December 31st, 2014 - the 7th day of Christmas:-)

Kea was getting all ready to head out for a New Year's Eve sleepover (my baby is growing up, and starting to grow away from us!!!......) and so I told her I needed to take her last portrait of the year before I drove her into town.  Of course, Ry had to get into the action:-) 

Can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that it's the last day of 2014 today.  I'm wanting to clean the house from top to bottom.  To gather up 52 favourite portraits of the kids from this year and share them.  To finish a couple of projects I wanted to get done.  But instead I'm sitting here, uploading photos.....ahhhhhh procrastination!!!!  In the end, perhaps I'll gather the kids up and take them skiing - or finish working on the sauna so we can try that out in the new year.  We'll see........either way, I hope everyone is having a fabulous final day of the year, and we'll see you on the other side! xo

December 30th, 2014 - the 6th day of Christmas

Today Jamie hung up all of the instagram photos I had printed out for him......I opted to go with Sticky9 as they were having a big sale, and I would totally use them again.  Love the way the photos turned out, and was impressed with how quickly I got them in the mail.  I opted to go onto various peoples' instagram accounts, so I could have some of my favourite photos of theirs, and also made a point of having a bunch of Kea's and Jamie's photos - so fun to see their eyes:-)  It's very fun to see them all hanging on the wall, and it's inspired the others in the family to start taking more photos!!!!  The top three here are from Jamie, from his work travels to the east coast.  Crazy how wonky that propeller looks, huh?!

Family photo, then a brilliant shot of Vernon's shadow, and a photo of our front niche....

A self portrait of Jamie in St. John's (LOVE this shot!), our car on the road trip, and then Ry running from dinosaurs:-)

The kids on my cousin Paul's side by side, and then another self portrait of Jamie on the east coast.

My favourite family portrait of all time, of my friend Mona and her adorable family - and another of her and Otis:-)  And then chilly memories of a day last winter with Anja in New Haven (during Jamie's and my frigid adventures just outside of Boston - freezing ocean waves and freezing winds, oy!)

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Kea's self portrait, a shot of her heading off on her first (of many, I'm sure!) overseas adventure without us, her and Gram on the London eye.....and I guess a double of me and Anja.  Cause I guess I love the photo THAT much!!!!!  This is just a small sampling of all the photos we now have hanging on our wall - I need to find a more permanent place, but for now I love walking down the hallway and seeing these:-)

So many happy, fun memories - and looking forward to making so many more:-)

December 29th, 2014 - 5th day of Christmas:-)

Another day of mainly puttering around the house.  The kids have been going to play dates, or having friends/cousins over, and Jamie and I have been heading out for walks regularly, but for the most part we're really enjoying the down time to veg.  Working on house projects (we've been meaning to put this shelf around the bath FOREVER now.  Evidently today was the day!), spending hours in the kitchen to fill our freezer and stuff our bellies....

D.S. games were played

A second chess set was painted for cousins

Laundry soap was made - and the rocks are in the bottom of little planters that Jamie is creating to hopefully grow herbs all along our kitchen counter - we'll see how that works:-)

The cloth we bought so many years ago in Rajasthan was also finally hung, high up in our bedroom

Tiegan started on some fun scarves, guess I'll be pulling out my sewing machine soon....

And she's been obsessed with covering washers with nail polish and creating fun necklaces a la Pintrest:-)  The jewelry making kit seems to have been a big hit:-)

And the bathroom reveal - I LOVE it, and can't wait to hop in at the end of each day:-)  

December 28, 2014 - the fourth day of Christmas

The Almonte arena has a series of free skates this holiday season (sponsored by our local Tim Horton's) and so we've been trying to make it out as much as possible.  I LOVE that Kea still holds Jamie's hands as they skate around and chat!

We brought Cam with us today, and he showed off his awesome new skating skills.....love watching these boys growing older together:-)

Tiegan was really upset that Kea didn't find new skates that fit her, thus meaning she needed to wear her old ones and Tiegan therefore could not wear Kea's.  So she opted to sit in the bleachers sulking rather than skating (even when Kea took her skates off half way through and offered Tiegan a turn with them) - and I opted not to take a photo of said sulking child.  I'm sure I had the same stubborn streak as a child, and Jamie comments that he too shares similar memories......but as an adult, it just seems like such a silly waste of a good hour.  Oh well........all was made right in the world once more with a little candy cane hot chocolate for the ride home:-)

December 27th, 2014 - the third day of Christmas:-)

Today was a day in which I read a bit of my book, enjoyed a luxurious mid-afternoon nap and the kids pulled out their fancy new spinning toothbrushes from their stockings......Santa is super worried about dental hygiene, you know:-)

December 26th, 2014 - the second day of Christmas:-)

We've been snacking on leftovers all day long - and enjoying these homemade crackers (soooooo good!) with walnut mushroom dip, and olive dip (and just a wee bit of cheese - double yum!)  

