Let the 40's begin

Birthday boy & our hostess, Janet

For anyone that checks here with any regularity, you will notice that this post was actually posted on February 8th. I had every intention of posting this originally, but sleep won out & I have not been back since. Since Paul's 40th, Brad has also turned 40 & I think his nose may be a little out of joint that he didn't get his own birthday post...but in my defense, the end of January was a little crazy.

Anyway, here we are celebrating the beginning of the 40's. Brad's crew is all turning 40 this year & we celebrated Paul's with our own personal chefs (Janet's daughter is a chef-in-training) at a house in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was a very nice time.

Our chefs who filled us with wonderful food!

After eating for 5 hours, Becky & I had to go for a walk.
There was a great climbing tree in our front yard that just had to be tried out.

Christmas Recap

I must say that I am getting bad in the picture taking arena. It is the end of the Christmas celebrations & I do not have the family photos that I like to have at the end of this season. Which will be very apparent as you look below.

Christmas Eve
Our day started with lots of snow & it was great to go outside & seeing all your neighbours helping each other. Jason & I went across the road & helped them shovel too. Afterwards there were snowmen to make, snowballs to throw & a general good time in the snow. Even though we got lots, the snow did not last too long because as I write this- there is hardly any left outside.


After the snow clearing, we spent the day with Brad's family, but we only have this one picture (which is a pathetic one at that- Brad you shot more of the table than the kids!) to show for it. I like to have a picture of us sitting at the table for dinner, pictures with Grandma & Papa & a picture of the kids by the tree. I have none of those. I am blaming Robb & Michele for this because their already chaotic life threw a wrench at them & they were late for dinner so that set everything off. Even though I don't have many pictures to show for it, it was a really nice day with his family.


Christmas Day
For the first time we woke up in our own home & it was only us. Mom has spent the last couple of Christmas Eves with us, but this year she was at Kim & Pete's. Christmas morning was a nice relaxing morning of opening Santa's gifts, having breakfast & getting dressed before opening our gifts to each other. Sydney asked why Mommy & Daddy give her clothes. I told her that Santa likes to give her fun stuff, but Mommy & Daddy will often give them stuff they need as much as they want. Note to self, next year wrap clothes all in one present- except p.j.'s- they seem to be an OK clothing gift, at least Jason thought so.

Sydney got a high chair for 'Baby' and a piano with microphone.
She is very intently trying to ready the sheet music.

Jason got a train set

Santa put a new hat in Sydney's stocking
& she informed us that it has a booby on top!

Santa also put some Dora socks in which got the biggest reaction of the morning.

Once all of Jason's train pieces were connected with his new ones (thank you Santa, Grandma, Papa & Nana) it takes up half of our family room!

Boxing Day
Kim & Pete hosted our Christmas this year & Sydney & Jason got their first introduction to video games. Both had fun with it, but thankfully were not too enthralled by it. They did love playing with their cousin Regan though.

Aunt Kim teaching Sydney how to bowl.

Of course Jason could not just be a bystander.

The spectators...

Love the hair Tyler!

Mom was a very engaged spectator.

Now that Tyler is a teenager it seems like we only see him a few times a year because his social calendar will often interfere with a gathering. He was sporting a new do & I must admit I quite like it.

Today
Well today we rounded out the holiday celebrations by heading to Brent & Christa's for the Robinson Christmas. It was incredibly windy & on the way there we went by a 18-wheeler that was tipped over on the highway. It was pretty freaky.
It was very nice to visit with my family & Brent & Christa did a wonderful job of hosting.

Sydney & Jason with G.G.
(I love Sydney's new do!)

G.G. and 12 of 15 great-grandchildren
(missing: Tyler, Liam, & Mallory)

Merry Christmas to you!

You will need to wait for a recap of our holidays on a different day. Not feeling so hot today & tomorrow we have another Christmas celebration to go to so it will be an all in one swoop post.

Polar Moods

This evening we had two children at polar opposites on the mood spectrum. Jason was happy & hyper & Sydney is sporting a fever of over a 103. Jason was being a ham through dinner & Sydney went up to bed.

I guess I better get prepped to work from home tomorrow, because it doesn't look like she is going to school.

Santa's Son

This morning we went to friends' for breakfast & they arranged for Santa to arrive. However at the last minute, it was noticed that the cleaners lost part of Santa's "look". So, since Santa could not make it, we had Santa's son. We told the kids that Santa was very busy getting ready for Christmas so he sent his son. I think they liked that even better. Santa's son was without the big bushy beard. Even Jason sat on his knee! Sydney however would not go near him.

The kids had a great time playing dress up, singing & tearing apart the Gingerbread house.

Gingerbread Train

This week Jason could hardly wait to get out of the van in the morning when we went to see Nana. He knew that he was going to make a train with her & as you can see from his expression, he LOVED doing it.

It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas

The past week was filled with Christmas parade, decorating, shopping, visit to Santa & practice for the Christmas pageant at church. All of this means busy, busy, busy- but it also means that I am completely kick-started for Christmas.

Here is a progression of the week...

Christmas Parade
Waterdown's parade is held at night & we could not have asked for nicer "winter" weather. People in this town take the parade very seriously. Even though the parade doesn't start until 6:30pm, if you went downtown at noon you saw lawn chairs lining the parade route & some vans parked in key location & backed up to the road. It was a nice reminder that although there are big box stores going up at the edge of town, we are still trying to keep ourselves a small town in heart. The kids had a great time & Sydney & Jason enjoyed their ride home in style.


Watching Christmas Specials in their jammies before bed


Tree time...
Sydney & Brad walked home with the tree while Jason & I jetted of to an appointment. Sydney was a great help with decorating the tree, but Jason was just interested in playing with the ornaments.


A Visit to Santa
This morning we went to Greensville Optimist's Breakfast with Santa. I was hoping to be able to post a picture of each kid with Santa, but the pictures didn't turn out for Sydney's or Jason's & again there was no way Jason was going to sit with Santa. I sure hope the ones that we receive in the mail are nice. Overall though things went great. I think we just found a new holiday tradition. The fact that we could do it with friends makes it all the more worthwhile!

Becky, don't think I didn't notice that you turned away from the camera.
Your attempts for a picture with Santa also are not here because they all turned out blurry.

Dress Rehearsal
This afternoon was the final practice before tomorrow morning's big performance. Sydney did really well today, so let's hope she has the same volume tomorrow morning when the whole congregation is there (plus some extras). Last year she did pretty good & as a result got a bigger part this year. Her lines are: "Hee Haw, Hee Haw", "I gave baby Jesus a present", "I did, I did", and "I carried his mother uphill & down. I carried his mother to Bethlehem town".

As you can see Mary is twice the size of Sydney, so it is unlikely that Sydney could carry her- but it is all very cute. It is funny, Sydney is pretty shy- but give her the chance to "perform" and she will typically step right up.

I took the pictures at the dress rehearsal, so that I could focus better tomorrow morning. Break a leg Sydney!!!