And the weeks melt into a month...
Christmas is only 2 sleeps away and I'm ready for it! I am not stressed and I'm feeling under control! We have had a few busy weeks leading up to the holidays. I flew back to BC for a few days to pick up my Mum and fly her out here for Christmas. We went on a major shopping spree and ended up having to purchase a new suitcase to bring all of our goodies home!!
As I was flying out, Joanne was flying in for a visit! She stayed for a week and Calli baked cookies with her, made and decorated Christmas ornaments for our tree, danced her little heart out in nightly performances and had lots of books read to her. My Mum and I arrived home 2 days in to Joanne's visit, so I'm quite sure Adam was feeling a little more than overwhelmed by the strong female presence in our house!!
The family of a kid at Calli's pre-school decorated their home with over 10,000 Christmas lights and invited all the kids from school to come by one night to watch the show, which is set to music and played over an FM radio station. It was very well done and completely synchronized!
Calli and Marin enjoying the show!!
They were taking donations of new toys or cash to go towards the Montreal Childrens Hospital, so it was a very worthy cause. They provided hot chocolate and goodies for the kids and Marin enjoyed her first ever candy cane which she refused to give up...hardly allowing us to wipe her face and hands which were slathered with sticky gooey-ness!!
Here she is enjoying the show!!
Calli and I made and decorated a gingerbread house. I'd never done it before and we were lucky enough to find an easy way of making one for our first attempt! We simply went to Costco and bought a gingerbread house kit!! It had everything we needed and we attempted to follow the picture on the front of the package, but the directions didn't account for the inconsitent texture of the icing...therefore our window ledges didn't quite turn out as ledges... It still turned out very well for our first attempt and we were proud of our efforts!!
We took the girls to the Mall for their annual picture with Santa. We lucked out with our timing and were the first ones in the line! Calli could hardly contain her excitement. She had initiated a conversation with us a few days ago asking whether the Santa in the Mall was the real Santa. We were quick on our toes and explained that if Santa wasn't too busy he would come himself, but quite often he sent helpers dressed in a Santa suit. We told her the only way she would ever know if it was the real Santa would be by talking to him. If she could feel the magic, then he was probably the real one!! She assured us after the photo was done that the Mall Santa was the real one!!
This is a picture of Calli and the next girl in line waiting for Santa's arrival!!
As predicted, Marin was not thrilled to sit on Santa's knee. Even though she yells his name every time she sees a Christmas tree, ornament, lights or a picture of the man in red...she did NOT want to participate in the whole picture thing...she screamed and cried and turned bright red until her Dad stepped in and saved the day. We managed to get a decent picture with Calli sitting beside Marin on her Dad's lap, which the photographer cropped out of the picture! Thank goodness for modern technology!
Lastnight was Calli's Christmas celebration performance at her school. She was giddy the entire day leading up to it and couldn't wait to get her new red Christmas dress on! Marin had a similar dress, so they looked pretty sweet together! Here they are before we left the house.
I packed my purse with a huge pile of Kleenex expecting to cry during the singing, but instead I had tears of laughter!! I have never seen anything so funny in my life! These kids range in age from only 2 1/2 to 5, so you can imagine how cute the whole thing was... They all walked out as they'd practiced before, singing a little song "We're gonna shine tonight..." and took their places in front of all the parents. They started off with Santa Claus is coming to town. They all stared at their teacher for direction the whole time and just looked so sweet doing all the actions to the songs. Calli was hilarious. I've always said she's a natural performer and those of you who know her well can attest to that!! She was swaying her hips, jumping up and down, fluffing up her dress and just being a performer!! I guess all that practice is paying off!!
Calli did very well with her singing and remembering all the actions to go along with the songs! She had a bit of a problem with the little boy next to her who seemed to be singing the wrong words and distracting her though. When I was chatting with the teacher after it was all said and done, she told me that the boy refuses to sing anything other than Bob the Builder. She was unable to convince him to sing any Christmas songs, so she told him to sing his best anyway!! Ha HA!! On top of his singing the wrong words, he had to pee in the middle of the concert, so he "held" himself through the last few songs!!
Overall, it was a fantastic night!! We got to build and decorate a swag of evergreen branches with our little student and enjoyed a lovely social evening! We are very proud of our little girl and the individual that she is!
She was quite tired by the end of the night and after tucking her in, she decided she had a sore tummy and needed some warm milk with cinnamon to calm her. Apparently, a little snuggle with Granny wouldn't hurt either! She woke up the next morning bright and cheery!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!! HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY!
