Christmastime

Wow do I feel badly for not updating. It is over a month since I updated. Richard's mom hasn't seen the boys for Christmas yet and is probably dying to see what their Christmas was like. The boys are excited to see her soon!!! And Papa, of course too!


Once again, it's good, in a way, that I haven't kept up, or you would be having to read about 10 full posts all about every single little thing we did every day. I think this is dated when I started uploading the pictures, but truly, I'm just posting it right now on January 10th.

I definitely haven't been keeping track well, but there are some things to fill you in on.

Can I just sum up most of it by saying that we had a perfect Christmas, surrounded by loved ones, watching our boys have an exciting day, and all the special nights and days before it were just as special. Decorating the tree, a special tree decorating night at my mom's, christmas lights, snow, getting Christmas cards, Christmas treats, etc. It was all wonderful. Christmas dinner was amazing as always.

And of course, so many people helping to make sure our Christmas was a special as possible. I'll include some thank you's later which are WAY overdue.

Here we go:


So, it used to be that we'd pack up all of our stuff, head to my mom's on Christmas Eve, spend the night, stay for Christmas dinner, pack up, head home, packup, and head to the Island on Boxing Day to see Richard's parents' place, and then on the way home from the Island, visit my Dad for Christmas.

But now, we have two kids. It's really exhausting to do all that.

I think this was our third year that we decided not to leave Boxing Day. It was really great to stay at mom's for two nights which meant Christmas Day was just a day to enjoy and relax. It also meant that the boys got to stay in one place and play with their toys all day, rather than being 'ripped away from them' as I remember all to well, and I'm sure many of you do too, to be whisked away to visiting relatives and Christmas Dinner.


Here is the tree stocked with many presents once we had unloaded at my mom's place on Christmas Eve:


Some treats left out for Santa and his reindeer.



Dexter and AJ opening their annual Christmas Eve gift of new winter jammies.
(they say "Handsome Like Daddy")

Hey! A smile for a picture! YAY!


A glimpse of what Santa left for AJ and Dexter before the boys have seen it.
Santa left a note for AJ in one of the rescue hero's hands that reads, "To AJ Love Santa". He talked about this note all day and showed it to everyone who would come see. So sweet.





Christmas morning...
AJ comes out to see the slew of Rescue Heroes (about 32 or so) and the air craft carrier that Santa left all set up for him and the train track that Santa left for Dexter all set up as well!!!
He's a little stunned!

Santa, being the very intelligent person he is, decided to set up the boys' gifts behind the couch so the boys' toys could be played with all day out of the way of the rest of the Christmas-going-ons.




They were so excited. Mostly, about AJ's gift, but I knew that Dexter would appreciate his Santa gift once it was home under his loft bed for him to enjoy whenever he wanted. Which is true.


Here is the 'spread' first thing in the morning. Those two giant stockings on the couch were for AJ and Dexter from Mommy (and Daddy, of course). A very wonderful lady, Noami, taught me to do crazy awesome filled amazingly way over the top stockings. What this creates (when the kids are older) is something to keep the kids busy when they start waking at 5am or 6am wanting to eagerly start opening gifts, but you don't want to have to get out of bed yet. Not sure if that was Naomi's intention, but that's how I've read into it.


So, while everyone else is dragging themselves out of bed, and getting drinks, and comfy, and washing faces so as to look presentable in Christmas morning pictures, I can tell the boys to go ahead and open any of their stocking gifts. AJ was excited to do so, but Dexter was a replay of AJ the past couple years, where he just wants to play with the stuff he's already opened, or the boxes, or the wrapping, and not have to open anymore gifts. I made the mistake of putting nerf style swords in their stockings. This was the first gift Dexter opened. I seriously didn't need to get him anything else. That was all he needed. And... all he wanted.


He changed his mind later and did appreciate the many gifts he received!


Mommy and Daddy's gift to AJ was a carrying case for his Leapster2 and 6 games for it. He was excited to finally have a game to pop in the top. It's one of those toys that often gets forgotten, but when you bring it out, the eyes light up, and it's new and exciting again. Now, with the new games, it's even more exciting. He calls it his DS, just like Daddy's. I'm sure they looked like quite a cute pair on the ferry to go see Grannie and Papa the week or so before, just the two of them!


Here is Dexter sitting in a 'boat' which is actually Paul's sled, and of course, using his new drill as a gun. Everything's a gun.


This is Christmas night. After Christmas dinner, there was a lot of Wii playing. Especially The New Super Mario. We brought over our controllers so that 4 people could play at once. Big fun.

