Christmas Preparations

 

 

As soon as JA's birthday was over we shifted gears and turned our attention completely over to Christmas and all the fun preparations!  Our elf Chippey arrived Dec.1st and the kids were so excited.  T and I kind of wish we had an elf all year long, the kids have actually bounced out of bed most mornings so excited to look for him opposed to my usual tired and grouchy kids who are so not morning people.  Chippey mostly just moved from shelf to shelf staying out of WR's grasp but here are a few days he was a bit more fun

 This one took a few hrs to discover!

 At the start of December I got to join AL's class for snow shoeing!  The school bought a few class sets of shoes so it was fun to try them out in the field.  I haven't gotten much chance to ever join in for field trips or anything cause of a little WR but with Grandma close by I was able to get her to watch him while he napped.  I had so much fun (once my fingers recovered from doing up all those snow shoes lol)

 The kids loved it and burned off some serious energy

 The afternoon after JA's party was done we headed over to a classmates house to decorate Christmas cookies.  I have gotten to know a Mom from school the past few years as her daughters have been in both my children's classes.  Anyway, her and a group of friends go downtown and stand outside the homeless shelter every Sunday night and hand out baking to the patrons who stand in line for hrs (500 plus people) hoping to get a bed that night.  She organized a special afternoon to make treats and cards and although it was a busy day I really wanted to let my kids be part of it.  It took some major restraint not to eat a single cookie and I think it made the gift of the cookies that much sweeter for my kids. (JA has mastered the art of decorating his cookies to the extreme ;)

 Two days later for FHE I promised the kids we would make cookies to deliver to friends and to let them get a few samples this time.  This was the messiest cookie making ever lol.  I kept having to remind myself we were making memories!

 After Dad got home from work we started doing some fantastic decorating! Notice his hand crafted cookies he made lol.

 

 

 The kids decided to deliver cookies and a thank you to their primary teachers whom they love.

 This guy has loved every minute of the snow and gorgeous weather

A few days later the CPR Holiday Train rolled into town.  My boys are the biggest train fans.  JA has an equal love for police and has decided he will combine his two loves and start the first ever police train when he grows up ;)  Anyway, the train didn't arrive until 7:45pm and concert at 8:15pm so T and JA went on a date.  It did not dissapoint in the least.

 

 My Mom and I set to work on an all day almond roca making marathon.  We managed to make 10 batches!  It was so much work but so much easier with a helping hand, especially to help keep my little man from getting in the way and getting burned during it!  T needed 20 bags of treats for his staff and then we still had lots leftover to give friends and neighbors.

 The end product

 Plus all of this.  We normally toss it outside a few mins to harden but it proved tricky with plus 8C Temps.

 That evening the kitchen was still busy with the Cubs.  Myself and my wonderful assistant had made a ton of cookies and we set to work with the boys to decorate them.  Actually we only had 2 boys show up and 4 leaders which was funny but we got it all done.  The following week we deliverd them and the boys loved ringing the doorbells and running before they were discovered.

 My kids loved being part of Cubs for the first time ever

 Throughout the month AL was busy practicing all of her songs for choir for the Christmas concert.  This was my favorite one.  I love that they still include the birth of Christ in it!

 The next night we went to the Legislature grounds and took in the gorgeous lights

 We went in (through some mega security - a huge change from the past but understandable) and we listened to a children's symphony and drank hot cocoa

 Then we wandered around outside listening to the carols playing.  It was perfect.

 The following day poor WR was sick.  First time in a good 7 months which is amazing compared to last year.  In fact my kids haven't had so much as a sniffle (thank you to our vitamins, probiotics, hand washing etc, we needed this after last winter).  Thankfully he can communicate now and could tell me "owies ears" and so we headed to the walk in.  It was a 5 hr wait but they let us sign in and leave and we kept checking back.  T took the kids skating for the first time this year so WR and I popped in to take a pic while waiting to head back to the doctors.  It was fun watching them from the warmth of the club house.

