Return of the Bog

On December 30th, we decided to hit up Zoo-lights at the Calgary zoo before it closed on January 3rd. We knew it was a pretty cold day, but we didn't want our kids to miss the experience. We headed to mom and dad's house to link up with Mike and Tammy, and after their home teachers paid a quick visit we all piled into our vehicles and headed to the zoo. We only had about 45 minutes to view everything before the zoo closed, but it proved to be the perfect amount of time. The announcement over the PA system that the zoo was closing came only moments before Lucy and Emma told us they were cold and ready to go home. We walked through the park and saw a lot of really great displays. The kids enjoyed touching some of the light displays and cozying up by the fire-pits they had dispersed throughout the park. I was impressed with the snow leopard display and took pictures all around the park, but it didn't really do justice. Lucy was very excited the entire time to head to the "Tunnel of Love". We took a few pictures there and by about this time we were ready to head home. Mike and Tammy had parked at a separate entrance than us, so we parted ways at the tunnel and went to our vehicles. The kids were cold and tired by the time we were done, but it was a pretty cool experience. Next year we'll definitely time it better and go on a day that's not so cold. We were surprised by how busy the park was despite the weather, but I guess a few more people were in the same predicament as us.
On New Years Eve we were back at my parents house for the day. Lucy and Tyler went tobogganing with Mike and Emma, as well as Cheryl, Dave, Braysen and Sadie Walker, while Tammy and I stayed back at the house to watch over the little ones (Ashley, Max and Gracie). They had a few mishaps, but the kids still enjoyed themselves. (I'm sure the major mishaps are already blogged on Dave and Cheryl's site). We came back to the house and played awhile and then headed out for dinner with Tyler's family to celebrate his Grandma's 80th birthday. Then everyone (Williamson and Bourne families inclusive) were back at Bourne's to watch the Hockey game and play games. We left around 11pm and had our kids into bed as quickly as possible. Tyler wished me a Happy New Year as we left my parent's house and I commented that he was early. He said, "You'll probably be asleep before midnight anyway." I tried my hardest, but he was right...as I cuddled Max to sleep I fell asleep in the rocking chair in his room for 20 minutes and woke up at 12:03am. It's been pretty quiet around here since then as the holidays have come to a close. Last night as Lucy went to bed, we told her that Christmas Holidays were over and dad would be going back to work in the morning. She got upset and said she wished Christmas Holidays never had to end...I agree, but it felt good to get back to laundry and cleaning the house today after our long winter's nap.

