It's been a bonkers week as it always is around Christmas. We're at the end of our celebrations now, the Christmas decorations are down, and we can rest for the next couple nights until New Years!
Advent #23: Santa's Workshop with Rebecca & Jag/Jaia's Birthday Party Eat the Gingerbread house
Due to the crazy ice storm Dec 23 and 24, we had to cancel our original plans as they required a lot of highway driving. Instead we just stayed home and stayed mostly in our jammies all day (no different than the average day haha).
I was so sick of the 3-week old gingerbread house on the counter so I plopped it on the table and said, "Okay. Free for all and then it's going in the trash!" The big kids picked off a couple candies, and Eva sat there for half an hour trying to get the big peppermints off, resorting mostly to just licking them and chewing on them.
Advent #24: Christmas Eve Service & Stockings
I always look forward to the Christmas Eve service at church. We haven't gone the last two years because COVID in 2020, and then the kids had RSV in 2021. The service was beautiful - a perfect mix of reflective carols and songs everyone knew. I had Dom standing on the chair behind me with his arm around my shoulders belting out "Joy to the World", "Glooooooooooooooria", and "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN!" I got emotional hearing him singing these words and making these memories like I have from my childhood doing the same things. He's so grown up!
The group of teenage girls did a special song during offertory that happened to be my favourite Christmas song, Mary Did You Know. Then they had the candle lighting during Oh Holy Night (my second favourite Christmas song) and both the big kids got a candle. Emilia's got a little close to her hair so Oma helped her out. Dom was getting distracted and waving his around and eventually muttered, "Mom, it's burning me. IT'S BURNING ME!" The wax was dripping onto his fingers haha. I quickly snuffed it out and mine followed quickly after that as I was holding Eva and she was drawn to the candle like a toddler to a flame.
We came home and the kids opened their stockings. Stocking highlights were a stuffed animal, a scratch and win, kinetic sand and a mandarin orange. Dom laughed til he cried when he pulled out the orange. Must have seemed so strange to him.
After we put the kids down Dave and I exchanged gifts. While we were trying to settle in, Eva decided to cry. Dave went in and I got the text, "Help. Puke." There was a small puke in her crib so we cleaned her up and got her back to bed. My mood was ruined. Terrified. Waiting for the next kid to go down. Waiting for her to cry again. In the end it turns out she wasn't getting sick. We had put Restoralax in her bottle and sometimes it foams up when mixed with milk, so I think it was more of a spit up than anything. PHEW! No one else got sick either. Double PHEW!
Eva was just wild. This was literally the only position she'd be still in, and it only lasted 10 seconds haha. She was yelling most of the service, "OPA!!! OPA!!! OPA?? OPA!!!" Oh toddlers.
<3 <3 <3
Kids, sit down and look happy!
Quick, smile before you open your stockings!
Completely flabbergasted by the orange haha
For my future self to remember what I put in their stockings this year. Plus a kinder suprirpse!
Scratch & Win. They both lost haha
We all played with the kinetic sand for quite a while. It's very strange and confusing
Deeeeees!
Every night we read a story from a Children's bible we got for Eva's baptism. By a COMPLETE fluke we happened to read about the exact scripture Pastor Dave preached on at the service. It wasn't even a Christmas story we were leading up to or anything. Just a complete coincidence (?).
We finally got to our gifts! Dave has asked for the 4K disc set of Lord of the Rings every year for the past 4 years. I finally caved when it went on sale this year. Now he says we need a new projector though... I see your tricks.
I didn't really ask for anything in particular, so Dave wrapped a bunch of little items and made me a gift basket. Perfect!
He knows how much I love gift baskets :) Lots of little thoughtful things!
Gifts is my very bottom love language, but to me gift baskets or thoughtful gifts like this are also acts of service & are a result of quality time because you have to know me well!
Christmas Day we woke up and I made cinnamon buns for breakfast, as is tradition. Gosh these cinnamon buns are delicious. Way too much for us though! We opened gifts slowly throughout the morning to allow for play time with them. Dave and I got the kids mostly practical things, and then the "cool" things were purchased by each other, for each other. Dom got Emilia a Frozen watch and Frozen makeup set she wanted. Emilia got Dom a Spiderman watch and a noisy dinosaur he was begging for.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. I baked some sourdough, and then Dom, Emilia and I went to my parents for dinner with Opa & Oma G. Best decision ever to leave Eva at home. She was a little snotty and Dave wasn't feeling 100% either. I had such a relaxing time! Big kids are the easiest! They played upstairs, ate their dinner, conversed, and went back to playing. I was able to sit down and chat with Opa and Oma mostly uninterrupted by kids and without any other siblings kicking around (love you boys, but it's hard to get a word in sometimes ;)).