 The following night we hosted a birthday dinner for T's brother and JA who had the December birthdays.  It actually turned into a family Christmas celebration with T's mom, sister and neice (and hubby) all out of town for the holidays.  I tried this OBB chocolate peppermint cake and it was yummy!

 All set and ready for the guests to arrive (I'm terrible at taking pics when T's family comes so I figured I would snag one before)

 I did snap one of the kids playing with the train sets from their Auntie with Grandma and Uncle A.

 T's mom has been asking for years for a family birthday sign so she can keep it all straight and thanks to my talented friend who made the main sign we got it all done (just a few days later then the party).  It turned out great though and she loved it.

 I love having talented friends and bought these gorgeous infinity scarves for a few of the ladies in my life.  My niece loved the mustard one she got that night (and thankfully my family doesn't read my blog so I can post the rest lol)

 The next week the big focus was the Christmas concerts!  The school holds 8 concerts and tues and wed were the k-gr2.  AL is in the choir so she attended both nights.  JA's class performed tues and AL's wed.  T and I got a great seat and absolutley loved the show together tuesday night.  We were so proud of these two!

 JA has some mega anxiety over things like this but he did unreal.  His little ears were beat red the entire time but he sang and danced the full hr.

 The choir was adorable and busted out kazoos in the middle of their Merry Christmas song!

 The following night my mom and I accompanied AL back to school for her show.  I expected a repeat of the night before.  Her choir songs were beautiful and then she joined her class for the show.

 In the middle of the show however the fire alarm was pulled and all heck broke lose.  Zero direction from anyone in charge, kids crying and freezing outside, etc.  After waiting for a bit minus boots AL and Grandma went to the car.  It turns out a toddler pulled the alarm (ugh).  Anywho, I was able to get AL's winter gear from the building and the plan was to restart the show but at almost 8pm AL just wanted to leave so we did, can't blame her after 4 shows at that point!

 The next day I got lucky and was able to help in JA's class for their Christmas party of crafts and a treat.  I hadn't spent time in his class before and was blown away with how amazing he is.  His fine motor is a struggle but he did so great with all the crafts and as I observed so many other kids in his class struggle and he didn't I felt so much better about where he is at.  He is also so well behaved!  His teacher is so sweet and loving and just poured out the sweetness as she opened each gift from her students.

 This kids refuses to give a normal smile lol

 In the middle of it all, Santa came bursting through the doors!!! Such a fun morning to have Daddy home so I could help out.  At the end the teacher asked me to come up and read the kids a story.  Not going to lie, in that moment I missed being a teacher in a big way.

During this week we also started our twelve days of Christmas count down.  For super saturday at church (which I missed for cub training) they made adorable advent calendars and hooked me up with one after.  I found a simple scripture advent for children that focuses on one character in the nativity each day so I loaded each piece of the advent with a little description, a scripture and a picture.  The kids haved loved it.

 

 We also have loved trips like this to the mailbox!  And heck even trips to my own doorstep that has been littered with treats and cards from friends.  We are truly lucky people.

 That night we headed to Candy Cane Lane and walked the entire thing.  The kids were troopers and the lights gorgeous!

 The next night, Christmas officially began.  I joined my parents at 10pm and picked up my brother from the airport.

 The kids have a big time hero worship of my brother.  They are loving their time together.  Building policeman lego with him was pretty surreal for JA!

 Almost caught up lol - Yesterday we headed to the lake and got in some serious skating.  WR got to try skates for the first time.  It was wobble and adorable and he loved it.  Eventually we swapped skates for boots and ran around.

 JA is loving hrs on end of hockey on the lake with all the big kids.  Him and Dad are working hard to convince me to let him play in a league next yr.

 They got the lake all cleared and set up a big pleasure rink on the left and two hockey rinks on the right along with the man made rink by the club house.  4 hrs later my kids came home (lots of refueling with hot cocoa along the way)

 Last night we enjoyed the tradition of watching the live nativity and heading to my sister's house for yummy thai food.  So fun.

 WR got some puppy love

We are loving every minute of the season and can't wait for all the week holds!