December 30th, 2012

Fun to see new toys set up all around the living room, as the kids continue to explore each set and play with them.

Today we went to see a great little play, based on Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  It was perfect for the whole family, and so very well done!  It was part of our Christmas gift to my dad, who has been visiting us from northern BC over the holidays.  Unfortunately he's been REALLY sick for the past week and pretty much confined to his bed, but today he felt well enough to join us for this bit of an adventure.  Tonight a wee bit of soup was consumed, and there's high hopes of having enough energy to spend his last day here wandering Almonte, or fingers crossed, even visiting a museum.  We shall see........

Can't believe tomorrow is the last day of the year.  These years just seem to be FLYING by!!!!  Looking forward to making new plans and ideas for a fresh new year:-)

December 29th, 2012

A small sampling of the treats that we've been enjoying over the holidays - bits of late afternoon snacking and energy boosts for days of sledding and skiing:-)  Most of these are made with soaked nuts, dried fruits (dates and prunes are great to bring out the chocolate flavour apparently!), cacao and coconut oil.....yum!  Looking forward to experimenting with more healthy treats in the new year.  After a break for a while from sweets all together - my body needs a rest!  In a few days.........

December 28th, 2012

Today we woke up to MORE snow, I can't believe how lucky we are!  What a winter wonderland we are living in - this is the view outside our bedroom window:-)

Seems like a perfect kind of day to join our neighbours down the road for a sledding party!  They have a huge hill, that they packed down with the snowmobile and we all got to try all the different sleds - and many of the kids got very good at standing up all the way down the hill on Tiegan's new snowboard sled.  Lots of fun was had by all!!!!!

December 27th, 2012

 Ry's pretty much in heaven these days, dressing up in his new costumes and playing his new DS game - when he's not building with his new lego:-)  The Christmas season is so much fun when you're five!

December 26th, 2012

Outside and inside, in this little piece of winter wonderland:-)

December 25th, 2012

Christmas morning - the kids stayed in bed until 7:30, and then spread out the gift opening throughout the day, playing with new toys in between.  It was in many ways a most perfect day, with lots of sledding and cross-country skiing and great foods!  Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and have been enjoying a fabulous festive season.........

 what was left from the carrots and cookies left for santa and the reindeer

 stockings all packed up and ready to be discovered:-)

 Jamie needle-felted the kids these adorable little figurines, with bendable arms and removable swords - everyone LOVES them:-)

And the kids were thrilled to discover these new sleds under the tree - we've all been taking turns zipping down the hills on them:-)

December 24th, 2012

Christmas Eve - getting ready for Nana Heather to come for dinner:-)

December 23rd, 2012

I woke up this morning stressing out a wee bit about all of the things I wanted to get done before Christmas day - yowzers, I've left a lot of things to the very last minute:-)  But then I looked outside the window and realized that the best thing I could possibly do was to join Jamie in packing up the kids and head to the hills.  The ski hills that is:-)  We had a blast testing out our skis at the beginning of another year, and thoroughly appreciating the fact that we have a full season ahead of us of all five of us skiing together down the runs:-)  And I'll just tell my kids that they will appreciate the time I spend with them so much more than any of the gifts I'd planned on finishing for them before the big morning!!!  OR, perhaps, I have a couple of late nights ahead of me......either way, today was well worth it:-)

 Jamie brought his i-phone with him and snapped these photos - which was very much appreciated as I left my camera at home.  I need to get myself a little camera/i-phone one of these days:-)

 On the way home we (crazily) stopped by the grocery store for a few groceries (read: enough to last us for a month at least!) and then drove around to look at a few of the houses set up with Christmas lights. This house is set up with many moving parts and loud music - sensory overload, for sure, but the kids LOVE it!  The i-phone hardly does it justice, perhaps I should have set it to video....and stepped outside of the car???!!!!!!!

Can't believe tomorrow is Christmas eve - I've got some serious knitting tomorrow!  Really looking forward to the feasts ahead, though, and the relaxing with family!!!  Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of winter as well xo

December 22nd, 2012

LOVE coming across bits of wool-bombing like this, such a great splash of colour to brighten up the landscape.  Feeling inspired to add some of this to our property in the new year:-)  A day spent running errands, going to a solstice party and driving Grampa Chris by the parliament buildings to check out all the holiday lights - a full day!  One of the highlights for the kids was definitely fitting in another trip to Suzy Q's to try out some new donuts and to share our new find with Grampa Chris.....

December 21st, 2012

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!!!!

We had a wonderful solstice day here, brought on by a snow day cancelling school buses, lots of snow play outside, quiet card games inside and then topped off with a power outage in the early evening forcing us to go candlelit, finish cooking our squash soup over the wood stove and then we headed outside for some lantern-lit sledding and carol singing:-)  We're super excited to know the sun is starting to return again, and also to have all this fresh snow to play in.  Soon we'll be heading up to the 'hills' for some downhill skiing!

December 20th, 2012

 We had lots and lots and lots of snow arrive on our doorsteps - the first snowman of the season!  I had a lot of fun clomping around the yard with Kea, checking out the cross country skis for the first time this season, and even trying them out on the zip line - a super fun addition to our winter sports:-)

December 19th, 2012

Cards are coming in and cards are going out - I love the chance to keep in touch with so many friends and family at this time of the year:-)

December 18th, 2012

We are in the third week of the advent now, and the kids opened up a bird feeder, and are excited to decorate a tree outside for the animals this week:-)

 Tiegan has a test this week, all about the provinces and the capital cities.  She was having a hard time remembering them all, so Jamie came up with this ingenious plan - he drew a map of Canada, and she had to write down all the capitals and place them where they go over and over again, and then tell us the name of the capital and the name of the province/territory.  I hope she has it now, we've all definitely spent enough time going over and over and over it:-)

December 17th, 2012

So the concert was fabulous and I was really impressed by how confident and beautifully Kea sang!  I took video with Jamie's phone, and now we're just trying to figure out how to upload it - we're both fairly technically challenged:-)

Today was another freezing rain kind of day, which means the school buses were cancelled and we happily took another day off to hang out at home and recover from a fairly busy weekend:-)  Lots of holiday baking was done, Jamie and I ventured out for a slip and slide down the road, and run when we could get a bit of traction, the kids ran back and forth between their cousins' house and different craft projects were embarked upon!

 Ry and Keane never seem to tire of painting clothes pegs green for me - I'm making a wreath for my holiday cards:-)  Which reminds me, I'd better get the rest of mine into the mail, to encourage everyone to send me one!!!!!!!!