A Merry, Busy Christmas

What a fun and busy December we had!  My apologies for not keeping up with the blog but we were on the go for almost the whole month!

We went to the mall at the beginning of the month and met up with Auntie Lauren and Uncle Duncan to celebrate Auntie Lauren's birthday.  Of course, while we were there, we had to visit Santa!  The boys asked for a Playmobil pirate ship and pirates to go with it.  Sarah wanted nothing to do with Santa!  She was so scared that I had to sit with her.  Then we figured the whole family may as well get in the picture.  Not a bad picture except for poor Sarah.

There were a lot of Christmas festivities at school, a highlight being Daniel's Christmas concert.  The Kindergarteners sang a couple of songs before the beginning of the Christmas production.  Daniel enjoyed playing the drums during his songs.

After school ended on Dec. 17, we had a few days to finish our Christmas shopping before heading up to Penticton for Christmas.  So much fun visiting relatives, eating good food and having great times.  We started the visit with some unexpected snow.  The boys had a great time playing and sledding.  Sarah never managed to get out in it because she was pretty sick with a runny nose and bad cough.

We all went to the annual carolling party on December 23 and had a lot of fun singing and visiting relatives.  Sarah loved all the music and the yummy treats.  The boys were surprised when Santa arrived.  And they really enjoyed playing in Great-Grandma and Grandpa's big house, hiding out under the stairs.

On Christmas Eve, we all drove out to Kelowna to visit the other side of the family and celebrate with them.  Everyone brought delicious hors d'oeuvres and ate well!  Auntie Linda and Uncle Mike have a fun games room and the boys had a great time playing foosball and table hockey.  They didn't want to go home!  But they did finally give in and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with Grandma and Grandpa before heading home.  Luckily, they had set out their milk and cookies for Santa (and carrots for reindeer) before we left because they all fell asleep in the van on the way back.

Christmas morning was so exciting!  The boys were thrilled with the Playmobil pirate ship and pirates that Santa brought.  They played with that for hours before any other presents were opened!  Sarah loved her bouncing baby doll that laughs and tried to steal the baby doll's bottle for herself!  Great-Grandma and Grandpa C came over in the late morning for the rest of the present opening and for brunch.

After lunch, we headed back to Great-Grandma and Grandpa R's for gift exchange and Christmas dinner.  Fifteen of us played the "Greedy Gets" game, where you can open a gift or steal one that someone else already opened.  That was a lot of fun and James and I were really happy with the gifts we ended up with.  The kids had fun playing with their new toys in the basement and hanging out with cousins.  Sarah wasn't so sure of baby Juliette, although Juliette loved Sarah!  It was so cute to watch them in their pretty matching Christmas dresses from Great-Grandma.



We headed back home on Boxing Day and had a pretty uneventful drive, with only a bit of snow and fog.  We got home around 7pm, dropped all our luggage and presents on the living room floor and went straight to bed.  The next morning was Christmas with Leah's side of the family.  We opened presents in the morning, went out to have lunch with aunts, uncles and cousins and then went back to Gramma and Grampa's for stockings and dinner.  Another fun and busy day.  The kids did amazingly well but were definitely exhausted by the end of the day.  The next two days were spent hanging out at home in pyjamas and playing with new toys!

We hosted our first open house on December 30 and were happy to see so many friends, relatives and neighbours.  We were afraid we wouldn't see many of our friends over the holidays since we were away for much of it, so the open house seemed like the best idea.  We were questioning that the day before when we were madly cleaning the house!  But it all worked out and it was really nice to extend the Christmas season with all our friends.

We didn't have any plans for New Year's so, at the last minute, we decided to take the kids to Stanley Park to see the Christmas train with all the lights.  They loved it!  It was really cold, though, about -4.  All three of them loved the lights and had a great time.  We're actually thinking this should be our New Year's tradition from now on.

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas - a little busy and rushed at times but really very fun.  It was so nice to celebrate with all the important people in our lives.  Although it will be nice to get back to our daily routine, we really will miss all the fun things we've been able to do over the past two weeks!

This blog post would have been far too long if I had included all the pictures from our Christmases, so these are just a few.  If you'd like to see them all, please go to

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258388&id=581855950&l=cbca2d4306