here is the story of La Befana (as I know it):

La Befana was an old woman who lived in her little house alone on the outskirts of a small village. The villagers would call her crazy and unfriendly, avoiding her. However, always curious about what she did. They knew that she would sweep all day long: her little house, her steps and walk way. One night, after she had gone to bed, a bright star began to shine up in the sky, illuminating her whole house. The following day as she was sweeping, a procession came along the road: camels, horses, elephants, people and three royal-looking men wearing crowns. They stopped to speak with La Befana briefly; asking for directions to Bethlehem, as they were going to see the Baby King that was just born. She was unable to help them, never even hearing of Bethlehem before. She went back to her sweeping and as the procession began once more, they encouraged her to come along with them to see the Child King and that he has come to change the world and help the poor and unfortunate. And they are bringing Him gifts to celebrate his coming. La Befana pondered the statement, continuing to sweep as she watched the procession disappear down the road. She went back to her little home and decided to go see the Baby King, but wondered what she could offer as a gift. She began to bake and she baked: cakes, cookies and candies. She packed them up in a basket, put on a shawl and grabbed her broom. Off she went, running and running down the road until she couldn’t any more, trying her best to catch up to the procession. She felt a bit hopeless in that moment, wondering where Bethlehem was and that she would never see the Baby King. Then as she sat by the side of the road, the sky suddenly filled with light and angels began to sing. La befana urged them to tell her where she could find the Baby King. Than she she got up from the side of the road and began to run. She begged the angels to show her the way to Bethlehem and she ran faster and faster until she realized she was running in the sky. Sadly, La Befana never caught up and never found the Baby King in Bethlehem, but she still searches, to this day. So every year, on January sixth, La Befana runs across the sky. Children leave large socks or stockings for her to fill. She visits the children while they sleep and leaves gifts from her basket and sweeps their rooms clean.

Now, like Santa, La befana leaves treats and small gifts to children who have been good and coal to those who have been bad. Some families will leave wine and something to eat for her, but that depends on your family’s tradition.

As children we were told the story by my Nonna Santa and we were also read this book as well. I had forgot about this book until I was doing some research on the folklore.It’s beautifully illustrated and wonderfully told. I immediately bought it for my daughter, and I’ll be reading it to her every year. And La Befana, will hopefully visit her on January sixth.

I hope you enjoyed and learned a little something about the beloved Italian Christmas Witch!

Ciao!