December 2012

The holiday season has come and gone- the last my little family will celebrate just the 3 of us.  Next year we are 4.  Our Christmas celebrations began on the 6th with tree chopping.  Ever since I can remember, one of my favourite family Christmas traditions has been chopping down our own tree.  When I was a kid my family would go with my grandparents and sometimes my Aunt and Uncle or our downstairs neighbour who was like an Aunt to me.  We'd have to drive a ways to find a tree farm- they didn't really exist in metro-Vancouver.  My grandma would always pick a tall, skinny, somewhat sparse tree and my family would find a big, fat, full one.  Then, usually on a Sunday or Monday for Family Home Evening, my mom would make treats and we'd listen to Christmas music and decorate it.  I can still remember the year my parents picked up the tree from Home Depot.  My heart almost broke.  But tree farms were not so easy to get to by then and the tradition of cutting down the tree died away.  Thankfully, on the island, it's still fairly easy to go cut down a tree and Cole cuts down a tree every years for us.  In Nanaimo, it's super easy as GoGo's is like a 5 minute drive from our house and all the trees are $25.  Last year, K rode in a snuggli; this year, she stomped around in the mud in her boots until they fell off and I ended up carrying her.  Her right boot is still too big.   I also made treats and we listened to Christmas music as we decorated our tree.  Then Kailey went to bed and we watched It's A Wonderful Life.  It took me till I was an adult, for some reason, to watch the movie, but now it's a family tradition every Christmas. 

Christmas Tree Hunting 2011

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Hunting 2012

Christmas Tree Decorating 2012

 I don't usually do Christmas baking- I'm not much of a baker- but this year I decided I felt like making some yummy treats and giving them out to some neighbours and friends.  I made Skor Bars, sugar cookies with butter cream icing, cranberry bliss bars, chocolate covered peanut butter rice krispie balls, butterscotch chip brownie cookies (I still don't know what to call them- I've never known a name for them) and later on for my visiting teaching sisters, I made a cranberry orange quick bread.  All pretty tasty. 

We got K to sit for the traditional Santa picture.  She did very well last year.  This year she was apprehensive but the photographer had K sit on Cole's knee and then had Cole lean out of the picture and had Santa lean in so you couldn't really tell Cole was there.  Worked really well. 

2011

2012- How much changes in a year!

Cole had the 21st till the 26th off so we headed over to Vancouver to stay with my parents.  We went to Stanley Park for the Christmas Train- K enjoyed herself and the rain held off.

My mom always hosts a Christmas Eve prime rib dinner with my grandparents (which I enjoy so much more than turkey).  That night K opened up her new pajamas (a fleece Tinkerbell nighty) and my parents also gave her a stuffed lamb. 

Christmas Eve Night

Christmas morning was more fun this year as K could actually participate.  She went running for the big stuffed pillow pig my youngest sister bought her.  She had enough attention for about 3 presents and then was wondering around.  I did manage to get 1 video of her opening a present to document the morning.  She received a new play kitchen, play food, shopping cart, some clothes, new running shoes, colouring books, and some stuffed animals, including her giant pig.  Cole and I decided not to buy gifts this year for each other as our Vegas trip was technically our Christmas trip, just taken a couple months earlier.  Also, we took ourselves to the Tigh Na Mara at the end of December and that was about all that we could financially handle this year with Cole still in full time school.  My mom me a fluffy new robe I had been wanting, Cole got a CFL book and as a family we received a new screen gazebo kind of thing for camping- to put over your table or sitting area to keep out of the sun, rain or mosquitoes.  We were very excited for this as we do a lot of camping but haven't found it a big enough necessity to pick up ourselves. 

Present Video: http://youtu.be/vBPYMGRAreQ

Christmas night we headed to my grandparents' house where we take a big family picture and eat a turkey dinner.  Turkey dinner is something I'd happily give up.  I really don't care for a roasted turkey.  K ate really well and also got a new doll from her great-grandparents.

My extended family

Our family of 3 1/2

Boxing Day my sister and her new husband came to visit and we all went to see Jack Reacher while my youngest sister (who had already seen the movie) stayed home with K.  The movie was far better than I was expecting (especially since I was expecting crap).  The previews are completely misleading about what the movie is about.  Cole caught an evening ferry and the rest of us went to a family friend's house for dinner.  K loved playing with their golden retriever.  She loves dogs.

On the 28th, my two youngest sisters (17, 20) came back to Nanaimo with me and K so Cole and I could enjoy some live in babysitting help and they could see K a little more.  That weekend we headed to Parksville to take advantage of a "Winter Warm Up" special, where we stayed in a spa bungalow and had $20 flex credit to use at the spa or restaurant.  We used it for dinner...which was disappointing.  The Cedar Room is pretty pricey and they spend a lot of time trying to appear fancy but when it came down to the food tasting good, I thought they could have spent more time on that.  The baked brie was more fig compote than brie, Cole's steak was overdone and mine was underdone, the vegetables had been little more than blanched and had zero seasoning applied to them, the garlic mashed potatoes contained no garlic as far as I could tell and the creme brule was just average.  If you're going to charge more than average, BE more than average!  The presentation was excellent but that annoys me more.  Food should not look prettier than it tastes- that's just disappointing.  The room, however, was very nice.  And I slept 8 hours and didn't even remember my dreams- it was the sleep of the dead.  Just what I needed.  

New Years Eve this year was supposed to be rung in at a friend's party but the hostess got sick so we made other plans.  Cole, my sisters, K and I enjoyed some pizza before Cole and I headed to a movie: we saw Life of Pi.  Normally I'm against movie adaptions of books (against myself watching them I mean) but I had heard so many good reviews and then I got one review from someone I trusted on the subject and decided there was nothing else out I'd rather see anyways.  It was really well done.  The book is still more epic and totally worth the read, but I commend Ang Lee on a job well done.  I'm re-reading Life of Pi right now for the 3rd time and loving it (it's January's book club pick).  It is such a beautiful book and I will continue to read it every 5 years or so, I'm sure.  Mostly when I recommend the book, people either come back saying they loved it or hated it.

After the movie, we came back home to play games with my sisters and hang out with K (who stayed up till midnight) and ring in the new year at home with family.  It was really nice.  K was happy to have us there.  She got antsy around 11pm but made it to the countdown then went  to sleep easily.  The video below is of K having a laughing fit that night.  Pretty funny- I came in a little late, but still got some good giggles.

Watch Laughing Fit Video Here.

Happy New Year!