Christmas Party Sitter

Tonight is the Annual Christmas Party for my work.  This year my husband was actually home so I decided I would go.

However, to find a sitter for our son.  I am a rather high maintenance parent when it comes to baby sitters.  My background of course is Pediatric Intensive Care and Emergency and as such I think I have seen or heard of every possible thing that can go wrong with children and the incompetent people who were caring for these children.  I have only hired a baby sitter a couple of times in almost 10 years and these sitters have either been teachers or Registered Nurses.  

Recently a colleague of mine informed me that her daughter had recently taken (and passed) her babysitter course.  The mother seems really responsible, so I decided to take a chance on the daughter to babysit, I should also add that my son is now almost 10, and knows how to activate the emergency panels through the house, so I thought it should be alright.

Well, I have to say I am quite happy with this girl.  She brought board games to play, made popcorn while they watched a Christmas movie, and brought with her a kit to make:

  My son was thrilled!!!  He had so much fun.

So, now I am a believer in finding a babysitter that is not a full fledged licensed professional, just interview well, and hopefully you have a good network of people around you.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Merry Rocky Mountain Christmas

I have always dreamed of having the "perfect" magical Christmas.  Over the years I have tried all kinds Christmasy things with our son to try and create those kind of Christmas memories for him.  I think that this year I may have succeeded.  We are fortunate to live in Alberta only about 3 hours from those magnificent Rocky Mountains that people from all over the world come to see.  We have spent the past week just outside of Banff, very close to Canmore in a wonderful resort with Chalets.  Over the past week we have climbed up the surrounding mountains in a perfect snow fall (big, fat, white snow flakes), gone skiing at Nakiska, skated in an outside rink under the shadow of the Three Sisters at the resort and downtown Canmore, and visited all the wonderful little shops in Canmore and Banff.  I will show some of the wonderful treats I found at my favorite stores over the next few days.  The gingerbread house above, comes from a box, however, it was the best I could do with not being at home.   We have had the "best" time here, and have decided that we will do this again next year to start a family tradition for our son and have a "magical"Christmas every year.  Merry Christmas and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy