Holidays and crab cakes

I made a crab cake this morning. And by crab cake I do not mean a small patty fashioned out of crab meat. I mean a cake in the shape of a crab.

How did this come about? No, I'm not making a thematic dessert for a surf and turf dinner party. Nor do I have anyone in the house who is a big fan of the Little Mermaid.

"It's Crabbin's birthday on Thursday!" This announcement came two days ago from my five-year-old, Cameron. We had been chatting about what fun events we had planned for the weekend, and clearly that reminded him of an important occasion that would, in fact, happen before the week's end! He was talking about his orange stuffed-animal crab, one of his two nighttime lovies. And because I'm game for anything - and particularly soaked in parent guilt lately - I found myself offering to make a cake. When it turned out we had orange-flavoured cake mix in the cupboard, the crab-shaped cake offer just kind of happened. We haven't iced him yet, but the orange icing is ready to go and I think we'll get a bit of a laugh out of singing "Happy Birthday" to a mass-produced IKEA stuffy tonight. I'm sure Cameron is inviting the whole class as I write.

While I'd like to say that I have a stash of real crab cakes ready in the freezer for holiday entertaining, I do not. No, this year I've been wincing at the sight of Christmas trees in stores and cringing when I hear holiday-themed muzak in malls. I've done barely any Christmas shopping. I haven't RSVP'd to the staff Christmas party, and I'm almost nowheresville on holiday prep.

If you're anything like me, you might need a little direction and inspiration. That's why we've launched a holiday guide on parentcentral.ca. You'll find ideas for gifts, straight talk on holiday stress, and much more. Got a tough-to-buy-for teen or tween? Check out today's lineup of video game picks.

And see some of the Canadian Toy Association's top toys of the year here. There's even a video that shows kids in action with the award-winning toys.

Bookmark us and come back often. We'll be adding new stuff all the way through the festive season.

Meanwhile, breathe deeply and try to keep a crab-shaped birthday cake from happening to you.

Classified material

Lying in bed the other night, I was mentally composing a Craigslist ad for my 16-month-old son:

"V. attractive male toddler, excellent health, to good home. Best offer."

or

"Cute, blond baby boy, 16 mo., as-is condition."

A perfect storm of emerging molars, a wretched cold/cough, over-tiredness and toddler determination have been conspiring to keep us up around the clock, and the other night we were in the eye of the hurricane. Nothing was right in Alister's world. He cried at bedtime, he woke numerous times throughout the night, he rose at 5:30 a.m. Grumpy.

He wasn't sick enough to be lethargic, luckily. However, that meant his normal zeal for scaling things and moving furniture was intact, only he was a whining, chair-throwing brute instead of his normal, adventurous but good-natured self.

Yesterday morning, with my mom on her way from Victoria, I feared that I'd have a toddler scaling my leg her entire visit. But happily, he went to her right away, and turned on the Grandma charm with his little baby-talk stories, dancing and smiles.

Maybe the tooth is through. Maybe his congestion is clearing. Maybe, just maybe, the sleep gods will start to smile upon us.