Tis The Season

I don't like Christmas.

 I never have.

Even as a child, Christmas caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. I had convinced myself that my parents would forget to buy me Christmas presents. They would only realise their oversight Christmas morning, when it was too late to do anything. And then they would be upset. So the weeks leading up to Christmas, I would worry and worry. Christmas morning, I would open my presents as slowly as possible so I could stretch out the few gifts I had and make it seem like I had the same amount of presents as my brothers. Every year, this would backfire because I would have more presents than anyone. And this caused me a lot of stress. Everyone would be done opening presents and there would be a mountain of gifts left for me to unwrap. And no one was thrilled with me at that moment. I just knew that the following year, my parents wouldn't make that mistake again and wouldn't get me presents...and the cycle would begin all over again.

Fast forward to now. I try to do everything in my power to make Christmas wonderful for my children. "Magic" happens everyday.

Some snaps:

Bethie (left), Katie, and Sarah decorating the Christmas tree

Holiday baking

Katie - helping to make sugar cookies

Bethie, Katie, and Sarah off to a Christmas party

Bethie - helping to put up Christmas lights. The snowman was a BIG hit!

Bethie, Sarah, and Katie each received an email from Santa.

I'm very excited for January!

Halloween: In Pictures

Better late than never, right?

Carving pumpkins. Sarah and I are in charge of "directing the operation"... which means that we don't get dirty!

Katie

My two Harry Potters...Katie (left) and Bethie before school

Bethie, Sarah, and Katie. They wanted to stand in front of the decorations. I wanted them to stand in front of the lovely Burning Bush. Turns out the desire to go and beg the neighbours for candies far out weighed their aversion to the Burning Bush.

Dan, his parents, and the children. My parents and I were the ones on the sidelines, not in costumes, and shocked at the extent that Dan and his family would go to make Halloween magical!

Sarah became too tired to walk so she hitched a ride with a neighbourhood child.

Sarah and her grandmother looking at the "graveyard" that was in my front yard.

Dan's parents brought to our house a massive amount of life-like decorations that wowed the neighbourhood. My children were thrilled.  As I tucked them into bed, they told me "This was the best Halloween ever!".

I am now very worried about how I am supposed to top this next year...

Giving Thanks

It's very important to me that my children have fond memories of the holidays. Like I do. So, I try very hard to make these days happy. Am I successful? It's kinda hit or miss...

We had Thanksgiving at our house. Despite having to work during the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I was sure that I would be able to pull this off.

Then my dishwasher broke. I frantically called Sears, bought a new one over the telephone, and asked Dan to pick it up from the store. I gave him strict instructions not to touch either the new dishwasher or the old one. Instead, he could watch TV, play with the children, or find something else to do. I begged  him, "Please, for my sake, do not touch the dishwashers".

I came home from work on Friday, and guess what?! He touched both of the dishwashers. Neither of them worked. I could have killed him.

I asked to see the turkey that he had purchased for the dinner in 36 hours. It was frozen.

I asked if he had cleaned the house knowing that we were having people over. Yes, he replied enthusiastically, he had cleaned the children's rooms. Super. What about the kitchen? The living room? The bathroom? Uhhh...no.

Needless to say, I was a bit stressed about Thanksgiving.

But Jamie Oliver came through, and we had the best turkey ever. It was soooo good that I think that Jamie Oliver may have ruined all other turkeys for me. Sigh.

Nice turkey. Crap roasting pot (unless you're roasting a 5lb chicken, then it's lovely).

Bob got the honours...

As dinner was served, the twinnies ran into the garden and told me that I was the worst mother ever, and that they were going to have to run away from home. My sin? Knowing that they didn't like turkey, I prepared some ham for them, cut it up nicely, and served them all their favourites on a plate.

Turns out that the twinnies wanted to serve themselves, like the adults. No problem, I took them inside, they carefully filled their plates with all of their favourite Thanksgiving yummies, and then headed outside with their plates heavy with food.

Then Katie dropped her plate...and her little heart broke. She was quickly cheered by the idea that the dogs were happy because they got to have Thanksgiving dinner, too!

I couldn't believe that we had summer-like weather in October. This was the first time in my life that it had been warm enough to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside!

Gluttony.

Elizabeth - she was thankful that I am her Mummy, and we live in Canada, and that we had the "best Thanksgiving ever".

Katherine - she was thankful for her family, and that everyone was safe and healthy.

Sarah - she was thankful that we had gone to the pumpkin patch that morning.

A happy ending.

My cup runneth over.

For The Love of Dan...

For Mother's Day, the twinnies made me presents at school. The kindergarten teacher was most clever. She gave each child a glass, had them paint it, and ...voila... a vase! I love mine. Every couple of days, we head into our gardens and look for pretty flowers to cut. The twinnies are thrilled with themselves.

Last week, the twinnies came home from school and announced that they were making key chains at school for Father's Day. I thought this was a super idea, and I was excited for both the twinnies and Dan. Key chains are something that are used every day. Imagine the pride the twinnies would feel when they saw their Daddy heading off for work with the key chains that they made. They are more "tokens of love" than they are "key chains"...

