In other news we've been to William's 1st birthday party, lots of Gymboree classes, had a playdate with Sadie, seen New Moon (I really liked it! Much better than the first movie), bought a Wii with some early Christmas money (Thanks Nelda & Jim!), celebrated my Dad's 50th birthday and started looking ahead for Claire's kindergarten year (already!).
Our little tree in our new house!
Madeline loves our little nutcracker decoration. She cuddles with him on the couch, she gives him food to eat, sits him up at the table with us, etc. It's pretty funny.
Claire's helpers Lisa & Amanda helped the girls make gingerbread cookies and decorate them.
Our ward Christmas party was so fun! The dinner was great and they had great activities for the kids. I didn't bring my camera for the party so we took a picture of Madeline's face painting once we got home. They had face painting, a Christmas hymn singalong, a giant bubble maker that the kids could stand inside, cookie decorating, a treat exchange (holiday baking - done!) and a visit from Santa.
We surprised Dad on his 50th birthday. He thought he was coming over to babysit the girls but we were all hiding in wait! Here's Grandpa and Grandma with Claire on the couch.
The 50th party
Madeline is always willing to help people blow out their candles.
It's kind of a family joke that Dad is a fan of shoe horns. He has encouraged all of us for a long time to keep one at each of our houses. So for his birthday Mom got him enough to share!
The girls did so well at their dance recital. They were even on Global News!
(If you want to see the blurb follow this link, click on Dec. 12 News Hour and click to about 18:55. I tried to find a more direct link, but can't figure out how to do it!)
Me and my girls
After the recital we had everyone over to do gingerbread houses at our house. Mom made all the houses in honour of Grandma. She always put such detail in her houses so Mom constructed the houses with lots of windows to put cellophane in and lightbulbs to light up each house. We also had cake to celebrate Grandma's birthday. It was a nice way to remember her.
Everyone hard at work
All the completed, lit houses
After this week, we can breathe easy. I'm accompanying a Christmas concert and a vocal recital, Ryan gets to go to an Oilers game with his class, Madeline has Gymboree class, Claire has school and her Christmas concert, we have an occupational therapy visit, Ryan has a young men's meeting, we have friends coming over to decorate cookies, Claire has a birthday party to go to and Ryan has meetings on Sunday. Not to mention all the daily activities and running around. Hopefully the weather warms up a bit and our vehicles run smoothly!
