I left off last week with us getting ready to go to Emilia's dentist appointment. As it turned out, she wasn't feeling ready and we had a similar experience to her Christmas concert. Shutdown. Maybe next time... I really want to get her teeth checked as they're very crowded and she complains about them hurting often (due to the crowding I think). It's hard to brush/floss in there even so I want them to check it out!
Anyway here has been the last 9 days of our lives :)
Advent #13: Christmas mosaics
On Dec 13 Dave and I had a sitter lined up for small groups, but then it was cancelled due to illness. Instead of cancelling our sitter, we went over to Scott & Ashleigh's for a games night. Nice to get out of the house and catch up with them again!
Scott found this polly pocket sized Obi Wan at work. Dave and I now have it and we keep placing it random spots for each other to find.
Advent #14: Candlelight waffle dinner.
This one is always a highlight.
After dinner the big kids finished their mosaics from the day before
Eva wanted in on the sticker play. That meant stickers all over her body haha
So proud of their art work!
Advent #15: Dom's Christmas concert!
He had a brief moment of nerves, but then ran off into the room with his friends prior to the concert. They prepared these kids VERY very well.
The concert was so cute. I thought I might get emotional, but I was completely overwhelmed when they started their first song and he proudly stood and sang and did the actions. Mama proud heart means sudden overflowing emotions! I have many more years of these concerts <3
The most amazing sunrise that morning too
Advent #16: Mickey Mouse Christmas movie
I hit a couple thrift stores and found the book stack from Halloween at Mission Thrift Store :)
Advent #17: Christmas with the Gerbers!
We did not do gifts with the adults this year, but all the little cousins drew names for presents. Everyone arrived between 3 and 430, and we opened gifts during the evening and snacks on a delicious spread. Mom & Dad fried up some croquettes for dinner, and then everyone put their kids to bed and we hung out until 12:30am. Late night for me! I couldn't believe it was that late!
Now an out of order photo dump of everyone's pics from the evening.
A different kind of chaos this year. Everything went remarkably smoothly and the only tears of the evening were when Dom fell and scraped his chin. Success!
This was from 2021. 10 adults, 2 preschoolers, 4 little babies. Chaos!
Eva wore her new Minnie hat all night. Tags and all!
Opa snuggling Eva and her Minnie <3
Playmobil! I love playmobil :)
Eva grabbed a book and plunked herself into Uncle Scott's lap
Kids are in bed! Game time!
Played the Wordle game. The in-laws disliked how competitive we were. They don't like playing games with us haha.
Almost everyone is looking! Opa G took the picture and Oma G used Minnie Mouse to get everyone's attention behind the camera haha
Dom trying to explain his pokeballs to me. He's very into Pokemon lately; it was never my thing! Haha Good thing he has Dave :)
THE Santa suit <3
Act casual, girls
Uncle Jeff playing defense on the gifts haha
By some miracle everyone was healthy enough to make it to Christmas. So grateful
Aww me and my babies! <3
Advent #18: Charlie Brown Christmas
The day after presents means lots of time playing with said presents! I got to relive some childhood memories and play with Emilia's new melting beads! She had great patience and was very proud of her first creation :)
We got a bit of snow and I just wasn't feeling it. How glad am I the big kids can go outside and play on their own now? SO glad. Also grateful Jesse, Kirstin and Wren were out there to play with them and take a couple pictures haha!
Dom showing Wren the snow angel ropes
Someone got a new Elsa dress :)
I forgot a couple things at Mom & Dad's so brought Eva over there for a bit so the big kids could watch their Charlie Brown Christmas for Advent. Eva doesn't cooperate when we want to sit down and watch something, so this was best haha.
Advent #19: Spend the night in Agassiz and see the Christmas lights and train
Made it just in time for lunch
Gramma had prepped a bunch of different Christmas crafts for the kids! We made sock snowmen, Christmas trees, TP roll snowman, tealight snowman, and she had more prepped too!
Kids were giggling away down the hallway playing sleepover. Eva then came and sat on them and there was even more giggling
G&G wanted to take us to this house nearby to check out their lights/set up and train. Super cool and worth it! Eva didn't last long in the -20, but we had to bribe the big kids to get back in the van with the promise of hot chocolate :)
5 different tracks in the backyard. Sound, realistic model trains, etc. Everyone was enthralled.
