Snow!

It's hard to look back on Christmas 2008 without mentioning the huge amount of snow we had this year! It hardly ever snows in Vancouver, and having a white Christmas is even rarer. But this year we definitely had our fill (I was done with it before Christmas even started, but almost everyone had had enough by New Years!). There were big snowfalls the week before Christmas, and then again right around Christmas (the 24th, 25th, and 26th).

It's fun to see how much fun Amanda has in the snow, but I admit to being a snow grouch...I get really stressed out about having to go places in the snow. I would love to be able to enjoy it more when it comes, since it's so infrequent around here!

Here are a few photos...

A foot and a half of snow already, and it's just Christmas Eve! We had probably another foot by the time it was all over.


A classic winter scene - boots and mittens drying by the fireplace:


Jeff and Amanda with their snow creation:


And another view:


There was so much snow that Jeff built this little snow slide (complete with stairs) for Amanda:


Beautiful - Christmas lights under snow:


...and one more with more bokeh:

Christmas in Photos

The kids with their pile o' gifts on Christmas morning:


With the manger at church (Amanda always has to visit the manger on Christmas morning to make sure Baby Jesus is there!):


Amanda opening her big gift from Santa. I love this picture because the look on her face is the classic look of every kid opening up the gift they wanted most of all:


(I can't say enough about this Tag system - Amanda absolutely loves it! She loves the stories and the games, and her reading is improving all the time. I'm also very impressed with the vocabulary and concepts it introduces. My only complaint is that there aren't a lot of titles with a focus on concepts other than reading [numeracy, etc.] but I'm sure that will come with time. Highly recommended!)

Goofing off at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas day:

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve dinner we had both sets of grandparents over for a simple evening. Since Christmas Eve is also my birthday, we used to spend the evening at my parents' house and have a small family birthday party. However, now that we have kids it's much easier to have Christmas Eve at home so we can still observe some of our favourite rituals, like putting out cookies and milk for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer!) and donning special new Christmas PJs.

A few photos:

We have much better pictures than this, but somehow this one makes me giggle...all the looks on their faces are so typical:


Sam:


Getting ready for Santa!

Day 18: Make a Santa Tissue Box

I got this idea from a craft book I took out from the library: Best Christmas Crafts Ever! by Kathy Ross. I'd actually like to get this book for our own library - lots of easy ideas, especially for kids slightly older than Amanda (early school-age).

This was fun and pretty easy. We did cut the facial circles a bit big, which made our Santa look like a muppet, but he was cute anyway!



(Amanda is making a crazy face in this photo...she has started making weird faces when we bring the camera out, so it's often hard to get a nice picture of her with a normal smile on her face!)

Day 14: Wear Santa Hats to Dinner

Simple activity, but I just like this photo:

That is all.

Day 11: Make Christmas Cookies with Grandma

I had an appointment to go to, so my Mom took Amanda for the afternoon and they had a great time together doing lots of baking! They made gingerbread cookies, some no-cook chocolate balls, and a gingerbread house. The balls especially were very delicious!

I love this photo of their creations:

Day 8: Make Hand Wreaths

(Totally adorable Nativity Set by Little People - we also have the Little Drummer Boy and Little Shepherds sets.)

This is one of favourite crafts, and we've been doing it for the past three years. I'm proud to say I thought this one up on my own! Not that it's terribly original, and I've since seen it elsewhere, but the idea came off the top of my head. I love that this is quick, easy, very inexpensive, and uses supplies that even the craft-challenged such as myself are sure to have on hand. We also store the wreaths in the kids Christmas box* each year, so it's fun to compare how their hands grow from year to year.

All we do is trace hands onto red and green construction paper (this year I used a total of 10 hands for Amanda and 12 for Sam):


Sam was more interested in crumpling the paper than having his hand traced...I managed to get one tracing then used it as a template for the rest:


Then lay them out in a circle shape (it's important to do this before you start gluing to get the right shape), add a bit of glue, and - ta-da!


I also write their name and the year on the wreath with a Sharpie, but hadn't yet done this when the photo was taken. There you have it - lovely wreaths with which to decorate their bedroom doors!

* We have a big Christmas box that we use to store all the kids' Christmas stuff each year - Little People sets, decorations, books, hair elastics, etc. That way all those things seem new again when we pull out the box each year. Is this how other families do this? I've always been curious...

