Holidays in Pictures

The mini album I made for my mama

The most recent scrapbooking album I'm working on...

...we'll see how much I can fit in there. I decided to label this album and include the dates from and to on it for quicker reference. I'm really liking this idea!

Page one began with husbands' work Christmas party. We had dinner at the local casino, and as part of the festivities, a photo booth was included in our venue. The post card on this page is our Christmas postcard!

I wanted to include the few Christmas postcards we did get; this year, I didn't want to put them in a box, never to look at them again. I think I might make this a tradition...We got only two Christmas postcards, but that's alright. I'm thinking that next year there'll be a few more in our mailbox!

The first celebration of the Christmas season was with husbands' step family just outside of Edmonton. I'm loving the pictures I got of Addison crying in daddy's lap. I can't remember- I think she bumped her head on the table- and she sought comfort and refuge with daddy. Those two pictures just make me swoon!

Maren went nutso over an r.c. car one of husband's nephews got for Christmas. We have a chinese gift exchange every year, and he was lucky enough to hang onto that gift. It suited him, actually, being all heavy into drifting and all...anyways, Maren was smitten with his car, and in the picture above, she's sitting with husbands' brother in law, learning how to make the 'car! go!' In the other two pictures, she can hardly contain her excitement over the pretty wrapped presents, and her first ever attempt at eating a cherry tart.

Miss Addison sure has become quite the social butterfly these days. She enjoyed visits with quite a few of husbands' step family. We are pretty proud of her!

More pictures of Maren- this time playing hard with grandma K, who is in the bottom left picture. I didn't include journalling because I felt the title- Merry and Bright- summed up Maren quite well on Christmas Eve!

She wasn't there to give the girls their present personally, but one of husbands' step sisters made these sock monkeys for the kids. They're so super adorable- and the kids love them!

A two page spread of our Christmas Eve tradition with my own family. SIster and my brother in law celebrated with us, as well. Since dad couldn't get boxing day off to come spend the day with us in Whitecourt, we changed our plans and met my family at my parents' place Christmas Eve. We spent the night, and then spent a couple hours at the hospital the next morning with the girls. (Addison had a wicked eye infection that I thought was the contagious form of pink eye. It was a form of pink eye, but not how everyone thinks of it). Anyways, our Christmas Eve tradition is having chinese food for supper, and then opening presents. Overall, it was a super fun evening!

 (pg. 2)

I asked dad, not long after moving into our house, if he could make a me a cake stand to house my dish soap and hand lotion on- as a better storage solution and a prettier one at that, too. By my birthday in NOvember, we thought dad had forgotten about it, and didn't think anymore about it. When we arrived at mom and dad's for dinner Christmas Eve, there it was on the kitchen table, waiting for me. This is the first time he's made anything like this, and I think he did a marvellous job!

Now we're back in Whitecourt, at home, and having our own Christmas. This would be Christmas Day. Every time we had play dates, I would watch to see what toys the kids gravitated towards and played with the most, and got them the same things for Christmas. So, other than the Binoo doll mom bought the kids, their xylophone is a close second! Every once in a while, i'll notice the kids sneak into the basement, and shortly after, I'll hear the metallic ring of their xylophone being beaten on!

Husbands' most prized Christmas present this year is the food garburetor I got for him. I think he's pretty proud of it :) Now we're just waiting on mom and dad to return to Canada so that we can implement his help installing it!

The kids cleaned up pretty good this Christmas. They got a ton of toys- and a lot of fun, neat toys too! Among their favourites are their bath time chalk, their new bath time basketball hoop, the chalkboard I used as a kid growing up, a metal shelving unit mom and dad weren't using anymore, a toy organization/storage unit, and a dolly stroller and playpen and a rocking horse (of which will be uploaded later...)

And, the last one I've done so far is of our niece, Chloe (on husbands' step family's side). On Boxing Day, Kyle's dad and step mom came over for dinner, and we had Christmas with them. Since our niece had to work that day and day care wasn't going to be available until the 2nd, the grandparents babysat until daycare was available again. So, she came out to our place with them. And, she's such a joy to be around. She has wild hair, but she's so cute I could just pinch her!! (And, because the title is a little hard to read, I called it 'so cherry cute'. Because of the patterned paper I used in the background. Its happy, and cheery and cherry!!)

So, there's our holidays in pictures- at least what I've scrapbooked already. There's still a lot more to come. Hopefully I'm as diligent posting these as I have been putting them together!