Blogger Bog

It's been a bit since I added a post. We've been so busy with the Holidays that I haven't had a chance to tell anyone else about it...so here it comes. The Blogger Bog. Feel free to read when you have time to commit, so you don't feel 'bogged' down with Williamson anecdotes.
We began the Christmas 2008 marathon by heading to my parent's house on Christmas Eve and spent the day hanging out, tobogganing, opening presents, making and eating Christmas dinner, and watching the kids perform the Christmas Nativity. It was pretty sweet watching the kids dress up and act out the Nativity. Alison's kids played Joseph and Mary and rode in on their dog, Trixie. Next, the angel (Lucy) visited the shepherds (Max) and brought glad tidings. Max came to visit the baby Jesus and gave him a kiss. Our wisemen followed after (Emma) and gave the baby a gift. Lucy has been really into the Nativity story this year and has made me retell her the story about 3 times a day for 2 weeks. We have a small Nativity that she plays with and she's taken on the task of telling to story to Grandma's and Grandpa's and whoever else will listen. She has the story so perfectly memorized that she even got upset at me one time when I said "There came a decree from Caesar" and forgot to say "Augustus".
Once we were finished opening presents we headed out to Tyler's Aunt and Uncle's place for their annual Christmas Eve party. We enjoyed visiting, singing carols, and playing our Christmas gift Exchange game. We ended up back home at about 11:30pm and got the kids straight to bed so we could pull out all the presents.
We are fortunate that our kids are still young enough to be excited about Christmas, but not old enough to wake up at ridiculous hours of the morning to start opening presents. I was able to wake up, shower and get ready before our kids even made a peep. We got Max and took him into Lucy's room to wake her up (she's a sleeper). They had a Christmas morning hug, and then we headed out to the tree to eat some breakfast and read the Luke 2 Nativity story. Once we all had food in our bellies, we headed for the stockings. Lucy was excited for the Dora DVD and Princess puzzle Santa brought her, and Max was over the moon about the Lightening McQueen and Doc Hudson hot wheels cars he got. So excited, in fact, that he refused to put them down and wouldn't open anymore presents. Anytime we tried to suggest that he open another present he would scream and run down the hallway to get away. We ended up opening the majority of his presents for him. Every once in a while he would get distracted by a present, and then quickly head back to his Cars. Here's a shot of him opening another present while still holding the cars. I even had to dress him while still holding his cars in each hand. We enjoyed having Christmas morning at our own house this year and were able to slow down and focus on each other, rather than the onslaught of presents. Lucy was pretty excited about her Twin baby girls she got, and tons of play food for her kitchen. We spent a few minutes playing and then headed up to Grandma and Papa's to open presents with them. The kids got spoilt and we enjoyed spending the rest of the day up there, opening presents, opening presents, opening presents, and then making dinner and eating. We visited for a while into the evening, and then headed home, exhausted.
On boxing day we headed out to a hill in Cochrane and went sledding for a few hours. Max was pretty much frozen, so he didn't much enjoy the trip, except for the first ride down the hill with Dad. Lucy enjoyed the new snow-tubes we got and went down the hill a number of times. We headed back to Grandma and Papa's for Lucy to hit the hot tub and Max to have a nap. We played games all afternoon and then headed up to the church to play volleyball for a while. My parents met up with us there and came back to eat dinner and play games. We introduced them to "Killer Bunnies" and "Pit", two of the many games Sarah bought for her family for Christmas.
It was a pretty great time.
We've done a lot since then, but I'll end this post for now and do some more blogger bogging in a while...let you guys catch up a bit, grab a snack and then dive in for some more.

I Digress

So it would appear that I just can't help telling cute but embarrassing stories about my kids. Last night as Tyler and I watched the Flames game (brought to you by Scotiabank), our kids played around us. At one point they sat down at their little table, one on each side, with some books in front of them. I assumed that they were going to read some stories. At one point I heard Lucy say, "Welcome to Scotiabank." Which, in and of itself, I found hilarious. So I started paying attention. She then leaned across the table to Max and whispered, "Max, now you say, I'd like a second opinion."
For you out-of-country folk, this is the dialogue that takes place in a Scotiabank commercial, where a man is looking for a second opinion on his investment portfolio. Although she may not be paying attention to the Flames game, it would appear she does pay attention to the sponsors.

