Advent Calendars

This year, for the first time ever, I bought the kids chocolate advent calendars. I left them on the table, and I was not home when the kids came home from school. When I got home later that evening it was supper time, so we sat down to eat.

"What happened to the advent calendars that were on the table?" I asked.

Asher answered, "I put them here on the chair because I had to set the table. Who are they for?"

 Me: "I bought one for you, and one for Chancery, but you need to share 5 of your chocolates with your dad and I."

 The kids were very surprised to have chocolate advent calendars. It was as if an alien had replaced their mother and brought this special gift for them. After a few moments Asher inquired... 

"Wait, I have to give you 5 chocolates, and dad 5 chocolates?"

 Me: "no, you share with dad, Chancery shares with me."

 All was well for a few days until I went shopping again.  I told Chad I bought our own kind of advent calendar, but now the kids are jealous! 

The Post-Christmas Post

 Merry mid-week what day is it? My family has asked this countless times in the past week. Last week Chad & I were trying to figure out what day of the week Boxing day was going to be, and it took us about 10 minutes to pin that one down.  With all the church services, and no school, every day feels like Sunday, or Saturday.... or is it Thursday? My Google now tells me both the date, and the day of the week in my morning routine!

We had a pretty good Christmas.  We are used to not seeing family over the holidays, although the last few years we were close enough to my parents that they'd usually come up for Christmas.  This year it felt weird since we are close enough to see Chad's family, but we weren't allowed to see them. We are doing lots of Zooms instead, which is better than nothing, but we can't wait to get together with family & friends... whenever that will be allowed again.

With Chad being busy with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, & Sunday church we were still pretty busy.  Because of the tighter restrictions we have to sign up to attend church in person, and I did not remember to do so before all the Christmas services got filled, so we waved Chad off, & watched them from home.  That was definitely a weird feeling!

Then on Christmas day we opened our gifts.  Did I take any pictures? Nope, not a single one.  Asher's first gift was a WaterPik. He said, "This is a terrible present!" (Sums up 2020 pretty well though!)  I told him, "It can only get better from here!"  We got lots of new books to read which  everyone was happy about.

I bought myself some really nice bunny slippers, wrapped them up, and boy, was I delighted to open them! Unfortunately they were too small, so Chancery is happy, and I have cold feet!  Chad said that's what I deserve for buying myself a present.

The kids don't go back to school until Jan 11, so now we will have lots of time to bake, play games, & read.  We're borrowing skates so the kids can take advantage of the ice rink that is just beside our neighbourhood, and we have lots of ski-doing that can be done on the lake. I'm appointing myself the hot chocolate maker so I can stay in the warm house!

December Mail

Chancery & I were walking up the street this afternoon.  I had just gotten the mail from the mailbox, & Chancery asked, "Did we get any mail?"

Me: "Yes, three pieces."

Chancery: "Is it all for us?"

We still get mail for the people who used to live here, so it was a valid question.

Me: "Yes, it's all for us."

Chancery: "Is it our first Christmas card?"

Me: "Nope, it's bills."

At that point we were passing a neighbour who was shovelling her driveway.  "That's all I got too," she said.

Chancery: "Maybe tomorrow a card will come!"

Christmas With The Folks

Living in BC has a few perks.  One big one is that we are only 4 hours from my parents.  So, for the first time in 9 years, we got to spend the holidays together!  We headed down on Christmas day, & had a nice meal around the dining room table on china plates, & crystal, complete with wine for the adults, & sparkling cider (for me, the kids don't like sparkly drinks)!

On Boxing day we opened our gifts, & the kids were delighted about the cereal tradition that lives on!

 Who wouldn't be excited about Christmas Crunch?

 Chancery was excited about getting the entire boxed set of Roald Dahl books.  "I love these books!"

PChad got some London Tea.  It's always a bit of an experiment if the tea will be any good.  Last year I got him some really cute tins of tea & the tea in them was gross, but the tins were super cute!  Hopefully this box is good tea!

Asher opened Inside out, which we have seen a few times & is a very fitting film for our family in the midst of our transition. 

This was the highlight of the day.  Grandma opened a gift card to a restaurant & the card said, "Will you go on a date with me?"

