Moms’ weekend in Banff

Posted on November 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

I am lucky to live in a neighbourhood where some of the other moms are motivated and organized enough to plan an annual Banff weekend. We all have young children and feel the need to escape them regularly. This year over 20 of us descended on the Inns of Banff for two days.

Our group poses in Johnston Canyon.

We commiserated over the relentless job of parenting, laughed a lot, ate far too many cheese-and-crackery-type snacks, drank many bottles of wine and caught up on some much-needed sleep. For me the best part was making new friends and getting to know some other women in the ‘hood a little bit better.

The weekend also reinforced what we all know: from time to time, Mommy needs a break from the kids so she can return refreshed and ready to embrace parenting again. And let’s not forget that Daddy benefits from this special bonding time with his darlings (for the record, my husband carted them up to Red Deer so his parents could share in the special bonding time). Here are some weekend highlights:

This popular hike is way less busy in November.

1. Hiking in Johnston Canyon. The trail was perilously icy, but the company was great and the scenery beautiful. I couldn’t help but think how my kids would complain during the duration of the hike and how Bennett would have insisted on holding my hand the entire five kilometres.

2. Giant hot tub at Inns of Banff. I guess the trend at mountain resorts is to have an obscenely large outdoor hot pool with a view. I spent over half an hour soaking after the hike = bliss. Did I mention the hotel rooms come with free marijuana in the ice bucket? Oh wait, that was some hotel worker’s private stash we discovered (and left) in the Deluxe Cottage kitchen.

I didn’t realize they would serve me half a duck. There were leftovers.

3. Dinner at the Maple Leaf. We dined around a table for 22 in the private room at this popular Banff resto. I ordered a Maple Martini (heavy on the maple syrup, rather light on the maple whiskey) and the Brome Lake duck. Yum. The best part, though, was being able to have complete comversations without being interrupted.

4. Brunch at The Bison. Yes, there was even more food the following morning at Banff’s top brunch spot. My pulled pork and scrambled egg crepe was delish, and we got to linger over coffee, in no particular hurry to get back to Calgary and the kid-schedules that keep us busy during the week.

Brunch at The Bison in Banff is the best!

What a great weekend — already looking forward to 2013!

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Posted in Outdoor Adventure, Travel

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We know your secret, Mommy: You’re not perfect (and neither is your kid!)

Posted on November 5, 2012 | 1 comment

I have some parenting confessions. I have yelled at my kids (I may have sworn), used the TV as a babysitter and even fed them Gorilla Munch for dinner. I have also made my children blow their noses before signing them into childcare so they wouldn’t look sick, told my son that Daddy’s iPhone was broken to keep him from playing with it, and ridden shotgun with a friend with my kid on my lap, the seatbelt buckling us both in (a modern-day no-no even though it was just a five-block drive).

I’m so not a perfect parent unless pretending to listen to my children while mixing a margarita counts.

Sure, my parenting skills could use some work, some days, but at least I’m not lying about them to create an illusion of perfection. In fact, in the right company, I joke about my missteps. Or blog about them. Other parents? Not so much.

Parenting website BabyCentre spoke to 1,000 moms in the United Kingdom for its “Secret Life of Mum survey” and discovered that more than 50 percent of mothers tell fibs to improve their parenting image. They let their kids watch TV instead of reading them a bedtime story, or they feed them chocolate bars for dinner (?!) instead of something sensible, and then lie about it to their peers, presumably because today’s moms feel pressure to be perfect.

I don’t exactly broadcast our occasional cereal dinners, except for right now, but if another mom asked me if I ever get lazy with dinner I’d say, “Sure,” not, “No, I always try a new recipe from Gourmet.”

Still, it’s one thing to lie about your own parental failings, but quite another to lie about your child’s accomplishments, as one writer lamented in a column in Today’s Parent. Evidently, moms in her playgroup were boasting ridiculous things about their babies: “My baby started holding her bottle almost right away,” and “My six-week-old told me he loved me.” Yeah, right.

How about C is for “Call Me When Your Kid Gets His Mensa Membership Then He Can Wear This T-Shirt”

I never heard those two whoppers, but I do recall some moms going on about their month-old babies’ amazing sleep habits (“She sleeps through the night and has since she was a week old!”).

I think the message we want to get out there is: Stop it. It’s just not cool. And also, doesn’t it make the liar-moms feel like crap? After all, they know the truth: their baby is a poopy, wakeful cry-baby, and maybe if they stopped feeding him chocolate for dinner and setting him in front of the TV in his bouncy chair all day he’d shape up. Just sayin’!

What about you? Do you fib about your child or parenting skills to other moms? Do you know women who do?

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Drink of the Week: Innis & Gunn Winter Treacle Porter

Posted on November 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

‘Tis the season for snuggling under a blankie on a cold Friday night and locking lips with something dark and slightly sweet, like an Innis & Gunn oak aged beer. I have completely fallen for this Scottish craft brewer — I especially love their Original and Spiced Rum Finish beers, so I was excited to sip their seasonal brew, the Winter Treacle Porter.

“Soothing like an open fire on a cold day.”

Evidently, “treacle” is a fancy word for molasses, and I think the beer would sound more appealing if they’d called it Winter Molasses Porter. Just sayin’.

It’s the first time Innis & Gunn has brewed and oak matured a porter. Treacle was used to add depth and sweetness, and give the drink more viscosity and thus a heavier mouthfeel.

Check to all of the above, and I’ll add in the extra complexity found in an oak aged beer: the malty notes and hints of yummy things like vanilla. There was, however, a lingering sort of bitter taste that I didn’t love. My husband, on the other hand, had no problem fininshing off the bottle (to fortify himself for an evening taking the children trick-or-treating in -6C weather).

“I like that it’s beer,” he said. Well, cheers to that!

*Note: The Winter Treacle Porter is also available as part of a “Holiday Gift Pack” that includes a bottle of the above, a bottle of Original, a bottle of Highland Cask and a branded glass (from $14.95).

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Posted in Cocktails

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