Christmas Day 2012

This morning everyone awoke excited to see if Santa visited us during the night. We had a houseful of company for this special morning with both my mom and Ian's mom here.  Ian's brother Mark stayed over with us as well we had Meadow and Andrew staying with us this winter so our 1000 sq ft almost finished house was quite cozy :)

Sisterly love :) as daddy looks on

Grammy Sue and Bluebell

Nana Diana and Ians brother Mark

My eldest Meadow opening a jewelry box my dad made her and her boyfriend Andrew

Sierra and Aayla with their beautiful lamp their sissy Meadow made for their new room

Nana Diana and Mark, Meadow with her piggy cutting board

My dad and his wife Bev came over around lunch for Christmas dinner

Ian adding the holes into his belt Meadow made him from an old tire.

Then...what you never want to happen any time let alone on Christmas day...my mom had what we thought was a stroke and was rushed to the hospital. The ambulance drivers convinced me to stay at home with the family until we knew what was happening as she was going to be whisked away at the hospital for tests. She was kept for hours running tests and everyone waited at home patiently for news.

A campfire was lit...

and the first deer was spotted across the river...

Mark went to get the girls cousins Cameron and Lucas (Charlie was with her mom and couldn't come). Ian's other brother Gary arrived with his girlfriend Robin and cousin Jake and dinner was being prepared and we tried to carry on while we waited for news.

Sierra checking out the marshmallow shooters Meadow made for Cameron and Lucas

Jake and Cameron

Cameron and Lucas with their new slingshots

Sierra with Sissy Meadow and Andrew

Robin and Aayla catching a snuggle

My Dad, Bev and Ian's mom Diana

Mark and Gary

Ian finishing up the turkey

Shortly after this I went to the hospital to see mom as we still hadn't heard anything. Tests were just getting in and they found she did not have a stroke. They didn't know why her symptoms showed as a stroke and was told to get more testing done when she returned to NS after Christmas. She made it home in time for our Christmas dinner. Thankfully it wasn't serious enough to keep her any longer but boy was it scary to watch happen.

(UPDATE: mom's stroke like episode has been labelled as stress. That the stress of her driving here through a snowstorm just built up inside her, on top of the regular stresses of Christmas and other things. Thankfully she is not prone for a stroke and just has to find ways to de-stress.)

Tis the Season to be Jolly

Like the Christmas season which always is a whirlwind of activity this post will be a whirlwind to try and play catch up here on the blog...

One of the most important things I wanted to make sure we did this year was to have a real tree so we went to a tree farm to cut down this years tree. Sierra fell in love with the Charlie Brown tree pictured below but luckily we were all able to agree on the one pictured next.

 Daddy cut it down and we all hauled it back to the truck

Then we headed home to trim...Aayla?

She thought it was quite funny to be wrapped up like the tree. It was nice having Meadow and Andrew with us this year to help. I love trimming the tree. Unwrapping each ornament every year is like Christmas in itself. Our tree is filled with memories from my childhood, from Meadow growing up, and the girls are making their own additions. We also try to buy a new ornament when ever we go on a trip to add to the collection.

 

 Sierra hanging the last ornament

Some our our countdown to Christmas activities included:

Making a pom pom garland

Stained Glass Christmas Trees

 We had an evening of Snowman mania...the girls made snowmen pizza for supper and I made them snowman drinks with milk in vintage vases with timbit (doughnut holes for my US friends) heads.

We also rolled up a big basket full of tissue paper and had an indoor snowball fight.

Making our annual gingerbread house...(one of these years we will bake it from scratch!!!).

 We made jingle bell bracelets and danced around the Christmas tree.

We had Santa pancakes for supper one night...this one got lots of giggles.

  The girls favourite activity by far was having a picnic under the Christmas Tree

Complete with Marshmallow snowmen for dessert.

We also made some new ornaments: Angry birds, peg snowmen and cinnamon ornaments.

The girls coloured some porcelain dishes as their teachers gifts.

Elfie visited us every night and it was always fun to watch the girls get up so excited to see who would find Elfie first and where he would be. Here are a few of his hiding places:

It took the girls awhile to find him nestled up here with a vintage elf decoration and some of our Santas.

Elfie was pretty tricky here on his acrobatic tight rope...not quite sure how he managed to hang on here all day!

The favourite was when he wrapped the tree in toilet paper!

We even found him in the fridge with a shot of minty milk! I think he was missing the north pole and was looking to cool off :)

Every year we (dadyy with some help) make sausage rolls. He makes them from scratch just like he and his dad did growing up. It's a tradition we do every year. This year Ian's brother Mark joined us with his kids and my dad joined us too!

My dad

Uncle Mark and Aayla having a snuggle while the sausage rolls cook

Lucas and Charlie enjoying some time on the Wii

Mmmm Aayla enjoys hot chocolate and sausage rolls with cousin Cameron

After a busy month Christmas eve arrives...cookies get decorated and letters to Santa are written.

Then it's off to bed to wait for Santa...