Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Our Christmas day started off bright and VERY VERY early! We were up at 4 am and off to the airport at 5 to drop Bill off. We then headed to my moms house. Maelie of course was very happy to open up some more presents. Unfortunately she was sick with 101 fever in the morning so we had to keep her on advil and tylenol throughout the day.



Here is grand-maman!



Later on after lunch, we headed off to grand papa's house. Maelie was excited yet still feeling pretty crappy. She got to open more presents though, so that was helpful!



Don't let this picture fool you.... Meggie is very HYPER and loves jumping all over the place and running after Maelie.



The quiet pics are usually taken when she is lying down from exhaustion!



We managed to Skype with Jo and the boys. It was pretty lively in their house!!

Before we went back to grand-maman's house to sleep, we took a few pictures with Grand-papa and Lucie



and here is a pic of gram and Gerry



We drove home this morning and Maelie got to play with all her toys! Finding a spot for everything is the difficult part!! I am pretty sure by tomorrow I will take my tree down to make room for the new toys. It's overwhelming!! This is Malie's Hexbug habitat and raceway! She was really glad about those gifts!



I really thank everyone who participated in making this Christmas so wonderful! Getting to spend time with family who we love and who love us is great. I wish we could be everywhere though sharing our hearts with ALL of our family and friends!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 24

Twas the night before Christmas.... :)



We finally were done the advent calendar! Wow! What a month!! We went to work this morning for a little bit, and by noon we were out. Of course, today of all days, Maelie started being sick. She had a sore throat and a bit of fever. What bad timing!!



After work, we came home and I baked and baked my heart out!! In the midst of the baking though, Maelie was so happy that we finally started opening presents!



She was clapping away at the thought of opening them up!



She wanted Bill and I to go first, kinda to get us out of the way I guess! LOL



I am pretty glad that I made some shortbread! It turned out fabulous!



A few other batches I made... yum yum, I hope my family likes them!!



Merry Christmas to all!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 23

Day 23! 2 more days! This morning, Maelie was off school but I had to go to work, so she stayed home with Bill. I wanted to make sure Bill took a picture of her opening up her advent calendar. As he was still sleeping when she got up, he told me that she had already taken care of that herself.... so I was wondering what I would come home to! Well this is it! A picture of herself with her advent surprise! LOL



At work today we had our team lunch. We seem to have been partying a lot this past while at work! Gotta love it! Maelie spent the afternoon at Naomie's house playing. Once I was home, the girls came here as Sonia had a few errands to run. We met up with her at Cage aux Sports for supper. That was the girls' choice.



When we got home, Maelie and I brought the Christmas presents upstairs. Maelie was soooooo excited. Every year, she doesn't touch her gifts at all. She just looks and admires how many she sees! LOL I think she is still at the age where quantity is important. She was sitting facing the tree singing the national anthem to the gifts! Then she started modifying the lyrics and sang songs about her presents!!



Needless to say, she cannot wait until Christmas! Usually, we open up gifts Christmas morning. However, this year, we will need to open them Christmas Eve because we have to drive Bill to the airport at about 5 am.... and as much as I love traditions, I do not want to get up at 2 am and rush to open gifts so we can fly out the door on time. We will be opening our presents after supper on Christmas Eve.

Oh Happy Day!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 22

TOday was the last day of school! It lasted pretty late for the kids. I think most kids are so excited by now and exhausted that no work would happen at school anyway!! Maelie brought chocolate suckers to her classmates and she brought tons of treats to her teachers.



At work we had a pot luck (somewhat different group than last time) and it was incredible the food we had.



I made the same wreath I had made at Natalie's. The one I got on the pillsbury website. It's quite simple and tasty!



Maelie's class had been working on letters to soldiers in Afghanistan for a while now... and she brought them home yesterday. I will take care of mailing them out there. I went through them and had SO much fun reading them! Below is part of Maelie's letter... One little boy was sweetly asking the soldier how he liked WW1 and WW2. Such sweet innocence!! I am sure the soldiers who get them will have a laugh :) but maybe also feel proud that these children worked so hard at writing their letters nicely and neatly, and with a lot of heart.



After school, Sonia and Naomie came over followed by Tristan. Sonia and I had some chocolates to finish up and some wrapping to do. Thankfully the kids were very occupied playing and didn't notice us wrapping stuff in the basement!! In this game they were hanging Maelie's long stuff monkey down the stair and had to touch the other person with it! LOL



We did manage to find some room on the table to eat supper. That is no easy feat at my house at this time of year! Maelie and Naomie had made themselves up into cute little babies. Poor Tristan had his hands full with these two!!