Thanks for the Proof of Mom!
He's starting to look so mature. Weird.
I got the privilege of introducing them to Super Tock
Advent #20: Decorate Christmas cookies & surprise! Another night in Agassiz!
We woke up Tuesday morning to find out there was over a foot of snow at home, and it was some crazy winter wind blizzard outside in Agassiz. It was -20 with wind chill and whiteout conditions. We knew we would likely not make it home that day as planned. In the end we decided to stay an extra night. I figured we might as well stay where there was food, drinks, people to help with the kids, and good company :)
Lost Grandpa and Dom for a bit and found them watching Aladdin in the play room on the old VCR :)
Oops. Forgot the waters in the car.
We brought all their snow gear so we got them suited up and they actually lasted a lot longer than I expected given the wind and frigid temps!
The actual advent activity for the day :)
We all played bingo together. Beautiful bingo game with all these watercolour drawings. Each page is different with no duplicate animals so once you've gotten all yours covered you win.
"Has anyone seen Eva?"
The grown ups played Christmas movie Bingo while watching the Grinch in the afternoon too haha
Some of Gramma and Grandpa's photos they sent...
Our snowmen! Mine on the left, Dom' s in the middle and then Emilia's
These are the kind of Christmas trees the kids made. Super cute
"Bama?" - "Where's Grandpa?"
Never ever not being sat on
When I realized we left the waters in the van I went out to get them haha. Braving the winter storm!
Advent #21: Felt snowman craft
Beautiful, at times slippery, drive home from Agassiz
Dom had a dentist appointment Wednesday afternoon! He did so so so amazing. I was very proud. He's so grown up!! He even got x-rays which he was feeling nervous about. They found one small cavity between two molars so he'll be having that filled in January. Poor guy :(
We were able to do this because of the Canada Child Dental Benefit (or something like that). If you make less than $90K net as a household, you may be eligible for up to $650 per child to go towards dental benefits. We were lucky enough to get that for both Dom and Emilia. Now we just have to get Emilia to actually go to a dentist appointment haha. Not for lack of trying!
We got to play in the dumping of snow before the freezing rain and rain started later in the week!
Even Eva got in on the action.
Eva and Wren kept laying down in the snow together
Then got stuck on their backs like turtles
Finally got to our craft. Thank you Dollar Store!
Advent #22: Friendsmas with Jesse, Kirstin & Wren Wrap gifts for each other and open gifts from J&K&W. (Dinner was cancelled due to sickness. AGAIN!)
Eva slept in until 8:45 when I finally woke her up. She's normally up at or just before 7. Ruh Roh. That's not good news. Dang it. She's getting a cold :(. We had to cancel our dinner with J&K so they can all hopefully stay healthy for Christmas. Kirstin did still bring us dinner though which was much appreciated!
Instead, we had to pivot our advent plans and I had the kids wrap their gifts for each other and then we opened the gifts from J&K&W in the evening.
That is one sleepy looking toddler
Me facing our reality of a snotty few days
I love how preschoolers write.
I tried to get them to wait. Clearly that means nothing to Eva haha!
A cute and cozy outfit for each of them! Eva got a set of dresses and she put one of them on, looked down and swayed the skirt. She then started spinning, and pointed to herself and said, "Etta (Elsa)". Adorable
Mom, can you take a picture so I can see what this looks like? Umm.. sure.
Enjoying a taste of my birthday gift from Jeff & Marta
Well. It's been busy and exhausting. I kind of feel like that's just baseline lately. If I focus on the positives, it's been fun and full of family time. I know I'll look back on this next year and it will just be a highlight reel, but that's okay. I'm okay with focusing on the highlights haha. Romanticizing the day to day for my future self!
The next week is crazy with more Christmas gatherings and then Dom's birthday! I try hard to focus on his birthday and make it special, but boy is it hard when I'm burnt out from all the "special" things already happening all month! As long as he feels special that day, that's what matters. We plan to go ice skating and then stay up late to watch the hockey game in the theatre.
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