Emily’s first time skating

Matthew the Hockey star!

We had a great Christmas. It was very relaxing and we just hung out for the day and boxing day too. We played board games and video games and ate food. Sound like my kinda day! Roxy got Guitar Hero world tour with the drums and guitar and mic and stuff, so we definitely started a band. Not that we didn’t have a really instrument band before, but it was still alot of fun. I’m having almost as much fun with Emily’s new toys as mine. haha. typical me. She got some Melissa and Doug pots and pans and play food, so we’ve been cooking up a serious storm. And she got a kid digital camera too, but I haven’t had a chance to pull pics from it. When I get them, you will see a future photographers finest take on the world at 3 feet.

Emily’s third Christmas

Guitar Hero?

We had a really nice time in vernon with my dad’s side of the family too. I think we were only missing my cousin Ty, and otherwise we were all together. Cool huh? It was especially cool because Emily got to meet her new cousin Matthew. He is 3 and such a sweetie. Emily and him hit it right off and played pretty well together. They had such a fun time. We are looking forward to this summer when they can play together more. Ahh the summer means I’ll have two kids. scary thought. oooh dear. ooo well.

Cousins

Anyways. I’m enjoying emily nap today just a bit too much. I think if she had pushed my buttons one more time this morning I may have imploded, which is less messy than exploding. I think Im going to read a book and eat chocolate. anyone coming with me??

We had a wonderful trip to the coast. My Mom is officially my hero. She got Emily a portable DVD player for the car! It was ama-za-zing We had the best trip down with Emily yet. No screaming, almost no crying, less whining and happy mommies and daddies. She watched Baby Einstein Mozart. Loved it. She doesn’t watch TV at home at all so it was an awesome novelty for her. Gotta love novelties. It feels like we were gone for a week, but we were only gone 1 full day. Spent almost as much time driving as in Richmond. Super glad we could get at least that much time off though.

Christmas Morning was so much fun with Emily. We did our stockings before she got up cause we couldn’t wait any longer!! Then she got up and ate her oatmeal. We video-ed her opening her stalking, but decided to enjoy the morning instead of watching it through a camera lens. So we took a few pictures, but mostly left it alone. When I find the jump drive in all the stuff I Tetris-ed into the car Ill post pictures. Emily was really good at opening the presents. She ripped the paper off super fast and then said “More More Toys” It was pretty cute. Children’s toys come in the dumbest packaging. Seriously. Its a major waste of packaging just to make it look all pretty AND no one can get into it in less than 10 minutes, which is certainly not enough time to hold a child’s attention while opening it. I opened a couple of things before I wrapped them to make that a bit easier on her.

We all got such awesome stuff. We got a Wii!! AND a Vacuum!!(I think I’m looking forward to vacuuming for the first time ever in history) AND I got a winter coat that fits me!!AND Emily got a bike and a drum set! and about six hundred other things too. We couldn’t even bring it all home with us. You should have seen what I packed into the Jetta. It was insane. We are lucky I was so good at Tetris when I was little…or now.

The best thing ever was when we set up the Wii. We even got Uncle Hank to try it. Everyone was laughing so hard at each other trying to race cows that there were tears. I’m pretty sure there are sore arms today! Ahh I remember the first time I got Wii Arms…back in the day(October)…

Well here we are home again and trying to get some regular life back, which probably won’t happen until January anyways. A little look ahead…We are coming up on our 1 Year Blog-a-versary next month so there will be some special guests and great give-aways on the show. Or at least some tribute blogs, but whatever. I’m looking forward to it. Stay Tuned.

The fam at Christmas.

My Gorgeous Husband

Emily on Christmas Morning.

For the last 2 days Emily has spun into a crazy tantrum if I don’t let her take all her clothes off. I’m trying to be open about it because she appears to want to potty train. So she takes all her clothes off then sits on the potty for 2 seconds and then wants to run around naked. It’s cute so I let her and she runs back and forth to the potty not peeing in it. Then she gets bored of the potty, which she insists must sit directly in front of the Christmas tree. (Nothing like peeing with good scenery). Now picture this huge fight to put a diaper on again. I’m not against potty training, but I am against nudists peeing on my carpet. We get the clothes on…she takes them off again. We put them on again, she gets distracted for 10 minutes…then off they come again…Ahhhh. For serious I don’t think I’d mind so much, but its December. Who has time for nudists in December? Who wants to be a nudist in December?? It’s getting old to say the least.

