2012 Recap

I hope you all had fantastic New Year's celebrations.

We had a great long weekend but more on that later.

I have been inspired by all the 2012 recaps on Instagram today so wanted to share mine.
I tried to keep it brief so this in no way sums up the whole year.

First Hairdos

Pregnant and Performing

Potty Training

Fiona Turns 2

Proud Papa

Welcome Cedric

Disaster 2012

Lots of Park Time

New Do

New Car
Bye Bye Jeep

Wedding #1

Wedding #2

Wedding #3

Starting School 

Little Gymnast

Trip to Toronto

Melissa's 10K

New Love for Canning

Said Goodbye to Rex

Cedric's First Snowstorm

Christmas

Not Pictured:

Fiona and Cedric's Gram turned 60.

Said goodbye to Uncle GB.

Lots of growth at the shop.

Welcomed Jason and Chloe, our new partners.

And, of course, started this blog.

An Unexpected Christmas Gift

What seemed at first like simply a toy turned into so much more.

Cedric's aunt bought him a playskool walker.

When I set it up {with no cursing, thank you very much} I had no idea that this would be the real gift.

Those, folks, were Cedric's first {assisted} steps.

Christmas Aftermath

I could describe today in two words.

Thankful and Recovery.

We always feel very lucky but never more than at Christmas.

There was, of course, so much generosity.

We spent hours today going through all of the gifts.
Hours.

What I am thankful for more than anything though is the time spent with family and friends.

I know, it's cliché but nothing makes me happier than having 14 people share a dinner at our house.

I love setting the table.

I love the meal planning.

I'm even {learning to} love the meal prep.
Oh, and I LOVE getting the kids dressed up.

This year was a little tricky since Jeff was it out of commission.

He was sicker than a dog and in bed for the better part of the day.

He's usually the turkey/gravy guy but I managed to flub my way through.

Thank goodness for parents to help with the cooking and carving.

The meal turned out great and the company was unbeatable.

Now for the recovery.

Jeff slept for about 14 hours and is feeling much better.

I've been cleaning and organizing but the house is still not fully recovered.

I actually like to leave it set up for a little while.

Christmas passes too quick so anything to hang on for a bit right?

The kids are having a blast with their loot and are doing a little recovering of their own.

Suffice it to say there have been no sleep protests today.

These Are a Few of My Favourite Things

About this Christmas so far that is.

As always it's just snuck right up on me.

I seem to always sit down on Christmas Eve and try to will time to slow down.

I just need to savour that time when everything is bought and wrapped but it's not yet over.
Here's a quick reflection of what I haven't had a chance to share.

1. Love my Christmas chachkie collection.
2. Huge trees with lights to the top {this one is from Candy Cane Lane}.
3. Legislature grounds {yes, even with the dome covered}.
4. Homemade gifts from great friends.
5. Santa letter writing.
6. Ornaments that I made long ago and are still hanging on my parents' tree.
7.  Chocolate fondu on Christmas Eve.
8. Sugar cookies {and Fiona baking help}.
9. Baby drowning in ribbon.
10.  New ornaments.
11.  Old ornaments hanging in the window.
12. Rummage sale doilies as a snowflake centrepiece.
13. Winter wonderland.
14. Santa!  
15. Loving the tree.
16. City Hall ceiling snowflakes.
17. Fiona putting the star on top of the tree.
{And my ability to fight every urge to "fix" it, let go and enjoy how perfectly imperfect it is.}

Merry Christmas

The Fire is So Delightful

Back in the days when Jeff and I had money to burn {literally} we had this little beauty installed.

Our 100 year old house had an empty shell that at one time housed a gas fireplace.

It would have been much easier and cleaner to get another gas unit installed.

Jeff would have none of that.

Fire-starting is one of his true loves.

Unfortunately this year, buying wood has gone on the back burner {pun intended}.

Every night when the temperature would drop below -10C Jeff would sigh "it would be so nice to have a fire."

But wood is expensive you know and we're kinda burning the candle at both ends {last one}.

Well, Christmas came early and yesterday Jeff's parents had this dropped off.

After an hour of ever so carefully piling chucking the wood on the porch, Jeff came in for his reward.

He got the fire roaring and we spent the rest of the night huddled close to it.

The weather was frightful and we had no place to go.