A belated Merry Christmas

The day came and went at a frighteningly fast pace. As usual. On the 23rd we visited with neighbours. It was a good excuse to stop doing stuff around the house for a few hours.


Christmas eve morning was the kids holiday party at Rob's office. It was our first chance to see where daddy actually works. His job requires a lot of security so unless you have one of those chipped ID cards, you can't get past the lobby, which we are quite familiar with. So we saw his cube. Not surprising to us at all, there was nothing hung up in the way of photos or drawings from the kids. We will be fixing that for him shortly. One of these days he'll notice an extra heavy backpack. We took the train in that morning, at Izzy's request, which was nice. No fighting major traffic. Santa dropped by the party with toys for the kids. Alex got a Bionicle and Izzy received a Mermaid barbie. There were lots of games and sugary treats. It was quite a lot of fun.

After the party we went out for an early lunch at East Side Marios. We took our time getting home.

Christmas Day was spent at home.



The kids were thrilled with their presents.




I managed a turkey dinner and since it was my turn to host Christmas on Boxing Day for the in-laws we moved the dinner to Grandpa's house while I provided the lasagnas.




Sadly, it was rushed business. We took down the tree as soon as we got back from Grandpa's. The renovation couldn't wait any longer. Cabinets and appliances were on their way and we had a deadline to meet. Next Christmas will be much more relaxing. I hope.

Three More Sleeps, right Mommy?

That was the first thing out of Alex's mouth this morning. Izzy is beyond excited, and this isn't exactly a somber child to begin with. Her enthusiasm these days borders on insanity. At least we really hope it is Christmas making her this nuts.

All the shopping is nearly done. Not just the presents (that was done a while back) but the kitchen too. It is all coming together so quickly that yesterday I wondered aloud how soon we could tear down the Christmas tree to make room for cabinet building. Ikea will be delivering sometime before the new year and the appliances come on the 9th. We brought the flooring home yesterday and half of the stick tiles in the kitchen are up.

I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of this process but we are doing our research and will take our time to do it the right way. Now that all the money is gone, I am ready to see something to show for it.

"I'm soooo lucky, Mommy!"

That was Alex in the back of the car today on our way home from gymnastics. He is feeling pretty good these days. We have had the kids in a lot of activities but lately we've been able to arrange some of these activities with other home school children we know. There are four families, with nine children between us, that have gotten pretty close. The kids get along fabulously. They range from ages 6 to 2 and there is someone for everyone. An ideal mix, actually.

So Alex is thrilled that he gets to do the activities he enjoys with the friends he loves most. As a bonus, he mentioned that he has even more friends, here in our neighbourhood, and at Beavers and swimming.

It is so nice to see the kids happy and developing great friendships. They are pretty social kids and need this outlet. The bonus is that I actually get to know the parents of the kids my children hang out with - and I really like them too.