Christmas Holidays 2011

My dad and Laura came over on the 22nd to have Christmas with us. MIcah got a huge Lego Star Wars set, Kendra got a beading set and Ethan got a wooden train. Jamie got a customized puzzle that was a map of Grimsby and I got a ice cream maker.

We went to Jamie's parents for dinner for Christmas Eve and then went to church. We did our family Christmas pictures at Henry's birthday this year. We went to Church in Niagara Falls again. There were about 20 people there. Grace did an amazing version of the Christmas story. It was intended for the kids but it was great for the adults too.

On Christmas morning, we had our own present opening with the kids in the morning. This year was definately scaled back since we were going to Cuba with the whole family in January. The kids still got lots of stuff even though I was trying hard not too. Ethan got the Cars2 Movie, Thomas bath toys, Kendra got some new gloves, an umbrella, a Barbie pool with Taffy swimming dog (it was too funny that the dogs name was the same as my dog as a kid), some little pet shops, some clothes and some new games for her Dsi. Micah got a slip and slide, a new full head hat, some new games for the Dsi.

At 11 am we went over to Grandma's home to visit with her. We brought over croissants with cream cheese, red pepper jelly and jams. There was lots of fruit as well. Grandma was not much into visiting as she was tired and a bit grumpy. The kids ended up opening her presents. Our favourite was Ethan trying to take the cookies we got her. She said, "Don't take my cookies".

After visiting with Grandma we had a few hours before everyone was coming over for dinner. There were 12 of us with Jamie's parents, his sister with Wayne, my mom and her two Chinese students. The students had never experienced Christmas at all so they really knew nothing about it. Iris decided she was going to have mom's squash that she had made for dinner for her breakfast. She thought it was pumpkin. There were two other sets of present openings here. Mom did her presents when she got here and then Avie came with her load as well. I am not remembering most of the rest but all the kids got some clothes from Grandma. Micah got a Nerf Gun from Grandma. Avie got Ethan a Thomas the train Pack and Play.


We went out for my mom's birthday lunch at the Chinese Food Restaurant on December 27th. After eating we headed out to visit with my dad and Laura at their cottage in New York. We got out skiing the next day for a couple of hours even though there wasn't much snow for a base. It was a bit windy and snowy that day but the kids didn't really complain about it (I guess because they have googles). Kendra wasn't interested in skiiing much. She did go down the bunny hill and did a lot of turning on her own this time. She fell a few times which seemed to discourage her. So poor Jamie pulled her around for the rest of the time down the mini-hill. MIcah, Dad and I went down the bigger hills for the rest of the time. We visited with dad for 4 days. The kids didn't want to go out skiiing again but they did go play outside in all the new snow.