Day 7: Preschool Christmas Party

Yes, as you can see the plan was also to attend the Rogers Santa Claus Parade downtown. However, the night before, we realized that last year's parade didn't wrap up until almost 4 pm, and we needed to be back in Coquitlam for Amanda's preschool party by 4:30 pm. So reluctantly we decided to skip the parade this year. Hopefully we can make it next year, as we have enjoyed it in the past! It felt weird not to go this year.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon was the Christmas party for Amanda's preschool. In school they have been talking a lot about construction, so the teachers came up with the idea of having them "construct" gingerbread houses as a Christmas project. Although it would have been easy to just provide the kids with templates, each group was given the option to design the type of house they wanted to build, as well as any special design elements. The students visited a local high school and worked with Foods students to roll, cut, and bake the gingerbread pieces. Then at the party, they constructed and built the houses. Finally, on Monday morning they visited a local seniors centre to present the houses and enjoy a carol sing-along. I thought the whole thing was brilliant - the emphasis was not only on building the houses, but building relationships in the community.

Of course, our team of kids decided that an ordinary house was not for them - they wanted a chalet. (In the car on the way home from school the day they planned their houses, Amanda announced they'd decided on an "A-frame house". That kid knows more about houses than I do!). They also specified that it was to have an awning and paving stones. Hmm...OK. So we parents planned accordingly and waited to see what the kids would do with the decorations we provided.

The built house:


The crazily-decorated roof:


The completed house...check out the Pop-Tart and lollipop awning:


Sam was not terribly impressed:


Amanda posing:


We were totally impressed with the kids' decorating job (OK, the dads were mostly responsible for that awning). But the chalet-style house posed some huge challenges - the roof wasn't well-supported by the house walls, so it was a constant battle between armed-with-icing parents and the determined-to-slide-off roof. We thought we had won the battle, but the house had the last laugh, as it collapsed in the car on the way home. :( The kids were a bit sad, but not much so...after all, the fun was in the planning and building!

Day 5: Watch a Christmas Movie with Grandma & Grandpa

Jeff had his work Christmas party on Friday evening. Even though we weren't sure how Sam would do if we left him for the whole evening, we figured it was worth a try...it would sure be nice to get out occasionally, just the two of us! So we planned an activity for Amanda that she could do with Grandma & Grandpa when they came to babysit.

When we opened up the envelope in the morning, she chose to watch The Grinch. However, it was reported that they ended up watching a few others as well, including Charlie Brown Christmas. She had a great time watching with her grandparents, and being spoiled by them as well! They brought dinner over for her with all her favourites - mac & cheese, tomatoes, bread, strawberry milk, and ice cream for dessert - and generally treated her like a princess.

As for Sam...well, he took a bit of milk from the bottle with much coaxing. But it wasn't exactly a roaring success; he still spent much of the night crying. I guess we will keep trying...if he doesn't take a bottle eventually, we will probably just try a sippy cup after Christmas. Maybe Santa will bring one for him in his stocking...

Day 4: Shadbolt Centre to See Bobs & Lolo

Several weeks back, my Mom had told me about a Christmas event at the Shadbolt Centre at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. I took a note and thought we might try to attend, but then I found out that one of Amanda's very favourite singing groups, Bobs & Lolo, were going to be performing! So of course we had to check it out.

I was quite impressed with the event - there were tons of activities and it seemed very well organized. It was pretty crowded though, and since it was just me and the kids (Jeff had choir practice to attend), it was a bit of a challenge maneuvering the stroller through all the people. It was especially fun once Sam woke up from his nap, took a look around at the totally unfamiliar place, and started screaming. Good times! I was able to take him out of the stroller and carry him on my hip with my carrier, and he was pretty good after that.

There was face painting:

No offense to anyone, but this was probably the saddest face paint Amanda has ever had. This was supposed to be a princess, in case you can't guess. I suppose that's what she gets for asking for something so complicated!

Amanda with the winter fairy:

She's looking just a hair short of terrified in this photo! :)

Bobs & Lolo performing:


Amanda wanted to draw a picture at the art station. The easels were set up with pastels, which she's never used before - they are sure messy! Here is the picture she drew of Bobs & Lolo (click through to see the photo on Flickr, with notes describing all the parts of the picture):

Day 3: Eat Breakfast for Dinner

You will have to take my word for this one because I can't figure out what I did with the envelope so there's no picture.

