Christmas Morning

There were 7 adults and 8 young children (including 1 baby) crammed into the basement Christmas Eve, so sleeping was minimal. Brad & Katie's air mattress was essentially flat by morning, so they were almost as anxious as the kids to wake up. However, you can't go upstairs until Grandpa has checked to see if Santa has already come. He loves to take his time with stuff like that, and it is hilarious to watch the kids squirm.

Santa Came!


Princess Candy Cane


A day or two before Christmas, Scott decided he wanted to write something to Santa. R suggested that the mail might not get to the North Pole on time, but he could leave a note by his stocking for Santa to read.



Christmas Morning, we noticed there was something written on the backside of the paper. Amazing.

Christmas Eve All Together

Everyone was together in Calgary for Christmas this year, so we gathered up lots of mattress pads and sleeping bags and headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's for two nights of celebrations, presents and treats. As per usual, Grandma had a full evening of fun and games planned for Christmas Eve.

Grandpa & the Kids


Listening to Grandpa


Who Knows Stuff About Christmas?


Ross & Michael - Baby's first Christmas


Elijah


R & Katie


Tortilla Heads - Waiting for dinner


Adalia


Dean


Katie, Brad & Karla


The Nativity Cast of Characters


Angel Katie


Impromptu Piano Recital - Alli can play Silent Night faster than anyone you know.


Scott Before Ode to Joy


Hayden Working Both Hands


Step Aside For the Professional - Jenny & R lead the carol singing


Two Turtle Doves


Four Calling Birds


Brad & Katie


Handbells for Every Family!


Christmas Bingo


A Christmas Tradition?

Learning to Ski

Last year we were a cross-country-ski family. We went once. Well, we went once as a family to Canmore (the time Katie's hair started on fire) and then Scott and I went one more time out to Shaganappi Point. Cross-country skiing seemed more attractive because you don't have to pay the high cost of lift tickets. Our kids didn't know that alpine skiing existed. Scott's favourite part was going down the hill, but he always had to climb it first. He had no idea that there was another way to get up that hill... until now.



We decided to go to visit the Kalispell cousins over the Christmas break. They are an alpine-ski family and they have seasons passes to Whitefish. I figured that we could find a cool spot to rent on the ski hill and make a real event of it. But it seemed that we should get our kids started on skiing before the trip so that they could keep up with their cousin counterparts. So we went to Canada Olympic Park for some training one evening after school.



The hill is only 10 minutes from our house and visible from Scott's bedroom window, so it's very convenient. It has cheap rentals and a really nice beginner area with 3 different conveyor-belt lifts that take new skiers up gradually longer slopes. I signed up Scott for a 90-minute beginner lesson while I worked with Katie. Basically, I pointed Katie down the hill and then backed up a few steps and had her ski into me. She crashed into me, actually. She loved that part, and she giggled every time.



After 40 minutes or so, Katie decided she needed a break. She was talking about going home. Instead, I offered to take her into the nearby lodge for a snack. We ate some fries and drank some ice water and then she was ready to get back on the slopes. From there, she was ready to ski for another hour or more.



A successful introduction to downhill skiing... and bobsleigh?

First Dance Recital

Katie had her first-ever dance recital. She started taking weekly ballet lessons in the fall and this was their "Christmas Showcase." The preschool group dressed up in pajamas and mouse ears and did a dance with candy canes.



Katie was very excited to wear her "costume" and perform. Lately she has been really fussy about going into her class. She clings to R's leg like she is petrified, but once she finally gets into the class she really loves it. We also wondered if she would get nervous on stage, like she did at the Stampede sing-along. Well, she showed no reservations about performing in front of a full house. Once she had her ears on she took off like a shot to go sit with her class.



The video was tough, since we were in the back row to watch and Katie was in the back of the pack for the dance. It seemed there was always someone standing in front of her. I was standing on our chairs to get a better view, but that made it hard to move sideways for a better angle. She looked absolutely adorable out there and she had such a good time.





Katie's dance was the first of 17 performances, but they moved along at a nice pace and she stood on our laps and bobbed along to every song, copying some of the moves that she saw. The evening started cute and it just didn't stop. Way to go Katie!

Handcrafted Presents

Scott & Katie decided they wanted to give presents to all of their little cousins this year. They didn't have much of a budget, but they have all kinds of crafting skills, so they got down to work.

Scott started out by making a paper airplane for Dean. He decorated the paper with his favourite colours and then had me fold it carefully before we packed it in a cardboard box and wrapped it up.



Recently, the kids have gotten into the Pyssla beads from IKEA that you arrange into designs and then melt together with a clothes iron. They made bead presents for nearly everyone else, including The Riddler, Two-Face, and Hello Kitty.

Parent - Student - Teacher Interviews

We had the 2nd interview night of the year with Scott's Grade One teacher. Scott also showed us some of the things he has been working on and we got to try out some hula hoop tricks in the gym. He thought it was the most amazing thing in the world when I threw a hoop half-way across the gym with enough spin to bring it back to me. Our hoop may have crashed into a few innocent bystanders along the way, but it was all in the name of learning.

