• In 2009 we teamed up with the extremely artistic Liz Clay from Cici Art Factory to bring you these lovely printable cards
• Last year the lovely Keri from Craft Caravan created this Valentines Rebus for our readers
• Here are some greener Valentines giving ideas to offset all the paper
• And these great Valentines crafts are also from Craft Caravan just for yoyomama
• Finally if you’re doing a bit of Valentines shopping, we love these (chocolate-free) gift ideas for kids

Oh, and if chocolate is on your shopping list, check out what we think about Organic Fair chocolate and a few other organic and fair trade options we think are just delicious! What are your favourite Valentines crafts, ideas and printables? Feel free to share below!

If you’ve ever struggle with your weight, chances are you’ve done a few ‘diets’ along the way.  And chances are, when you go off the diet, you gain the weight back on.  This is a well documented phenomenon.  It’s become the subject of too many jokes to count, and many warnings about diets.  It’s why you often hear people say, ‘diets don’t work.‘  It’s why we warn our friends when they try the latest fad diet.  And sadly, it’s why many of us stop bothering with diets at all.

Last night, I stopped by one of Lisa’s Alumni classes (weekly meetings providing ongoing support for alumni of any of her nutrition classes) and I stood on the same scale I stood on last march and was measure by the same measure tape.  And I was very pleased with the results.  I gained 0.6 lbs.  Given how women’s bodies fluctuate with water gain, honestly I think I could probably say I haven’t gained a thing.

That’s with being off the program for 8 months.

And since in the past 8 months I’ve moved to a new city, started homeschooling my son, become unexpectedly pregnant, lost said pregnancy, lost a job, started a new job, navigated Thanksgiving, had a family blowout at Christmas that severed contact with half my family, and navigated all the Christmas treats, there was certainly lots of reasons for me to gain weight.  After all I think I’ve hit at least 4 of the top 10 most stressful life events in there.  And certainly in the past I would have gained weight from every one of those events.

Not to mention that all through my twenties I was on medication for depression, and any of these events would have sent me into a downward spiral, but now I am medication free and have managed these events well (crying when necessary, but not being unable to recover.)

As I shake my head in wonder, I’m going to simply quote myself: ‘For the first time in my life, I feel confident that I know how to get healthy, and stay healthy.’

I said that, and clearly it was true.

If you’d like to gain a new understanding of how you can better care for your body by understanding what you are putting in your mouth, I really encourage you to check out Lisa’s new programs, starting soon.  She is running the E.A.T Foundations program, and an exciting new Extreme Transformation program that I’d take in a heartbeat if I didn’t live an hour and a half way.

For myself, I’m going to try to get into the Alumni classes at least twice a month, now that life has settled down, and work towards more weightloss.  Maybe one day I’ll see you there.

So when I was asked to host a party at Xbox 360 Central in Park Royal where we could test out the Xbox360 and the new Kinect Games,  Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Sports: Season Two while mingling with some yoyomama readers it seemed like both fun and an opportunity to give the games and system a whirl. Interestingly many of the yoyos who attended were also newbies, attracted by the idea of giving the Xbox 360 Kinect a thorough test.

Note the intense look of concentration on our faces. We were both playing to win!

As the party got started parents stood by while their kids played the games, aided by helpful brand ambassadors who coached them through getting started and playing all the different games.  But as the party progressed more and more of the mums and dads who were there stepped up to the plate – or the top of the ski hill – and jumped right in. It was great to watch fathers and daughters play tennis and fathers and sons race down ski hills side by side and two girls battle Captain Hook, finally vanquishing him by pushing him off the plank at the end of a vigorous sword fight. As my eldest said, “Wow, I sweated almost the whole time.” The other thing I noticed is that kids and adults were pretty evenly matched, which makes it more fun for everyone.  Though I suspect with a bit of time my kids would be outplaying me.

me winning at tennis!

Now I must admit to being a bit of a snob about gaming systems, after all isn’t playing a real game of tennis, real skiing or real swashbuckling better for you? Well, perhaps not in the case of swashbuckling but certainly playing “for real” is probably better for kids but after being stuck home during some interminably gray, wet weekends I can totally see the appeal of blowing off some steam as a family and getting some rousing tournaments, or dance competitions, going on. And, as this (slightly blurry) picture illustrates, I had great fun playing tennis with my husband (it looks like I won don’t you think?) and could see us indulging in an adult evening of Xboxing rather than regular old, sedentary TV watching.

In fact the new year is bringing a bigger living room for us and I’m thinking the Xbox 360 Kinect system might be the perfect housewarming gift…but don’t tell my kids! Or my husband…

The visit did not disappoint.  Well…it mostly didn’t disappoint…more on that later.

