The Stockings Were Hung

The Christmas excitement all started the morning of December 24th.  We were planning on going out to the farm to spend Christmas with the Puzey's, but first we had a Christmas Eve surprise for the boys.  We follow the tradition of Christmas Eve Pajamas and being able to open one gift before going to bed.  Last year we took the boys to the Build a Bear store and let them build bears.  So this year we decided to go to the Lego store and let the boys make 3 lego men as their Christmas Eve gift.  I also had gift cards for the Build a Bear store so they also got to go and pick out an outfit for their bears.  The boys had so much fun and weren't even upset in the evening when they just got their pajamas.

Christmas PJ's

After our visit to the mall we packed up the truck and headed to Champion.

But before we left we were sure to leave cookies and a note for Santa to let him know where we would be Christmas Eve!

After everyone arrived - us; mom; Dave, Char and their kids Cora, Leah and Blake; Jared, Amber and their kids Emry, Calum and Armin; and Rachel, Jared and Liam we had dinner.  Mom had made her delicious buns and yummy clam chowder soup.  We had a good time laughing and talking and the kids played and got along pretty good. 

Before bed the kids put on a nativity with narration and songs.  Cora being the oldest was in charge, Leah and Ashton were Mary and Joseph with baby Armin as baby Jesus.


Ashton took his role very seriously.

Blake and Bowen were wisemen.

Emry was an angel, and Liam and Calum were the cutest shepherds you've ever seen.

It was very sweet and I hope we make it a tradition.  Little Armin was however not appreciating his role as baby Jesus and was making quite a racket.  Bowen turned to me and whispered "baby Jesus is ruining the play".

Then the kids were off to bed - with no complaint - I kept hearing Ashton telling Bowen "we need to go to sleep so Santa can come".  Oh how I remember how hard it was to fall asleep when you were so excited for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning came early with Ashton waking at 6:00 a.m.  He impatiently waited until the agreed upon waking time of 8:00 a.m. by laying between his dad and I and shoving arms and legs into our sides for 2 hours.  At 8:00 am. we woke up Bowen and headed downstairs to open stockings.

We all got some great presents and we had such a nice Christmas together.  I love my family but we sure missed Dad this year.  I'm grateful we were still able to enjoy the season and each other.  We will all carry on with so many Christmas traditions that Dad started. 

When we arrived home a couple of days later Ashton was anxious to see if Santa had eaten his cookies.  He ran over to the plate and saw the cookies were gone and then jumped onto the couch not noticing something had been left under the tree.  Bowen came into the room and stood silent for a moment and then quietly said "we got a Wii", then a little louder "we got a Wii" - this of course got Ashton's attention and they ran over to the tree to see what Santa had left.

The boys were so excited!!



It's hard to tell Ashton is excited in this picture - it was late - he was really tired.  I know he's excited though, they've been playing it non-stop.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Bed Time

I'm grateful my boys have always been great sleepers.  They go right to bed and never fight us on it.  However, Bowen does insist on being tucked in.  Tonight we sent the boys up to bed and told them we'd be up in a bit to tuck them in.  I was taking my time getting upstairs and Bowen started yelling down the stairs

"hello, is someone coming to tuck me in", "I am so, so, so cold up here"

- he refuses to put on his blankets by himself.  A few more complaints were made and then he finished up with -

"the longer you make me wait - the older I get!"

Seriously, he's so cute sometimes I can hardly stand it!!

Advent, Advents and More Advents

I've always wanted to do a proper advent calendar with my boys leading up to Christmas but I always seem to run out of time and buy the ones from the store with the little square chocolates inside.  This year, a couple of months ago I saw these cute little stocking advents in the Avon catalog and thought they would look great on the boys tree. 

So I bought two strands of them, put them on the tree and stuffed them with goodies.  The boys loved it and they make an adorable garland on the tree.  I will definitely be making this a Christmas tradition.

With so much focus at Christmas time on Santa and getting presents I'm always trying to find ways to remind the boys about the real meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate Jesus' birth.  When the Children's Friend Magazine came this month it had this great Scripture Advent Calendar in it that I decided would be great to do with the boys.  I photocopied the tree and the ornaments (so I can use it again next year) and hung the tree to the wall.  Each night I would read out the question and we would go to the scripture given to find the answer, then the boys would take turns placing the ornament on the tree.  I was thrilled how much the boys enjoyed doing it and they seemed to like it as much as the advent on the tree with their goodies.  It was such a great way for the boys to learn about the birth of the Savior.

The boys with their completed tree.

Christmas Concerts

With Ashton in Grade 1 and Bowen in Preschool both of the boys had Christmas Concerts this year.  Ashton's was a little play called "The Bell That Couldn't Ring".   It was quite cute and had some very precocious children in it.  Ashton was in the chorus.  We were seated kind of far back so it was hard to get a good picture of him. 

