Kate's Christmas Concert

I am so grateful to all of the teachers at Kate's school for putting on a Christmas Concert.  I know what it takes to put a concert together.  I really loved the format too! They had a short kindergarten only concert, then an intermission and then the rest of the concert. We attended the Kindergarten Concert only, seeing as we only have a kindergarten student this year.  It was so great.  All the classes sang together and each class did a dance number.  They were so cute.  Kate's class did a dance as Christmas Angels.  It was so sweet.  The kids were so cute.

It was hectic day today, having to go back and forth to the school three times and the white car was acting up and Ken had to be in St. Catherine's for the day so he had the van, but we trudged through the snow and we did it!  And Ken even got home in time to take Kate to the evening performance.  YAY!  Tomorrow is Kate's last day of school for two weeks.

The Zorana, Jason, Ciaran Christmas Party

What to say about parties?  My favourite thing in the world isn't going to parties... at least that is what I think before I go.  I tell myself I don't like parties, so then I don't go to many parties, it's difficult right now anyway with all the little people and their different needs!  But this year I decided that I wanted to go to the ZJC Christmas party and we went, even though there was a crazy lot of snow falling.  We went, and we enjoyed ourselves very much.  Good food, good friends and a snow storm!

Blessings

We had a fun family day today.  A trip to the doctor's office, Ken's work, Vaughan Mills, and then a visit to Grandma and Grandpa.  Days like today are reminders of blessings.  The blessing of access to health care, having healthy children.  The blessing of good work and good people to work with, the people at Trillium are really great.  The blessing of fun and wonder with your children.  The blessing of family close by.  Days like today are good and I am thankful for them.

Santa Claus Parade and the TREE

Friday, December 6
But before that... on Friday I took care of Amelie for the day.  Alice and Amelie had a great day playing together.  They are such cuties. 

Saturday, December 7 - the Tottenham Santa Claus Parade
We invited Shawn and Cooper.  At first we'd hoped to do the train ride as well, but I didn't think about getting tickets until all the advance tickets were sold out.  Oops.  It was a very, very cold day.  But we braved the cold and I think we all enjoyed the parade.  Fiona lost it during the last few minutes.  One of the floats honked their horn right in front of us and that did her in.  Santa waved over at us and asked how old Fiona was and gave us the thumbs up.  It was cute. 

After the parade we hung out and the kids played and Ken went to his work Christmas party.  I didn't go because I couldn't bring Fiona and I'm not ready, willing or able to leave Fiona yet.  I would have liked to go, but Ken had fun anyway! 


Sunday, December 8 - Tree Decorating
I had ideas about what I wanted the girls to wear while they were decorating the tree and I had ideas about the pictures I was going to take.  They didn't quite turn out the way I wanted - outfits or the pictures.  But we had fun decorating the tree and it looks beautiful.  I love it when it starts to feel like Christmas.  It's such a magical, wonderful time of year.

Wednesday, December 11
I finally remembered to take a picture of the tree!

Fiona is Six Months Old

The evidence is in the pictures.  I don't remember it being so difficult to get a smiling baby picture on the month day photos.  Fiona is such a smiley baby but put a camera in front of her and she just mostly looks stunned!  Ah well.  Let's see.  I don't know how much has changed in the last month.  She's definitely getting stronger.  She can move backwards really well, but it makes her upset.  She can also turn in circles.  She is feisty like her sisters and we just love her to pieces!

Sorting Teddy Bears

During Kate's first few weeks of school she learned to sort things in math.  They sorted teddy bears, several times and several different ways.  Lately Alice wants to play school.  The puts on her back-pack and together we sort teddy bears.

Santa

It is sad sometimes how quickly I can lose perspective.  Today was Santa Day!  This is an important Christmas tradition for me.  I buy the girls cute matching shirts the year before, when they go on sale after Christmas at Gymboree, and then I wait with anticipation until the big Santa Day for them to wear their cute new matching shirts.  Last year I bought one for Kate, one for Alice and two for the baby we knew we were having but who's gender remained as yet unknown. 

This morning when Ken asked about dressing the baby I told him I was waiting.  I was afraid that Fiona would wreck her shirt, as she is an EPIC pooper.  (That's right, this post is about Santa and poop.)  I waited, but not long enough, as this morning she was EPIC again.  For a few minutes after the blow out I didn't know what to do.  Do I cancel?  I wanted to cancel, but we were meeting up with friends and I had pulled Kate out of school for the big day.  I was crushed for about 5, maybe 10 minutes.  But then I caught myself.

I dug out Kate's first Christmas outfit (which is too big, but I rolled up the sleeves) and redressed my sweet Fiona.  Before we left for the mall we had a quick prayer in the van to remember that Christmas is really about Jesus, and to be calm and happy and thankful for being a family.  And everything was great.  Santa was really sweet too.  We had fun with our friends.  No one had a melt down, and look how cute the picture is!  I'm glad I didn't let a little poop ruin my day!  (Or I suppose in this case, A LOT of poop!)

The OEYC Christmas Party

We've been to the Alliston branch of the Ontario Early Years Centre once - Alice loved it.  She didn't want to leave.  She mostly enjoys the outreach program - when one of the early years people runs a smaller program at the library or community centre.  Michelle and I decided to meet up at the legion in Alliston and go to the OEYC Christmas party.  It was fun.  There were lots of crafts, circle time, snack time and Santa came.  He gave out books to everyone, even big sisters that hid behind car seats and didn't want to say hello in person.  Alice said that she would go see Santa at the mall... we'll see I guess!