Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Loved Ones!

Freshly home from the Christmas Eve Service. For us, this is the start of Christmas!

Ready for bed in our matching Polar Bear PJs!

(an annual tradition inspired by some very clever friends)

Good Morning Rudolph!

Waiting for Daddy....

Caleb delivered us our stockings! Such a happy dude!

(Santa may not be a part of our Christmas morning, but we still do stockings!)

We break for breakfast after stockings. I made some snowman milk drinks to make it a little more special. They didn't make as big an impression on the dude as I had hoped....but he loved the donut.

How do you wrap an aquarium? Cut the flaps off a box, wrap it and plunk it on top! Worked like a charm!

Caleb has been asking for a fish for weeks now! We got him two guppies, each sporting some yellow. He immediately named them Shripareen and Shrimp. He has a way with names (remember his pillow pet TeaPoe?). We, (well, mostly Brian) woke up this morning (Boxing Day) to a dude insistent that his fish were starving and needed to be fed.

Daddy lurves his ice-cream! A lot!

It was a beautiful day with my dudes!

We played a lot with Caleb's new toys!

Our Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

Very excited to say that this one got made at home and was completely free of artificial food colouring. But the dude then got some m&ms later in the afternoon and we paid the price for that....

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!

(the cupcake was my gluten-free treat)

One of Caleb's favourite books, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We were winding down at this point and fighting the effects of the aforementioned m&ms. And let me just clarify, Caleb does not get naughty with food colouring, just extra hyper. And if you know our dude's energy levels, he doesn't need any help in that department!

Putting out our advent candles. I think the dude will miss the candles and advent calendars. He certainly will not be a happy dude when the trees come down...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

The Love of Christ

There are not any posts for last week; it was a rough week. Christmas does not mean that we are stuffed into a protective bubble that shields us from the real world. But it does remind us of the extraordinary love of our Saviour and of the hope and promises that can only be found in Him. Some of our dearest friends are truly suffering right now and our hearts are breaking for them. This is what made sitting down to blog extremely difficult. Mary, Ty, Charlie and Joy, and Angie, Todd and McKenna, you are forever in our thoughts and prayers. My friend Chrystal sent me an amazingly comforting note just before Christmas and her words have stuck with me, so I want to share them with everyone else: she prayed that we would find joy this Christmas season in the midst of reality. We love you all so very, very much.

It is kind of hard to switch gears, but last week did have some joyful moments. The most significant has to be the birth of Baby Elizabeth (Beth). My cousin Lavonne and her husband Mark welcomed their first child on Wednesday. Caleb has been the only child in the new generation on my side of the family for four years, and in the past three weeks has now been joined by Baby Matthew and Beth! How exciting! All December babies!!! Beth is the first girl! Congratulations Mark and Lavonne! I can't wait to meet your precious little treasure. She might be walking and talking before we get back north and she won't have a clue who I am, but I love her so much already!

Caleb is my forever source of joy and he was a wonderful distraction all last week. We kept up our holiday baking and he had so much fun decorating cookies to hand out to our friends. These are the moments we are meant to treasure.

A Trip to the North Pole

Caleb's friend, McKenna, invited him to go to the North Pole with her last night! We bundled up for the journey (since the North Pole in Richardson was still pretty darn chilly) and put a very excited little dude in our sleigh (aka the car).

Santa's Village was full of houses for the kids to visit, with elves in each one! There was a North Pole Fire Station, Police Station, Pet Shop, Hospital, Ornament Shop, Bakery, Reindeer Shed and oh-so-much more.....full of treats and activities for the visiting children! This is a genius set-up and totally free! Absolutely worth the trip all the way to the North Pole!

Jingle Bells!

Daddy got invited into the sleigh...while Mommy was told to be the reindeer and pull it!

Dalmations! The dude was in heaven!

Adorable! (and yes, I told him not to climb on anymore cutouts)

Open! Open! Open!

"Mommy! Mommy! Look! Look! Watch me! Are you watching? Whee!"

Caleb discovered the Grinch who Stole Christmas this year, so he was excited about this house...until he saw the Cat in the Hat person inside and refused to go in....

A Spontaneous Show of Love

Santa got extra points for showing up on a Firetruck with lights and horns and everything!

The Reindeer Shed! Caleb got a red stamp on his nose and reindeer food to put out on Christmas Eve.

Oh the joy to be had at the North Pole Fire Station! Isn't he super precious! LOVE HIM!

Getting a sleigh ride with some North Pole reindeer. They really got into this one!

FROSTY! Our dude loves his snowmen (or...as evidenced by the shoes and other things...snowwoman!).

A Christmas duck? Okay!

The pet shop had a petting zoo! What fun!

He looks a little mischevious! At this point it was bedtime and he was a non-stop ball of energy about to get a little grumpy...

Aww. How sweet.

Ahh. Joy.

Making his very glittery addition to our Christmas tree in the ornament shop. He chose a yellow tree. Are you surprised?

Thing 1 and Thing 2! Wowza!

Caleb wanted to see the Grinch...but not without some back-up!

Eight More Sleeps Y'All!

Our Week

We had a WONDERFUL week!

It was extremely laid back, restful and restorative. We all needed that!

Caleb and I went on a few playdates and played a lot of games. We would eat warm food in a room lighted only by our Christmas tree at night (is it just me, or is sitting in a room with a lighted tree the most relaxing thing in the world!) and bundle up in our pjs to drive around and look at Christmas lights when Daddy got home from work. Caleb even got a very special playdate on Friday when we went to see a friend that wasn't able to come to his party. She and her mom made him all sorts of treats, his favourite lunch and then sang happy birthday to him with four candles in a snowman-shaped donut!

But nothing could top our weekend! We stayed home and shut in! We cleaned the garage, played with toys and games and more toys. And on Sunday, we blew up our air mattress in the living room, piled it high with pillows and blankets and cuddled up for "Rockin' Robin" (what Caleb calls Robin Hood) with our popcorn and hidden special treats. It was blissful. We are looking forward to another week of the same thing...and another week...and another week. Our calendar is suddenly shockingly empty and we are in no hurry to change that for now! Love to you all! It's almost Christmas! Huzzah!

A quiet Sunday after his party playing with his trains...this never gets old.

Of course we have to show Trevor our creation the next day! Note that Caleb decided Monday was a pj day. I didn't argue with him.

Caleb found our Canadaopoly game on Saturday morning and promptly insisted we teach him how to play. We are now considering Monopoly Jr for our little genius. And yes. I love monopoly!

Caleb loves to Facetime with Baby Matthew on our IPad. Dad sent this picture they took of our dude checking out his new cousin.

Our movie lounge. It was fantastic and cuddly and perfection!

We pray that Caleb will treasure these memories always!