New Year, New Me...My resolutions for 2016!!!

So I had a good New Years Eve and rung in 2016 with some new friends that we made in 2015. It was one of the few nights that Mitch and I got a babysitter and went out with friends but I am glad we did. To be honest, I regretted making plans to go out the last couple days leading up to New Years Eve. When I originally accepted the invite, I forgot that I would be working earlier in the day, which meant I had to get up at 5am on New Years Eve. Therefore, I would be exhausted by the time midnight rolled around. Plus, we still have a 1 year old so I still needed to get up at 6:30am on New Years Day with him. Even with the lack of sleep, I am glad we went out. We went to Crazy Horse which is a country bar/steakhouse close by. I obviously didn't get a steak but the food was pretty good and they had a live band playing so we had a good time. Plus, it seemed fitting to ring in the new year with new friends we made in 2015.

Now that New Years Eve is done, and it's 2016, it means it's time to make resolutions for the New Year. As I mentioned before, I love New Years Day because I am always so motivated and I think a lot of people around me are also very motivated. I just love the positive energy that the New Year brings. I just looked over the resolutions I made last year and NO I didn't keep them all. Actually, there were quite a few resolutions I didn't keep but I think I kept the most important ones.

2015 resolutions I kept:

• Be present with Cooper - this was probably the most important resolution I had last year and I am definitely glad I kept this one. I definitely think I used my maternity leave wisely and spent lots of quality time with Cooper. We went to lots of playdates and activities, met friends, and I just really enjoyed being off with him. So much so, that I decided to only go back to work part-time so I can continue to spend quality time with him each week.
• Stain the deck - I was planning to have my dad help me out with this project but I actually ended up doing most of this project myself which I am very proud of. It took a long time but it was worth it. It looks great!
• Bathroom - we renovated Coopers bathroom. We painted the walls and cabinets white so it's so much brighter. I had my dads help with this one but I really liked how it turned out.
• Expand this blog - so I didn't expand this blog enough to make it my full-time career like I dreamed about but I have expanded my reader base a bit and its been a great outlet to get my thoughts out and something to look back upon. 
• Travel Somewhere New - So this resolution is on my list every year now and in 2015 I went to 2 new places. We went to Miami/Key Largo which was Coopers first trip and we also went on a family vacation with Mitch's sister and her family to Aruba. I loved both places. We had a lot of fun in the ocean and I would love to go back to both places someday!

There are several resolutions I didn't keep in 2015 such as oil pulling and doing yoga everyday but most of those resolutions are actually resolutions for 2016 as well. 

Here are my resolutions for 2016:

Family/Home:

• One date night with Mitch a week (at home) and 1 date night out with Mitch per month
• Do at least one fun outing with Cooper per week (hopefully we can do more but it's a bit harder since I am back at work)
• Make a playroom for Cooper on our main floor
• TTC for baby #2 (not sure when exactly but I hope we can start trying for baby #2 in 2016 since I am excited to give Cooper a sibling)!

Health/Fitness:

• Oil Pulling each day

• Drink a smoothie (to get extra fruits and veggies) 5-7 days per week

• make sure to take my vitamins (especially my prenatals if we are planning to start trying for baby #2)
• do yoga every day - this can be a class or at home. It will probably be at home most days but I definitely want to start going to more classes.
• Go to the gym 3x per week - while I like working out at home and outside I find it more motivating to be at the gym and I feel like I get a better workout so I want to make sure I get there a lot more this year! I plan to keep going even when I am pregnant! No excuses!

Travel: 

• Go Somewhere New - This year, I plan to take my mom on her dream vacation to Hawaii. We talked about going there since I was a kid so I feel very blessed to be able to take her and I hope it's a vacation of a lifetime! We are already busy planning out our itinerary! 

Try Something New:

• I really want to try SUP Yoga -I wanted to try this when we were in Aruba but I didn't get the chance so hopefully I can try it in Hawaii! Can't beat SUP yoga in Hawaii. I think that is a combo of all my favorite things!

