Merry Christmas to all

Here are a few photos from this past month. (Click on the family photo to see the rest. My computer died right after I uploaded these last week, so at least I have them, but I can't really do much else with them right now):

It's been busy lately. On Sat. Dec. 5, we took the kids down to Nathan Phillips Square to see the lights and watch the fireworks. We all had a great time and Austin loved pretending to skate on the ice -- well until one of the rink marshalls told him and Ryan they had to get off because they weren't wearing skates!

We wandered around, checked out The Bay Christmas windows and had dinner at the Eaton Centre before heading back to Nathan Phillips Square for the fireworks. Both kids loved them -- and it was the first time either of them have ever seen fireworks.

Sunday, December 13 was the PCL kids Christmas party. We went on a horse-drawn wagon ride, drank hot chocolate, did crafts and, of course, visited with Santa. Austin happily sat on Santa's knee and told him that he wanted 'presents' for Christmas. Nothing specific, just presents. Alex on the other hand, was excited to see Santa when we were standing in line but wanted nothing to do with him once it was our turn. She wouldn't even sit on his knee and scream because she clung to me for dear life and wouldn't go anywhere near him. So the closest Santa picture we got this year was of Austin, Alex and me with Santa. And even then she wasn't very happy about it.

The next weekend, on Saturday, December 19, we hosted a family Christmas party. It was a large dinner party, with many of our friends and their kids. It was a good time, and although a little crazy at times, a lot of fun. The kids all exchanged gifts and ran around well past their bedtimes and the adults hung out, ate lots of food and made good use of the bar.

And now it's just about Christmas. For the first time, we will not be travelling anywhere this year. Ryan's dad and sisters will be spending Christmas Day and Boxing Day with us (which means, we will be cooking our first Christmas dinner). Then, we'll be heading out to Brampton on the 27th to do Christmas with my family and back to Brampton on the 29th for another gathering when my cousins, aunt and uncle are in town from the U.S. Ryan's mom, who's on vacation this Christmas, will be doing Christmas with us sometime in January.

That's about all for now, Merry Christmas to all.

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We've got to shake our sillies out

Alex loves to dance. When the mood strikes her, she starts doing the happy feet dance while shaking her arms and laughing. It's really cute to watch.

But her favourite song right now is 'Shake your Sillies Out'. At every sportability class this fall (which was one of Austin's activities but since it was a caregiver and child program, Alex participated as well), the first thing we'd all do was shake our sillies out. Since we don't have it on CD, it gets sung a lot lately around here. Here's Austin taking on lead vocals while they both crash around the living room:

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Dear Santa,

Yesterday, Austin and I wrote a letter to Santa. He dictated and I wrote it for him -- although he signed his name at the bottom. And of course, he had to decorate it with stickers before mailing it to Santa -- because, according to Austin, everything has to have stickers on it!We talked about what he wanted to say to Santa beforehand, and then I had to prompt him with the first sentence, because when we sat down to write, he told me he didn't know what to say. Everything else, was his idea -- including what he wants for Christmas.

For the record, the glitter glue is something he mentioned to me before, so I'm impressed he remembered, and yesterday he asked for markers as well -- but not for him. He said to me "I want markers, but I already have some, I want more so Alex has some". (Which is all sweet of him, except the subtext is that he's saying he wants Alex to have her own so she stops taking his!)

Before we took his letter to the post office, Alex drew a picture for Santa.

Then I put them in separate envelopes and we took them to the post office. Hopefully, they'll both get replies from Santa soon.

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