Merry Christmas!!!!

traditions.

some stay the same every year. some get tossed or revamped.

life is never dull, regardless of the tradition.

today slipped by us very quickly. a last minute trip to replace our Beta fish. Prince Blue II. a side trip to see the toy section at Chapters. {very fun for the kids} then a surprise visit from an old neighbour!

for some reason i thought our Christmas Eve Candlelight service was at 7pm. thankfully i had a brain-wave to double check that. so we lost an hour...but made it to the service!

it seriously is amazing what we try to squeeze into an hour. it meant a change in our supper plans. and no cookie cutting and baking.

when i was taking photos later tonight i saw an interesting scene at our Nativity....



it had been moved to a new location. and possibly bumped. however. there is Mary, face down. it was quite a day for her too! ha!!


so we had our second supper {Christmas holidays makes me feel more like a Hobbit....seems like all we are doing is snacking!}. our last minute first supper was peanut butter and jam sandwiches. second supper had yogurt, applesauce, cheese, crackers and dip. the kids didn't complain about that! we told them it was our 'Midnight Supper'. then they got all excited because they stayed up til' midnight.

i put together a Shepherd's Pie that we were supposed to eat tonight. instead it is still in the fridge. guess what we're having for our Christmas Day lunch?! yup. 2 REAL meals, to make up for our many snacks today.

Aidan just figured out that they get pajama's every Christmas Eve. he made that announcement a week ago. he has also figured out - now that he can read - that there are some presents for him under the tree before Christmas Eve. he also started to count. and make guesses as to the contents. i think Christmas present traditions have taken a new turn for our family.



since the pj's are now not a surprise....i had to change it up a bit!

the "Santa's Sleigh" bells!! and the cutest felt ornaments from Chapters.



even though they knew the pajamas were coming....they still were excited to quickly change into them.



but the bell confused them. do they hang it on the tree? what do they do with it?

when they were told they got to take them to bed with them, they were slightly shocked. i'm sure they thought momma had had too much egg nog! but they were told that if they were ringing them when Santa came, then he would not come to our house. which worried them! it was EXTREMELY quiet in their beds tonight as they fell asleep.


and now our family photo in front of the tree is now another tradition.



the kids are soooo cooperative! this was our "make funny faces" pose to get Kiara to find a happy look for her face.



i guess the kids are a bad influence on us. this was our "fishy face" pose. only the kids were listening. i love how Aidan is oblivious to the background scene, and Kiara is fully curious!



this was the best one of the evening.


i had to get a shot of the tree with the presents laid out and the stockings hung (and filled).



there is something so romantic about Christmas tree photos. at night. with presents beneath the tree. and the glow on our hardwood floors. i just love the sparkle in the lights too.



Santa and Rudolph enjoyed their treats too. Aidan wrote a note for Santa. sooo cute. i've hidden it away and intend to scrapbook it.

"Dear Santa. Merry Chistmas Santa. thanks for the gifts. we hope you like the cookies. from: Aidan."

100% his thoughts and words.

it was rolled up into the special Santa tube mailbox. he'll find a note from Santa in the morning. next year i'm going to have them put their Christmas Wish Lists in it. we ran out of time this year.

Kiara made a special reindeer food mix to sprinkle on the snow. that was exciting!

they will get a surprise visit form Santa in the morning. our next door neighbour will be dressing up and delivering gifts for several of the families! hopefully he won't say too much and give away the surprise to the kids. he is also bringing the kids each a gift....which we conveniently sent over earlier tonight. if they do see through the disguise, it may throw them through a loop if they know that Santa lives next door...


i plan to take a few days to hang out and do mom-stuff with my family. i may not post again until New Years'. but in the meantime....

Merry Christmas! 

i hope that you have wonderful, fun, relaxing 

and memorable celebrations.

getting ready

the tree is decorated. i don't think i've taken a photo of that yet. it will get done. eventually.

i still need to bake cookies. at this point any kind will do! i heard Santa likes chocolate chip....hope that is not a myth. the butter is softening on my counter as i speak. it is on the to-do list for today. i'm sure we'll do sugar cookies. i may be accused of ruining Christmas if my kids don't get to lick decorate icing and then feast on their hard efforts after. 

but.

the cards are DONE. yes, i'm sure you could hear my screams of delight at your house. that was me. 

almost all our presents are wrapped. i am a little worried. it seemed to get done quickly this year. i even added ribbons and tags at the same time. {honestly, the last time i did that had to have been before Aidan was walking} i'm not worried that i'm nearly done and enjoyed the process. i am worried that i missed something. a horrible mistake to make with young kids.

we had our staff Christmas party last week. so fun! yummy food and drinks. i think i should have not eaten that day....it was brutal to see and smell all the yummy treats and be totally full. i ate what i could! making a mental note for next year... we always have a lot of fun and laughs together. it was fun to have ALL of us together. so rare. often it is just a few of us, and we are passing one another on shifts and such. i was completely and utterly surprised to see what gift was wrapped for me. oh. help. {scream!} the Vagabond.....