We've been doing breakfast for dinner as one of our activities since Year 1, and it's always a fun break in the middle of the week. Usually we cook waffles at home, but Jeff was in the mood for dinner out so we headed over to IHOP. For those of you who are interested in a run-down of our breakfast/dinner selections (i.e., none of you), here goes: Amanda had a create-a-face pancake, I had a chicken fajita omelette (with pumpkin pancakes on the side...a weird combo, but they're so yummy!), and Jeff had steak and eggs. We were all thoroughly stuffed.

Which again, you'll have to take my word for, because although we took our point-and-shoot camera to the restaurant with us, we realized once we got there that the batteries were dead. Argh!

Day 2: Record Answering Machine Message

And, here's where I admit...that we still haven't done this. We forgot in our planning that Jeff would be out at a meeting that night, and I really need him to help since he's the tech guy (and we will likely do the recording on his new Mac, which was with him at the time!). We keep meaning to get to it, but it hasn't happened yet.

Last year, Amanda sang Away in a Manger on the machine. It was really long, and a few people seemed annoyed by it, but we also got tons of really great messages about it. In fact, one guy called and left a message saying that he'd called our house by mistake (wrong number), but that he had to redial to listen again because the message was so cute! I managed to find the audio file of last year's message but can't figure out how to post it! Better yet, I will try to post this year's once we finally get it done.

Off to hang my head in shame...

Day 1: Make Paper Snowflakes

I wanted to stick with something easy for Day 1, so we made paper snowflakes. This was my first time trying this with Amanda, and it was probably a bit too hard...maybe it would be better in another year or two. I hadn't thought ahead to realize that she wouldn't be able to cut through the folded paper safely, so I ended up doing all the cutting. She drew patterns on each snowflake for me to cut, but she had a bit of trouble keeping them on the fold, so I had to improvise a lot.

A finished snowflake:


(And yes, Jeff was sleeping on the couch behind her. He is sick, so he was allowed.)

The December Crazies

I have been very neglectful of this blog lately...it seems that December has gotten away from me somehow! I'm going to try to get some posts up tonight and maybe tomorrow as well with details of our "24 Days of Christmas" activities.

I must admit that somehow I'm not really feeling the Christmas spirit yet, despite being more organized for Christmas than ever before. For the first time ever, I was pretty much done shopping for the kids before the end of November (just a few more small things to pick up). We have really scaled back our gift-giving to others this Christmas since it seems like over the past several years it's gotten more and more crazy each year. Awhile back when I was talking to Amanda about Christmas, she asked right off the bat "I wonder what gifts I'll get this year?", which was a sure sign that it's time to cut back! It doesn't matter how much we talk about how Christmas is really about Jesus' birthday and spending time with our family and friends, unless we put less emphasis on the presents she's never going to get it. Not to mention that it gets more stressful each year coming up with gift ideas, not to mention the money to pay for them! I'm looking forward to having a simpler holiday this year.

All that being said, we are way behind on getting the house ready for Christmas. Despite the fact that the kitchen is in total disarray, the weather has been terrible the last few weekends so we haven't got any outside decorations up. We are slowly getting the inside decorations out, but it's hard to get much done during the day with a baby who doesn't want to be put down! Hopefully by the end of this week we'll be feeling more ready for the holidays to come.

So True...

Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

(And sadly, we didn't get Sam's 4-month photo today due to scheduling problems - but will be sure to take it tomorrow!)

I Need a Weekend to Recover from My Weekend...

It seems that the pre-holiday rush has already begun! This weekend was full with all kinds of activities. Even though it's nice to have lots to do, it never seems like we get a chance to relax!

On Saturday morning, Amanda's favourite musical group, Bobs & Lolo, was appearing at Coquitlam Centre as part of their celebration to welcome Santa to the mall. Yes, Santa actually arrived this weekend...it seems now that he always arrives the first weekend after Remembrance Day. As far as Amanda is concerned, having both Bobs & Lolo and Santa Claus in one place at one time is pretty much the pinnacle of coolness, so we had to check it out!

We figured the mall didn't realize how popular B&L are, because they had set aside only a small area for the performance and it was packed!!

We were off to a rough start as Amanda insisted on sitting on the 'A' on the big carpet they had laid out, even though it was at the furthest corner from the stage. Once the music started she was torn about whether to stay on the A or move closer and dance...plus, people were edging her off the A which was causing some distress. She had a few minutes of teariness and we finally had to tell her she had to cheer up or leave! She was starting to depress the other kids! Finally she shook it off and moved up towards the front of the carpet and enjoyed the rest of the show, dancing away. Personally my favourite was when they sang Cindy Seahorse, a slow story song, and Amanda danced her princess dance - complete with twirls and a very serious princess look on her face - throughout.