As I was flying out, Joanne was flying in for a visit! She stayed for a week and Calli baked cookies with her, made and decorated Christmas ornaments for our tree, danced her little heart out in nightly performances and had lots of books read to her. My Mum and I arrived home 2 days in to Joanne's visit, so I'm quite sure Adam was feeling a little more than overwhelmed by the strong female presence in our house!!
The family of a kid at Calli's pre-school decorated their home with over 10,000 Christmas lights and invited all the kids from school to come by one night to watch the show, which is set to music and played over an FM radio station. It was very well done and completely synchronized!
Calli and Marin enjoying the show!!
They were taking donations of new toys or cash to go towards the Montreal Childrens Hospital, so it was a very worthy cause. They provided hot chocolate and goodies for the kids and Marin enjoyed her first ever candy cane which she refused to give up...hardly allowing us to wipe her face and hands which were slathered with sticky gooey-ness!!
Here she is enjoying the show!!
Calli and I made and decorated a gingerbread house. I'd never done it before and we were lucky enough to find an easy way of making one for our first attempt! We simply went to Costco and bought a gingerbread house kit!! It had everything we needed and we attempted to follow the picture on the front of the package, but the directions didn't account for the inconsitent texture of the icing...therefore our window ledges didn't quite turn out as ledges... It still turned out very well for our first attempt and we were proud of our efforts!!
We took the girls to the Mall for their annual picture with Santa. We lucked out with our timing and were the first ones in the line! Calli could hardly contain her excitement. She had initiated a conversation with us a few days ago asking whether the Santa in the Mall was the real Santa. We were quick on our toes and explained that if Santa wasn't too busy he would come himself, but quite often he sent helpers dressed in a Santa suit. We told her the only way she would ever know if it was the real Santa would be by talking to him. If she could feel the magic, then he was probably the real one!! She assured us after the photo was done that the Mall Santa was the real one!!
This is a picture of Calli and the next girl in line waiting for Santa's arrival!!
As predicted, Marin was not thrilled to sit on Santa's knee. Even though she yells his name every time she sees a Christmas tree, ornament, lights or a picture of the man in red...she did NOT want to participate in the whole picture thing...she screamed and cried and turned bright red until her Dad stepped in and saved the day. We managed to get a decent picture with Calli sitting beside Marin on her Dad's lap, which the photographer cropped out of the picture! Thank goodness for modern technology!
Lastnight was Calli's Christmas celebration performance at her school. She was giddy the entire day leading up to it and couldn't wait to get her new red Christmas dress on! Marin had a similar dress, so they looked pretty sweet together! Here they are before we left the house.
I packed my purse with a huge pile of Kleenex expecting to cry during the singing, but instead I had tears of laughter!! I have never seen anything so funny in my life! These kids range in age from only 2 1/2 to 5, so you can imagine how cute the whole thing was... They all walked out as they'd practiced before, singing a little song "We're gonna shine tonight..." and took their places in front of all the parents. They started off with Santa Claus is coming to town. They all stared at their teacher for direction the whole time and just looked so sweet doing all the actions to the songs. Calli was hilarious. I've always said she's a natural performer and those of you who know her well can attest to that!! She was swaying her hips, jumping up and down, fluffing up her dress and just being a performer!! I guess all that practice is paying off!!
Calli did very well with her singing and remembering all the actions to go along with the songs! She had a bit of a problem with the little boy next to her who seemed to be singing the wrong words and distracting her though. When I was chatting with the teacher after it was all said and done, she told me that the boy refuses to sing anything other than Bob the Builder. She was unable to convince him to sing any Christmas songs, so she told him to sing his best anyway!! Ha HA!! On top of his singing the wrong words, he had to pee in the middle of the concert, so he "held" himself through the last few songs!!
Overall, it was a fantastic night!! We got to build and decorate a swag of evergreen branches with our little student and enjoyed a lovely social evening! We are very proud of our little girl and the individual that she is!
She was quite tired by the end of the night and after tucking her in, she decided she had a sore tummy and needed some warm milk with cinnamon to calm her. Apparently, a little snuggle with Granny wouldn't hurt either! She woke up the next morning bright and cheery!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!! HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY!
Comments
Hope you are all healthy. Calli sure is a performer, and so cute in her red dress. Marin looked like she might be enjoying that candy cane way more than the lights show...she's a ham, just wait till she is 3, what will she be doing then. hmmm.
Happy, Merry Christmas to you all.
The photos and stories are great! Always a treat reading aout your adventures. I was hoping for a little funny story about Nelly the new puppy... I guess I will have to wait a bit longer
Merry Christmas to all
xoxo
love Jenny