Mom and Daughter Events at the B&B

Decorated, hosted a Christmas concert with all my closest friends then closed the B&B over Christmas for the first time so I could make plans with the youngest daughter, to go to our most favourite place on earth, Le Nordik spa in Chelsea. 

While soaking in one of the many tubs, a young man asked my daughter and I what we got for Christmas. I wanted to answer "a cold" but we said "nothing". He stared at us awhile, couldn't understand our responses. He repeated the question and we said we didn't exchange gifts this year so he told me he got an apple. (Naive me I thought he meant a real edible apple, doh!) 

I guess my answer was not the exactly the truth.  Weeks before, she told me since we would be alone together, and to do everything she never wanted to do in the past.   We would bake and make ornaments, a gingerbread house, ugly sweaters, view light shows, have a fondu, listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas specials and on and on.  Four days of Christmas activities which gave me hope!  

Well, we both had hours of resting on the couch  commiserating over our miserable colds and on Christmas day, I simply made a grill cheese.  Neither of us could taste it and every other idea got shelved.  I sent her home to bed and Christmas passed as it has for many years, recovering from a cold, bloody hell, but I still had hope and in storage is a special box of things I hope to do next year.

Also, I gained so much more from this Christmas past, which feels like a lifetime ago, than I have from other years with excessive gifts. " One of my deepest regrets when she was a young toddler was not spending more time with her. A little voice would come to the kitchen and say "mommy come and watch TV with me" and all I could think is "oh my God I have so much work to do busy, busy, busy."  Ya, I know.  Some things never change. [To this day all my friends think I have a full house 24/7 and am running full-time.  Nope.]  Oh, the regrets I have.  Over the years I wondered what the impact of that would be as I crushed her spirit. Well this Christmas while she was watching a movie, surrounded by Christmas chaos, I heard again, "Mom come and watch TV with me" and I was thrilled.  I dropped everything to enjoy her company ......and finally forgave myself for the past. Best Christmas gift ever. Time with daughter...Priceless!

Recently she learned she got the top salesperson for all of Canada at  Movati.  Maybe she got those ambitions from me but then I question myself. It's taken me 5 years to attain # 9/55 of the top bed and breakfasts in Ottawa and I'm not even located downtown.  There are 46x 5-star ratings on Trip Advisor.   I have 119x 5-star reviews on Airbnb and 40x Google Reviews 5star.  Hmmmm, Maybe she did get her competitive nature from me after all!  

And with that, I will keep one of my first New Year's promises, to shorten my posts and try to keep better on topic.  

Feel free to subscribe at the bottom. Happy New Year. Love all 7 of you readers, lol.