Here are some rules to follow for going to see the Festival of Lights.

Rule Number One: Don’t forget your camera.

We broke that rule.  Hence the disappointment.  While lights don’t necessarily photograph particularily well without a fancy dancy lens on an SLR camera, the sheer joy on the face of your two year old as he discovers the outdoor toy train set would photograph extremely well with a real camera as opposed to an iPhone.  Sigh.  There are no end to the photo opps at the festival.  Be it the kids dancing to the musical light show or the slightly embarrassed grown men dressed as gnomes, many a great memory can be captured.  I was enthralled by Santa and tickled by the tulips made out of water bottles and white fairy lights, but giant toddler M really only had eyes for the toy train.  And the frozen lake.  Be prepared to move quickly if you, like me, have a water obsessed child.  M tried to swim several times.

Rule Number Two: Leave the stroller at home!

We did not break this rule.  We were smart.  Others, however, were not as smart and were hauling their three and four year olds around in giant Mountain Buggy strollers.  The Festival is packed with people my friends.  Unless you absolutely have to (ie. you are a single parent with a baby and toddler in tow, your child has physical limitations or you don’t have a baby carrier), leave that wheeled beast at home where it belongs.  The paths are wide and friendly and easily accomodate strollers and wheelchairs, but your enjoyment level will increase immensly if you don’t need to worry about running over people’s toes.

Rule Number Three: Layers are your friends.

We tend to forget here on the temperate West Coast that winter nights are damned chilly!  Puffy jackets, hats and mitts are a must for the younger set.  Adults…well, you’re old enough to dress yourselves.  Be smart about it.

The Festival of Lights is sure to be a recurring family tradition for us.  While this year M was more interested in the toy train, hurling himself towards frozen lakes and running away from his daddy through the fairy lit pathways, we’re sure that next year he will be as awe struck as we were.  I could have stayed hours in there, discovering new displays, watching kids enjoy themselves, snacking on waffles and drinking hot chocolate. Words really can’t describe the visual impact of thousands of twinkling lights adorning every nook, stick and cranny at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.  It’s hard to tell you how beautiful it was to look at my son gazing up at his daddy, perfectly framed by a halo of lights or how magical the whole thing really is.

Of course a picture or two would have helped…but at least there’s next year.

The story is set during part of Jamie’s twenty “lost years” when he was held prisoner by the English after the uprising (hence the book’s title).  Working as a labourer on a farm in the Lake District, Jamie is doing his best not to think about his separation from Claire and his unborn child when he is approached by his former comrade Tobias Quinn and encouraged to help the Cause. Wisely Jamie wants nothing to do with it but before he knows it he’s being carted off to London to assist Lord John and his brother Hal who are in pursuit of a corrupt army officer.  They are in possession of a number of inflammatory letters some of which are in the tongue called “Erse” – the language spoken by Scottish Highlanders – and soon Jamie and Lord John are unwilling partners traveling to Ireland in search of a holy relic and traitors to the crown.

Once again Gabaldon seduces her readers with lush descriptions of Georgian England and well researched details. Lovers of historic fiction should enjoy the effort. The pace moves relatively quickly with one or two climactic scenes. However, despite being over 500 pages, this is not in the vein of her sweeping Outlander sagas. In fact, if it has been a while since you last read a Lord John novel you may struggle to remember previous characters who are referred to continually. You may also want to reread Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager just to refresh your memory since Jamie’s time in both Ardsmuir prison and France are also routinely touched upon.  All in all, this book helps cement the solidity of Gabaldon’s main protagonists and continues to make them believable. A definite must read for fans of Jamie and John.

This handy, crayon-sized (and coloured), stylus means their fingers need never touch your precious device again. Heck, it even helps them with their fine motor skills. And it’s cute too.

Warning: it’s so useful and works so well that you might find yourself using it too, especially if your hands are cold and you don’t want to take off your gloves, which is why you might want to snag (or ask for) this slightly more adult version for yourself.

Please note: the party is now over! We are picking the winners and will announce them when they are all confirmed. Thanks to everyone who came out to do some winter sipping with us!

Well…that horrible day has come.  The final day of the wine party.  This is the last day you can enter to win all the fantastic prizes we have to offer like…

• A twelve pack of Hemispheres branded Riedel glasses (value $125)
• A six pack of Hemispheres wines and a three month membership(value $175)
• A case of Hemispheres wines and a three month membership, including exclusive access to the members lounge (value $350)
• A $75 GC to Galloway’s Specialty Foods

Its also the final day for you to ask your burning wine questions to our wine guru Marcus.  There are no stupid questions…only unasked ones.

I’ll start you off on the right foot shall I?

