HOLIDAY VISITS: COFFEE AT THE RAWLINGS

This morning brought a visit with my 2 friends, whom I have known since I was 3. All our kids were in tow, except for Clara who is on night 2 of her 2 night sleepover at Grandma's. By all accounts, she is having the time of her life and would rather not come home anytime soon.

I love catching up with old friends and I love seeing all our children playing together. Our kids are the age that we were, when we first met and became friends. So strange and wonderful at the same time.

And here is my son, showing everyone his butt yet again. YaYa and Grandma would not be amused (unlike the audience he had today).

HOLIDAY VISITS: DAY AT THE RATHBORNES

On Monday I invited myself over for a visit with Annie and the family. Once again, I found myself in their cozy (and very clean) kitchen in front of bowl of homemade soup, buttered homemade bread (still warm) and a cup of tea. The kids disappeared downstairs to play and we got to have lovely chats. I miss the olden days when we were both on maternity leave and we would play every Friday with our kids!

It was a play date record...we even stayed through dinner.

The girls immediately dressed up in their bridal outfits and planned out another wedding play (same as here). Sam didn't run away this time. In fact, he was really into kissing his 2 wives, and it was the girls who ran away from him (much to his chasing delight).

Thanks Annie (my top 5).

GOODBYE CHRISTMAS

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

We had a magical and cozy Christmas here at our house. I spent 3 days in my new pajamas, enjoying Christmas breakfast leftovers and turkey sandwiches, playing games on our new Wii, admiring my new vintage globes, planning meals from my new cookbooks, wearing my new winter coat to take Kirby out to pee and trying out my new camera lens (love, LOVE).

My only complaint is that Christmas went by too quickly. Jake was back at work today and this morning I looked around and saw that our home looks as though it has been burglarized. I can no longer ignore the fact that our house needs serious cleaning.

A few photos from the last few days, including Will's obsession with the ornaments:

Papa C's cake he made (from scratch). It is hard to believe that Jake is his son. Although Jake IS really good at opening a pickle jar and a bag of chips:

Christmas morning stocking opening on our bed:

Clara enjoying a moment with her Barbie dream house:

Will trying out his new shaving set:

The kids trying out all their bath paraphernalia at once (foam, tints, fizzes, bubbles):

Kirby desperate for a taste of Grandma's legendary Christmas brunch:

Sam riding his new Razor Spark super fast to the pond...

...where we tried out his new pump rocket (which goes REALLY high):

Naturally, Sam thought it would be fun if he sat on the launcher and the girl's pumped and launched him:

Daddy contemplating the TV/Wii/Blu-ray wiring:

Sam obsessing on hand held games:

XOXO

FRESH AIR

I decided we needed some fresh air and some running around this morning. It has become apparent that Sam can only listen to Christmas music, decorate cookies and glue gun flowers onto alligator clips for so long. If my boy doesn't get to run off some of his energy in the day, he can get wiggy, whiny, pesty and sometimes violent.

We met our friends this morning for warm drinks, then rode our bikes to a nearby park. Happy 2nd Birthday Flora!! I'm continuing to take some pictures of you and Will for your future wedding slideshow...

Will with his coffee:

2 more sleeps left. Holy crap!

#9

An online Christmas card...unorganized and ran out of time, or my part in helping the environment?

I did not design and mail (on time) a family Christmas card as I had hoped to do before I turn 36. Perhaps a News Year card counts? But Love and Happiness to you all. And wishing you a Lovely and very Merry holiday!

TROUBLE

Stuck on a gift idea for your almost 5 year old boy? Apparently you should buy the game, TROUBLE. It was an early Christmas gift and a huge hit. We have played it more times than I would have liked to.

This is Sam's "I win" face:

Some adjectives that describe other suitable gift ideas for Sam:

• zooming fast
• super high
• remote control
• flashing lights
• crashing
• farting
• racing
• green
• flames

I'm not certain that these are all adjectives, but you get the point.

NO YELLING DAY

On my way to bed last night, I stopped in on my computer to check in on some of my favourite blogs. Not the wisest thing to do at 11:00pm. Sometimes, I stumble across beautiful things, sometimes I get discouraged looking at too many beautiful things, sometimes I am motivated to create my own beautiful things...

And sometimes, as I did last night, I stumble upon people's heartbreaking stories, which keeps me awake in bed. I went to bed teary and sad after reading this story. I felt regret about yelling at Clara and giving her a little pinch when she kept getting out of bed wanting more rubs and it was 9:55pm. I decided before I finally fell asleep, that today I was not going to yell at my kids. That I was going to hug them lots, and be grateful for their health.

Today, is a no yelling day! It is going well, so far.

MORE THINGS

Crap, I'm getting behind again.

Since Monday, there has been more Santa, more gingerbread, 2 Christmas parties, and a school concert.

I couldn't take my eyes off Clara during her concert tonight. I'm pretty certain she will never be a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance or Canadian Idol for that matter, but I do love watching her perform. She takes it VERY seriously. Wish I had a picture.

I got one from Sam's class party. Santa came too (he had shaky hands...I think he was a bit nervous).

Sam did some dancing and singing. This is his self conscious face:

And Will is simply too cute not to take a picture of:

Embarrassed Sam. He started eating the appies before sanitizing his hands. I think one of his teachers busted him:

Sam's teacher received the best Christmas gift ever...a new baby girl. When I told Sam, I expected him to ask lots of questions, like, how did she have a baby..she wasn't pregnant? But all he had to say on the matter was simply, "it must have been a yellow sperm that won the race, not the green one." I have no idea where he is getting his information.

She brought her daughter in halfway through the party. I couldn't grab my camera fast enough, despite the fluorescent lights. I half a very soft spot for new babies. And the Santa is actually the Grandpa (so sweet):

And then onto more gingerbread house decorating:

We have an entire city of gingerbread houses, or should I say HAD and entire city. Kirby has eaten 11 houses so far (no joke).

I took the kids to breakfast with Santa again on the top of Grouse Mountain. Our visit last year was epic, particularly the weather. This year, it poured with rain. We were drenched. The kids loved it. I realized that although I enjoy the winter, it is from inside my house with the fire on, sipping on something warm. Wet clothes make me a bit grumpy. But despite the rain and despite that the scrambled eggs were a disturbing shade of grey, we had fun.

Sadly, this is the only picture I got (with someone walking by):

And as I mentioned in my last post, I continue to take lots of pictures of Will...

Because Clara makes this face:

And Will usually gives me this look:

I just want to eat him for breakfast.