several of us got one and it was fun to open them together! i know all of us would have been excited to get this gift from our families....but it was soooo much more fun to be excited together and have all of us know exactly how exciting it was. on the heels of the 12 Tags of Christmas where we all got to watch and drool over each new tag. so fun! 

we made our traditional trip to see Santa at the mall this week. a great Santa!! he asked the kids if they had been good this year. they joyfully reply that "they had been very good." to which Santa says, "most of the time." ha!! is that not the best?! i wish i could have taken pictures of their faces. 

they were very patient as i drove all over the city too. it helped that they had movies, games and colouring books to occupy them. but we finished! 

i do like to wear photo family friendly pajamas for Christmas day. just something fun about having a special day to stay in your pjs for nearly the entire day. however my current set is OLD. i did resort to begging the kids to "help" me choose new ones. Kiara didn't think i needed any. "just sew the holes, mom!" we should all be glad that i don't always listen to the four year old. although it is always good to know that she likes them! ha!!

i had to FedEx a parcel. and learned that not all self-service drop offs will take ground deliveries. also i was reminded to not believe everything i read on their website when it comes to addresses. besides that, i will still prefer to use their courier services over Canada Post any day! so far i have found them MUCH cheaper and FASTER and very RELIABLE up to this point. except their website "address finder" part. 

i was reminded by a friend about this mug:

he found it on his doorstep one day, saying "Merry Christmas!" the wild part is that it totally DOES look like a camera lens. 

you can order them from Photojojo. 

as i was browsing, they also had this link:

using old lenses and cameras as a flower pots. apparently they are not designed to hold water. {insert laugh} but they have suggestions on how to get around that problem.

as cute as they are.....i just don't think i have it in me to do this one. not that i have or even hope to have an expensive flower pot such as these. however, it is just one of those "huh. wow. never would have thought of that one." kind of things. 

off to make our cookies. then look at photos on iPhoto...must choose a print a few for some projects. work and gift related. also, laundry mountain. 

i may visit this site today and arrange for some North Pole correspondence for the kids. i've heard there are some cool iPhone apps too. 

i found some neat bells at Pier1imports last week. they were $1 each and i knew the kids would love them. they totally reminded me of the bells on the Polar Express. with all the new tech gadgets available to track Santa, i think it will never be out of date to have jingle bells like these. tech is fun. but these are more magical. in my opinion. 

i haven't snapped a photo of it yet....but Jan gave me the cutest little decoration. it is actually a little capsule where the kids can write a note to Santa! Aidan is excited about that part. {Kiara is the vocal one, but with Aidan he often shows his excitement by getting quiet. later we discover his true feelings.} he was one step ahead of me....he made a wish list at home and at school. then he wanted to type them up on the computer. well....he printed it out, then cut it smaller. why? so that it can fit on the already enclosed Santa letter sheet!

okay, the butter is soft and the kids are ready to get baking! i'll stop procrastinating.

wish me luck. 

and the news this week...

where is time going?! i am still needing to finish my Christmas shopping...but finding it tough this year to do without the kids. it was so easy to do when they were small and had no idea what i was buying....or i could even hide it from them. these days its tough to buy a pack of gum without them discovering it! the time passes so quickly when they are both in school and i don't have much time in the evenings to do it. online shopping looks very appealing right now. if i knew it would be delivered in time...



Kristian and Kiara bought a pet Beta fish earlier this year. he became known as Princess Purple. whether or not he knew the meaning of the word 'princess', he never let on. neither did the fact that he was purple. anyways it ended up being my job to clean the tank. and it sure got dirty with just one fish in it! last week i thought of putting him in a smaller tank that might be easier to clean. after doing that i realized that his castle did not fit inside it, and he loved the castle. so i moved him back to the original tank. too many moves or too much temperature change....the shock killed him in 24 hours. great. Kiara is having a tough time getting over this death.



even with Prince Blue in the picture. she was definite about wanting a blue fish. part of me wishes i had just gone to the store on my own and came back with a replacement fish. but then, she would have noticed a detail absent that i would have missed. when Princess Purple died, he turned gold. the kids noticed his colour was changing before he even became fully dead. so odd!

Prince Blue was purchased along with a new smaller tank. he is pretty active and outgoing. i can't believe i just described the personality of a fish. really. but it is true!

by the way, Prince Blue has a middle name. oh, i am not kidding. it is Frosty the Snowman. we are in for some treats. Kiara has quite the imagination.





last night was her preschool Christmas concert. she has been excited for weeks about this! it was also the first concert our kids have participated in that Kristian was able to attend. it was a very big night.



she sang with all her might!

they had yummy snacks and fun Christmas crafts after the program.

we came home and Kiara commented that we should leave out some cookies for Santa. what?! she apparently knew that Santa would come after the concert....and took that to mean immediately! this next week and a half will be a long one for her. and Aidan. so, essentially, it will also be a long one for me. unless i don't get my list completed by Monday!