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During this past Christmas week, we have had a lot of fun celebrating in many ways. It was great to spend time with friends, family and sometimes with just our own little family experiencing the Christmas season.

We went to Stanley Park to see all of their magnificent lights and displays as well as ride on their Christmas train. There were lights everywhere. Leah enjoyed seeing all the displays and lights, especially those that moved and twinkled.

We bought tickets for the earliest train we could which was 9:30 pm. We had lots to time to kill so we checked out the petting zoo and found entertainment for Leah wherever we could. Here she is ‘driving’ an antique tractor before checking out the animals.

There were also some animals that weren’t in the petting zoo that Leah enjoyed looking at as well. It was a little scary how not afraid of people these raccoons were.

Though we had to wait a long time, the train was worth it. My favourite part is the lights that reflect almost perfectly onto the pond.

We went with some friends to see the nativity scenes set up with narration at the local Anglican church. They have nine scenes with narration set up in the back property of their church. After hearing the story of Jesus’ birth and life, they treat you to cookies and hot chocolates with live music. They are always so friendly and help bring the first Christmas to the forefront of my mind. Though I didn’t get any great shots of the displays, here is a cute one of Leah while walking to the next display.

Christmas eve we spent with my family at my parent’s house. My sister in law along with her mom visiting from Denmark made us a wonderful, traditional, Danish, Christmas meal. We had pork roast, red cabbage and caramel potatoes with a rice pudding with warm cherries on top for dessert.

In the pudding there is chopped almonds with one whole almond. Whoever finds the whole almond in their pudding gets a marzipan pig. It is so simple but brought many laughs around the dessert table.

Here is Grandpa teaching Leah how to ride her new, red tricycle. It is just like the one I remember having as a kid. She will need a bit of practise before she learns how to make it go on her own but I’m sure it will bring many hours of enjoyment.

This is Leah’s classic move when asked to say hooray. Both hands optional.

The highlights from Grandma and Grandad’s were watching the train go around the track, listening and watching the musical boxes and wearing her fun, new sunglasses for three seconds before taking them off.

I took the girls on their first field trip to Krause Farms with a couple of other moms and their kids. We had lots of fun browsing, singing and eating together enjoying the festivities of Christmas. They had a gigantic teddy bear that all the kids loved. He received many hugs and pats along with eye and nose pokes that day.

My mom helped me out a lot that day. I think Leah and her friends were also happy to see a grandma around as they got special treats before lunch. Her is some of the leftover icing from Leah’s gingerbread man.

We put the kids all over the place (on top of an old farm wagon, on a deck of a tiny, cute house) and tried to take some pictures before they got upset, ran away or put themselves in danger. Here is one of Leah and Gabby hanging out with the greenery. I have one of Leah in the same spot last year. Maybe this will have to be a new tradition.

Gingerbread families don’t mind if their houses get a little drafty do they? At least it isn’t made with any preservatives or funky ingredients which I’m sure makes for a safer house, especially for those gingerbread babes.

At least Morgan’s step nephews didn’t seem to mind. I don’t think they even noticed as they were too busy supporting caramel chimneys with m&ms and figuring out how much candy they could fit on a roof.

Nice job boys.

Sometimes I have an idea what I want to do with Leah and her friends on any given day but most of the time we make it up as we go. Today I was up for a challenge and found these stockings already precut from my daycare days. Colouring and decorating these stockings was now on the agenda. I’m happy to report it worked out very well.

Leah didn’t want the stockings on the mantel for reasons I’m still not sure of so they didn’t stay there for long. She didn’t want to stay around for long either.

This is our second experience with glue and went remarkably better than the first. The first time I let Leah and Gabby use glue, they were annoyed when I showed them how one piece of paper could stick to another. After placing some paper on the glue, they would tear it off and wanted nothing to do with it. This time they left their creations in tack. Leah still ran her finger across the glue stick and then rubbed it onto her cheek but all in all it was a success.

…at least she is cute so she can get away with it. Right?

I have an amazing ‘mommy group’ of friends who I first met when all of our babes were only six weeks old. Though most of the moms have gone back to work, we still try get together as a big group once a month to visit. For our Christmas get together, we decided to invite the dads as well as do a secret Santa with gifts for the kids.

I got Leah all dressed up, wrapped up a gift, packed some goodies and off we went. That last sentence made it sound excessively easy. The real story involved trying to entertain a kid in a store full of toys and then trying to get her away from said toys, a mad dash in the morning to find tights and shoes at the local mall, staying up late to finish her dress and bringing food that was pulled out of the oven merely minutes before departure. Did I mention the event started at 10 am? And that is was my great idea to start at ten so my darling daughter could happily survive a couple of hours with her friends before lunch and nap time meltdowns occur?

It was all so worth it as we all had a great time. I tried to get some pics in front of the tree which I counted successful as we have some active toddlers. There are both in the shot and you can see their faces.

Each of the kids got a special gingerbread man cookie with their name on it. Very cool Mrs. Laura! Leah really enjoyed her sweets that morning.

Leah received a funky yellow and pink school bus that makes noise. She absolutely loves it as did the other kids that morning. I’m also very thankful the noise is a quiet, tolerable noise as well.

Leah understands presents more this year and is thrilled after opening one. She sees no need for another which I think is a great thought she should hold for many years to come.

