It's all a good busy though. With the first hard and tiring six weeks under our belt I feel like we might be hitting our stride as a family of four. We're still tired, still getting up at night, and still lacking and predictable routine, but we are getting used to all of that and somehow it's starting to feel normal. Anyway, the result is one long holiday post in lieu of five short ones.
Happy things that have been going on this month:
Adorable preschool Christmas concerts:
They were all angels. It was the sweetest thing I had ever seen, and somehow watching my son proudly walk onto the stage smiling ear to ear, waving to his family out in the audience and singing along as best he could to all the songs made me feel like I had arrived as a parent. What started out so naively three and a half years ago at St. Paul's Hospital all came full circle to this perfect moment to the tune of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
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| She slept through it all. It was like they sang her lullaby's. |
Sleigh rides in the "snow":
It snowed the other week, about three centimeters. We played like it had snowed three meters deep. In these parts you take what you can get.
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| Somehow Jake and his friend managed to build a snowman. |
Visits to Butchart Gardens:
Hands down the best garden light display I have ever seen, and if you ask Jake the best Christmas train display he's ever seen. Amazing. If you are ever in Victoria during the winter holidays go see this light display. You won't be disappointed.
Visits from long lost best friends, who made the effort to come all the way over to our wee island to spend a part of her precious and infrequent holidays with us:
My friend Judy has been my friend since we were Amelia's age, basically sisters from another mother. Over the last decade our lives have taken us on different paths - mine down the road to family and motherhood, hers into war torn countries as a UN aid worker. I am never in her part of the world (and I can't say I'd want to be) and she rarely has enough time off to come home, so on average we see each other once every two or three years. But she made it home this holiday season, and we were excited to welcome her into our new home and show her our town.
Jake may have only met her twice in his life before this, but through photos and gifts and stories he is very familiar with his Tante Judy. And oh the fun they had playing trains, eating chocolate, and decorating gingerbread houses. We are already looking forward to the next visit.
Meeting Father Christmas:
Other visits from places far away included one from Father Christmas, whom we went down to the Royal BC Museum to meet. Jake climbed up on the old man's lap and informed him that all he wants for Christmas this year is more track for his electrical train. It was a happy bonus to hear that St. Nick also has an electric train that runs around his Christmas tree back home, so these two have something in common. Who knew?
This week we look forward to more visitors, cousins and aunts and uncles. There will be cookies to decorate, presents to wrap and carols to sing along to. I love this time of year, even sleep deprived and unshowered the joy and innocent happiness of this season cannot be sapped out of me.
Ho ho ho everyone! go bake some cookies.
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| Samichlaus Tag: he found us in Victoria this year. |
