It's Christmas Time Again!

We managed to celebrate three times! Murray's parents came to visit and brought another load of gifts! First off, swords from Uncle Andrew & Aunt Mandy, just what a girl Musketeer needs!
These were an instant hit of course! Immediate swordplay ensued and luckily no eyes were lost in the battle :)))
Then Nanny got out the big surprise! New skis for all the girls, including me, wahoo! I've wanted some for awhile but thought I'd better wait til the girls were old enough to try it. I'm hoping it's something they'll all enjoy and we can go on some winter adventures in the woods & explore different trails. If all goes well, we'll have some nice family fun and maybe even a winter picnic!

Here are our little ski bunnies!

Since Murray still has his cross country skis from high school, he got some snowshoes instead and he's already tried them out. He was really happy to get these! He'd asked for them a few years ago but we'd already all bought stuff for him and then last year we forgot I think. Oops! He's all set now though :)
The girls also got many new books and Nanny read them all while she was here. They all enjoyed the "Fancy Nancy" stories and the adventures of Frog & Toad and Amelia Bedelia.

Hitting the slopes

We took the new sleds for a test run on Boxing Day and had a blast on the hill! The new ones worked really well, had good speed and we could ride with them if we wanted to. They were also nice & light for carrying back up the hill. (unless they had some dead weight on them!)
The weather wasn't too cold that day so we were able to stay for over an hour and a half and get many runs in. There weren't many people there either so we didn't have to wait long for a turn.
Eventually one or two of the girls started getting cold and were tired of walking back up the hill so we packed it in & headed home.
As I was gathering up the sleds, I noticed that the nice speedy slick backing on the sleds was peeling off & curling up! I'm really disappointed in these. They look great and work so well and it's a bit annoying that the durability is lacking. I've looked in several other stores to find something that will allow us to slide with them and work well but haven't come up with anything. What ever happened to those nice long aluminum toboggans that families used when I was a kid?

Christmas Day

I uploaded these backwards, this is from later in the day when we went to my parents' place for Christmas #2! :)
I woke up on Christmas morning at 4:20, and was ready to jump out of bed as soon as I realized "IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!" but managed to settle myself down and get back to sleep but woke up periodically fighting the temptation to go wake up the kids. Finally around 7:30, I gave up and went to the kitchen and started getting stuff ready for our breakfast.
I chopped up the strawberries and some cantaloupe and got out the waffle iron and by then the kids started wandering in and it was time to go downstairs!
We checked out our stockings and all the goodies that Santa left and then went back up and had our Belgian waffles dusted with icing sugar and topped with Belgian chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries and whip cream on top! Mmmmm mmmm mmm! Every day should start with a breakfast of champions like this!
It was a huge treat and will be something to look forward to for next year. Murray has a coworker who knew someone who makes the sauce so we were lucky to have the right contacts!

Honey Bunny and her hero, Ms. Montana!!
After we finished our delicious breakfast, we went back downstairs to open our gifts. The girls raced through theirs of course and couldn't figure out why we had so much more to open when all theirs were done!
I didn't really want to open mine while they were working on theirs in case I missed something or if anything got mixed in with the wrapping paper. I kept removing the debris and making sure we weren't throwing out anything valuable!
They did really well delivering the presents to the right people and didn't open anyone else's gifts in error. My brother and I were often guilty of that mistake in our haste to get everything open, but how alert could we have been at 4am?!?!?!? It was bound to happen! :))) Luckily these kids are a little more careful than we were.

Honey had previously let me know what she thought about ribbon being tied around her presents and then she found another infraction! I'll try to remember her rule for next year. "Mo-o-o-o-o-o-o-m!!! I told you ribbon's TOO hard to open!"

Lovey was happy with her new Barbie and one of them got the 3 Musketeers movie and she now runs around telling us "Don't MESS with the DRESS!"

We had a great Christmas and are continuing to enjoy our holidays! Hope everyone's staying dry & warm and getting some time with their families too! :)))

Christmas Eve

This had to be the most relaxed Christmas Eve I've had in a LONG time! It helped that I'd picked away at the cleaning up & decluttering throughout the week instead of trying to do it all on the same day! All the wrapping for our house was done and the gifts for my parents' house had already gone on their way with Grandad who'd stopped by earlier in the day. I didn't get a chance to make Murray his fancy dessert but that'll give us something for New Year's Eve supper :)

The girls have been anxious and excited for ages and Christmas Eve was more of the same. They kept marvelling over the fact that Santa was coming TONIGHT! They were going to try to stay awake to catch him, they had grand plans! (which failed of course!)

We had a nice afternoon and ate an early supper and got ready for the Christmas Eve service. We got to church on time and I was able to get the cherub choir dressed and practiced beforehand. The church was very full but the kids gave it their all and did a great job on their song. The final hymn of Silent Night was sung with all the lights turned off and each person in the congregation held a candle that got lit as the flame passed from person to person. It is my favourite time of year to be up in the choir loft. It is so peaceful to look out and see the entire church in that soft glow. Each year I am so tempted to sneak my camera in and capture it but I don't think I could do it justice. I tried to talk Shelly Shooter into it one year but she didn't want to work on Christmas Eve, go figure!

We got the kids home from the service and they sprinkled reindeer food in the driveway and then got ready for bed very very fast! Santa's snack was prepared and each girl selected what they wanted to leave him. I was surprised that no one picked cookies! He got a granola bar, a Quality Street chocolate and a candy cane and nothing to drink. It was all gone in the morning so he must have liked it ok, I just hope he wasn't too thirsty!

Stockings were laid out

and when we woke up in the morning, Santa had definitely been there! The girls were very pleased with their gifts but did have one small complaint. Santa did not bring the magic fairy dust they'd requested that would make it possible for them to fly! I guess he just keeps that for the reindeer maybe.

More Christmas Card Action!

We enjoyed getting all the Christmas cards in the mail and getting updates from everybody! My cards were late getting out but I did get a few in the mail! Here are some of the shots from our 3rd and final attempt at a family photo :)))

at least a couple will play along with me but those two sticklers in the back really need to loosen up a bit! :P

and the final result, in case you haven't seen it already!