Our 12 Days of Christmas {2014 Edition}

I have been wanting to share our Christmas festivities but I must have been too busy enjoying them to do so.

Now here I am, December 31st mere hours to midnight, feeling the need to squeeze all this in before the New Year hits.

1. Ballet.  

The Christmas recital for Alberta Ballet Edmonton Studios included our BFF Charlie this year.

Fiona was also more than ready to attend Alberta Ballet's Nutcracker and loved every minute of it.

 2. Gingerbread house making at Gram and Grandpa's.

 3. Festival of Lights at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.

 4. The Legislature grounds.

Cedric was focused less on the lights and more on eating snow.

Fiona was focused less on lights and more on climbing snow.

 5. Candy Cane Lane.

We always love the lights but were especially taken by the sweet people who decided to give their time to play Santa (on the left in case you weren't sure) handing out candy canes and 3 friends who bought toys to hand out to the kids walking on the lane.

We were blown away by this generosity.

 6. Visiting Santa.

 Love that guy.

 7. JCI Holiday Hamper.

This was our first year participating and it was our partner Chloe who organized it.

It was a humbling and heart warming day and an organization we would support again.

8. Christmas Eve was at our house this year.

I loved having ample time to set out our cookies and carrots.

9. A month worth of early mornings and late nights with background Christmas lights.

10. A beautiful, magical and lazy Christmas morning.

11. A beautiful, magical and exhausting multi location Christmas day.

We enjoyed 2 turkey dinners and lots of love.

Small traditions like the angel carousel below gave the day extra magic.

12. Christmas aftermath.

On boxing day we headed to the lake for some much needed decompressing.

Just like last year we shovelled a rink on the lake and broke out the skates.

The kids were significantly more confident and begged us to get out again.

I brought the tripod out and attempted a family picture.

One small hitch, 10 seconds is not long to walk over snow from the camera to the shot when you're wearing hockey skates.

The result is a shot where I'm holding my 4 year old for support and, you know, I love it.

BONUS

13. A Christmas miracle.

My sweet boy decided on Dec 22nd that he was done with diapers.

Not just wants-to-wear-underwear done but meltdown-when-we-tried-to-give-him-a-nightime-diaper done.

So we obliged {and frantically re-read the "3 Day Potty Training" manual} and never looked back.

By Christmas Eve he went the day with only one accident and on Christmas morning he woke up dry.

No you didn't hear wrong, dry!

I'm not counting my chickens just yet, this isn't my first kick at the can you know.

We could just as easily go backward but I am so proud of my guy.

He made this decision completely on his own and with a little help {thanks Gram and Grandma} rocked it.

I hope you had a great Christmas and are having a beautiful New Year celebration.

CP Holiday Train

Now this was awesome.

 Thanks CP Railway for the Holiday Train.

 The show was a little late for us so we ducked out after walking the length of the train but that was perfect.

This was a great event, can't wait to see it again in 2016.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...Christmas!

I have a weekend trip to Toronto to share but that task seems a little daunting for a Sunday night.

Instead I am posting some pictures of the weekend.

We started it off right with a Friday night swim with our youngest friend Olivia.

Saturday began with Fiona's ballet dress rehearsal.

Her third dance recital is taking place next week and they are cute cute cute.

 In the afternoon we took in the Festival of Frozen Trees with our besties.

{There may have been a few Elsa, Anna and Olafs.}

 The new story corner was a welcome addition.

 And of course cookie decorating is a must.

 Cedric needed a little decorating help but had no problem completing the eating portion solo.

 We took in what we could of the decorations while running between children events.

 This was our first year sending Fiona in to the "secret kids only shopping".

In the whirlwind of figuring out how much money she needed and accidentally letting Cedric slip in behind her we failed to explain that this was her chance to buy Christmas gifts for others.

That's ok I thought, there are elf helpers in there, they'll explain it to her.

When she came out with that cheeky smile on her face, however, I just knew she had found some treasures for her own collection.

I know her so well.

In that moment I felt a mixture of emotions.

She was so happy and excited so I wanted to share that with her.

At the same time I felt like I had failed her.

I hadn't equipped her properly, not only for that shopping spree but for life.

Had I created a materialistic, selfish child?

Hadn't we discussed at length what the true spirit of Christmas was?

I expressed this to Jeff on our way to dinner.  He didn't disagree but kept fairly quiet.

After a lovely dinner my sweet child, who had behaved so well in the restaurant, said out of the blue "Mommy, I just love you."

I wanted to cry that I had doubted for even a split second the character of this wonderful little person.

I had forgotten that she is 4. 

{Four and a HALF she would say.}

I leaned to Jeff and said that I thought I had been too harsh in my initial reaction.

He said "no, not at all" of course {smart guy} but chuckled a little and I knew that he knew that I knew he had known that all along {smart guy}.

 This is one of the best shots I could get of Charlie all night.

The kid just does not stay still!

On Sunday we headed to our favourite tree lot at the U of A to visit those trusty Forest Society students.

We browsed the trees and I thought of picking a pine with those nice long needles or a sparse Charlie-Brown-looking douglas fir but we just kept coming back to our tried and true Balsam.

And the students approved, saying that it gives off the best smell and lasts the longest.

They're the experts you know.

Cedric was a big help carrying the tree.

 Fiona helped by cheesing up the lot.

 But the real smiles came when the candy canes were busted out.

I'm telling you, we just love those forestry students.

 They sawed the bottom and even offered to load it on the car.

 We declined since we were all prepared-like with bungee cords this year.

Fancy, I know.

  I forgot to get the shot of the tree loaded up at the lot which gave me the perfect excuse to get our lights in the background.

Christmas is officially in full swing over here.

Our 12th Day of Christmas

On our twelfth day of Christmas the big day was all done.

We headed to the lake for resting and fun.

I can't decide if I love the lead up, the actual day or the aftermath of Christmas more.

It was all fabulous but our time at the cabin was the perfect way to decompress after the bustle.

Our gift to each of the littles was a pair of skates.

 We braved the -20C weather and laced up as soon as possible.

 I was impressed with both the kids but especially Fiona.

After 5 minutes of help from Daddy, she insisted that she could "do myself".

She has actually been blowing me away lately with her courage and determination.

I was, and continue to be, immensely proud.

 We came in to warm up by the fire with hot chocolate {a smidgen of Baileys for Mama} and a game of Crazy Eights.

 We always manage to forget something and are forced to head down to the general store.

 I'm so glad we did since I would have hated to miss their sweet decor.

Our days ended with forts...

...candles...

 ...and on our last night some extra excitement.

This was the only picture I was able to capture of all the kids during the Lairds' visit.

It was non-stop shenanigans and laughs.

Just the way we like it.

Our 11th Day of Christmas

Our eleventh day of Christmas was the big event.

It was great, it went too fast and we're spent.

Yep, that about sums it up.

From Christmas Eve dinner and gifts at my parents...

...to setting out cookies, milk and carrots...

...to trying to get a nice pic of the kids and ending up with this...

 ...to the Christmas morning magic...

 and the simple toys bringing so much joy...

to a lovely brunch with Jeff's family...

...to a little relaxing time {in my reindeer slippers of course}...

 ...and finally Christmas dinner with my family.

 We hosted the entire day and loved the bustle in and out of the house.

I also loved that the kids could stay put and enjoy the generosity of their friends and family.

It's now New Year's Eve and we're heading to a party.

Even though the holidays are almost over I'm determined to get to 12 days.

 And I really can't wait to share the last and one of my favourites of our days of Christmas.

 Happy New Year and wishing you all the best in 2014!