My mom was my hero today! Yay Mom. She rescues me lots, but today was just one of those days. I played on the worship team at church and my mom held Em while I was on stage. Right after I took Em to the Nursery to play until Sunday School time. The second we got in there she started freaking out.”Teacher Karen!!!!!!!”(note: to save room I condensed the “!” ‘s to a minimum.) Teacher Karen is Em’s new favorite person. Who doesn’t love a class that always has food! We are trying to get Emily used to Sunday School early so she will have an easier transition. Anyways…So today I was just in the mom mode of “AHHHH” when my mom came to find me in the nursery. She asked if I wanted to let her take Em to Sunday school. one big loud “Hallelujah” later, I was calmly walking back to my seat at the front of the church as if I hadn’t been ready to pull all my hair out. My mom was such a life saver today!

A tradition I love is opening stockings. I love all the neat little things you get Christmas morning. It’s rather silly, but probably my favorite part is the orange in the toe of the stocking. I’m not sure why, but its tradition. We talked about tradition at church today. So yes I admit it’s a tradition AND I don’t know why. Still have the “Tradition” song in my head from “fiddler on the roof”.

I feel like my blog is a little disjointed today, or maybe I just have crappy segues, but thats a lil’ look see into my brain for today. Here’s to tomorrow!

Here is me right after snowboarding in the back yard!

I finished decorating mine last night. Its not a hugely branched tree. It’s not “well-en-bough-ed”. So I couldn’t put up as many ornaments as I wanted to. I bought some of those cheap metal hook things cause I hate it when the string on an ornament it too short and you have to fight it to put it on the tree. Our Lights look a fair bit faded this year. I was going to buy new ones today, but I decided it best to save the money and get some during the after Christmas sales. Plus I couldn’t wait any longer to decorate.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is Christmas Crackers. Right before dinner everyone crosses their arms and holds a Christmas Cracker (not edible) with the person next to them. On 3 we pull them and the cracker goes bang, or sometimes it doesn’t. haha. Then inside of the cracker there are lots of different little things. There is always a hat! Usually several of the people in my family have to adjust theirs due to oversized-head-ism. But we all wear them for the first part of dinner. For sure for pictures. I remember one year when My mom and I made Christmas Crackers. We made them individual for each person. They had a joke and a little prize and all the usual stuff, but 6 people got Billy Bob Teeth. Those funny fake teeth that make you look like a hick. It was so much fun and soo funny to see even my grandpa with Billy Bob Teeth. We put them into the dogs mouth too.

Our Billy Bob Teeth Family Resemblance. (hey…there’s my ZED hoodie! And I don’t miss those glasses.)

I remember it was a fun Christmas with my whole family around. My cousins were there, everyone was there. Christmas morning came and we opened our stockings and then we opened our presents. Generally I was really happy with all my presents. They were all really thoughtful gifts. Most of them practical gifts for a college student. When all the presents were opened and the morning had come and gone it hit me. I realized that for the first time in years I wasn’t sitting on the floor playing with my presents. I didn’t get any toys or games.

This wasn’t a bad thing, but it was a huge reality check. I was not a little kid anymore. It’s like when most people stop believing in Santa. Only instead of being 5, I was 19. Sitting there on the couch feeling…well just feeling different. I couldn’t even point my finger at what was so strange. I looked over at my sister and could see that she felt like that too. We just kept giving each other these weird looks.

Over the last few years I’ve come to realize that the magic of Christmas changes when you grow up. The joy you once took in Lego on Christmas morning is now the joy you feel baking weeks ahead of time only to give it away. After eating some of it of course. The joy you once took in tearing the paper off of a present is replaced with the joy of wrapping something beautifully so it looks gorgeous when you give it. The joy of tearing around the house in you pajamas is replaced by relaxing with a cup of hot apple cider and enjoying the company of friends and family. The anxious waiting until the Christmas eve service is over so you could open your 1 Christmas eve present is replaced with truly enjoying spending time thinking about Jesus, the real reason of Christmas.

Some things will never change. That Christmas my sister and I decided we would always buy each other a game or some Lego so on Christmas morning we would always feel like little kids again. That we couldn’t let go of. But the true joy in Christmas as an adult doesn’t happen Christmas morning. It happens in the small things. The smiles walking down the street, the eyes of a child’s discoveries, time spent with family and mostly through the eyes of a baby born 2000 years ago. This much I’ve learned.