That evening Dave and I started watching Ted Lasso on Apple TV. Amazing. 10/10. My parents were encouraging us to watch it and said they thought Dave would like it too. I'm always looking for shows for us to watch together and we mutually enjoy this one! Hooray for finding something in common!
One gift while waiting for the Cinnamon Buns to cool down. Hungry Hungry Hippos! The kids talk about it all the time since playing it at Rebecca's house
Eva's stuffy wouldn't fit in her stocking, so it went under the tree. She loves owls and loves stuffies, so she was enamored.
Little lady
As I mentioned, Dave and I got smaller, more practical gifts for the kids (books, art supplies, games, etc.) and let D&E buy the "cool" things for each other.
I am having feelings about how we fell into consumerism this year. Next year I'm going to make more of an effort to do thrift stores and second hand. We didn't do everything brand new, and used PC points for most of the toys we DID buy new, but I don't know... We just got so much stuff between all the Christmases and Dom's birthday! Hard not to feel guilty.
UNO! The kids both picked it up right away and I actually like playing it so that's a plus.
Loving on her owl and her new Minnie blanket. She got mostly Minnie Mouse themed items this year.
Her Frozen Watch and "makeup" she'd been dying to have
Put her down for her nap and threw my phone on night mode to take a picture. Didn't even realize she was looking at me or snuggling her owl. Melt my heart
This girl is ruthless in Uno. Definitely understand. Skips turns, plays +4s, changes the colour just to mess with people. Smarty pants
Wish I had gotten a picture of Opa & Oma with the kids. This was the only one I got haha.
BOXING DAY! Holy busy week. On Boxing day we got up, fed the kids, and piled in the car to go to Agassiz for the Kimber Christmas. We had waffles and hashbrown casserole for brunch and then put Eva down for a nap there. We did gifts with adults and big kids while Eva napped and then did hers afterwards. That worked well. MUCH less chaotic and she would never know the difference. It also gave the big kids more time to play with their gifts. Over all everything went very smoothly and was relatively relaxing! We had an early dinner and left at 5 so everyone could get a proper sleep and we could have time to decorate for Dom's birthday the next day!
Hardly heard from these big kids at all! Snuck into playroom thinking they were probably getting into trouble and found Emilia sweetly reading a book to Rebecca & Dom nicely colouring in a colouring book.
The uncles & aunts were super engaged with the kids which I loved to see. Gabriel spent over an hour helping Dom build his lego-type Monster Truck. Super sweet!
Emilia and Rebecca building her little Frozen Lego set together
Rachel & Kyle got a puppy a while back and we finally got to meet her! Juniper. She's very sweet! Wild, as a puppy is, but very kind and sweet.
We did it!! A full family photo!
By the time we got to Gramma & Grandpa pictures with the grandkids they were pretty much done haha
This is so my kids. Eva trying her best to escape and never not moving. Emilia smiling like the little sweetheart she is. Dom unable to hide his emotions even for a minute haha
Finally got Rebecca in, just in time for Eva to flee!
Emilia's idea for how to pose the cousins
Took a few cute shots of the Van Dijk family
Then Eva ran in to sit with Uncle Kyle
Then Emilia ran in to join too
And Finally Dom ran in to complete the picture haha
Rachel got me new moccasins, not at all realizing just how badly I needed them haha. She just saw them and thought I'd like them She was right!
Some unwinding time at home and Dom drew his best Christmas tree yet! <3 I love the colours and the fact that it has a tree skirt. We have never ever had a tree skirt.
On December 27, Dom turned SIX! That is like a full child. Hard to believe. I'll have to make up his 6 year blog post and get a nice picture of him still. Anyway, Dec 27 is a very hard time to have a birthday. We were all so peopled and partied out, but Dom had been looking forward to this for the last 364 days! It was his first real birthday where we didn't have to cancel anything and that he would remember. His 4th birthday was COVID, so we did an outdoor drive by and gift drop off. His 5th birthday the kids all had RSV, so we did a similar thing. This time around we could do what we wanted!
We got him up in the morning singing happy birthday and throwing balloons at him in his bed (this somehow became a requested tradition), and then came downstairs for some breakfast. He opened his gifts from us and one from Aunty Allana & Uncle Gabriel. Crazy remote control monster truck! Looking forward to drier days when he/we can take this thing out and drive it around outside.
