Magical Days

Ahhh.....the magical days after Christmas. In our family we have called the days between Christmas and News Years the "magical days", there is no school, I'm at home from work and so is daddy. We sleep in, we stay up late, we read, and we eat (that's the bad part). Santa always puts a Terry's Chocolate Orange in everyone"s stocking. A wonderful indulgence.

Santa also brought some Wii games, so we are all trying to perfect them!

We didn't have a white Christmas this year, but we have had wonderfully sunny, clear, frosty mornings, which is almost as good. Hope everyone is enjoying their magical days until the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Peace, love, and joy always.

Merry Christmas to family and friends near and far!

December 2009

December is half done, it's almost Christmas, and I can't believe I haven't written a single thing yet! December is a crazy month for everyone everywhere. There are school concerts to see, cards to write , cookies to make the night before a class party, gifts to make and or buy, parties to attend or to prepare for, and a tree to find! I mentioned in an earlier post that we pick out or tree the weekend after Hallowe'en. Last weekend we headed out to get our perfect tree, cut it down and bungee cord it to the car.

Once it was cut, we realized it was a beast of a tree, with a huge girth. (a precursor to trouble) We had a bit of a hard time tying it down to the car...this never happened before! We had a harder time getting it into the house, remember I said huge girth! Once up in the tree stand, we stood back to admire it ...it fell over. Good grief!


Up it went again, hopefully more stable. It looked great. The kids decorated it with great skill, the lights were on and it looked fabulous. We were having an open house party the next day so we wanted it to be perfect. The party was fun, lots to eat and good friends to share it with. The day went on the kids went to bed and we watched the news before going to bed. Then it happened......the tree fell on us, again! WE learned our lesson and tied the tree to the curtain rod! Now here is our tree in all it's glory!

Tic- Toc

Tic -toc goes the official Olympic clock counting down the days, hours and seconds until the 2010 Olympic Winter Games start. It's amazing how fast time does go by.
Ten years ago January, I was diagnosed with melanoma, it was caught early which is good. and every year since then, I visit my dermatologist to get "checked" over. My doctor is downtown Vancouver so I make a day of it. Since my appointment is in November, I do a little Christmas shopping, have lunch, and just enjoy being downtown! The Olympic clock is in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, so I had to get a picture of that.
This time after my appointment I had a surprise. My cell phone rang, and it was my husband waiting for me outside the building! Totally unexpected.....I love his unexpected surprises! We had a latte, did some shopping and back to work he went.
Relieved that my check up went well, and happy about my surprise visit , I went home.
Remember though, you know your own body the best... if you notice anything different, get it checked out!

November 13th, 2009

Well November has been the typical west coast November so far. Wind and rain. I love wind, and I love going down to the beach to watch the waves. I do miss the cold frosty mornings we had when living in Ontario. November there was a bit of a tease. Will it snow? And if it did will it stay?

So when I saw this outside one morning on our deck, I had to take a picture of it, a bit of a tease!

Daddy celebrated his birthday on Friday the 13th. Banana spice cake is his favourite!

There were two Pro-D days after Remembrance Day , so on one of those days I took the kids down town on the new Canada Line, to see the Olympic Village where the athletes will be staying during the 2010 Winter Olympics. It's still not quite finished yet, but impressive none the less.

Hello November

Well November has arrived, and in our part of the world, the west coast of British Columbia, that means rain is on it's way. Don't get me wrong, we do get the really nice sunny days with mild temperatures, but November signals wind/rain storms and when the rain comes it makes everything seem kind of blah! On the up side of blah, that means cozy days/evenings, fires, red wine, and cocoa for the kids!
Over the past few years one of our family traditions after Hallowe'en is to scout our Christmas tree. We have been going to this ma-and-pa tree farm eagerly looking for the perfect Christmas tree to bring home in about 6 weeks. It always turns out to be a really fun outing. We play hide-and -go-seek amongst the trees, and play with the dog that lives on the farm.

On our way home we stopped at Red Wood Park. It's always a nice walk on the trails, and this time we saw an owl! Over the past years the kids have named this tree "The 100 Acre Wood Tree". It is actually a Bigleaf Maple, and it's huge!

Here are Natalie, Ben and Amelia playing peek-a-boo behind Bigleaf Maple leaves!

October

October so far has been great. My in laws drove all the way from Ontario to visit us for two weeks. I would love to do that drive with and without the kids. Our weather has been fantastic, loads of sunshine and warmish temperatures. I'm knitting something I saw on Leslie's post. I figured it didn't look too hard and it looks great too. I'm also knitting Ben's socks on my lunch break at work! I love it, it's a bit of "me time" in a crazy day!

We celebrated Thanksgiving.

Got that chick-a-dee feeling.

And celebrated 14years together!