Emily Sledding Last Christmas

Another one of may favorite Christmas memory’s happened when I was about 12. We were spending Christmas in Chiliiwack with my Aunt and Uncle and my Mom’s side of the family. My sister and I slept in the basement in a room with bunk beds. Shortly after midnight I heard a creak and our bedroom door opened. An what to my wondering eyes should appear…My little cousin Mikey and a Super Soaker 150 squirt gun. As he stepped into the room I could see that over his shoulder he had a bundle of rope. He looked at us and said “Shhh, we gotta get up and catch Santa before it’s to late”. My sister and I were not as excited about this idea as a certain young ninja pajamas clad 6 year old. “Go back to bed Mikey”. I said rolling into my pillow. “No.” Said Mikey and he proceeded to point the super soaker at me. “It’s loaded you know. I could just pull the trigger”. He left the threat hanging in the air for about 3 seconds. Promptly my sister and I decided it wise not to soak down our beds on Christmas eve. As we got out of bed Mikey started to rattle of his plan at warp speed and then he stopped. “Just follow me ok”. Mikey walked out the door and directly behind him I closed it and locked it tight. “Sorry”. I said to my sister. “That wont happen again”. To the best of my knowledge Mikey didn’t catch Santa, but we caught some ZZZ’s.

I have French class tonight. I’m looking forward to it. We had to memorize a verse last week. Here it goes: “Je puis tout par celui qui me fortifie. Philipian 4:13. In English “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Here are a couple of pics of Em from last Christmas. She was only 8 1/2 months old then. Just to see how much she’s changed.

Emily Claus

Emily et Père Noël

I think I’m going to keep writing my favorite Christmas memories and traditions to keep me in the Christmas spirit.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is Christmas Tree Hunting. I’m always sad if we don’t get to go. We usually load up the truck with a saw and all our warm clothes and drive out into the middle of nowhere(yes it is a place up here). We take the dogs and while my dad naps in the truck we hike around in the bush looking for the perfect imperfect Christmas Tree. Some years we pick Pine and others Fir. Gracie loves bounding through the snow, racing around and biting the snow. I have a video we took of the year before last Christmas Tree Adventure. It was such an awesome time. I was 16 weeks pregnant and while we were out hunting I felt the baby move for the very first time. Also, me being prego, meant that every 4 minutes I had to find some brush to pee behind. It was so funny.

We are going Hunting again on Friday. I am really looking forward to it. I’ll have to find my big pack boots. My parents just got a truck, so thats great timing on there part. Way to get a truck right before we go hunting!! There’s a fair bit of snow around already so thats great, because its super fun to try and ambush each other and shake snow from a tree onto the other person. Here’s the Vid: (I apologize for the footage seasickness, but it was filmed with our digital camera instead of our video)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjXSJ_Zp6s]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXiFXRoi0A]

I remember one year at AWANA I made this little drum ornament out of a tuna can. We hot glued some plaid ribbon on it and some zig zag string and there was my first drum. It has long been one of my favorite ornaments to hang up at my parents. Also a reindeer I made out of Clothes peg, a stained glass candle we made in grade six, and this beaded candy cane that is oh so hideous.

Christmas is probably my favorite time of year. So I’m afraid you are going to get some good walk down memory lane stories out of me for the rest of December. Here is the first:

“When I was at Jesus school I cooked my first Christmas dinner. Turkey, Stuffing, brussel sprouts, you name it… I had to phone my mom because I had no Idea what to do with the turkey. All I remember from that conversation is “You want me to put my hand WHERE???”

We also spend alot of time making our own decorations for our tree. College students seldom have oodles of money to buy ornaments. So we spent forever making popcorn strings to wrap around our tree. At one point when we were almost done making the string, one of the guys in our house was actually doing his chores for a change and decided to vacuum. He started to get pretty close to our precious popcorn sting and about the time I said “Hey Clayton, not so close to our…” He sucked the whole thing into the vacuum. It made this loud bang and shot popcorn everywhere. I think we were laughing way to hard to be upset about it.”

*I decided to save my rant until tomorrow. And I updated Emily’s page too.*

Pointing at Baby Jesus

“I love baby Jesus”

Joy to the World