After Santa made his appearance and the crowd dispersed, we headed over to the Christmas train they have set up - I think this is the first year they've had this and Amanda really enjoyed it.

We didn't do our Santa photos yet - somehow it seems way too early. Probably we'll wait until the last minute like usual and end up waiting in line for hours!

Saturday evening Jeff was singing in a concert, but the kids and I headed over to my aunt Allyson's house to celebrate Chris' 19th birthday. It's hard to believe he is 19 already! Amanda had a great time running around Allyson's beautiful house with her cousin Tristan and generally being a monkey. Sam was remarkably well-behaved, and it was nice that I had lots of arms to hold him so I got a bit of a break! Contrary to his normal "needs to be jiggled constantly", he was content to sit in Nana's arms for a good chunk of time.


Sunday was our usual busy day - church followed by lunch with Jeff's parents. After a brief rest at home we headed out to a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours. They had just moved into their brand new house on Saturday, so his wife invited a whole bunch of people over for dinner. Seems like a great way to do it - no one is expecting anything to be tidy when you're in the middle of moving! Their new house is beautiful and once again Amanda had fun running around with friends while Sam enjoyed being passed around.
All in all, a fun but exhausting weekend!

Long-Overdue Update

WOW, it's been a really long time since we've updated our blog! I guess life has really been catching up with us. Between working long hours, chasing around after a 3.5 year old, and attempting (hah!) to keep up with the house, it's been tough to update as well.

Oh, and there's this...

(Yes, that's a very faintly positive pregnancy test...that's what you get on day 14!!). So yes, we're having a baby! All 3 of us are very excited, although I admit this pregnancy has been much less fun than the first one. Between the instantly-pooching belly (seriously, at like 4.5 weeks); the strong aversion to pretty much every smell I encounter on my daily walk to work downtown (exhaust, anything resembling a food...); the terrifying bleeding that started at 6 weeks and continued throughout my 1st trimester and into my 2nd; the unbelievable irritability (sorry family!); and fatigue so extreme that I've more than once fallen asleep with my head on the dining room table while Jeff and Amanda talk around me, I've seen better days. It's disappointing, because I so enjoyed my first pregnancy, and really I don't have that much to complain about - no serious nausea and so far I'm still down about 5 lbs from my starting weight (despite feeling and probably looking like I'm about 6 months pregnant!). I keep telling myself I'll feel better "when"...but when hasn't quite arrived yet. I thought by now (17.5 weeks) I'd be hitting that lovely 2nd trimester energy spurt, but it hasn't happened yet. I will definitely feel reassured when I feel the baby moving more consistently, but this one doesn't behave very well and I'm getting only faint and intermittent sensations that could possibly be the baby. On the upside: I've had 2 ultrasounds, both of which looked good, and am really looking forward to the 20 week one (on March 17th), to which we're hoping to bring Amanda. So really, everything is good! Baby is due on August 6th, but will probably arrive sometime towards the end of July.

So what else is new with us?

• Amanda's music lessons continue to go great. She had her first recital last weekend and we were so proud of her! She didn't get nervous, even a little bit - she was just so excited to get up in front of everyone and perform. She also played a pretty hard song (Mary Had a Little Lamb) for someone who only started a few months ago and is one of only two 3-year olds in the class, and did really well, although she got a bit lost in the middle; she totally recovered by the end and felt great about her performance, which was the most important thing! We celebrated with dinner out with her grandparents, then ice cream cake back at our place. A few photos are posted on a Flickr set; here's Amanda performing the "Sunshine Song" with her class:
  
  We have a videotape of her performance but haven't pulled it off the video camera yet...will update here once we've got it done (maybe this evening).
  
• Christmas! Well, we had a great Christmas although it felt pretty low-key this year. We announced our big news to both Amanda and our families on Christmas eve, after having a very reassuring first ultrasound early that morning, so that was fun. Didn't take as many pictures as we usually do, but there's a set on Flickr, and here is my favourite picture from this Christmas - Amanda and my Dad on Christmas eve (Amanda is wearing her Christmas nightie, handmade by Grandma):
  
  
• Jeff had a particularly exciting start to his year, with two surgeries - one pretty minor to remove a thingie from his lower leg, and a second more serious to remove his gall bladder. It's quite a relief to have it all over with and for both of us (especially him!) not to have to worry about the possibility of another gall bladder attack. He is recovering well although I think it was harder than he expected.
  

