Guess the carbs

Growing up, my mom would always make gingerbread houses from scratch and my brother and I would go crazy decorating them.  It was my main goal in life to try and fit as much candy on my house without it collapsing.

I'm proud to say my kids are carrying on the tradition.

front of house

I tried to make a nice pattern on the roof, but was thwarted by my 3 year old

Fred's contribution.  Obviously Mattias was nowhere near this part of the house

Towards the end it was total chaos

Anyone care to guess the carb count of this bad boy?  

About one miiiiiiiiillion grams?

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

A little late, but better than not at all.

Merry Christmas from Fred, Joanne, Elise, Mattias and Lucas!

Merry Christmas to all...

... and to all good numbers and a good night!

Christmas with a touch o' the plague

Christmas has come and gone and though only two days in the past, it's but a hazy memory for me. Mostly because of the aforementioned plague in the title. But enough about the yuck... I've decided to do a post about our Christmas from start to finish. But lucky you, it's mostly with pictures! So, enjoy!

We started off December with the our yearly trek out to the tree farm to find the perfect tree. Well, when it was just Fred and I; it was a search for the perfect tree. When Elise came along, it became the search for a pretty good tree. Then came diabetes, and we were happy with an adequate tree. Now with Mattias is the mix, we're happy to get out of there with a tree.

By the way, managing a three hour drive (round trip), a hay ride, finding and chopping down a tree, and a playground stop on a newborn's and a diabetic's (on NPH no less) schedule and having NO major catastrophes is HUGE! Holla!

loving the tire swing

I love this picture. No shots, no finger pokes, no carb-counting; just a little girl enjoying the day

hay ride!

This tree was Elise's pick

We found it! (why yes, that IS a burp cloth hanging out of my pocket. I am sooo stylin')

posing with the tree

father and daughter

self-taken pic... not sure what is up with my lips. Maybe it's my picture-taking face?

Not gonna let D kill one of my favourite traditions... making gingerbread cookies! These little guys have only 5g of carbs each (including icing and M&M)

Yum!

Another fun tradition is taking our pic in front of the tree. The post below this one has our finished product.

Self-timer fail... although Elise looks cute!

Christmas Eve we head out to church and then to a nice steak dinner with friends afterwards. During the service, our pastor calls all the children to the front and reads a story to them every year. This year, Elise ran down all by herself. I was kicking myself for not checking her CGM first!

Elise's Christmas dress

Love!

You can't tell, but I'm dying in this picture.

Christmas morning, like pretty much every D-family, breakfast comes first. Then it's present time!

This was all the action Mattias saw. He went down for his nap right after this picture.

Note: Seven stalking Elise. Our dog loves to unwrap presents and she was just waiting for her turn!

I think 95% of her gifts were princess-related

Elise LOVED her gifts from our Secret Santa; Thank you Wallace Family from Oshawa, Ontario! If I had known our Secret Santa was Canadian, I would have sent her my list of foods that I miss!

Groovy Girl princess!

Stickers too!

Mattias loved the wrapping paper!

And his car (from Secret Santa)... he happily chewed on that bad boy all day!

If you made it this far, congrats! I know it was a long post, but I though it would be fun to chronicle our Christmas from start to finish! I got THE coolest present, but that's for another post. This one is too long already!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

All I want for Christmas

I remember Christmas as a child as an exciting time. Starting when the tree went up, and packages started to arrive in the mail. Slowly, the empty space beneath the tree would start to get filled up by brightly coloured boxes and bags; each concealing their secret that would be revealed on Christmas morning.

On Christmas Eve, I would always sneak down after Santa had come to see the tree in all it's glory. I would marvel at how it towered; the lights casting rainbows in the darkened room. I would take in all the gifts piled at the bottom, then quietly steal back upstairs to my room to await the carnage of the morning.

As you grow older, the meaning of Christmas changes for you. Traditions. Family. If you are religious; Jesus. The gifts slowly fade in importance. But there is one gift I would give anything for.

It cannot be wrapped or bought. It takes away, rather than gives. Of course I'm talking about a cure. It goes without saying that I would forgo gifts for the rest of my life, if I could just have this one thing.

I know I probably won't get it this year. Or the next. Or for many years to come. But it will always be at the very top of my list.