Christmas Eve will be a ham dinner in our household.  What wine should we serve with ham, scalloped potatoes and all the fixings.  Perhaps something lighter as…well…the food itself is apt to give us a cardiac arrest.

Lets hear from you yoyo-winos…the holiday season is upon us and that means parties and sipping and wine, wine, wine!

To enter to win a prize of either a three month membership to Hemispheres, some fabulous Riedel wine glasses, a $75 gift certificate from Galloway’s or a six pack of Hemispheres wine, simply comment  on any of the posts during our week of wine tasting.  The more you participate, the more chances you have to win.  We will draw for the winner on Saturday, December 10th, 2011.

Further questioning revealed that not only was the Wicked Witch “very funny” but so were the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. And “the flying monkey dude was very funny even though he had no lines.” You  may be sensing a theme here. She then (spoiler alert) got down on her knees and demonstrated how the Munchkins walked which she also thought was “very funny.”

As she’s more familiar with the book than the movie I asked her if it was true to the story and she summed it all up by saying, “Not all of it was from the story but it was funny and different. And it wasn’t scary at all. I thought it would be really scary but it wasn’t.”

Well, she may not have a future as a theatre reviewer but she’s definitely an avid and happy theatre goer and enjoyed the show.

Her date, who’s slightly more critical, was surprised at how close to the movie (it’s actually based on the motion picture which we didn’t realize beforehand) the show was, songs and all. He felt there were some great performances and found it very enjoyable to see the actors playing multiple characters. Most Carousel shows we’ve seen feature about three actors, but this was bursting at the seams with about 10 playing multiple roles.  He also appreciated the creativity with which they recreated a big budget movie with a (slightly) smaller budget and fewer special effects. And, of course, one of the true joys of taking kids to live performances is to watch their reactions to what’s going on around them!

We feel that a family outing to the Wizard of Oz would be a lovely way to spend some time together creating memories over the holiday season but rumour has it that the show is selling out fast so if you’ve been delaying getting your tickets now’s the time!

Carousel Theatre’s production of the Wizard of Oz runs from December 2nd to December 31st, 2011 at the Waterfront Theatre and is for ages four and up. You can book your tickets online or by calling 604.685.6217.

Photo courtesy of  Tim Matheson.

Recently I was introduced to one of my new favourite wines…Moscato.  With our Hemispheres order, we received a bottle of the Nocetto Michelotti Moscato D’Asti DOCG 2009 and suddenly, the world of sparkling wine opened up to me.  It was only a little bit sweet and fruity and made me think of summer. Marcus from Hemispheres told me that Moscato was a favorite of little old ladies in Italy…which did make me feel a bit aged…but then I decided I didn’t care because I loved the wine so much.

This weeks sparklers are Nocetto Michelotti Moscato D’Asti DOCG 2009 from Piedmont, Italy.  Its vibrant, slight bead, muscat, lemon sherbet and citrus nose, medium sweet palate with lifting spritz and acidity.  Our Okanagan wine is Stellars Jay Brut 2006 with a fine bead, toasty aromas of buttered toast and lemon peel.  Medium bodied, dry, with long crisp, leesy complexity.

My love of the Moscato has encouraged me to try some other sparkling wines and I now serve them with spicy and salty food  choices that really bring out the flavour of the bubbly bevvie.

And speaking of sparklers, Marcus I have a pairing question for you.  I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, The Splendid Table, and Lynne was interviewing a wine expert who mentioned that sparkling wine compliments potato chips well.  This sounds a bit nutty to me.  Marcus…care to weigh in?

Now…onto the food! Here is a great Indian food recipe from Galloway’s to go with our sparklers…

Annie’s Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 1/3 c canola oil
• 1 1/2 onions, chopped
• 2 chicken breasts, skinless, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 pieces cinnamon bark
• 3 green cardamom pods, opened
• 1 green chili, halved, seeds removed
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3/4 c crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 c water
• 1/4 c butter, cold, diced
• 2 pinches garam masala
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro

Directions

Over medium low heat, cook the onions in oil until they are deep brown, about 25 minutes. Add the cloves, cinnamon bark, cardamom and chili. Stir and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken pieces, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt, cayenne, tomato paste and lemon juice. Toss and stir to coat the chicken. Add crushed tomatoes, water, butter and garam masala. Mix well. Cover and cook 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with naan or roti.

To enter to win a prize of either a three month membership to Hemispheres, some fabulous Riedel wine glasses, a $75 gift certificate from Galloway’s or a six pack of Hemispheres wine, simply comment  on any of the posts during our week of wine tasting.  The more you participate, the more chances you have to win.  We will draw for the winner on Saturday, December 10th, 2011.