I have been attempting to update our blog for the past few nights and keep getting distracted, so hopefully tonight will be the night! We have had such a wonderful holiday that it's hard to know exactly where to start, however, I must start somewhere! So, I'm going to try to do a quick review of our holiday and what we've been up to, and I'll probably add pictures later as we have a lot!
We started the season in early December when we went to get our tree. Every year since moving we've gotten a live tree and this year wasn't any different, however this year, the tree did not fall on me, which is always a good sign!
We took our time decorating the house and luckily I remembered to get the Advent Calendar out and filled with Hershey Kisses and ready for when Sebastian returned home from school on the 1st. As Sebastian has gotten older each year I've noticed how much more of a great little helper he is with decorating the house. When he first started decorating the tree when he was 2 he was only given the ornaments that would not break, but now at 5 he's able to handle the breakables and is also able to decorate more of the tree, which is a lot of fun. He also helped me figure out where to put things around the house and as he told me at one point, "You know, it's not always about where
you want to put things Mommy!" After explaining that I've been doing this for years without any input and that I tend to be a control freak (Shhh! Don't tell anyone!) Sebastian seemed to understand that he had to gently guide me with his ideas! Needless to say, it was really nice sharing the time it took to decorate the house with him and I was also reminded that things don't need to be "perfect" to be beautiful!
This year Elfred was also introduced into our home. If you are familiar with the
Elf on the Shelf, then you will know all about Elfred our little house Elf. Elfred came to visit us on the 1st of December and he went back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve. Although it was nice having Elfred hanging out with us, with us trying to figure out where he was every morning, he really wasn't here to tell Santa whether Sebastian had been naughty or nice. For one, I don't agree with using such things as Elves to put fear into children to behave but secondly, Sebastian isn't the type of kid who needs such methods of social control. He genuinely is a good kid, despite by mommy bias!
I was also smart this year and purchased gifts throughout the year so there was no mad scrambles to the mall nor the need for last minute wrapping so our days leading up to the holidays were quite relaxing as everything was done. Jamie, Nonee and I attended Sebastian's Holiday concert on Tuesday December 20th and as a treat, as the children at Sebastian's school collected and donated 40 boxes of food to the local food bank, Sebastian was able to wear his pajama's to school on the Thursday.
As Sebastian didn't have school on the 23rd and Jamie was off we spent the day playing, watching Christmas specials and going for a hike in the woods behind our house. It took us about an hour to do a loop and it was a nice walk, albeit cold, with the ground lightly dusted with snow. We saw lots of deer prints, but no deer.
Christmas Eve was spent with Sebastian's Nonee & Papa at our house and we were able to Skype with Aunt Becky in B.C., which was an extra special treat as she did not come home this year for Christmas. We spent the evening grazing on food, being merry and Sebastian went to bed excited with the prospect of Santa coming in the night.
The next morning Sebastian and I tip toed downstairs to see if Santa had been here and he had! Santa left Sebastian a note thanking him for the cookies and milk and Elfred left Sebastian a note too saying good-bye and reminding him that he may be back next year. Sebastian waited patiently for his Nonee and Papa to arrive before we opened our gifts and enjoyed a lovely breakfast of
Overnight Raspberry French Toast. We then relaxed for a couple of hours before heading over to Nonee and Papa's for Christmas dinner with the family.
The following day Uncle Danny came for a visit and Sebastian excitedly showed him his gifts. It was nice having Uncle Danny over for a sleep over and we're always sad to see him leave as he is so much fun to have around.
We spent the rest of Boxing Day playing with Sebastian's new toys and we realized, when we went out today, that we hadn't left the house since Boxing Day! However, we're not complaining as we felt nestled and cozy in our house playing a number of games, such as
table top soccer, Cars 2 Monopoly, Pinball, Guess Who and Cadoo as well as completing a number of puzzles, Lego sets and creating Spirograph and Shrinky-Dink artwork. It's really nice seeing that 3 days later Sebastian is still getting a lot of enjoyment out of his gifts!
And as yesterday marked our first real snow of the season we headed outside into the backyard and played in the snow for a bit. Today, with the snow still falling, we headed downtown for lunch and then went ice skating at the new
Market Square. This was the first time the 3 of us have been skating together and it was so nice seeing Sebastian's skating lessons pay off - man is he fast! After we were done we got a treat at
B-Chocolate and then headed to
Planet Bean for some hot cocoa. It was definitely a great way to spend the day and I think we are all going to be sad when Jamie has to return to work next week! As much as Sebastian and I keep ourselves busy during our days, there is something so special about the 3 of us spending so much quality time together that it's almost magical. It definitely makes me appreciate all that we have.
Tomorrow we are going to do exactly what we've been doing all week... staying in our pj's until mid-morning, playing games and playing in the snow. We'll add Skyping with Grandpa to the list as it's his birthday tomorrow, but other than that, we'll do exactly what we've been doing all week. Not a bad way at all to spend the holidays!
Hoping everyone has had magical moments throughout the holidays!
Kim
