Holiday 2008

This is so cliché, but the year has truly flown by! We quietly rang in the New Year with The Hart’s, shot off fireworks and got home in time to watch the ball drop… Peyton made it all the way to 11pm. No worries we’ll try again this year!

The New Year brought lots of energy to grow the basket company and focus on repeat business with realtors and financial planners. In March we were lucky to have a visit from Mom and Dad as well as Jaime. Dad and I spent a day creating a fire pit in our backyard which we’ll get a lot of use of during our picking parties. We broke up the spring with Peyton’s 2nd birthday; a toddler and toddies theme that was especially appreciated by all the adults in attendance.

In June, Jeff and I took our first adult only holiday to Ashville, NC when Mom came down to play with Peyton for a few days. We celebrated a hot July 4th with Mom at the annual parade on Whitland Ave before she headed back to normal summer temps in NS. In the meantime Jeff was diagnosed with a severe case of sleep apnea and went under the knife in July. After a speedy recovery he was back to work and organizing his recording project. The recording was scheduled to start September 2nd; however Jeff woke up that morning with a tooth ache, and by the following afternoon he was sitting in a dentist chair having an emergency root canal. To round out the “they come in threes” our sewer system completely backed up and this resulted in half our backyard being introduced to a Bob Cat!

On the other side of the coin, the CD has turned out great and we’re extremely proud of our project. Please check it out at www.jeffersonross.com. We’ve created a little label, Deep Fried Discs, to promote Jeff’s music and we’re having a lot of fun working on something together.

Peyton at 2 ½ eats like a field hand and is growing like a weed. I’m constantly amazed at what she knows and her natural ability to teach me. She loves to cook and thinks washing dishes is play time with mommy. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that she loves music and has created a little medley of Twinkle Twinkle, A,B,C’s and Ba Ba Blacksheep (they’re the same melody) on her toy piano. If you ask Peyton what she is doing, she’ll tell you “I’m doing this!” It’s all about right now, asking interesting questions and giving you answers that make you think more than the questions. She’s learning limits right now and more than testing boundaries she’s testing whether your reason makes sense… her negotiation tactics are second to none!

This fall we were lucky to have a few visitors from back home. In early October Peyton met Ruby and David, parents of my best friend from high school. She fell head over heals and made up a song about them. Dressed up as La La, (Telletubbies) a costume made by Nanna Red, Peyton met Kim, Grant, Jay and Justin… our cousins visited with us for a week and we got to play tourist as well as celebrate a sweet 16!!

We’ve just finished our Thanksgiving Day celebrations in Atlanta and already looking forward to Hanukah and Christmas that will fall on the same week this year. Peyton can’t wait to sit on Santa’s knee to tell him what she’d like for Christmas… we’re not sure where to say we’ll be but Peyton in all her wisdom said she was going to tell Santa that she’d be with mama and daddy… so there you have it. I’ll be busy the next couple weeks making and shipping baskets and looking forward to the mini vacation Jeff and I will be taking to Savannah between Christmas and New Years.

As we look to the New Year, a change in President and hopefully a change in direction, it is our wish that you find yourself surrounded by hope, love and many blessings!

From our hearts to your home, we wish you a wonderful holiday season!

Tami, Jeff and Peyton
2008

Christmas Letter 2007

What a wonderful time of year to touch base with loved ones. I can’t believe another year has come and gone. If I measure it by how much Peyton has changed its hard to believe it hasn’t been 3 years.

Peyton started walking in time for Whitland’s 4th of July parade and has been going ever since. She loves crayons and bluegrass. Can say 35+ words, but it’s her comprehension that astounds me. Just the other day I asked her to pick up a piece of paper and throw it into the garbage and she did it! She’s starting the “comes mommy” and “what doing?” phrases… too cute!



We spent Peyton’s 1st birthday, Baptism and Easter in a snowy Harrigan Cove. It was great seeing everyone!!! We left Halifax for NYC and Washington DC. Both amazing cities for site seeing and eating!!! In August, we joined the Rivkin family vacation to Tybee Island and our beloved Savannah. Our condo was a short walk from the beach, which helped with the 121˚ temps. Recently we spent Thanksgiving in Naples, visiting Mom, Pam and June and testing out their new sofa bed… very comfortable!!!

This year really has been a lesson in living away. When Nanny passed in February I wasn’t able to get home. I’ll be forever disappointed that she never met Peyton. It’s made me very mindful of my roots, especially where Peyton is concerned, and to also count my blessings, as I am surrounded by a wonderful adopted family here.

On an exciting note, In August, I traveled to Edmonton to attend training for a Gift Basket company I opened October 1st. It’s a great feeling to own and operate your own business. I’ve been delivering gift baskets for the holiday season, its like delivering joy! I love it.

I’ll be thinking of you this holiday season, wishing you a white Christmas and crossing my fingers that you made the nice list!

Love and Hugs,

Tami, Jeff and Peyton

Boobalicious!

OK, so I took a break from writing to have a child…

But, I was so enraged by the government’s latest project that I took a break from breastfeeding to vent!

Incase you haven’t seen the commercials, there is a new breastfeeding campaign targeted at first time preggers to “encourage” breastfeeding. The commercials show extremely pregnant woman doing extremely dangerous stunts like mechanical bull riding and log running with bold captions that imply you wouldn’t endanger your child like this before he’s born so why would you afterward by feeding him formula.

This campaign is a waste of money that can only isolate and further depress the women who choose (because they live in a free country) not to breastfeed. Besides the fact that our milk doesn’t always come in, that we don’t always have enough, and that we may not want to… breastfeeding takes dedication on both the parts of the mother and child and sometimes it just doesn’t work.

These dollars could have been better spent on a campaign of commercials to encourage the social acceptance of public breastfeeding. Woman are back to work in this country long before the “please breastfeed for 6 months” are up. There needs to be more awareness and help for the working mom, the shopping mom, and the “I’m allowed to leave my house” mom.

I personally hope to breastfeed my daughter until she’s 6 months… maybe even longer. I love the experience and the bonding time is amazing, but I don’t always have enough milk to pump and she doesn’t always take a bottle. Sometimes I feel like my choice to breastfeed means staying home for the next 4 months because I may get caught in public with a hungry baby.

Most pregnant mothers I know or knew make choices about breastfeeding somewhere in the 9 months of reading everything they can get their hands on. It’s 2006 we are informed women who go to our doctor appointments and ask questions… and if women are not doing this than we have an even bigger issue than breastfeeding!

And, one more thing… kudos to Harris Teeter who offers pregnant women and new moms special parking. It’s just a little something that makes this new hectic life easier!

That’s what’s going on behind these blue eyes…