Grandma replied, "Yes I will!"

To which Asher replied, "It's not from me!  It's from Grandpa!"

On Sunday we went to my parents church, & the new pastor there is a friend of ours from seminary.  Pastor Jacob's wife, Kami, is one of my best friends.  She & I were pregnant with our first kids at the same time, & got to spend the first year of being new moms together.  After church they came to my parents house for lunch & we spent the afternoon catching up & enjoying each others' company.  We do not get a chance to see each other very often, so it was nice to get to be together most of the day.

Monday we all headed up to an extended family Christmas celebration with cousins from near & far.  My cousin from Hawaii was visiting with her son, as well as a lot of local cousins, & we had a nice evening despite not playing a single round of Dutch Blitz.  We must be getting older!

Then Grandma & Grandpa left with Asher & Chancery to go back home, & PChad & I went back to BC.  Grandma & Grandpa had always said they wanted to spend more time with the grandkids, so we let them have them for a whole week!

Christmas Letter 2015

This has been an EPIC year for our little family.  It all started with snow, & more snow until Prince Edward Island broke the all time snow record & got 18 feet of snow!  The kids had fun in it, I had fun looking at it from inside the house with a cup of coffee, but I don't think PChad had fun snowblowing it!

We had a long winter full of snow which lasted us right up 'til April!  PChad has been doing an Executive Masters which means lots of travelling to Paris & London, & I got to join him for one of his weeks in London!  Now, when I say I joined him, what I really mean is that we flew together, then he went to Oxford for the week, & I gallivanted all around London visiting friends & shopping, then we met back up at the end of the week & flew back to PEI together!

April was also my Dad's 70th birthday, & my brothers & I few out to Seattle to surprise him!  It was awesome to get together for a few days.  We also had a breakfast together with a bunch of Aunts & Uncles & cousins we had not seen for a few years.

PChad received & accepted a call to a church in B.C., with a move at the end of the summer.  We knew we had to take full advantage of our last PEI summer, so we hit the beach as often as the weather allowed!

At the beginning of August we packed up, & headed across the country.  We decided to take our time & visit family along the way, which made of an EPIC 3 week road trip!

We stopped at both of my brothers' places, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, met my parents for a weekend at my Uncle's ranch, & Chad's parents house!

We arrived in BC just as they were having a huge windstorm that caused a 2 day power outage.  Thankfully we had a lovely couple from church to stay with & they took good care of us.  We housesat for the first almost 3 months living in BC, & looked for a house to buy.  We found one really close to the church, but it was being rented & we had to give a full 2 months notice to the renters.  Unfortunately, that means we couldn't get into our house until January, so we are now renting a duplex with furniture donations from church people.  So, for the last 4 months, we have been 'camping' as I like to call it.  ("Sorry kids, we can't bake Christmas cookies, we're camping!  Everyone knows you don't bake cookies when you're camping!")  The kids have learned to adapt to our transient lifestyle quite well, but I think we are all ready to be in our own place with our own things.  When we packed for this adventure it was July, & we never anticipated we'd be without all of our household belongings this long.  Thankfully we packed a few sweaters & long sleeved shirts as it has been a bit chilly, & we have even had a tiny sprinkling of snow!  Now that we live only 4 hours from my parents, we are taking full advantage & spending a few days with them over Christmas!  It's been 9 years since we celebrated Christmas together & we are really looking forward to it!

My address book is in the moving truck, so this is as close to a Christmas card as it's going to get this year...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

The Gift

Since my brothers & I all live far from where our parents live, my mom sent us a few presents for Christmas.  My mom has a tradition of buying the same/similar things for us (to keep it even so we don’t fight!), & after she sent our packages, she wanted to make sure they had arrived.  She sent us a group email…

 

Mom:

Hi Everyone,

Did everyone get their book we sent?

Love to all.

Dad and Mom

 

Me:

It's a book? Well now you've ruined the surprise!

 

Brian:

We have received the present but have not opened it yet.  Isn't one of the best parts of Christmas the anticipation? :)

 

Me:

Oh for sure!  I felt the present & had a few guesses...  Something from Ikea, a ream of paper, a package of cookies, I can't WAIT to find out what's really in there!

