Uncle Ray , Auntie Alex , Korbyn and Delanie arived shortly after Grandma and Grandpa left. We were able to celebrate some more with them! It was a nice visit. The kids got to play and play......and well us adults did too! We played a lot of Sequence (Rolland's new favorite game). 
The cousins all together.........we didn't get to meet up with Auntie Aimee, Uncle Kris and Tayla this year! But they were definately thought of!
It was kind of funny (at least I thought so) that us adults were wide awake before the kids! Sydnie of course wasn't long behind us, but Rolland actually couldn't help himself but wake up Kaelie and Emily. I believe he jumped on Kaelie's bed saying "wake up it's christmas!!"........and Kaelie's reaction.......was a grunt! :) First things , the girls got to open their stockings. Kaelie and Emily went through theirs quite quickly but Sydnie took one thing out at a time, and had to check it out closely.......as you can see with the Chocolate!
There is something sooooo fun for parents to watch their kids open their gifts and get so excited about what they get. We really enjoyed just watching!
Then us adults got to open a couple of gifts .......
Then to top off the day, Rolland built a little snow hill off the deck for the kids to have for sledding! It was a great time for them!
Our Christmas celebration continued later on through the day, we enjoyed a lovely turkey dinner with all the fixings and Grandpa Henri and Grandma Marie joined us. After the meal we opened more gifts, and continued our Christmas !
It was really nice to stay home this year for Christmas. Usually we are either traveling to Estevan or traveling to Edmonton. But this year we said we wouldn't be traveling at all. Auntie Mona came for the holiday weekend, and spent Christmas eve, and Christmas day with us. We don't really have our own traditions when it comes to Christmas, because we usually just do whatever our families are doing :) But this year, we thought it would be a neat tradition to open a couple of gifts on Christmas eve. One being a package from Grandma Mariann and Grandpa Skip......PJ's for all!! And we bought Auntie Mona some too, so she could join in. Then the girls were able to open a gift each........the older two girls got to open a gift each containing a game! Emily got Dora Candyland, and Kaelie got Monopoly Jr. For Sydnie, she got some new bath toys, which is right up her alley! She was eager to hop into the tub while the rest of us played our games.
So at Sunday school we read the Birth of baby Jesus with the felt board, and talked about how we can celebrate Jesus all of the time, not just at Christmas time. Then for a fun craft, we made Christmas trees using upside down ice cream cones, green icing, and lots & lots of candy! I think the kids had a great time. It was fun to watch!
Everyone got a kick out of Sydnie munching on her cone. She ate the cone, bare and then nibbled on the candies too :)
Emily working hard on her tree! And of course nibbling on the candy too! I think everyone nibbled on the candies, even me!
Kaelie didn't just nibble on the candy, she actually ate half of her poor tree!
Friends of ours just had their second son on Dec. 19th. We were able to meet him and stare at him when he was only 4 days old! And Emily got to hold him! :) She was quite content to just sit there for more than 20 minutes holding this sweet little bundle. Definately will be a big helper when our little guy comes along.
Merry Christmas!!!
Jesus is the reason not only for this season. He's the reason for all of the seasons!! May God Bless you. From our home to yours.
We headed out to Kaelie's school last night. They had all sorts of crafts for the kids to do, they even had a mini pony sleigh ride! Pretty fun Christmas fun evening!
We had our annual Christmas get together on Monday night. We decided to just use the church building because we have so many kids :) It was a very fun evening. We pitch in for a delicious turkey dinner and then exchanged gifts afterwards.
Sher made Mali a blanket......so neat-o!!
Mali modeling the velcro bows that I bought her :) She doesn't seem to impressed! :)
We got another 15 cm of snow over the weekend. We didn't even leave the house on Saturday. However, Rolland did some shovelling so we could get out of our driveway for church on Sunday. Kaelie and Emily joined him outside for a bit of play time. In the above picture, Rolland was actually throwing a load of snow at Kaelie.
This is in the backyard, beside our garage. There was a massive snow drift there, thankgoodness it wasn't the front of our garage.
Just thought I would kneel down and take this picture. It's the snow on our deck. We have one of those kid's picnic tables on the deck......so you can kind of tell how high the snow is. Kaelie and Emily are in the background.
With all the snow came crazy roads too! The city FINALLY came yesterday to clear our street. Probably after getting quite a few complaints. On Tuesday, I was heading to my doctor appt. and I got stuck just getting out of my driveway (probably not an aggressive enough of a driver). So Rolland helped me out, but it took us a while....and there was much frustration! And I was late for my appointment. THEN on the way home, I got stuck going back into my driveway. So on Wednesday morning when they were clearing the street, you can imagine the excitement in this house! LOL