Hmm, sadly that's about all that's been going on with us. We will try to update more frequently with info about the new little monkey and everything else that's going on in our lives!

Santa Claus Parade

Last weekend we headed downtown to once again brave the crowds at the Santa Claus Parade. (Here is last year's post about the parade.)

The biggest difference between this year and last was that it was FREEZING!! Jeff really felt he needed to be at church (why oh why does the parade always have to be on Christ the King Sunday?!?) so Amanda and I headed out a bit early and took the skytrain downtown. It was quite the adventure since Amanda hadn't been on skytrain before (well, maybe once long ago, but she definitely didn't remember). We got there a bit later than I'd hoped, but still more than 90 minutes before the scheduled start time...and of course, it takes quite a while for the parade to make its way to Burrard & Georgia, where we were camped out. We found some pretty decent spots right down on the curb and settled in to wait. Wow, did I mention how cold it was?!? Jeff joined us as soon as he got away from church.

The most frustrating thing was that at the last minute a bunch of people showed up and plunked themselves down right on the road. They weren't directly in front of us, but they were to the right of us, which was the direction from which the parade was coming. We figured they would get booted, because last year the police came by at the last minute and made everyone get off the road. But this year that didn't happen, so huge groups of people were blocking our view. It was really irritating, but it's tough to figure out whether it's worth kicking up a stink and ruining everyone's good time. However, it kills me that those kids are learning it's OK to do stuff like this. Their parents should be ashamed!

Anyway, the parade was good, but not as good as I remember it being last year. Maybe we were all just so frozen that we couldn't enjoy it as much (or maybe it was the rude people colouring the experience for us). We did have a good time though and will probably go again next year.

A few photos (whole set here):

A New Kind of Nativity

Jeff got a $25 gift card to Montana's from a student for Christmas, so we decided to go there for dinner last night. After waiting forever to get service, we had a pretty decent meal. But towards the end of the evening, Amanda was getting a little bit antsy, so we were all amusing ourselves by drawing pictures on the paper they had down on the table (with the one crayon we managed to find discarded on the floor, as they didn't provide us with any).

Out of nowhere, Amanda asked us to draw "Baby Jesus". Um, OK - Jeff took that one on as my drawing skills are about equal to those of a walrus. He ended up with something approximating a holy blob - well done Jeff!

But that wasn't the end of it...then Jeff was requested to draw "Jophess", then Mary, then an angel, and the three kings. By this point we were all getting a little giddy and the drawings were getting worse by the second. She asked for a donkey, but the only place left to draw it was right next to, and smaller than, a king, so Jeff told her the donkey's name was Myrrh and the king was bringing him as a gift for the baby Jesus. This seemed to be pretty acceptable. Then we had to draw a sheep, and of course a shepherd to control him.

But then Amanda asked Jeff to draw the guy playing the bagpipes. That was it; we completely lost it. Picture two parents, overly full from their very enjoyable Mud Pie, and tired of waiting for service, pushed past the point of exhaustion and laughing with tears running down their faces, and a puzzled 2.5-year old, laughing along but not really sure she got the joke.

Once we'd calmed down a bit, it turned out Jeff didn't know where she was coming from on this one - he was trying to figure out what bagpipes had to do with a nativity scene. But I knew right away she was talking about this dude:

And here, barely visible on the right edge of the photo:

...all of which led to a rousing discussion in the car on the way home about exactly why a shepherd in Bethlehem is playing the bagpipes, anyway?

Rockin' New Year's Eve!

You know you're parents when...

you spend NYE at the Stanley Park Christmas Train.

Hey, but we sprung for the full deal - they run a package that includes not only tickets to the train and farm, but dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (and free parking in Gastown to boot). Yes, we are such party animals - NYE at the 'Factory!!

It was great though - Amanda was very taken with all the lights and had a great time. It was pretty sad, though, to see the devastation in Stanley Park from the mid-December windstorm (as well as subsequent storms). I don't think we were expecting it to be so bad...even right by the train, there were huge trees still lying in pathways, and lots of damage (right in the midst of the happy Christmas light displays there was a park bench crushed to pieces, which they hadn't even managed to get out of the way yet). Big kudos to all those volunteers who must have worked like crazy to get the place cleared up enough so that they could resume the Christmas Train.

A few pics...

We had a few shots of the downed trees; also check out the Flickr pool dedicated to the Vancouver windstorm.


Ho Ho Ho^infinity

All Aboard!