Happy New Year!

and Merry Christmas to while we are at it. I had big visions of getting the blog really up to date over Christmas, what with my ten days off and all the spare time that I would have, but some how that all evaporated. We had the whole Christmas week off, and I can't remember what we did, but we had fun. I think the weekend before was last minute preparations and a couple of parties, one at our neighbour's which was fun, with lots of kids. Christmas day was a whirlwind of presents then I rushed everyone out the door to take hot tea and presents down to my Granny in White Rock before lunch time. She had a lovely time with the boys. Towards the end of the week we made a big expedition to Science World, which all of us love, and then the next day up Burnaby mountain to find some snow and go sledding. Lots of fun, and we even built a snowman and half a fort. Too much work for the parents though, hauling tired boys back up the hill and building forts. Treated ourselves to burgers and hot cocoa after. Sam was really keen on the hot cocoa, kept adding 'and hot cocoa' after each item we ordered from the waitress. The downside, and now that I am thinking about it, what ended up taking up much of the holiday, was that we all had a stomach bug at one time or another, first me and Sam, then Ollie, then Ade. Ollie had it worst, up 5 times in the middle of the night one night (vomiting), then had a fever the next day. We had forgotten how exhausting it is to be up that much during the night. Most of the holiday the boys slept in til 7 or even a little bit later, what a luxury! That was the best present of all.

Ollie and Sam were really excted about Christmas, it was tons of fun to watch them. They had a really good haul (us too), thank you all for all the really great presents, they loved them all - I haven't gotten the thank-you notes out yet, but they are coming. Ollie's favourite by far was a big playmobil firetruck that has working lights (no siren! thank you Playmobil!), an extending and swivelling ladder, two firemen, loads of tools, a hose and a firehydrant - all kinds of detailed stuff. Sam got a play camera that actually takes pictures - he adores it, but insists on holding it up to his face facing the wrong way, with the flash almost directly in front of his eye. We expect him to gradually go blind if he keeps using it that way. Here are some pictures of the day: