The Mayhem

Things got a little out of hand when the gifts were opened. Aunt Marion had the right idea..."get the hell out of the way". Pictures didn't turn out well...you can still make out the people which is most important.

Christmas At Mom & Dad's

Here's a few faces you will recognize...
Dad showing off his latest Christmas gift...a new digital camera...someone will have to show him how to use it...pick me!! (Donava, Paul & Kevin also in picture)
The ladies, Sheila, Florence and GG enjoy some Christmas dessert...
There he is...my lumberjack...well he certainly looks like one in his new jacket...handsome too I might add...Florence also thinks so...can't you tell by the smile on her face?
That's Aidan with Dash, his favourite character...hmm...I wonder who is so thoughtful to have gotten such a great gift for him knowing how much he loves Dash...lol

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!
I haven't updated in a while but I still wanted to share photos from Christmas.
We had a great Christmas and I do believe everyone enjoyed themselves...don't take my word for it, see for yourself....

Just a Couple more...

Since we now live in Muskoka what's a tree without a Muskoka chair...and of course can't forget the bear....

My Favourites...

I have some favourite ornaments I wanted to share...
I put the picture of Jeff , the kids and I cutting down the tree in the tree...I think I will make that a yearly tradition. This year the majority of my tree was done in snowmen, with the exception of a few of my favourites, like the elephant pictured above.

The Little Man with the Big Man...in the Red suit

This year Aidan decided to cozy up to Santa. Last year he was not quite as brave...he stood in front of him. This year his little girlfriend Natalie was with him, though not pictured here, so he had to impress her. You know he takes after his Dad in that regard. What a sweetie. Love him to bits...

Tree Cutting Family Picture

We took a family picture before cutting the tree down...it turned out pretty good. It took longer to get this photo than it did to cut the tree down.
Jeff took this picture and he did a good job considering he had it propped on a stump. The tree may not look like much right now but just you wait....

The Chosen One...down she goes

This Sunday we went to Kilborne Tree Farm near Bracebridge to cut down our tree. We heard it was a good place with big tall trees. It was a nice place they got that right. It took us a while to find one that was nice, full and taller than Jeff...but here she is the chosen tree to be our Christmas tree...Look as the action unfolds...it may look like it took awhile for Jeff to cut through the tree but really it was a matter of seconds....  

The Holiday tree

For those of you who like to be politically correct, this is our "holiday tree" that we are going to hang ornaments on with ordinary lights not Christmas lights and sing songs around and...who am I kidding...Merry Christmas and all that other unpolitical jazz!!

The man himself with "the tree"....

Families Get Together

On Saturday we decided we would have our families over for tree trimming and dinner. The plan was we would get up early, get the tree and then come home do dinner, guests arrive and decorate the tree. Well, as anyone knows plans are always open to change and our plan changed. We did a turkey for dinner...2 actually one in the oven and one on the BBQ. So that took priority getting the turkey in the oven, then there was tidying the house and early guest arrival and well I think you know where this is going...no time to get tree. But that's ok. We had a great time anyway. We had 20 people for dinner....Jeff's parent's, his 2 brothers and there families, his sister, my parent's, Grandma, Auntie Jean, Brenda and Unlce Robert. Talk about a full house. We didn't have enought room around the table so you had to sit where you fit. No complaints though. The turkeys turned out excellent. Dad's put in a request for a BBQ turkey for Christmas day at their place. The only one missing was Marlene, Sean and Aidan. Since Marlene works weekends they couldn't be there.
Everyone had a great time, lots of food, games and cheer!
Sorry no pics I forgot to take some...
The only other thing I would do differently, besides take pics, is plan a little further ahead. I was busy a lot of the time in the kitchen so I didn't get to mingle with guests as much as I would have liked. I think I just found my New Year's Resolution...plan better...maybe I'll start with the wedding...

Holiday Cheer

This weekend we had a couple of Christmas functions to attend.
My friend Pauline had her annual Chrirstmas Open House and it was a great time as usual. She is always so organized and her house was wonderfully decorated for the holidays. We spent the evening in her newly finished basement at the bar her husband Ken did. Well, he did the whole basement and it looks excellent. It was very cozy by the fire and refreshing at the bar.
Our visit was interrupted as we had to go to Jeff's work party held at the restaurant called Crabby Joe's (how appropriate for the holidays! haha). The food was good this time but the service was a bit to be desired. Hopefully that will be enough to get it changed to somewhere different next year. We had a nice time there. We sat with Jeff's friend Eric & his wife Krista, who is expecting their second child in June. Pat & Ron, Eric's parents, were also at our table. It almost felt like the 6 of us were just out for dinner together because the company was sooo good we forgot about the rest of the bunch.
We had an invitation back to Sandy's for the after party but had to decline since we had only spent a short time at Pauline's. Back at Pauline's we had some cheer, a chat with old friends and a good time. All in all, a success.
Thanks Pauline again for inviting us and for a great time.

Here are a few other Christmas decorations in our home. Hope you like the little tour. I will post our tree once it is up and decorated. Stay tuned... 

If you put these pictures together, side by side this is the entryway into our family room. Apparently, the pillars are original to the house when it was built some 100 years ago.  

Christmas in Our New Home

Here is a look at what Christmas looks like in our new home. This is our staircase decorated for the holidays and at the bottom of the stairway is our Christmas tree...well one of our trees. We will be having a bigger and better real tree this year. Unfortunately, we don't have it up yet...but there's still a couple weeks to go...no rush yet...right?? Come one there's more for you to see...

The Little Man Turned 3!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Aidan!! Here he is the imfamous Aidan...in to everything and doing and saying just the same.
I didn't see him on his special day but a few days later. When I arrived at his house and he saw the"package" I barely got through the door and he wanted to know what it was. Well, as soon as I said it is your birthday present he wanted to open it. I said just let me get in and my coat off and you can open it. I can't tell you how many times he asked me if he could open it now. He liked his present and remembered to say Thank you. The rest of the afternoon we played with playdo and played hide n' seek. He's still learning the concept because he likes to see where you hide or when he hides you are standing right there. When he finds you he says hide again but that means in the same spot!
He's a funny little guy...obsessed with hockey and has already earned the nickname "chatterbox". It will be amazing to see what he does over the next year since he's learned so much already. 

Girls Weekend

Every year my Mom gets together with her cousins for a girls weekend. This year was special. The daughters were invited. Rosemary came up with the idea and I really thought it was great that they shared their weekend with us. Unfortunately, it was only some of us...Leslie couldn't make it and Melissa & Marlene were there part of the time. Maybe if we get invited back we could have a true Mother/Daughter weekend.
The weekend was special in another way too...since Mom has been sick the cousins didn't want her to miss out on the weekend so they brought everything to her. They took great care of her, planning activities around Mom's energy level, bringing food, fun and laughter. All the right medicine. Luckily Mom was feeling good and could really enjoy herself.
Hightlights of the weekend...shopping, eating, talking, eating, the gift exchange, more talking, followed by more eating, taking in a movie (Da Javu), dinner at Swiss Chalet and our picture with Santa.
Linda & I had a great time as the daughters and speaking for myself, I was inspired to start a get together with my cousins too!