Scott's teacher said that he is doing really well at reading and math. Apparently, he would be like to answer every single math question that is asked in class. I am not too surprised, since our dinner conversation often turns into discussion about math concepts. He just eats that stuff up, and now Katie has started in on the action, putting down her fork to employ all 10 fingers in her efforts. Scott's teacher challenged him to make his own little book of math problems that he could share with his friends. He began immediately after we got home, and added in a dot-to-dot picture of an airplane just for fun.

Reading is also coming along really well, and that is fun to see. Apparently, the level of each book in the school library is assessed on a scale from 'A' to 'L'. Scott was reading some 'I' books, but then there was a minor misunderstanding in the teachers' notes somewhere and the handwritten 'I' was mistaken for an 'L' and he was given a much more challenging L-Level book. He struggled with it a bit, but he managed, so now he is reading mostly L books from school. The books are waaaaay longer and have a bunch of new words for him, but he's got a great attitude about reading and is making great progress. It will take quite a while before he reads these books so quickly and easily that he needs to move on, but when that happens, they say he will need to go to the public library to get more advanced books. For some reason, I think this is bizarre, since he has 3 more years at this school. Maybe he will read all the 'L' books twice.

Wrapping Presents

We set up our Christmas tree in the last few days of November, but we didn't really have any presents under there. I had Scott and Katie help each wrap one present for the other. I thought it would get them into the spirit of giving a little. Mostly, it got them excited about getting presents. When I asked for them to pose with the presents that we had wrapped, they wanted to hold the ones they were to receive, rather than the ones they had wrapped.



At least we tried.

Guess Who Turned 60

Tornado Research

Scott is scared of two things: dogs and tornadoes.

Some nights he comes downstairs from his room saying that he can't sleep because he is nervous about tornadoes. R finally decided to take him to library to learn about tornadoes, so he could eliminate some of the uncertainty.



He got two books and devoured them both. When I got home from work he summarized the things he had learned about tornadoes:
1. Most happen far away in certain US states called "Tornado Alley"
2. Most happen in the months of April-June
3. Most occur in the afternoon
4. Many are not strong enough to damage our house in a significant way

Based on these facts, he was able to deduce that the probability was essentially nil that we would get a tornado in Calgary in the middle of the night in December.



One of the books had an activity where you could make a tornado in a jar. He and Katie both got in on the action, turning one of his greatest fears into a game.

He has slept much better since.

Piano Tricks

The kids watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos made by The Piano Guys and Scott especially liked the one where the guy plays a Christmas song lying on his back. We told him he should try to play one of his songs that way and he did surprising well. He was so proud.

Off-Season Pinata Training

Pinatas are awesome. That is well understood. The downside to pinatas at parties is that you have to take turns bashing it and there are no guarantees that you get to break it as much as you would like.

After his 6th birthday party, Scott told me that he would like to do another pinata sometime that we could just break at our house. I said that sounded fine. Then one Wednesday evening he said, "hey, let's make a pinata right now". I explained that our typical pinatas take a long time to make. I asked what his favourite part is about pinatas. Is it making them or breaking them. He said breaking them. So we came up with a 5-minute pinata out of printer paper and tape that he filled with paper throwing stars. He then loaded up his Nerf gun and pelted the pinata with foam darts. We figured that was a good idea, since his pinata would not hold up very long to a beating with a stick.

He pounded it with darts until a throwing star slid out the side, and then he started really tearing it up with that throwing star. When that pinata eventually croaked, he wanted to make another one, but stronger. We fished out an empty cereal box and he spent a day colouring paper to stick on the box as decoration. He said that the darts did nothing to the box and neither did the throwing stars. I think he is back to pounding it with sticks. We hang the pinatas from a broomstick laid across the tops of two stools.

The 7-year pinata doesn't stand a chance against this well-prepared assassin.

Learning to Type? Yes!

Scott experimenting with typing messages:

See Scott on his bike. He is really fast. He is super awesome! Can he ride in the snow? No! Can he ride behind the house? Yes!

Ward Christmas Party

Scott said he wanted a remote-controlled car that can flip over and keep driving. Katie was scared of Santa at first, so she gave Scott a message to relay to Santa on her behalf. However, once she saw Scott sitting on Santa's knee, she whispered to me that she wanted to sit there too. That is fortunate, because Scott was so caught up in the moment that he forgot to deliver Katie's request. Katie told Santa she wanted a "mommy fairy" for Christmas. You see, she has a little blue fairy, but now she wants a bigger one.



Scott & R had been practicing how to conduct a carol sing-along, and Scott took his job pretty seriously. He beat a tempo for all to follow and did it with pride.

Christmas Wish Lists

Scott & Katie went through the flyer from Target and wrote their names next to all the toys that they would like to get. In the end, there was a name next to nearly every toy in there, so to help prioritize, Scott went back in and put check marks next to the things he REALLY wanted.