We zipped over to my parents house and had some crepes and at some point the whole family (except Aly who was working) came over. We went home for nap, and then went skating with whoever could make it! Jeff's friend had ice rented at Richmond Ice Centre and insisted we could use that for Dom's birthday as well! It was just a handful of us, but it was so nice not to have to worry about anything (food, cost, etc.) and just show up, skate around for a bit, and head home. Ashleigh was nice enough to offer to stay back and hang out with Eva and Phoebe so we wouldn't have to take her along too. Thank goodness because that would have been too much!
Dom was pretty toast by the end of skating, but he had fun. He and Emilia mostly enjoyed being pushed around on the seal things. Worked for me because I can't skate, so I appreciated that support too haha. It's Dom's DREAM to play hockey, so we just have to get him skating first. Anyone do private skating lessons? All the rec centre ones are booked!
We came home and I whisked Dom upstairs for 10 minutes of quiet time before pizza dinner arrived. Scott & Ash and Gramma & Grandpa joined us for dinner, and then closer to 7:00 my brothers and parents came as well. The Canucks were playing San Jose at home, and while we would have loved to take Dom to the game, we just couldn't make it happen this year ($$$). So instead, I asked my brothers if they'd be willing to hang out in the theatre and watch the game with Dom. We'd let Dom stay up the whole time. He gave this experience a 10/10. He felt so special! Definitely enjoyed being one of the guys.
Instead of cake, Dom wanted pudding this year, so I made worms and dirt. I think everyone was actually pleasantly surprised - myself included! I think I'll make it again for New Years.
Emilia was fading hard and agreed to go to bed around 8:30. She could hardly keep her eyes open, so I'm glad she didn't fight us on that. By the time the game was over at 9:30 Dom was TOAST. So exhausted. He stood up at the buzzer and walked to the door. "Well. The games over. I'm ready!" That was easy! Happy birthday to our 6 year old! <3
Jeff, Adam and Scott stuck around for a couple hours afterwards and we had some chats and drinks in the theatre. Loved that!
My only goal for the day was to make him feel special. I think he really really did.
We got him a Pokemon seek & find book (like a $4 Amazon find. score!)
And a Pokemon Encyclopedia type book. He has spent a LOT of time with this already.
"show me you're excited about crepes!"
Oma also got him some more hockey cards and this book for storing them. He's spent hours organizing and reorganizing his hockey cards and pokemon cards into his "chart".
Aunty Ashleigh graciously encouraging Emilia to put lip gloss on her eyelids and cheeks. She's much cooler than I am haha
This is why our babies are always sick haha. But good golly these two are adorable!
Eva will sit with anyone it seems. Owen looks less impressed by this arrangement
It was really nice to hang out with Adam & Myles as they're moving to Toronto after New Years and will be away for most of next year :(
Post skate, pre-pizza quiet time. Organizing his hockey cards by team
Opening his Pokemon cards. These were literally the last thing on his list that he was hoping for. He was SO spoiled this year.
Mmmmm worms & dirt!
Not sure if I've showed the new theatre configuration yet? Much better suited to larger groups.
Fading in the 3rd period
Have to show Uncle Jeff his hockey chart of course!
That brings us to yesterday and today! Our first day with no plans in a loong time! The kids got to unwrap their Christmas gifts from Aunty Sonya which included a huge Playmobil School set. I helped them set it up in Dom's room and it's been well used already. Between all their new toys/gifts/books/hockey cards, etc. we have honestly hardly seen them at all. Dom has really enjoyed this much needed break from the grind of 5 day weeks at school. We all have. I'm a little nervous for that to start up again next week. It's been so nice not rushing to and from and driving all over and planning lunches and and and...
Oh I forgot to take a picture of it, but Aunty Sonya got each of the 2021 babies a personalized book! So cute. Eva's is called, "Eva Goes to the Zoo".
I am so stoked with our playmobil collection building up! With D&E busy playing upstairs, Eva got to play with some of it downstairs in the living room! Also loving our new carpet!
Eva randomly slept in until 8:30 this morning, at which time Dave finally decided to wake her up. I was at work, but before I left I got to have some quiet morning time with Dom. He brought down his pokemon books and hockey chart to study <3
He spent time before Eva got up building one of his Lego sets from Opa & Oma G! (Great Opa & Great Oma to him). They hit the nail on the head with this one. He's so into dinosaurs and hasn't gotten any new lego in a long long time.
Happy happy after a very long sleep!
The next few days will be full of reflection for me and likely setting impossible goals and putting impossible pressures on myself as we go into the new year. Looking forward to it haha.