With Hesitation

We had a bit of a cute yet 'touchy' incident last week, and I have been hemming and hawing on whether or not to share it, just because I don't want this blog to turn into the "cute but embarrassing things my kids do, but can't stop me from publishing because they can't read yet and don't know any better" blog. It was a pretty sweet experience though, that I know family members would like to hear about, and I'm pretty sure our audience is small, so I publish with hesitation. For quite a few months, Lucy has been more aware of the 'goings on' in sacrament meeting, especially since her Papa was called into the Bishopric and sits up on the stand now. A few Sundays ago, Papa was speaking in church, and Lucy asked me when it was going to be her turn. I told her that on Fast Sundays people bare their testimonies and that if we practiced, she could do that too. She was very excited (I'm not sure if it was for the testimony, or the chance to use the microphone), so we began our practicing. The majority of it took place on Sunday morning as we got ready for church on Fast Sunday. We talked for weeks about the things that are appropriate to share in a testimony, and then on Sunday morning, her and her dad (Tyler...he doesn't like it when I refer to him as 'her dad' because it makes it seem like he has no affiliation to me...so Tyler, my husband, the father of our children...there) narrowed it down to a few things she would say. She practiced repeating it through breakfast, and on the way to church. She decided she wanted to say her testimony at the pulpit, and not with the roaming mic, and Dad was going to go up there and help her, so she could look at mom in the audience. (This is where our plan fell apart...we thought this was the best arrangement, but you will soon see it wasn't). So we got to church, she sat through sacrament patiently, waiting for testimony meeting to start. Tyler (my husband and father of my children) asked her if she wanted to go first and she said yes. So she waited for the Bishop to open the meeting with his testimony and then her and Tyler headed up to the stand. Upon standing up in our row, they had to get past Max and I to get out, and Lucy bumped her head on the pew in their haste. This was the start of a downward spiral. They sat for a minute and helped her get over the tears while someone else had a turn. Then, when she had calmed down, they headed up to the stand and Papa got the booster out for her to stand on. Someone else had stood in this amount of time, so again, she had to wait. Then it was open. Her and Tyler (husband and Father) headed up to the microphone. She stood up on the booster, they pulled the microphone down to her level, and he knelt down to whisper in her ear in case she forgot. As soon as she looked out over the audience, I saw the instant panic in her eyes and was pretty sure this wasn't going to go well. We sit 2nd row from the front, so I was right in her line of sight. I tried smiling and nodding to reassure her. She started out with a quiet, but audible "I'd like to bear my testimony..." turned and faced her dad and shook her head, he whispered, and then she melted into tears. (as did I, by the way...which is not a shock). Tyler picked her up and leaned into the microphone to say the following, "Lucy really wanted to bear her testimony today. She's practiced really hard, and she wanted everyone to know that she knows that Jesus lives and he loves her. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Everyone said amen, and then as Tyler carried her off the stand, she cried out, "Daddy, I wanted to say it!" The entire congregation laughed (which, fortunately, she's not at the embarrassing stage yet, so it didn't bother her). And they came back to our row and she buried her head in me. She whispered to me that she wanted to be close to me, and there is the failure of our great plan. She also told me that maybe when she was five she could do it. Five is the big girl age that she has decided a lot of important things will happen. A few minutes later, one of our shy 10-year old primary boys stood up, and very nervously said, "If Lucy can do it, so can I." and he bore his testimony, which was really sweet. And being the primary president, I felt that Lucy's testimony (although not how we planned it) was definitely worth it. After church we went over to Grandma and Papa's and Lucy shared her testimony with everyone there. And on Wednesday evening we had tithing settlement with the Bishop and he asked Lucy to share her testimony with him, and she did. This was what she had prepared to say:
"I'd like to bear my testimony. I know that Jesus lives and he loves me. I know that President Monson is the prophet. I know that the book of mormon stories are true. And when I'm all by myself, the Holy Ghost is there, even though I can't see him."
It was a sweet and wonderful experience to see my daughter following the examples of those around her, holding dear the things that are so sacred to me, and to see her thoughtfulness in choosing the things that she would say. I'm excited for her to begin Sunbeams next year. I know she will totally be in her element, and I'm looking forward to her testimony expanding. And I hope when she's old enough to read and be embarrassed by her mom, that my sharing this experience won't be too traumatic for her.

The Stockings were hung by the 'chimney'?

Last night we made a trip into the city to go suit shopping with Tyler. While we were waiting at Market Mall to meet up with him, the kids and I headed into Zellers to find some stockings. For the past two years I have searched through our boxes that are in storage at Tyler's Grandma's and have been unable to find our stockings. All of our other Christmas decorations are in a box together, and yet our stockings are nowhere to be found...so I broke down this year and decided to just buy new ones. As we walked into the store, Lucy told me she wanted a pink one. I told her that usually Christmas stockings were green or red and that's the kind of decorations we had at home, so we would probably stick to that color scheme. Well, upon reaching the second floor of zellers we came face to face with a big display of peacock blue and pink decorations, including stockings. My 'Miss Matchy' nature told me I wanted to get green and red, but when I saw the pink stocking, I just couldn't think of a better choice for my little girl. It's light pink (all her favorite colors are the 'light' version), satin, and has purple, pink and 'light' yellow flowers on it. I couldn't have dreamed up a better stocking.So now that we had thrown our Christmas theme out the window, everyone got to choose a stocking that they liked, rather than one that matched. Max appropriately chose a "Cars" stocking, Tyler's is classic red (there were stockings that said 'Mom' on them, but he couldn't find a 'Dad' one, so he opted for simple red) and I found a pretty red and blue stocking. All in all, they don't match each other, or anything else, but they reflect us pretty well. We decided to hang them over the TV with our fake fireplace picture in the background. "I'm dreaming of a 'real fireplace' Christmas! Just like the ones I used to know!"

