Sugar cookies with Nana

Ken's parents live on Manitoulin Island which means we don't see them very often.  This fall has been different because Ken's Mom has been down to Toronto several times for medical appointments.  (Yes, she's fine!)  On their most recent trip Chris brought some left over sugar cookies and icing, from her Christmas baking sales, so she and Kate could decorate some cookies.  Kate thought it was great.  She did a pretty good job spreading the icing but her specialty was of course the sprinkles!

 

 Alice enjoyed a cookie too - without icing though!

Sprinkles!

Giving Papa a cookie.

Alice the baby is so cute!

Do you know the song Alice the camel?  Well as you look at these pictures sing to yourself:

Alice the baby is so cute
Alice the baby is so cute
Alice the baby is so cute
So smile Alice smile
Boom boom boom
(And repeat as many times as you'd like!)

(If you don't know the song... google it!)

Church Christmas Party

Sometimes I think I do 'sad and sorry for myself' too well.  The Christmas party at church was this evening.  It started at 4 and we needed the girls to nap which meant we were late.  We got there about 4:30 and there was no where to sit and besides turkey there wasn't much dinner left to eat.  Ken put together some plates and we sat on the couch in the foyer and I felt dumb... really dumb.  It's amazing the spiral that you can descend once you start and I think I was almost going to cry.

Our bishop happened to be walking by at about this moment and did a double take.  He went to a classroom and brought out a table and made a fuss about our special intimate dinner setting.  This small act of kindness made me feel so much better and so thankful for a bishop that cares about his ward family and for the simple Christlike service he offered us.

The kiddie activity, the talent night and the desserts all more than made up for the rough start.  I am thankful for our ward family.

I tried to get a picture of the girls in front of the tree...

One of the youth played a guitar solo, it was awesome.  It would be even more awesome if I could remember his first name...

Our bishop, a.k.a. Michael Buble singing and dancing with the YW.

And of course Santa came to the party.  Kate wasn't interested in seeing him at all.  I wonder if that will change?

The art of glue

She frequently likes to glue.  She doesn't really care to what the project is as long as she can spread lots of glue.  Sometimes when she uses glue I nurse Alice.

Perhaps this is a mistake?

A FUN day

Today started with snow... more than just a little so Ken left this present for Kate before he left for work.

 

Our plans for today were to meet some friends in Vaughan at the Play Cube - yay!

Here are Luke, Kate and Maya - my friend Diane's cutie kids (and my cutie...)

 Alice LOVED the trampoline.

She clapped lots!  (Her newest trick that we finally got around to teaching her.)

Then when Ken got home from work he and Kate made pizza.  Kate loves to make things in the kitchen with her Dad.  Her repertoire is still very limited (scrambled eggs, butter and honey on bread, lemonade, chocolate milk) but she's only 2! 

Alice, of course, wants to do everything her sister does.

And funny t-shirt that I'm reminded of because of lemonade... "If life gives you melons you might be dyslexic."  (Not to belittle or make light of those who struggle with reading!)

O Christmas Tree!

After scanning the flyers we decided to get a tree at Sobey's (a grocery store) in Alliston.  There were other trees that were cheaper but they would have been farther away, which after adding in gas, makes it NOT cheaper!

The tree spent Friday night on the porch.  Yesterday, when we got home from the parade, Ken trimmed the tree and put it up in the living room.  When our friends Emily and Jinx were visiting with their cute kids, Ken put the lights on the tree.

Holden happily obliged when I asked him to pose in front of the tree.

(and just because she's SO cute, here's Lauren, Alice is saying goodbye to her)

Back to the tree... today was a sick day, fevers, runny noses, sore throats, coughing... you know yucky cough and cold season!  To brighten the otherwise sad sick day we finished decorating the tree.  I love Christmas.

Then I thought, let's put the Santa hats on the girls and take a cute picture in front of the tree... Kate wouldn't wear the hat for even two seconds and well, here's what Alice thought of the hat!

 And here she is in all her glory! 

One final thought about Christmas.  I find it interesting how many people of all faiths talk about how special Christmas is.  If only they could realize that this is because of the spirit of Christ that they feel.  And if only I felt brave enough to say it.  Christmas is special because of Christ.  I love Christmas!

The Tottenham Santa Claus Parade

Last year's attempt to watch the parade was limited in it's success, we hoped for it to be different this year, and I'm happy to report that it was great!  So now, because I am such an amazing parent, here are the tips to parade success!

Step One: Dress warmly.

Step Two: Put the kids in a wagon so they don't have to walk to the parade and then they have somewhere to sit to watch the parade.  But most importantly, the wagon means you don't have to carry them.

Step Three: Get there right, and I mean right before the parade starts.

Step Four: Make sure that there are lots of ponies, pipers, reindeer and fun floats in general. (Why are they called floats?)

Step Five: Throw in the local talent - Canada's Favourite Dancer.  (She won So You Think You Can Dance Canada this season, and I just noticed that favourite is spelled incorrectly!)

Step Six: Santa is good too.

Step Seven: Make sure there is lots of candy!

I'm not sure why they hand out so much candy at the Santa Claus Parade in Tottenham but both girls were so excited about the candy.  Seriously though, for a small town (about 3000) the parade is pretty awesome, which leads to the last tip...

Step Eight: The parade should be short about half an hour from start to finish is the perfect length.

We picked up the Christmas tree last night so combined with the parade, it feels like the Christmas season is really upon us!

Kate's First Snow Tasting of the Season

The first snow of the season was technically while we were in Connecticut - a light dusting, but I didn't mention that to Kate.  She's been excited to watch the leaves fall off the trees and when it started snowing yesterday she declared over and over that it was winter and she asked to build a snowman.  As you can see, there isn't enough snow to build anything.  Most of the snow that fell yesterday was gone by today but Kate was still eager to go play in the snow.  When Alice went down for a nap we put on Kate's coat and boots and she "played" in the snow. 

While she was "playing" she had a quick lesson about what colour snow to avoid ingesting!