Left Coast Mama » New Year

Year of the Dragon {Sponsored and Contest}

Gwen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:57:03 +0000

I am not sure if you know this but Aidan and Quinlan will try almost anything as long as it is presented to them on a chopstick. This year they were not only excited about having a great meal, but also about making a great New Year’s celebration. That it is the year of the dragon just makes this new year even more special to them.

Aidan decided that this year we need to kick up our celebrations a bit. A chance to make decorations and party are always a good idea to our boys. I think, why not? We should celebrate as much as we can in this life. So the 23rd January was the beginning of the lunar new year and we went skating with Aidan’s beaver troop. We didn’t have time for our New Year’s feast so we put it off for a little later in the week. We made lanterns and dragons and ordered our wonton soup, spring rolls, noodles, and ginger beef.

Here in Vancouver we have a meeting of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns day with something we like to call Gung Hagis Fat Choy. I like that it is a big multicultural soup. I want Aidan and Quinlan to be part of that big multicultural soup. I want them not only to be willing to try new foods, but speak new languages and learn about different cultures.

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I am a big fan of anything that makes dinner time easier, especially if it gets my boys to try something different. I am not adverse to having a little bit of dip to help my children eat what is healthier. I make oven baked breaded chicken that is much healthier than chicken nuggets and my boys gobble them up with a small bit of VH Sweet and Sour Sauce.

I was given some Garlic Hoisin Sauce and some Garlic Rib Sauce as well as some Sweet and Sour Sauce. I like the flavours and while I wouldn’t use the Hoisin sauce too often because of the sodium content, to make an occasional dinner it is fine. I used the rib sauce on a pot roast and it was fantastic. The vegetables took on the flavour of the garlic sauce and the roast was nice and tender. I am looking forward to making a few of the recipes from the VH site, especially the Orange Sesame Brochettes and the Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken.

As a part of this blog tour one of my readers will win a VH package of Sauces and Steamers. All you need to do is comment on this post what sauce or steamer you would like to try. Comments must be received by 8 February 2012. I will email the winner for details and the coupons will be mailed to you.

Disclosure – I am participating in the VH Chinese New Year Celebration program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of VH. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Farewell 2011, Hello 2012

Gwen — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:14:30 +0000

Like the last few years December has gotten away from me. I was so busy writing Advent letters and planning for surprises and trying to get something that might actually be a surprise for Anthony that it left me with little other time to write. Of course we have also had two bouts of intestinal illness go through the family as well.

Christmas was wonderful in many different ways. The best was Quinlan’s reaction to Christmas morning. He got up pretty early but we managed to keep him in our room for a few minutes so we could get upstairs with him and give the surprise guest a few seconds to get up as well. When the boys saw Grandpa sitting at the dining room table they were thrilled. When Quinlan saw the cookie that Santa took a big bit out of he was absolutely flabbergasted. I tell you I wish I had been awake enough to have my camera set up for his reaction as it was classic. He had the biggest round eyes and open mouth, and the hand to the cheek as he exclaimed “Santa ate the cookie!” Once Quinlan saw the presents under the tree there was absolutely no turning back. It was all we could do to open our own presents. I have never seen anyone open presents so fast in all my life. He was so excited that he even “helped” Aidan with the opening of Aidan’s presents.

Having Grandpa John come to stay for 5 days was fun, but went really quickly. We were able to have a small family get together on the 27th, and I am so glad we decided to have the turkey then and not on Christmas day.

There have been a lot of great things about 2011. The start of preschool for Quinlan has been a highlight. He loves school, and ballet and swimming. Aidan is growing up so very much. He is getting so grown up and he is so interested in learning about everything. It was especially acute during our road trip. Aidan was so interested in figuring out about everything. He found out about so many of the parks and their geological features. He got to look at the night sky and actually see stars.

This new year I am hoping to keep up with all the boys activities including theatre, swimming, skating, piano and ballet. I am also hoping to keep up with writing and photography for me. We want to keep up with our geocaching and keep going to events like the few that we took in this year. The Geo-monster ball and the best of the bad events were fantastic and really helped to give us the best caching year ever.

In 2012 I am going to try to get to Blogher in NY again. I won a conference ticket and as soon as I get the confirmation I plan to figure out the rest like hotel and airfare. I also want us to take the boys camping this year, it is about time we used the tent.

Those are my goals, simple and easy. No worries about losing weight or being a better person. I like who I am and I think that I will be much happier if I stop trying to change myself. All I want is to be happy.

© 2011 Left Coast Mama | Permalink | One comment
Related: Aidan, family, Family Time, goals, Gwen, Holidays, hope, My Boys, New Year, Quinlan.

New Year Goals

Gwen — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 01:46:31 +0000

I have been reading a lot of blogs in the past few days with lots of different ways to bring in the new year. Some people have resolutions, some are anti-resolutions, and a number of people have goals. I guess I have a few goals and today is as good a time as any to bring them out.

1) I plan to keep up with my menu planning. I started about 6 months ago and while I don’t always follow the plan it has made suppers here a lot easier. Now I just need to get the impulse grocery shopping to a minimum. (I always try to have a list and most of the time it works.)

2) I plan to keep up with the gym. I am really enjoying going and I need to get back to the yoga classes after guides.

3)I am setting a goal of having a little more pampering time for me. I would like to get my hair dyed a few times this year and get rid of the silver.

4) Keep up the blogging pace. I liked blogging more often in the latter half of the year. I may actually try to get the blogher ad network on my site now that I have been blogging with much more regularity. I also want to do some more book reviews and game reviews for the DS Lite and the Wii.

5) I also have a plan to keep a list of all the books I read and try to review at least half of them.

As always the most important goal I have for this year is to be there for my family. I want to become a stronger woman for us. Maybe this year will be successful for every one of my goals. If not I promise not to beat myself up. No more sel-flaggilation (even figuratively), at least I hope. Self-deprecation is still fine.