My Blogger Christmas List

I'm getting fully into the Christmas spirit and would like to involve Lucy in much holiday baking this year. My blogger Christmas list is for you to share what your favorite Christmas treat is and possibly a recipe if you have it. Here's mine:
Truffles:
16 squares of Baker's Bittersweet or Semisweet chocolate, divided
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts or crushed candy cane
Chop 8 chocolate squares; place in microwaveable bowl. Add cream and butter. Microwave on medium 1 1/2 minutes; stir until well blended. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.
Shape into 24 balls. Place on wax paper covered tray.
Melt remaining chocolate. Use fork to dip truffles into melted chocolate. return to tray. Sprinkle with nuts, crushed candy cane or roll in icing sugar. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Yummy, yummy. I especially like it with the candy cane.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Lucy and I headed outside for some fresh air this afternoon while Max had a nap. It took us about 15 minutes of bundling up before we even got outside, and wouldn't you know it, I still forgot kleenex. We got a huge dump of snow yesterday while we were at church. So much so, that the road was actually closed when we finished church and some people were stranded there. We decided to take the back (longer) way home since we just put snow tires on our van, and made it home fine. As we headed outside today, we discovered that the snow wasn't really useful for making snowmen or even snow balls, so Lucy and I made angels and drew pictures in the snow. I drew my classic "Tyler" cartoon and she made a happy-face of mom. I also convinced her to try tasting snow (it took a few minutes, even after I had done it a couple of times myself) and then couldn't get her to stop. After convincing her, I of course, had to teach her the lesson of only eating white snow and never anything else. We had a pretty fun time, and had some rosey cheeks by the time we came inside. I had promised her some warm apple cider, and then discovered we were out, so she had to (happily) settle for a 'chewie' instead (candy). It was fun to have some girl-time. We don't get it very often. Although we're an even split right now at our house, sometimes Lucy and I feel out-numbered by our much louder boys.

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa

Sunday was Great-Grandpa's birthday, and since he just got out of the hospital, we decided to have a big party for him. We all headed to John and Marianne's house after church for a delicious roast beef dinner and some visiting before everyone headed their separate ways. The kids had fun making a fort with Papa out of some blankets and chairs, and we enjoyed seeing John and Marianne's new house for the first time. Happy Birthday!

All the Trimmings

Tonight, we decided to have a somewhat impromptu Family Home Evening as we spent Monday night at my parent's house enjoying a black-out and painting the basement. We watched the movie "Wall-E" while we ate dinner (this was a reward to Max because he used the potty for the first time) and when the movie was done, we set up, and decorated the Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun and stress getting it going, but the end result always makes me feel fuzzy. This is the first time we have had a Christmas tree at home since Max was born and it's proving to be a challenge. He is already so fascinated that he has pulled off decorations multiple times. He is using the tree skirt as a blanket and keeps crawling under the tree and saying na-night. I'm sure he'll get the point eventually that the tree is nice for looking at, but not for touching, right? The kids were very helpful and enjoyed drinking Apple Cider while we decorated. Grandma came down for a few minutes to visit and read Max half of the "Night before Christmas" story. (That's how long he lasted). Lucy has kidnapped a few decorations into her room (including the baby Jesus and little lamb from my nativity). It's hard for me to see how big she's getting. The last time we decorated a tree at our house (2 years ago), she was barely big enough to even understand it. We took some amazing pictures that night, and now she looks so much bigger. And the time before that, she was still a baby and couldn't even crawl. It's hard for me to handle.We enjoyed listening to Christmas music and getting all set up. I always think a tree makes your house feel more like a home. Now that the tree is up, I better get some presents to put under it. Hooray for December!