Well 3 days left of anticipation!! :)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 21

Day 21 - Christmas concert day! This is probably the only advent calendar picture that we will have where Maelie is actually dressed!



I headed off to the concert at lunchtime. Since the audience is halfway across the gym and it is jam packed, it is hard to get close up pictures! So this one is blurry but I had to take the other kids out of the picture. Maelie was the grandma holding the tourtiere.



Once we got home, we had a TON of Christmas cards in the mail! We were both so excited to open them up and read the messages!!



Maelie got to open up an activity present to keep herself occupied while I worked on the Christmas chocolates for the teachers.



She had to put little plastic beads inside the shapes and then we would bake them.



It took a lot of patience to fill them up! but she did it! and she enjoyed the craft a lot. She would like some more of these.



They turned out so nice! I added a string to them and we'll hang them up on the tree.



This is only a tiny tiny sample of what I made this evening! hahaha



A person at work asked for a little arrangement with Santa. Hopefully he'll like it!



Maelie helped with the teachers gifts. She counted the chocolates and filled up the bags while I tied them. She also wrote out the little tags for everyone and kept a list, checking it twice. I hope the teachers weren't naughty, but nice! :)



For her homeroom teacher who she adores, we made an arrangement with a 3D tree, a sleigh and tons of little chocolates. We also included a gift card for her.



I hope everyone loves their goodies tomorrow on the last day of school! woo hooo! it's flying by!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 20

Day 20 - 3 days left of school. How could we not be excited?



Maelie has been enjoying her Egypt set (that she got last Christmas). She pretends her Hexbugs are going to Egypt. It's so adorable! I love pretend play.



After school we had to go out and find some granny glasses to go with her granny wig for the school concert. That's tomorrow... i can't wait!!



I spent the rest of the evening working on chocolates for teachers and her class. I still have another evening to go with that!!



Happy holidays!!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 19

Maelie got a Hex Bug today! She was pretty happy and ended up playing for quite a while with them.



It was an early morning once again! I was up at 3:30 so by the name Maelie got up at 6:00, i had accomplished a lot in the basement! (present wrapping) I usually never start an activity that makes noise when I am up early because Maelie hears every single little noise in this house. So I closed both doors downstairs and just hoped she wouldn't appear while I was wrapping! On a good note, I am way ahead that I usually am. I usually keep the wrapping for the 24th!

Maelie had a bowling tournament this morning with Bill. It was the family tournament. She was very worried that Bill would get hurt since his arms are still sore. Bill really wanted to make Maelie happy so he made the effort. They tied in second place! and this... only by 6 points. It would have been a 3 way tie if the winning team was 6 points less! It was a lot of fun.

After the game, we went out for brunch at the buffet. Maelie likes that because she can choose what she wants.



She can even choose to have a temporary lip ring made of Fruit Loops! LOL



After brunch, Bill went to work and Maelie an I ran an errand at the party store. She needed an old lady wig for the school show. Thankfully it was at an unpopular store! Traffic was bad and it seemed there were more cars parked at all the big stores. We ended up at home where I could have a small 30 minute nap as I was REALLY falling asleep standing up!

We went to the grocey store after supper to get some milk. I am glad I waited til after supper to go! It was almost empty!

Early bedtime tonight!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 18

Day 18 - up bright an early in this household! I was up at 4, Maelie at 5 and Bill at 5:30. (he had an excuse, he had to go to work). I simply have not been able to sleep beyond the wee hours of the morning. I think I am just too excited to get up in the morning!

Maelie opened up her day 18...



and this completed the 3rd row of the advent calendar!! It's getting even more exciting!!



After bowling this morning, Maelie was going to Naomie's house to play for the afternoon. She had a GREAT time however I was not there to take pictures. They played outside and were given snowmobile rides by Patrick. Of course, she came home with snowmobile on her Christmas list. As much as we were able to fit it our yard, there is no was we could drive around in the winter!!

The only picture I got is when I dropped her off and Peluche wanted affection.



Sonia had to run errands to finish her Christmas shopping so I went as well. I was not worried, because I am done with my shopping. I DID however get a parking spot at the door of every busy place we went to! including the mall! How I love that good luck!!

I had a gazillion coupons for Michaels, but it was picked out a lot because they had a clearout sale in the morning... so this is the thing i ended up buying with my coupon.... LOL 7$ twine. I've always wanted to buy it, just never got to it.



Once we were back from shopping (me), work (Bill) and playing at Naomie's (Maelie), we all sat on the couch very very tired!! We all ended up in bed before 8!