If you look really closely he's in the top row third from the left - in the white shirt.

Ashton kept looking for us, but the crowd was so dark he couldn't see us - even though we were standing up and waving our arms around like crazy people.  The play was cute and the chorus did a great job singing the songs.  I, of course, didn't watch anyone but Ashton during the songs and he seemed to know all the words.  Bowen behaved himself - it helped that we let him play the DS the entire time.  Oh well, it kept him quiet.  I wanted to get a close up picture of Ashton in his cute little elf hat, but by the time I got to his classroom to pick him up he was already in his coat and boots.

Bowen's concert was a couple of weeks later on December 22nd.  Bowen had been so excited about us coming to his concert.  I was however a bit apprehensive that he would actually participate.  I'd been told by his teacher that, lots of time when she does songs with actions or they dance around to music, Bowen will put his hands over his ears and not join in.  To my surprise and delight he did awesome.  He sings really quietly, so I couldn't really hear him but he was singing all the words and knew all of the actions.  His little class looked so cute.  I had him wear a white shirt and his Christmas tie and when we got to the school he was taking off his coat and one little girl told him what a nice tie he had.  It is so fun to see them with their little friends.

It was a great little concert.  I was so proud of both of my boys.  They are growing up to fast for me.  I wish I could slow it down a little.  I do really try to enjoy each little experience.  I think they are proud of each other too!  I hope they will always be good friends.

Your Mom's Husband

I know I have so much I need to blog about, but I'm too tired tonight.  So just a quick exchange I overheard from my sweet boys.  The boys were having a discussion in the back of the truck while we were travelling various places during Christmas.  Ashton was asking Bowen a bunch of questions and Bowen was answering.  One tidbit I overhead went like this.

Ashton - "What is a Father?"

Bowen - "A Father is your mom's husband!"

Those two just make me smile! 

Preschool Santa

On Monday Bowen got to meet with Santa at his preschool.  As Ashton is off school already he was able to come along as well.  Bowen can get quite nervous so I wasn't sure if he would sit on Santa's knee.  Ms. Kay had the kids all sit on the floor in front of Santa and when it came to Bowen's turn he jumped right up and went up to Santa.

Ashton got to come up as well and tell Santa what he would like for Christmas.  Ashton asked for Lego Star Wars and Bowen asked for the Lego Star Wars Death Star!  By the way the Death Star costs about $300.00.  I don't think Santa can afford that.

Bowen received an ornament and candy cane from Santa.  He seemed to have a great time.  As we were walking out to the truck afterwards, Bowen whispered to me that he didn't think that was the real Santa as he could see another pair of boots inside the Santa boots.  No fooling this kid.

Cookie Exchange

I was invited to a cookie exchange at a friend's house a few weeks ago.  We were all asked to make 5 dozen of the same cookie and then we would get together and take home a 1/2 dozen of all the cookies brought.  I thought it would be a fantastic way to get my Christmas baking done so I was all in.

Getting Started

The Finished Product - Coconut Macaroons!  Yummy

Julia, Jocelyn, Odette and baby Gabriella

Catherine and Phyllis (the hostess)

Melodie and Sherry



Shelley and I.  Shelley wanted to see if she could make me look like Hagrid again (refer to our bookclub picture)!!
We had a good laugh over this picture.



That's better!



All the cookies!!!

I would definately do a cookie exchange again.  It was great to get together to talk and get to know each other better.  Jill - Phyllis's daughter had made the most delicious taco soup and we of course sampled the cookies for dessert.  Although I must say it didn't help much with my Christmas baking - it's pretty much gone.  Oh well, it was fun!

Ready for the Holidays

I love to decorate my home for Christmas!  I love the sparkle and glitter and how it makes the house feel cosy and warm.  Now that my boys are older and will leave things alone I decided to put things in a few different places this year.  I love how it looks - but noticed it really isn't very child friendly when my adorable little nephew visited yesterday.  Actually he was really good and everything survived unscathed.

I always put the adult tree (my tree) in the living room in front of the bay window.  It really doesn't have alot on it, but almost every ornament means something to me or has a memory, so I really enjoy pulling out the decorations and trimming my tree.  I decorate this one after the boys have gone to bed.  Jason sets it up for me and puts on the lights and the ribbon.  Each year I think I should update the ribbon to something else, but they have musical notes on them and I really like how it looks.

The kids tree goes in the family room.  The boys are completely in charge of decorating their tree and they have so much fun doing it.  I really should have taken a picture of them.  Oh well, next year.

I love nativities and have a few.

I'm not very crafty but I made a Christmas cross stitch years ago.  I also made our Christmas stockings from kits - and I must admit I am super proud of them.  I think they are just adorable.  I hope we are still using them when the boys are teenagers and they are tattered and torn.

And of course you need to have a few things that sparkle!!

The house is now ready for Christmas.  Now to finish shopping and do a bit more baking!
Merry Christmas!