Christmas in Ontario, Part Two

Can we just pause for a minute to talk about January? I mean...when did Januarys get so busy? I swear we just got off the plane from Ontario, and it's already almost February! I used to think that September was my busy time at work, but the last year has proved me wrong.

Anyhoo. I'll get to that later. Today we're going to talk about the second half of our Christmas trip to Ontario. We arrived back in Alliston to find the snow had stuck around for us. The kids were delighted. So we promised them at on Tuesday they could spend the entire day playing outside if they liked, we wouldn't even make them come in for meals.

And with that, Andrew and I hopped in the car and headed to Barrie to finish up the Christmas shopping. Incidentally, shopping in Ontario is so much superior to shopping in BC. Royal Doulton outlet store at Christmas time is pure Christmassy heaven. Also, we were at the outlet mall and there was practically no one else there. It was eerie. Here's another picture of kids in the snow to take our minds off the eerie.

We got back to Alliston where three generations of Menarys assembled a technic (teknic?) set.

All too soon it was Christmas. The entire family descended on the house for Christmas Eve. We ate dinner and then headed to the basement to play games.

All of us :)

David and Aydan decided they were going to put on a Christmas pageant so they got busy making finger puppets. Here are some of the shepherds and Joseph.

On Christmas day we congregated at the Nottaswaga Inn for brunch. Can I just say that was the most brilliant plan ever. We had the most relaxed brunch, everyone got to eat exactly what they wanted and none of us had to clean up after!

Plus, the kids are old enough now we were able to have a kids table and an adult table. Brilliant!

The Inn was the perfect spot for family pictures.

Too bad the subjects were so silly ;)

After brunch, we headed back to the house for PRESENTS!

 David scored big time.

 Then we all played games again. Lauren cleaned up at Dutch Blitz.

It's so lovely to see my husband hard at work in the kitchen. Making yummy orange glazed yams. Did I mention how yummy they were?

And after a delicious Christmas dinner it was unfortunately time to say goodbye Paul's family. The rest of us hung out until very late. I think if grandma could have left us all playing to go to sleep she would have.

Luckily we were able to reconvene on Friday for one last day of fun. Mini golf for everyone. And I do mean everyone. Grandma, Grandpa and Lauren formed one team.

I played with these yahoos.

 And Andrew, Nancy, Rob and Emma were the last team. We finished first and took advantage of the opportunity to take more pictures.

Luckily there was an arcade beside the mini golf, so we found lots of photo fodder :)

These two are about 14 weeks apart. Practically twins. They had a blast playing against each other.

 While we packed suitcases and made a quick dinner, the girls (and David too) decorated cookies.

 Time for goodbyes :(

 And a few last memories of a wonderful Christmas trip. Thank you grandma and grandpa M!