Restore my Faith: 

• This is something a bit new for me. I went to Catholic school but I wouldn't consider myself the most religious person but I found myself praying to God more and more lately and just trying to rely on God and trust in his plan. I am also trying to show more gratitude for everything that God has blessed me with. I am not sure how it came about recently. Maybe it is a way to relieve axiety or just bring peace and be present in the moment. Whatever the reason, I found it has helped bring happiness in my life. 

So these are my resolutions for 2016. I would love to hear your resolutions and I pray that everyone has a happy and healthy 2016. God Bless!

Christmas/Hanukkah at the Spiegelman House

So I hope everyone had a good holiday...I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. Anyway, we had a great holiday this year. We always celebrate both Hanuakkah and Christmas so Cooper gets the best of both worlds.

Hanukkah started on December 6th this year so we lit our Menorah during the 8 days of Hanuakkah but we didn't go to Montreal to celebrate with Mitch's family until December 12, 2015. We don't really celebrate it in the traditional way since we don't give presents for the entire 8 days but we usually have a nice dinner at Mitch's aunt's house and exchange gifts then. Cooper got a great ride-on Zebra that makes lots of noise. It is actually a 3-in-1 because it is a ride-on, a push toy, and a scooter (to use when he gets older). It was definitely his favorite Hanuakkah gift. He also loves his bath-tub basketball net he got for Hanukkah. He was terrified to take a bath in his newly renovated bathroom until we opened his bath-tub basketball net. Now he loves baths in his new bathroom! Mitch and I just got Cooper a new toy box for Hanukkah. Mitch jokes that it was really a gift for me and not Cooper but in my defense, he really likes putting his toys in it! Not sure how long that will last though!

The weekend of December 19, 2015, we took Cooper to Upper Canada Village to see the Christmas light display. I saw a couple people post about it on Facebook the last couple years and it looks beautiful so I really wanted to go this year. We had a mild winter so far, so there wasn't much snow when we went but it snowed that day for the first time all season which made the drive up there pretty scary. Mitch actually had to pull over on the side of the highway because the snow was blowing so bad, he couldn't see where he was going. 

We got there safely (thank you God) and we really enjoyed it. My mom came as well. We ate dinner, took a carriage ride, sang Christmas Carols at the little church and got hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to make it a yearly tradition. Next year, I really want to take Cooper to see Santa there but we were running out of time this year.

We have a big Christmas party at work on Christmas Eve every year. We have a potluck and Santa comes to hand out presents to the children. I really wanted to bring Cooper to the party this year but it turned out that Mitch had an appointment so we couldn't make it. I was a bit disappointed because it is always so much fun to see everyone's children and I wanted everyone to meet Cooper. Hopefully, I can bring Cooper in next year.

We had a great Christmas morning just the three of us. We opened our presents and Mitch made a nice Christmas brunch. We didn't get Cooper too many toys because he is only one so he doesn't really understand plus he really doesn't need them. I really don't want him to become a spoiled, materialistic brat like a lot of children these days. Anyway, he LOVED his giant monkey "Coconut". It is a stuffed "TY" brand monkey. He got the small version as a gift a few months ago and loved it so we had to get him the giant version. We also got him a larger version of "Duke" which is a stuffed dog and my mom got him "Bandit" which is a stuffed racoon. He really likes these toys. Mitch also got him a mini basketball/soccer net that makes sounds when you score. He really liked that toy as well. 

We had Christmas dinner at my mom's house this year. We went over Christmas Day. My mom made a turkey and veggies and I made some sides of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and some mushroom appetizers. I obviously didn't eat the turkey but everything turned out great. We tried giving Cooper some turkey (we only let him have meat on occasion) but he didn't seem to like it. He really liked the carrots, mashed potatoes, oranges and Yule cake we had for dessert though!

My sister didn't make it down for Christmas this year because she is planning to come visit in February instead so it was a quiet holiday other than Christmas Day but it was restful and fun! I hope you all had a great holiday as well...

Here are a couple pictures from our Christmas photoshoot (used for our Holiday cards) as well as from Christmas morning!