Christmas and other news.

We hope that all our family and friends had a Merry Christmas. We had a quiet day - as quiet as it can be with two excited kids around - and spent it opening presents and playing with the toys. We had supper with our neighbours, put the kids to bed, and played Wii. It was perfect. The boys started the day by checking to see if Santa had come. He finished the hot chocolate, the "beer," and almost all the cookies. Liam left him a note the night before, which he apparently read. Next came the stockings: Santa brought them each a toy, as well as some chocolate and an orange. Once the sugar high from the chocolate kicked in, the present opening began. It was all surprisingly quite civilized; the boys sort of took turns picking a present and watching each other open them, then played for a bit with each one. This year, Liam really "gets" Christmas - the commercial kind, anyway; leaving cookies for Santa, expecting a present from him (a good thing?), going straight to sleep so Santa can come. Logan knows who Santa is and this year he understood about the presents and the songs and the cookie making and the tree decorating. I wonder if Liam believes in Santa, or if he knows. When getting out a "beer" (pop) for Santa, he asked Craig what kind to get. Then, he put the cookies on the plate in the shape of a "D." It could all be a big coincidence, and he may be shocked some day to find out, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point he claims to have known all along. It remains to be seen who exactly is putting on the show for whom!

Making cookies for Santa - he only likes chocolate chip.	After Craig pointed them out at noon on the 24th, they finally found where we'd put the presents the night before.
After they found the presents, they moved them all under the tree, checking each name as they went.	For every present he held up, Logan said "It says me!"
Santa found his treats.	Everything ready under the tree.
The stockings were too heavy to stay hanging up.	They were emptied pretty quickly in the morning!
It was so much fun to watch the boys open their presents!	They thoroughly enjoyed each package.
A real kid oven!	His very own "lego."

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In other news....

This was what noon on December 21st looked like - not as pretty as the day before! What a difference the clouds make. Unfortunately, it has been cloudy most days, making it actually seem like less light than before the solstice.

The boys have been helping me get supper ready. They enjoy using "their" knives (that they manage very well) to help cut veggies like mushrooms and zucchini.

There was, of course, another very important birthday. This time, the request was for a B fifty two cake, so we did it cheesecake style.

So far the boys have made chocolate donuts, a waffle, and a pancake in the real kid oven - the pancakes made with our own batter turned our especially well. Realistically, we can only make one for each boy in the oven, and the rest need to be made in the pan. Twelve minutes to bake, at least 5 to cool.... it would take a long time to make brunch! However, they were very happy to be eating their own creations!

(Almost) the shortest day of the year.

I thought I might forget to take a picture at noon tomorrow, so I had better do it today!

First, a picture of the sunrise/sunset:

Then facing north:

Finally, we were sitting at the table and happened to notice this at a little after 2PM:

What does it mean when the weather symbol is a question mark?

This was our weather last weekend; one of the many storms I'm sure we will see this winter.

It looked a bit like this:

Then ended like this:

The wind came back with a vengeance a couple of days later:

Birthday Boy! Logan's third birthday.

Logan has changed so much in the last year (to be expected!). When we moved north a year and a bit ago, before his second birthday, he wasn't even speaking in sentences yet. He still had naps. And, sigh, he still listened. Now, it's hard to tell who talks more, he and Liam have conversations and make up games together, he absolutely does not have a nap, and his doing-what-he's-told skills have taken a serious nosedive. However, he's been feeding himself for ages, can tell you when he's not feeling well or something's wrong, and we haven't changed a diaper in almost 4 months. A pretty good trade-off, I guess!

His day started with the traditional balloons on his chair and a pancake brunch, then presents, supper with the neighbours (lasagna, in case you were wondering), and of course, cake. His request was: "A chocolate cake with chocolate icing with orange fruit, in a circle." In lieu of orange fruit, the middle layer was orange flavoured.

We appreciated the Happy Birthday phone calls, even if Logan wasn't participating very well (see above), and the presents, too!

Logan was very excited to get a birthday card in the mail	Especially when he saw it had a puppy on it!
Pancakes	Presents
Yummy cake, if I may say so myself	I don't want to blow out candles!
I do want to blow out candles! I wanna, I wanna!	One more time, for both.
Birthday boy with his cake	Birthday boy enjoying his cake

Models

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys modelling:

The dream is still alive. Liam in his Rider pants.	The boys in front of our decorated tree, which they were finally both old enough to help with.
Logan modelling his new shirt.	Trying to see the #3 on the back. Amusing game all day!

Where is the Sun?

The sun set while we were gone. I think it will be back some time around Liam's birthday. When I was imagining what it would be like when we got home, I had this impression that it would be like night all the time. In fact, most of the morning and until about two o'clock is like twilight. I think the best word is gloaming. The above picture was taken at noon; other than this brightest time, the world is a blue-grey colour.

People, places, and things

We are back after almost 2 months away from home. I have to admit, as much as we enjoyed our trip and all the visiting, it's nice to be back home with our own stuff. Here are some memories from October and November:

People

We saw lots of family and friends on this trip. We started out with Grandma and Grandpa K., whom we met in Disney World. Then, of course we saw lots of characters at WDW! Back in Saskatchewan we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa N., and had lunches, coffees, suppers, and overnighters with everyone else!

Places
The first place we stopped was Ottawa - just me and the boys for a couple of days until Craig caught up. Due to Ottawa being shut down in October (our impression, anyway!), we went to the Museum of Science & Technology and the Aviation Museum. While in Florida we took a day trip to Daytona Beach. We didn't stop, except for bathrooms and snacks, but we drove past the home of the Daytona 500, lots of biker hangouts, and some very big waves. Back in Saskatchewan, Liam and I went to the RSM to see some dinosaurs - including Megamunch - after the last of three (!!!) dental appointments. In Saskatoon we took a drive through the Christmas light display with Grandma K.


Things
The boys were so excited to see fresh fruit, grass, flowers, and leaves that they spent a lot of time gathering treasures. Our meals for the first couple of days were all the goodies we picked out at the grocery store - the most perfect apple ever, fresh buns, grapes without mold. In WDW there were, of course, many rides. Liam has grown so much since March that he can go on the grownup rides now, like Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. He took advantage of that by going as often as possible! Logan remembered "his" rollercoaster - the Barnstormer - and we went on that quite a few times, too. While trying to get tired kids to eat we discovered that chopsticks are the way to go. They're pretty good with them, too! And of course we celebrated Hallowe'en in Regina with a clown pumpkin, a Bumblebee Transformer and an Optimus Prime Transformer. There were even a couple of early Christmas presents to open.