Watching Sherlock Holmes, having hot baths, calling friends and family far and wide, lazing about all day long in our pj's - I LOVE boxing day as much as, if not more than, Christmas day:-)

December 25th, 2014 - the first day of Christmas:-)

On the first day of Christmas, we opened presents, and were well, well spoiled!  Ry was super excited this year, 7 seems to be a peak age for Christmas excitement, and he had Tiegan up by about 6:30 to  check out the stockings.  Luckily we were able to stay in bed until 7:30 - stockings were opened, eggs and bacon were eaten for breakfast and then we enjoyed a leisurely morning of opening gifts....

Ry REALLY wanted a spy kit for Christmas, and we had a lot of fun putting this together.  The biggest hit, for sure, was the spy glasses with little mirrors on outsides of the lenses, so he can see what's going on behind him.....

Tiegan got a jewellry making kit, with instructions printed out for a bunch of neat jewellry ideas.  I see a winter full of crafting ahead for all of us....

And Kea, of course, got a vampire slaying kit:-)  Doesn't every 14 year old need one of these?!!!!

We've been watching a bit of Buffy together.....

I also found these awesome Time Warp magnets for her room - 

Jamie got a lot of practical stuff in his stocking, like various sizes of screws as he's always running out, and a pepper grinder to replace the one that was broken.  However, I did make him up some Trufallo Trees to sit on his shelf at work - alongside his wooden Lorax from another year:-)

And Jamie made me this family binder for our mapping/Clyde River project, and family canoeing trips. I LOVE it, and can't wait for canoe weather:-)

He copied out various pages of Clyde River maps

He put a bunch of various canoe routes/maps in folders, and created a Legend that we can use when labelling our maps

And also researched a whole bunch of new paddling songs for us to learn!!!!!!  This  year is definitely going to be the year of canoeing for us:-)

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out.  We went for a long walk, talked to loved ones on the phone, had a nice long mid-afternoon bath.......Jamie spent hours putting together this crazy marble run that Ry got from Nana Heather, cursing it along the way:-)

Kea helped Ry get through a new DS game 

Tiegan was in heaven sorting, with a bunch of new beads

And Kea got these new pants from Nana Heather - she seems to think they're hideous, and the rest of us are super jealous of them:-)

We roasted a turkey and enjoyed it with mashed yams, roasted brussel sprouts, cranberries, gravy and green beans - a feast fit for kings to be sure 

Hope you all had a most Merry Christmas, and like us, are now looking forward to the much quieter days leading up to New Years Eve......

December 24, 2014

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here:-)

The kids have finished decorating the gingerbread house - Jamie created the stencils to build our house, and then the kids completely covered it in goopy icing and candy:-)  Ry can't wait to get his teeth on it.....

The tree has been decorated - 

I had picked a bunch of Queen Anne's Lace this summer, and dried it in our pantry - and it worked out awesome for the tree:-)  Think I'm going to do this every year......

The stockings are hung on the tree with care - 

Made my first batch of homemade eggnog.  Yum.  Or at least, 3 out of 5 of us think so:-)

The kids brought home home-made candy canes from a play date.  Very fun!

Mulled wine is infusing the house, and filling my belly.......

Ryland FINALLY got to set up his favourite angel candles.  I LOVE magical little touches of the season like this:-)

Nana Heather came for dinner tonight, and she wanted a photo of all the grandkids in the new pj's she bought them.  Miraculously we got them all to sit down for enough time to take a couple of shots:-)  

Night Before Christmas has been read, letter has been written to santa along with cookies and milk, kids are tucked into bed, the gifts are wrapped, the stockings are stuffed and it is now time for bed.  Good night everyone, I hope you have a magic-filled Christmas!  And may the forecast of rain be wrong, so that we wake up to a fresh coating of rain instead of more slush and puddles:-)  Merry merry to one and all xo