New Year Fondue

Yum.
See you next year!

Boxing Day

This day was reserved for my side of the family.
After I'd whipped up a couple things for dessert we headed out to my brother's place to celebrate and eat more food (cuz you know, you can!).
We visited and ate, opened presents and ate some more.
Love these decorations my SIL put up.

Had to get one of the red ball in the middle too. With and without flash.

The boys loved their gifts

made more faces

posed skater poses

and each of us adult couples got a fancy new waffle iron! Which works fantastically as I found out this morning. Thanks mom and dad!

Another great day of feasting and I think maybe tomorrow should be a day of fasting. Hmmm...funny how those 2 words are nearly the same. Once letter missing and it means the opposite.
I hope all of your Christmases were as wonderful as ours was. Now I must go build Lego. More, and more Lego. :)

The rest of Christmas day

We spent at my inlaw's place. The kids all exchanged gifts with glorious abandon.


Seriously...the faces this kid makes!



And then we all ate with glorious abandon! Yummy, yum, yum. I love turkey dinner. Especially all that goes with it. I do enjoy the turkey itself but it's all the side dishes that really make me swoon.
My BIL got a disco ball for Christmas and so naturally a spontaneous dance party broke out. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time! Plus it made room for all the desserts I had yet to consume. :)

And Bisou willing posed for a picture with her antlers even though she wasn't too pleased about them.

A wonderful relaxing, feasting, playing kind of day. Just perfect.

Christmas Eve and Day

Well, here we are a few days after Christmas. It always seems to go by so quickly but I love the relaxed couple days we've had since too.
Let's see...where did we leave off?
We built our crazy gingerbread train.


Christmas eve day was spent at a dear friend's house for brunch and a visit while the kids played. We brought the boys a change of clothes and headed straight to the earliest Christmas eve service which was lovely and Christmassy. Then it was home to relax, open one present - pj's


and help Nala open hers. (notice the hand pinning her to the ground). She doesn't always cooperate but once she gets the hang of it and the smell of catnip she enjoys herself by licking it to death.

When the boys were in bed (and it took forever for Ethan to fall asleep but at least he didn't wake up at 4:30!) the evening was so peaceful. The stocking were hung and the tree was filled.

Ethan thankfully slept until 6:45. I forced him to cuddle for half an hour until Owen woke up and then we headed down stairs. The boys were so excited but not as wild as I was envisioning!

Each boy with their loot:
Oh my, that's a lot of lego to build.


My treasures:

I don't have any pictures of B - which is just how he likes it. :)
After a breakfast of cinnamon buns we got dressed and headed off to B's parent's for the rest of our Christmas day. Which I shall leave for the next post.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of you a joyful Christmas and a blessed Christmas night.

Almost here

The stocking are hung, the baking is baked (and eaten). The presents are wrapped and the house has been cleaned. The laundry is done, and the lists have been made in hopes that this Christmas will not be insane.
I'm kidding. I mean, not about the baking and cleaning but the insanity. I think this has been one of the least hectic weeks before Christmas. I was a little worried about the boys being off for so long before Christmas and going stir crazy but we've all been fine! We've planned little things. Like NOT going ANYWHERE on Monday. And to the cheap movies on Tuesday. A Christmas concert on Wednesday (which I will not take Owen to again for a very. long. time. But that's neither here nor there) and having Prairie Penguin (friends from the snowy, flat province :)) and their gorgeous family over for dessert Wednesday evening. So fun! And not having seen them face to face for years, chatting like we saw each other last week. Love that kind of friendship.
And today. Today is a stay at home day too. I read my book, played on the computer and did a load of laundry and that's pretty much the extent of it.
Tomorrow we have brunch with another friend/family at their place, go to early Christmas eve service and then come home to enjoy the peacefulness of Christmas eve. It's my most favourite day of the year. And put the kids to bed EARLY!!
Ahhh...it's almost here. And I can hardly wait.

The last of it

I am official baked out. I made one last batch of peppermint cookies on Monday, along with some more amaretto balls and almond bark and now I quit. Until actual Christmas and then I'll whip up some more yummy stuff.


I also completed my second puzzle of the season.

These were just easy 500 piece ones. I have a couple 1000 piece ones waiting for next week.
On another note, I took the boys to see Tangled today. Super cute and fun! It was enjoyed by all.

New Addition

to the nativity.

Bet you didn't know dinosaurs saw baby Jesus too!

I can't wait

For school to be done. One last day of rushing out the door, one last day of packing lunches and snacks. I'm so done and so are my kids. Even though these last couple days are nothing but fun it's still time for a break. In between all the concerts, the baking (I really need to learn to sign up for chips or pop, not baked goods), helping make gingerbread houses at school, mom's luncheon, grocery shopping, I managed a few extras like my first puzzle of the season,

restringing the top third of my tree with nasty LED lights, lovely 2 toned tree. My MIL kindly said it was 'snow topped' now. :)

and wrapping. Bets and I spent the day (starting with a little coffee in our baileys) exchanging our gifts, wrapping, stopping for a quick pizza lunch and looking after my niece and nephew who actually just played with Owen for 98% of the time.

I love a pile of wrapped gifts.
8 more days!

For Prairie Penguin

I don't have your email either! It must have gotten missed when we transfered 'everything' (obviously not) from our old computer. I tried making up an adress and emialing you but obviously that didn't work either. :)
Can you leave your email in the comments and maybe that will work? Then can I be invited to your blog? And we can do coffee when you're out?
I hope this works!
Thanks!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday. And I was really spoiled! Really, it started on Monday with breakfast and shopping with my sister and coffee (OK actually white hot chocolates and caramel latte cheesecake - hello!) in the evening with one of my dearest friends.
The day started off perfectly with my boys wishing me a happy birthday first thing in the morning without any reminding and then THEY BEHAVED THEMSELVES!!!!! Which is all I had really asked. Once they were both in school I drove myself over to a wee little spa appointment I'd made. I figured it was a good a day as any to use up a gift certificate I've had since March. I indulged in a back and neck massage and facial - so heavenly! Except that I was supposed to be done at 10:30 in order to change etc and be back to get Owen at 11:10. Well, when I looked at the clock once she was finished it was 11:08! So much for relaxed and rejuvenated! I called my mom in a panic and thankfully my dad was near by Owen's school and went to get him. Phew! I think I nearly lost a life on that one!
Anyhow, all's well that ends well and I went home to bake myself some Black bottom cupcakes. Yum! Chocolate cake with dollops of chocolate cheesecakey goodness dropped into them.



We ordered pizza (it's illegal in my house to cook on my birthday) and then my boys showered me with gifts!
B came home with this gorgeous bouquet and a very sweet card. I love the dew drops on the petals.

I got a new coat - I'm in love with this collar!

and new jammies. Yay!

It really was a wonderful day.

Treasure Hunt

Did you know that if you have a GPS you can participate in an on-going treasure hunt? There are hundreds of caches in our city alone! With B making this recent discovery we decided we just must partake! Who doesn't love a good treasure hunt?
There were 3 coordinates within walking distance of our house so that's where we started.
I should probably make it clear that the 'treasure' was not(unfortunately) gold or jewels, it's usually a little box with tiny paper and pen in which you write your name and then a small item or stickers or key chain that you can take and replace with something you brought. It seems like a real family adventure.

We set off for the enchanted forest.

And being the good little blogger that I am I had my camera at the ready.
I love the light in these frosty pictures.


The boys were so happy to find each one.

This is a very brave picture...I don't have any make up on! Ack!

Owen had to stop and make frost angels on the way home.

It really was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning and we'll be doing it again soon!