So a family of tomatoes are walking down the street, when the baby tomato lags behind. The Mommy turns to the baby and says "Ketchup!" (Get it?)

It almost feels like life has taken over. Where has my blogging life gone? I feel so detached and far away and the whole point of starting this blog was to ensure we would never seem that way. Winter is definitely here in ol' QC. We're in for another 30cm of snow beginning tonight. All the news channels have been telling listeners to stay home tomorrow and to complete any shopping for provisions today! I had a few errands to run today and couldn't help but notice my fellow shoppers were more in a tizzy than usual. The lineups were insane, although I put that down to the regular Saturday shopping craziness compounded by the fact that Christmas is only 9 days away. (How does it sneak up like that?)
In the span of 15 minutes, I passed by 6 cars with Christmas trees tied to the roof!! I guess a lot of people have the idea of decorating tomorrow while they hibernate from the storm! I love seeing trees on car roofs! It's such an amusing sight. I'm still surprised at how few pickup trucks there seem to be here, especially in comparison to WL, but people have adapted well with their cars. Christmas trees on the roof, tent trailers pulled along behind all makes and models, lots of sedan-type cars with their trunks open carrying all sorts of goods. I guess you don't really miss what you've never really had!?

Anyway, we've been busy, as usual. We were in WL for a very short visit and a week of hunting. Adam was successful once again, albeit on the last day of our stay, but he did provide. I imagine he'll post a picture on his blog some day...if you read his stories and if you are interested in a picture of a proud man with a dead deer, definitely stop by his blog. (Captain Blog)

Flying to WL was a bit of a hassle. The flight loads were pretty full and because we travel on stand-by, we had to wait in the airports for a few hours. Leaving Montreal early in the morning, we were rewarded with a beautiful, clear view of the city.

The sun is always so great in the early morning. I guess I do see the sunrises a fair amount these days with driving Adam to work so early. I wonder if I'll ever be one of those people who wakes up extra early in the morning to watch the sun rise. I wonder if I'll ever be caught up on sleep enough to want to get out of bed to watch it! That's more the reality of it all!

The girls had packed along their travel suitcase full of Barbies and different outfits, so were entertained the entire time by dressing and re-dressing the dolls.

My other camera that I used to take pictures while we were in WL has something wrong with it...USB...etc... So all the pictures I took will come later once I get that sorted out. Grrrr.

Grandma sent a lovely package of hand crafted aprons for Calli, Marin and I, along with our own special utensils (personally labelled), some supplies for decorating and cutting cookies and a sugar cookie recipe! Once we were back home, the girls got busy making a batch for Christmas! Adam was putting the aprons on the kids and Calli got quite frustrated when she realized he'd put the wrong apron on the wrong girl! Once the fiasco was sorted out, it was on to measuring and pouring. Calli is extra good at this as it's one of the activities she has learned at pre-school!

Once the dough was made, Marin figured she'd snack on it while it was available! She couldn't get enough and we finally had to remove her from the situation altogether! So cute!

Here they are decorating all the cookies they cut out. Marin was a little over-eager with the sprinkles, but I figure it's better to have more than not enough! See the difference in each half of the cookie sheet?

Eventually it was time to get the tree up and decorated. After searching around 2 towns, we settled with a spot that wasn't highly recommended and ended up with a beautiful tree and wreath for $60. The $26 trees were only 6 feet high and Adam was sure we needed a really tall tree this year. Therefore, we have a 10 foot tree gracing our living room this year! It's really a beautiful tree and the girls did a great job with the decorations. They loved untangling the lights.

I took the girls to the Santa Claus Parade in Hudson this year. Although Hudson is a small town, they had a great parade. Calli and Marin were thrilled with all the candy canes they brought home. It was VERY cold during the parade, so I was glad they had candy canes to keep their minds off how frozen we were becoming! Can you believe the size of these gorgeous horses??

Santa made an appearance and had a wonderful float with an igloo, some elves and a beautiful doggie that Calli told me looks just like Nellie!

And now, I'd like to introduce you to our sweet little niece, Sofia Violet! She is now 4 1/2 months old and we've had some lovely visits with her living so close to us now! She and her Mommy came and stayed with us for 2 days this week and we had such a great visit! She's such a doll and those eyelashes.....!!!!!!


Sofia, Marin and I were hanging out while Gillian had some time to herself. I propped Sofia up on some pillows and started taking pictures of her and they are truly priceless. She looks so angry in some of the photos, like she'd rip the camera right out of my hands and throw it out the window if she could, but I managed to capture this one of her and a sweet little smile!

Marin and Calli ADORE Sofia and Calli cannot keep her hands off the little one. When she isn't smothering her in kisses or hugs she's playing peek-a-boo or using Sofia as a puppet and waving her legs and arms around as she makes up songs for her. It's very cute.
Marin is a bit more reserved and calls her "Baby Sofia" all the time. I wonder when she'll grow out of that. Will she always be "Baby?"

Marin came down with a nasty...something...the other day. She laid on the couch the entire day and slept for about 80% of it. Poor little peach. I finally got her in to the Walk In Clinic yesterday only to learn she has an infection in both ears and her throat too. After only 1 day of really being sick!!! She is on antibiotics and is slowly coming around. How do I know she's coming around? She said to Calli this afternoon, "Want to play Bowbies?" Although when Calli replied, "Sure Marin!", Marin changed her mind and said, "Maybe we could play somesing else." Barbies usually wins out overall, so we can only assume she's not better yet!