Why I almost didn't make cookies this Christmas

I love to bake, mostly because I love to eat the end result of said baking, but I also enjoy the journey to those results. When I was pregnant with Elise, I had wonderful visions of the two of us, mixing it up in the kitchen and creating delicious concoctions to fatten Fred up with.

She would have her own little apron, and steal bits of cookie dough when she thought I wasn't looking. I would let her lick the beaters, and try hard not to scrape all the batter out of the bowl, so she could sample that, too.

So when she was diagnosed with diabetes at 12 months, that dream died for me. And it wasn't until this Christmas that I realized that I was still in mourning.

Elise's first Christmas with d, she was only 15 months. Too young to really get caught up in the wonder of the season. But this year was much, much different and she was on a constant diet of Santa, the tree, ornaments, stockings, and of course... presents. But the one thing lacking, was all the yummy Christmas treats that flow endlessly as the calendar marches towards December 25.

Fred and I always had the fun tradition of decorating a gingerbread house every Christmas. I would make all the pieces from scratch, and we would pile as much candy, cementing it to the house with royal icing, as we could.

But I told myself I was not going to do any baking this year. It just made me too sad to even try. And even if I did make something, how much of it could she even eat? And what would it do to her BG? She's so little, that one cookie would take up over half of her dinner carb amount.

So up until Dec. 23, I didn't do anything but grieve that little dream that I had held in my heart. Until I decided to shed my black clothing for something a little more festive.

A big deciding factor for me was the fact that Elise LOVES to help in the kitchen. When she sees me in the kitchen, she'll ask, "What making?" And then exclaim, "wanna help Momma!"

We bought her a little step-ladder that she pulls up beside me, and I give her her own cutting board, "knife" (a rounded spatula with no sharp edges), and some food that she can cut. I love how proud of herself she is when she "makes food".

So together my daughter and I made gingerbread cookies. And because I am who I am, I measured, weighed and calculated every carb that went into those cookies. And then I even weighed each cookie so I knew exactly how many carbs were in it.

And then we even decorated those cookies with a dab of royal icing and one M&M. And when I say dab, I mean the tiniest, most microscopic dab of icing you ever saw, because that stuff is potent. After helping myself to several scoops of it (while Elise wasn't looking, of course), I checked my BG about 30 minutes later and rang in at a whopping 168!

So what if my daughter didn't get to lick the bowl or the beater, or sneak bits of cookie dough behind my back? So what if it isn't exactly how I had pictured it in my head?Who cares that baking now takes a little more effort and hard work? It was totally worth it.

My daughter and I made cookies together. Even more than that; we made memories.

Thank you Secret Santa!

Sorry this post is so late, but I just wanted to give a BIG thank you to my Secret Santas, Hallie and Avery! They picked out a Baby Alive doll for Elise (the one with medical supplies), and Elise LOVES doting on her new baby. She even named her Avery after I told her that the doll was a present from a very special little girl named Avery.

I also received some nice presents; chocolate covered potato chips (a local treat from Hallie's neck of the woods), mini M&Ms, some Burt's Bees chapstick (my fav!), two pairs of cute socks, and some slipper/socks. Yay for warm feet!

Elise was so excited to open her present (note the cute mouse ornament attached to the gift)

The tearing of the wrapping paper commences!



So excited about her present!

Elise told us right away that the baby needed water

Cute slipper/socks that say Merry Christmas on the bottom


I love my penguin socks

Many thanks to Jill for organizing the Secret Santa exchange. Can't wait until next year

Merry Christmas everybody!

I just wanted to thank EVERYONE for their kind words, encouragement and support during these past rough weeks. We're still in the midst of it, but that's not what this post is about.

I also wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful cards we've been receiving. I'm sorry I was not "with it" enough to reciprocate, but I loved seeing the pictures of all my D-buddies I've made over the past year. You guys have made a very tough journey a little easier and Fred, Elise and I are blessed by every one of you.

If you want to see some fun pics of how we celebrated our Christmas Eve, you can click over to my other blog, here.

Here's our Christmas picture that sure would have looked cute sent out in the mail, but looks just as cute on my blog.

Merry Christmas, I wish God's richest blessings upon you!