Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas day dawned bright and early. But none of the kids would wake up. So finally, since we adults were getting impatient(!) we sent Andrew up to wake them up! David was so excited to get this Playmobil set from his grandparents in Ontario. He's been coveting Jade's camper set for months, but now they have different pieces that they can play with together! Yay :)




Andrew finally got some much needed slippers.

Elisabeth was VERY excited with her new makeup set.

And then we headed to Grandma's house to continue the festivities.






We got Rob and Dave matching plaid shirts. Ashlie and Jade got plaid shirts too, but not matching ones!

And Ashlie got high heels from Uncle Dave.

Squishy had a nap.
Little Lizzie was sure excited to have dinner. But who wouldn't be excited for turkey dinner?!

Bonfire Season

What time of year isn't bonfire season? It's always a good time for a fire :) So we grabbed some timmys and headed to the river. ahhhhhhh

Before we even got the fire going, the kids were right in there with their sticks.

And of course, Andrew and I had to document the occasion with a self portrait!





It was a beautiful evening!


Even Santa was out on the water!

The kids decided to try their hands (feet?) at surfing!


Then we drove across the road to Fort Langley to check out the Christmas displays.

Of course we had to stop at Roxanns and try on some hats.



The toy store was a big hit.

Luckily the toy store is right next to my favorite store :)

The Land of Christmas

In the past few years, we'd heard a lot about the Land of Christmas. Then, when we had our neighbors over for dinner, they told us that they'd been there and spent 45 minutes wandering around. Sounds good, we thought and so we bundled up and went to check out the lights.

Upon arriving at the Land of Christmas, you're greeted by a ginormous Christmas book. See?

And they had the cutest tin soldiers.

Then we stood in line to meet Santa Claus. Elisabeth didn't want to meet him. Turns out it was because she was worried about how naughty she'd been all day. We sorted things out and she happily greeted him.



And wandered around a little more.

Another Christmas Concerty Day

We had three Christmas concerts this year. David's entire school participated in telling the story of the origins of the Christmas Carol, Silent Night. I was at both performances and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed them both! And we ended the night with a Christmas Carol Sing Along. It was great fun, made even better by the company we kept at both concerts.

Unfortunately though, the lighting wasn't great and we didn't have the best seats, so I don't have any good pictures.

The kids were also in a concert at church. Once again, we had terrible seats for taking pictures, but it was sooooo cute seeing our kids participate in their concerts. David is quite the bopper! And Elisabeth shocked us both by coming down with a terrible case of stage fright! In the end she did very well though she definitely sings louder at home :)

And then Elisabeth had a Christmas party/concert at her preschool. Daddy took the morning off and Braylon and I joined him for the first part of the party. Then Braylon and I left to help David's class with their Christmas crafts. Here are some pictures!

Andrew and Elisabeth made a Christmas Centrepiece.

And Elisabeth thought Ben looked so cute in his elf hat, she just couldn't resist hugging him!

When we got home, she decided it was high time she worked on her letter to Santa. As you can tell, she put a lot of effort into the letter.


Then, after the big kids came home, we decorated cookies. GREAT fun :)


Ashlie stole my camera for a little photo shoot.