Merry Christmas 2010

This year for Christmas, Adam and I decided to host our families. I wasn't too keen on going anywhere as my Crohns has been acting up and I (at that point) was struggling to get my thyroid condition under control. Luckily, everyone was willing to come to us!

Grandpa was the first person to arrive before the throngs showed up! Next came Gillian with her two daughters, Sofia and Lila. We decided to go in a convoy to the airport to pick them up. You can hardly imagine the excitement when the cousins spotted each other after the travellers stepped out of the elevator!! There was a whole lot of giggling and hugging and kissing and squealing going on! It was really wonderful!

Adam, Marin (in front of Adam's cart), Calli and Sofia walking through the airport to our cars.

The next day, we drove out to a ranch for a horse and wagon ride! The weather co-operated at -9 degrees! The operators told us that anything past -10 was too cold for the horses and our trip would be cancelled. We bundled the girls up and hopped up into the wagon, complete with hay and blankets!

Sofia was watching Wyatt, the farm dog, running along behind the wagon.

Marin watched Wyatt run up ahead of the wagon, while taking in the lovely fresh air.

The beautiful horses guiding us along the trail - Julian and Rick were their names.

We stopped for a few photos and Wyatt decided to hop up into the wagon for a ride-a-long as well. The funniest part was that Calli seemed to be sitting in Wyatt's favourite spot! Not to worry, he just climbed up on Calli's lap to supervise the road! I wish I could have had video of Calli giggling while Wyatt stood on her!

Everyone got a kick out of that dog!!

See Lila all bundled up on Grandpa's lap!?

At the end of our hour long ride, we had the chance to pet the horses, which the little cousins loved!

That evening, Gillian, my friend Kayelene and I all attended a fabulous Candle lit Yoga class at the studio I attend. It was a beautiful, relaxing and warm class to prepare us for the mad rush of Christmas. We definitely deserved it!

The following night, Adam and I had an Open House at our home. Adam had worked all week in mounting our tv over our fireplace and re-wiring everything with the help of our electrician friend! We also decided to paint our living room wall. Seeing as the only rooms with new paint in them were the girls' rooms, it was a welcome change. We chose a really nice charcoal grey, which pairs well with the brown in the rest of our house.

My dear, lovely friend Suzanne (please check out her incredible clothing designs at Suzabelle.com) had come up for a pre-Christmas, quality time visit and had helped prepare our house for us. She made the amazing display on our mantel piece and on top of the book cabinet!! Gillian helped rearrange our furniture and de-clutter the house in prep for our visitors. All in all, our house looked amazing and we couldn't have been happier.

The three girls were thrilled to take the opportunity to dress up for the party, complete with jewelry and lip gloss and Marin and Sofia even had matching dresses!

Lila put on her best outfit for the party and was just as gorgeous as her Mama!! Raffi's flight ended up being delayed so he missed out on half of the party, as did Joanne who came in after everyone had already gone home. However, Grandpa drove out twice to the airport and back to pick them up!

This is a very silly picture of me, but I was wearing my new, amazing Glenmorris sweater from the Suzabelle Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. We had lots of food and drinks and laughs with our friends and I think our party was a success!

We took Nellie down to the dog park by the river and Adam pulled the girls along on the sled. They had SO much fun. Adam's mission, of course, was to try and send the girls flying off the sled by going over hills and bumps and running them off course! They were giggling so hard, I thought their hats would fly off!

Adam showing Nellie where her ball is (again) and Grandma and Calli walking hand in hand along the path.

"We're ready."

Heading back to the truck after a nice walk. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air.

On Christmas Eve the girls were allowed to open one special gift before bed. Grandma had sewn all 4 girls new matching nighties!! Lila was not in the mood to have her photo taken...we tried!

Well, when Santa came by, he made a mess of my floors coming in through the patio doors (not sure you can see it in this photo). He left muddy boot prints all over the hard wood and under the table from where he sat on the chair to read the three letters the girls had written and to eat the cookies and drink the rum and eggnog. Oh, that Santa...

The letters were really cute. Calli actually apologized for not having Christmas lights up at our house. I thought that was pretty hilarious! Marin had written a note and drawn Santa and his reindeer at the bottom of it! And Sofia had drawn a snow storm. All very sweet!!

Unfortunately, in the craziness of the morning, I didn't get any photos of the gifts being opened, but everyone was thrilled with the gifts they'd received.

Christmas dinner was a traditional turkey dinner cooked by Adam and Joanne and was wonderful, as usual. There is something about Christmas turkey dinner. Turkey at any other time of the year doesn't taste quite as good as the one at Christmas. I think it's the energy and ambiance of the season that does it.

Our family at Christmas! We were missing my Mum, as well as Colin, my brother and his wife Amanda and also Adam's brother, Kevin and his wife, Suzy. We would have needed another table...or a bigger house!!

On Boxing Day we drove out to Banff to visit the Hot Springs!
There are Adam and Marin and Gillian and Sofia in the hot springs!

Here are Gillian, Grandpa, Adam, Calli , Sofia and Marin in the hot springs, waiting for Raffi to come out and join them! There were about 120 people in the pool!!

After swimming in the pool, we made our way into Banff for a quick dinner before heading home.

The girls were so cute in their warm clothes, all bundled up on the sidewalk.

We took a quick detour out to the lookout to show our guests the Banff Springs Hotel across the Bow River. It looked so magical with the snow and the lights. We really must go and spend a night or two there. Just to say we did!

We loved getting to spend so much time with our nieces and especially little Lila, who we hadn't seen in a few months! She is such a good, calm baby and was thoroughly entertained by the blocks and stacking cups the girls had in a basket for her. She's a beauty!!

And before we knew it, our week was up. Marin and Sofia are 2 years apart in age, but act as best friends. We got them matching pj's for Christmas and they had a lot of fun running around in them. *sigh* We can hardly wait for our next visit! We had a really fun Christmas this year and the weather was actually really reasonable for Alberta! It could be worse.