 

Kurt:

I thought maybe it was a book but it was wrapped so I put it under the tree since there was nothing else there yet.

I guess I could have smelled it, maybe it is a box of chocolates. (life is like that)

Love Kurt and family.

 

Mom:

Well you might be surprised!  I was asking because I sent it media rate, which was a lot cheaper, but I didn't know how long it would take to get to you.  They also told me they could open the package to check if it really was media and I better not have anything else in there!

 

The anticipation was killing us, but we held off opening until Christmas.  It WAS a book after all!  My uncle had recently written his memoir, & my Mom got us all signed copies!  (She had also included him on the email thread, so he could see all the excitement building for the big reveal!)

Merry Christmas!

Asher: “Really?  Only one picture?”

Chancery: “Make sure they can see that my nails match my dress!”

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!

A Little Bit of Christmas

I just love the gift giving part of Christmas.  I love the hunt for the perfect gift for each person, & then watching them open it.  We opened our gifts as a family on Christmas Eve this year.

Chancery was delighted to receive some My Little Ponies.

 

Asher had conveniently stated, “I wish that I could see inside my body!” a few days before I attended an Usborne Book party, so he received the See Inside Your Body book!

 

Asher gave me The Book Thief Book (and so did PChad!) apparently they both knew what I wanted

 

Chancery was over the moon to find 2 new nightdresses in her present!

 

Asher was not quite sure about the slippers & mittens he opened, but that boy has lost so many mittens this school year!

 

PChad loves Volkswagens!

 

PChad decided to stop trying to fight against my love of hoodies.  He gave me a really nice one, so that I will be happy & warm whilst wearing it, & he will be satisfied that I am a bit dressier than normal!

 

A Volkswagen tablet case?  How perfect!

 

Asher asked at one point, “Why do I keep opening books, books, & books?”  Then he answered his own question, “Because books are awesome!”

 

Chancery wrapped a little gift on her own for Daddy…

 

And it was 2 McDonald’s Happy Meal toys!

 

Another Volkswagen shirt!

 

What could be better than seeing that delight?  Celebrating Jesus’ birth!  The ultimate gift all wrapped up in swaddling clothes.  It’s pretty awesome to think about!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

He Knows Me Well!

PChad just walked into the room a few minutes ago & asked, “What are you watching?”

 

Me:  “The U.K. Christmas special.”

 

PChad:  “Is that Robbie Williams singing?”

 

Me: “No, it’s Gary Barlow.”

 

PChad: “They sound the same.”

 

Me: “Well, they were both in ‘Take That’.”

 

PChad: “He sounds a lot like Robbie Williams.”

 

Me: “Robbie already performed.”

 

PChad: “I thought so!”

Sunday Pictures – Christmas Edition

Sunday was a snow day, & since I knew we’d be taking Christmas pictures, I decided to just wait rather than take pictures of the kids in their jammies!

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Asher – 7.5 years

Chancery – 5 years

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Chancery: “I’m being a reindeer!”

 

Asher: “I got a new Sonic the Hedgehog DS game!”

 

Asher: “See?  There are 4 games on it!”

 

Chancery: “I like your tie, Asher!”

 

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Merry Christmas, Doggie!

It’s a Christmas Miracle for this puppy!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Last year was our first year to have a real Christmas tree.   It was not a difficult task to find a tree last year since we had a pine tree right beside our driveway which we had decided to remove, so we just used the top part of that.

This year we had to go a bit further afield, but we found a really nice tree farm not too far away.

 

We walked through the trees for about 5 minutes, & saw quite a few really nice ones.  But it was cold, & the colder it is, the faster we decide on a tree, so tree number 3 it was!

 

They even had Apple Cider & cookies to help us warm up.  We really liked that part!

 

Once we got the tree home, the kids enjoyed playing with the netting the tree had been wrapped in.  It was nice to get a little extra use out of it, since it cost extra!

 

We made sure to set it up straight!

 

Then it was time to decorate!

 

Chancery was excited to put her own ornaments on the tree!

 

Asher did a really good job of making sure his were hung just right.

 

I sorted the ornaments, & gave all the ones I didn’t want broken to Alexa to hang!

 

The tree is ready!