We also enjoyed the great time with daddy. Morgan was teaching her how to play t-ball and you can see her excitement.

Christmas is special for so many reasons but I think it is accentuated so much when you have a child. The joy they bring is amazing and to share it with friends is gold.

A few weeks ago, I woke up to this sight out of my back window. What a great way to start the day.

When Leah wakes up, she loves to hang out with her buddies and check out our Christmas tree. She is pretty good about not taking the decorations off the tree and ignores most of the presents. I’m not sure why, but the present for her Uncle Mike is her favourite to tote around the living room. It is not breakable so I let her play with it as she loves to pull the tissue paper in and out.

I had a lot of fun decorating this year for Christmas as we now have lots of space. On top of our mantel I put some greens from our back yard along with some leftover greens from wreath making.

I made up some pretty vases for my kitchen window along with one to grace my bathroom counter.

We found this nativity set at the flea market a few weeks ago. They are supposed to be tree ornaments but I like to use them in a nativity scene instead. I cut up some butcher paper in small strips and adding some greens and, voila, some hay and a shepherd’s field.

In our apartment, we had a little tree that we used a large vase for instead of a tree stand. This year we decided to go big as we now have the room.

Merry Christmas!

Leah and her friends are growing up so fast. Though the developmental progress they make they days isn’t always as obvious as their first year, it is impressive none the less. Along with their increased independence, comes new activities we can do together.

I let the girls have fun ‘stirring’ some cookie dough as I added the ingredients before letting the mixer finish off the job. Their stirring was more like forcefully pounding their spoons up and down in the bowl. They also enjoyed trying some of the butter and sugar mixture that accidentally made its way on to the table out of the bowl.

Even though the temperature outside has dropped considerably, we still like to go and enjoy the park.

We generally do not stay out for long but it is a lovely break from the indoors.

A few mornings a week I have three nineteen month olds hanging out with me which makes for a fun, busy day. I waited and put off having three at a time for quite a few months as I was worried about how it would go. It is a lot easier than I thought as all the kids are great.

The one challenging point is getting them all down the stairs when we go outside. It is a little more difficult for them as well when they are dressed from head to toe for the cold weather as well. I have worked out a system and it seems to be working well. We generally hang out in the backyard on my busy days and are eagerly awaiting getting our own, small playground.

Since they don’t generally all finish lunch at the same time and I like to keep them all together, we have started a new routine. While they are waiting for their friends to finish up, they can look through books. It is something every daycare I worked in did to keep the fast eaters occupied with a quiet activity before rest time. The only difference is I keep the kiddies strapped in while they browse as they are still pretty young. It has worked out well so far on my busy days. She had a friend on either side of her when I took this picture.

Though they are growing older, I think apple sauce will still be a favourite for a long time to come.

Yum Yum!

As we are gearing up for Christmas this year, my mind wandered to last year with Leah and how much she has changed. If you want to take a trip down our family’s memory lane, last year’s blog post can be found here.

We went to my grandparent’s tree farm again but instead of looking for a small tree that wouldn’t overtake our apartment, we were on the search for the biggest tree that would fit without touching our ceiling. Leah was able to trudge around the farm for awhile until she got a little irritated with the mud, uneven ground, rain and wind. She certainly loved being in Daddy’s arms.

I love their matching outfits though it definitely wasn’t planned. I don’t think that far ahead unless our sole purpose of the outing is trying to get a nice family picture. I apparently didn’t receive the memo but don’t you think you need some red since it is Christmas and all.

After the several, tiresome treks around the farm to find the perfect tree, we headed over to Krause’s for some corn chowder and hot chocolate to warm up and spend some time with friends.

Once we got home, Morgan and I took the tree off of the roof rack on the car to bring it into the house while Leah slept in her car seat. Once the tree made it into the kitchen, Leah woke up in time for the excitement of trying to get a massive tree into the living room and standing straight and tall.

Leah was terrified of the tree when it was laying down. I had to hold her while trying to help Morgan move the tree around the house. Once we got the tree in the stand, she was okay with it. Now she seems to enjoy the tree just enough (she looks and touches gently but doesn’t try pull the decorations off).

It really feels like Christmas now. Usually I don’t do anything beside a bit of shopping before December 1st but this year it felt great to get it done. We are having Morgan’s family’s big Christmas get together next week here so now we are ready. Hopefully I can make a wreath sometime this week then we will be all set for Christmas except for a few gifts and cards.

Last weekend there was a delightful, Christmas festival in White Rock that I decided to take Leah to. Morgan was at home working on some of his projects while we checked everything out. There were many artisans selling their wares while choirs and musical groups filled the air with the sounds of Christmas. Many people were dressed up like it was an authentic Victorian Christmas which really added to the ambiance.

Leah and I hung out in the kid’s zone for a bit though Leah was pretty shy and stayed by my side. We had some fun playing together with the large exercise balls before doing making an adorable reindeer headband.

Leah had her face painted as well and got a red nose to match her headband. After the craft time, we went outside to hold our electric candle and be part of a processional with Mary and Joseph along with a donkey and miniature horse.

It was a great first year for the festival and I am definitely looking forward to going next year with the family as they have something for everyone. What a great, new tradition.

That was the best caption I can think of. Share what you would name this photo.