Merry Christmas from Cadence and Friends

Cadence and her cousin Freya - best friends forever!!

In their first (what I hope is one of many) matching outfits from Grandma

Cadence with her little friend Adam (aka future boyfriend)

In their Santa and Mrs. Claus outfits!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas 2014

It was an early start for my boys Christmas morning.  They slept for a little bit, but were both awake when we headed to bed around 1:30 am.  I think they maybe slept for awhile, but I soon heard Ashton around 2:00 am.  I heard him again at 4:00 am in the washroom and then saw him crawl into bed with Bowen and wake him up.  No more sleep for either of them.  Far to excited to sleep I guess!  At least they were quiet, and they did obey our rule of not leaving their bedroom until 7:00 am.  As soon as it was 7:00 am they were both in our room to wake us up.  We went and got Cadence and headed downstairs to open presents.

More nerf guns from Santa (thanks a lot - more darts to end up all over my house)!

I wasn't able to get Cadence's stocking done in time, so she borrowed my childhood stocking to put out for Santa to fill.

Jason's toys!!

Cadence like her presents.

The boys were happy with their gifts as well!

My gift from Ashton - gee I wonder what it is?

After opening presents, I put the turkey in and made dinner while everyone played with their new toys.

Cadence trying out her new walker - if you support her hands, she totally knows to move one leg at a time - smartie!!

We had a delicious dinner of turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, butternut squash, carrots, and homemade buns, with pumpkin pie for dessert.  It was so yummy - if I do say so myself!

After dinner we started another game of Monopoly.  The boys slept much better Christmas night!

Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas week kicked off with our going to the Live Nativity Pageant that the church has every year at Heritage Park.  It was quite a warm evening, and we hardly had to wait in line.  The performance is only a few minutes long but it is definitely worth it.  I hope we make it a Christmas tradition.

Another favorite tradition (especially for the boys) is fondue night on Christmas Eve.  This year we prepared chocolate, cheese and oil fondue.  It was so delicious.  We had various fruits for the chocolate, veggies, and sour dough bread for the cheese, and crab, shrimp, and beef for the oil as well as a tempura batter to dip the meat in before frying.

After dinner the kids opened their Christmas Eve gifts.

They got new pajamas and monopoly.  We played monopoly, even me!!

We put out treats for Santa, and laid out Christmas stockings and it was up to bed.

Holiday Fun

The month of December was both busy and quick.  But a great month none the less.  It all started on November 30th.  Those of you who know me well, know that going to the theatre is by far one of my favorite things to do.  I love everything about it.  I also want to instill my love of theatre to my boys, so we decided that we would take them to "A Christmas Carol" by Theatre Calgary this year.  We purchased tickets for a matinee and asked my mom to come and babysit Cadence and off we went.  We arrived early and had a pop and waited for the doors to open.  Our seats were on the second row and were great.  I knew it was a hit, when during the open scene Bowen looked at me with a big grin on his face.  It was a wonderful production, a few changes since the last time I'd been.

We all decided we'd go again in a few years when Cadence is old enough to come with us.

The following weekend was busy with a trip to Champion to dip chocolates.  Chocolate dipping day is always busy and long but fun to be together.

The next weekend started our week of musical events.  First on the Friday night was our Ward Christmas party.  They served us a delicious ham dinner and then had a program.  The boys were in the primary nativity and I accompanied a soloist, the ward choir and some carol singing.  Cadence was such a patient little girl for such a long evening.

Next day was my student recital.  Since a fewer number of students were able to attend I decided to change it up a bit and had presents for everyone under the tree that they would open after they performed.  They could either open a new present or take an already opened present from someone else.  It was a hit and helped fill the time.  After the performances I had some snacks for them and they watched a little movie before their parents came.

Next up was our stake carol festival on Sunday night.  The boys performed with the stake children's choir.  It was a big commitment with practices each Saturday morning for about 8 weeks.  The choir sang beautifully.  They did a couple of numbers by themselves and also sang with a stake adult choir with orchestra and bells.  It was just wonderful.  We were happy grandma was able to come and watch as well.  I also accompanied our ward choir that performed.

The next night was Ashton's first band concert.  Since moving to Mountain Park school this year he was been learning to play the trombone in the school band.  The grade 5's played first and they did pretty good for only playing for 3 months.  It will be fun to watch their improvement.

Up last was Bowen's school concert on Wednesday evening.  It is always a treat to watch Bowen sing, as he does so with such enthusiasm.  He also performed on a glockenspliel.  Another great night!

Then a really nice evening when we met mom and all my siblings and spouses in Lethbridge for dinner at Firestone.  In lieu of purchasing gifts we've decided to have an all adult dinner each year prior to Christmas.  Well, it was almost all adults, the two little girls tagged along.  Dinner was yummy and the company even better.  I love getting together with my mom, siblings and their spouses.

Then we finished up our last week before Christmas week with our Christmas sacrament meeting.  I always love this Sunday with all the beautiful Christmas music.  This year I accompanied two choir numbers, a soloist, and performed a piano/flute duet.

Next up - to enjoy Christmas Week!!

Visit with Santa

A few weeks ago Jason's work held their annual children's Christmas party.  It was held at Stir Crazy again this year.  The boys had a great time playing in the huge jungle gym, arcade and bouncy house.

They played, we ate and then had a visit from Santa.

Ashton received a marshmallow gun!

Bowen got a NHL Board game!

Cadence was a little upset!

Getting a little more upset!

Is not enjoying this visit with Santa one bit!

She did like her present however ...

She got a ball that lights up and plays music.

It was a great kickoff to our Christmas season.