Sunday morning, the twinnies were super excited. They grabbed their presents and hauled their father out of bed. He was then presented with his key chains:

Need a closer look?

Yup, that's a stir stick for paint that has been "fancied up". Better still, Dan got two of them!

It's kinda impossible for Dan to walk into work looking "cool" while carrying these. It looks like he stole the bathroom keys from a (very fancy) gas station. How will anyone take him seriously with the painter's sticks handing out of his pocket?

Want to know the worst bit? I think the key chains are super cool and I want them desperately!!!!

Anyway, Dan was thrilled with the key chains.

Then it was time for Sarah and I to give Dan our gifts.

I could have given Dan some shirts, which he would have appreciated. I could have given him a waffle maker, which he didn't particularly want but I was sure that he would like. I could have given him a night out, sans enfants, which he would have loved.

I thought and thought and thought about what Dan would like. And then I gave up because he doesn't really need anything. I, however, have a long list of needs and wants and wishes and whims.

So, Sarah and I got Dan these flower boxes:

In case you are wondering, the flower boxes weren't originally purple. They had to be painted that way (left over paint from the front door). We tend to live our life "in a rainbow of colours" .... Mum says that we're just tacky!

Surviving March Break

The children are on their March Break holidays. It's killing me. The first couple of days, all of them were sick. There was a lot of lying around the house feeling miserable. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, they got better. Then it became a lot of lying around the house whining. Yesterday, I had to get out. We went to Starr Gymnastics.

I took a couple of photos:

Katie - learning how to swing on the ropes

Bethie

Sarah - she held onto that Dora ball almost the entire time

Sarah

Sarah and Bethie

Katie - she jumped off this a billion times

Sarah

Bethie

Sarah "bouncing". That was her favourite thing to do. Dan is the background, falling. It cracked me up.

Bethie

Katie - The world is a stage, and we are her audience

I couldn't believe that Katie jumped into the "foam pool"!

Katie

Katie

Sarah

Operation: Knock 'Em Out worked! They were exhausted!

True Love

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching. At school, both Katie and Bethie had to cut out a heart and write the name of someone that they love inside the heart.

Katie thought long and hard about who she loved. After careful deliberation, Katie wrote that she loves ... her sisters!

Katie's sisters are her co-conspirators...

...her buddies...

...her fan club.

Katie is hero worshipped by her little sister ...

...and adored by her twin.

Katie couldn't imagine her world without her sisters. She proudly, with love and affection, wrote down the names "Sarah" and "Bethie" in her little cut-out heart.

Bethie did not need a moment to ponder who she loved. She wrote "Jerry". Because Jerry is her boyfriend. Every day, Bethie assures me that she loves Jerry and will one day marry him.

Ladies, let me introduce you to my future son-in-law, Jerry...

...the bus driver.

Sigh. At least he has a job...

Mr. Photography Goes To The Bahamas

Dan just came back from a week in the Bahamas. He went there because his brother was getting married. I stayed home. In the cold. With three children. All by myself. All I asked was that Dan take lots of pictures.

Dan was quite pleased to take pictures. You see, he thinks that I'm not a very good photographer. Yeah, I am (honestly!) shocked, too. My pictures certainly aren't the same quality as professionals, but they are awfully good. But Dan was determined to show me "how it's done". I said nothing because I knew full well that this would end with me laughing.

I picked Dan up at the airport and immediately asked him how many pictures he took. He had taken 467. I said "On the first day?". No, no. He took 467 of the entire trip. Wow. I was shocked. I take 400 pictures when I take the children to the park. Dan responded that he didn't need to take so many because he only takes good photos. Can you guess where I am going with this? Brace yourself, there's some stellar photography coming your way!


One: A snap of my father-in-law (he's wearing plaid) at the airport. Apparently, he was being really funny - hence the picture. I have no idea what he was doing, but I certainly laughed!

Two: My mother-in-law. The shutter didn't quite open. Dan noticed this, but didn't feel the need to take another photo. Mr. Photography doesn't needs do-overs!

Three: Another snap of my mother-in-law. She's in there, keep looking!

Four: The wedding bands. Simply love the detail. Dan doesn't know why I find this funny. He said "It was on auto-focus". Yeah, but it didn't work!

Five: The bridal couple. I asked Dan why he didn't use a flash. I was told, "It was sunny out. I didn't need a flash". Quite right. Who wanted to see their faces anyway?

Six: Ummm...the bride was brushing a hair off of her face. Did Dan take another photo of her when she was prepared? Nope. Re-takes are for wusses.

Seven: The first dance. What?! They were moving!!!!

 Eight: Dan broke his own rule. Because it was his brother's wedding. Because he really wanted a nice shot of his brother dancing with his new bride. So he (gasp!) took another picture. Ta da:

And I laughed. And laughed. And emailed my mother about 80 photos so she could laugh with me. And she did!

Then I cropped, re-touched, and did a hundred things to improve just one photo. So you could see how beautiful the bride looked on her wedding day.

Now, only 466 photos to go!