Daddy and Dexter.
Look at that serious face.



Kim and Paul being silly.



A little picture of the Santa and Mrs. Claus my mom made years ago when I was a kid. I love these.

I want them, very much. I tried to steal them, but evidently, they hold memories for my sister and brother too. Sniff sniff.

Speaking of Christmas decorations. AJ was so excited to help me put them up. Forget about the toy aisles at any store. He could spend hours just looking at and pointing out decorations.

When it was time to undecorate the living room at our house, he was really sad that everything was getting boxed up. So much so, that he asked to have a Santa themed birthday party (which I thwarted).





Here was a nice trip to the zoo on a crisp winter morning.




That's right, he's on 'the naughty spot'.

This is Makenna, posing.


Dexter looking at the wallabies.





Here's a day that Jen was over with kids.




Dexter ready to venture out in snow pants for the first time of this season.



Here's my boy who didn't care for pizza.
Evidently, he changed his mind on that.



Daddy and the boys watching a new movie soon after Daddy's had come home from staying at the Cancer Lodge at the beginning of December.



The boys enjoying a 'movie lunch' amidst the Christmas decor.




Some Dexter shots....

Me trying to push his nap just a little bit later, to no avail.




The boys having fun with a box. The most fun toy in the world.



I think this was the night we were heading for New Year's Eve at Auntie Erica's house. Which was a very fun night!!!

In fact, here is a look at New Year's Couples' Night. This is Erica, Ryan, and I, the first year, bringing in the year 2000, and here we are 10 years later, not looking a day older, of course... right? Right!

This little diddy was something Erica cooked up, of course, as only Erica can. There was an incident with her closet that evening, that involved the closet coming down to the floor. Ryan, Erica, and I, re-enacted a much more interesting version, of how that went down.




Here is Dexter enjoying his train track, as I told you he would under his bed.




Here's Dexter eating naked.



Here is AJ checking out/trying to read (but it's a little above his reading level) a really cool Spiderman book from Auntie Brenda that came with a movie projector. It's really cool.



I moved AJ's easel upstairs so that it would see more use and so to make more room for the Rescue Heroes stuff downstairs.







Here's a little something I wrote on New Year's Day when I was trying to update the blog:

Richard's was really spoiling me over the Christmas holidays, often getting up with the boys in the morning and getting them started on their breakfast while I sleep in a little. Granted, the boys have been sleeping in more and more lately. I would say that Dexter's average waking time has been about 7:30am and AJ's probably closer to 8:30/9:00am. Nice. He says that once he's up, he can't fall back asleep, but I think he's just being nice to me.

This morning? After getting home at 3:30am from a great New Year's Eve at Erica's, I got up with Dexter at 7:40am. I sat out with him on the couch for about 20 minutes or more. When heading back down the hall, I noticed that Richard was up and about. This was great, as I had a wee headache that I wanted to nip in the bud (no doubt due to downing many honey roasted peanuts). So, he headed out with Dexter. I hopped back into bed and slept in until 11am! Whoa!!! Thanks Richard.



Some really big thank yous:

Everyone - Firstly, and obviously, thank you to everyone who helped make Christmas so special. Whether it was a card, or 'a little something' to help us along the way, or 'a not so little something' to help us along the way, or gifts for the boys, or visits, or a phone call, and just sending your love vibes and prayers and whatever else you have all been doing to make sure that Richard was home, alive, well, and reasonably unstressed for the Christmas holidays. It was just wonderful.

Erica - For the wonderful Christmas party that took time out to give thanks for all of our cancer survivors at the party, of which, there were three, I think.

Aunties, Grandmas, Grandpas, Uncles and Cousins (you know who you are) - There were gifts for the boys, money, these really awesome "Christmas pillows" from Richard's Aunt Elaine, cards, gift cards, and wow, just lots of love.

Non-Relatives - Once again we were slapped in the face with amazement at the love that has been bestowed upon us by people who we don't see often or have never met, and aren't even relatives! Norma's friend, Lola sent us a beautiful card and some Christmas 'cheer' shall we say, and my friend Darlene's family put together a beautiful Christmas gift basket and Christmas tree decorated with gift cards and fun stuff. Richard and I just finished enjoying a lunch date on Thursday courtesy of that thoughtful gift!

Once again, just overwhelming. It was definitely a 'choke back the tears' kind of Christmas.


I still have lots to say about the boys and what they've been up to in a sort of 'baby book' update kind of way. I'll save that for the next post and get some more pictures.

For now, that was our Christmas.