My Christmas List

I'm feeling a touch sentimental today. I'm not sure what has brought it on. Maybe the fact that we've been sick for so long, and I'm just grateful for what it is...and what it isn't. Either way, I've just been thinking a lot about the Christmas season and why I like it so much.

I like Christmas baking. I'm not going to lie. It makes me glowie. I like doing it, I like smelling it, I like eating it. I like sharing it. I like when people like it. It's all around good. Pumpkin Roll; Toffees; Sugar Cookies; Turtles; Shortbread; Almond Rocca. Almond Rocca is one of my all-time favourite Christmas treats and I have no idea how to make it. I made gingersnaps today. The house smells amazing. Tyler's Grandma's recipe. I like using recipes that were special to people. It's good to find a good recipe from a good website or something, but nothing beats an hand-me-down recipe. These ones are perfect.

I like Handel's Messiah. I was recently called as a Ward Organist, and it inspires me to learn how to play Messiah. Every year since I can remember, my family and I have gone to the Calgary Stake's presentation of Handel's Messiah, led by Keith Wood. Eventually, when I was old enough, I sang in it. Every year I would marvel at Sister Shauna Murdock and her ability to play the organ like that. And I wanted to learn. I guess being called as an organist is my way of starting. I sat down at my piano today and played a few of the songs I already know. I love it. Nothing beats the Hallelujah chorus at full volume. Plus, I always get emotional in those songs, and find it easier to play them than to sing them.

I love clean sheets. I know it has nothing to do with Christmas, but I do love it. And today, clean sheets are making me happy.

I love advent calendars with those little chocolates. They're awesome. My kids get one every year. They get so excited to have their little chocolate and to count down the days. I remember growing up, my mom had a flannel-board advent calendar with the Nativity. I loved that. Everyone got to take turns, putting on shepherds, wise men, the star, sheep, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. It was old and fell apart, but I loved it. I need to get me one of those.

I like to have my Christmas lights on all the time. The prudent person in me feels it is a waste of money to burn that electricity all day, and I worry about burning out my lights (we've had them for 8 years now and they're still going strong), but then I see the tree all glowie in my living room, and I love it. Who cares if it's noon?

I love Christmas music as soon as I can possibly get away with listening to it. American Thanksgiving seems about right...or a few days before. My favourite song this year is "What Child is This" by Andrea Boccelli and Mary J. Blige. I just like it. I'm sure there are better songs out there, but that's my favourite right now. "O Holy Night" is my all-time classic favourite. Pretty much sung by anyone.

I LOVE Christmas shopping. I love anticipating what people will say, or think when they open a gift. Especially for my kids. It's really easy to go overboard, and I REALLY try not to, but alas.

I love a cool crisp air, with a beautifully warm house. Especially this house. I have loved all my houses that I've lived in and have been grateful for them, but this year I am SO grateful for this house. I was thinking about it this morning. What a blessing this house is. It's amazing to me that we have this house. That WE live HERE. Truly a blessing.

I love Christmas dinner. Seriously, whoever thought that turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, buns, juice, cranberries, and veggies would be the traditional Christmas dinner was a genius! I love it. I love smelling it. I love eating it. I love leftovers of it. Love it. (I also secretly love that my dad insists on fancy Christmas dishes - we tease him, but I love setting the table with fancy Christmas dishes and linens).

I love snow. Warm snow. Haha. We haven't had much snow yet. The grass, in fact, is still green...which is weird to me. We've had a lot of rain, and I'm not complaining, because bundling kids up in boots and snow pants and hats and mittens, etc is a lot of work every time you need to leave the house. But I love snow. I love squishy snow. The kind that gets mixed with a bit of street dirt. It doesn't look as pretty, but it's super fun to step in and squish with your boots. Snowmen. Snow forts. Snow balls. Snow Angels. Clean. White. Snow.

I love trying to come up with something really AMAZING to blow my husband away with every year. Love it. Traditionally he's the master at gift-giving...but I'm coming into my own.

I love reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas." I bought a copy of it when I was pregnant with Lucy. I love pulling it out every year. It's beautiful. And I love the copy my parent's have. My mom has a huge collection of Christmas stories, and I love reading them to my kids. My favourites: The Christmas Sleigh (I want ice-cream made out of snow), Twas the Night Before Christmas, and a little one about a giant Christmas tree in a forest that all the mice and forest animals decorate...can't remember what it's called.

I love Christmas PJS! And new slippers. I seriously hope my kids get me slippers. I wear them all day, every day...and until we moved to Kingston, I even wore them in the summer. Bare feet on the floor feels weird.

I love Nativity sets. I'd love to have a collection, but for now I only have 3. Does 3 count as a collection? And I can't find one of them. I have my traditional Willow-Tree nativity, and little tiny snowman nativity, and another little one that the kids are allowed to play with, and I can't find now, as a result. Oh well.

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. I'm not usually on the ball. But I love it. I actually have all my cards written, and addressed already, I just need these kids to get healthy so we can take a family picture to include with them. I'd rather the picture not include puffy eyes and runny noses. But, beggars can't be choosers. I may have to resort to that kind of picture.

I love Christmas lights. It seriously makes any neighbourhood seems SO much more pleasant and friendly. My street is looking pretty amazing. I'd love to go all out on my house. Maybe someday we will. "Ooooh, look at the lights!"

I love the new Bible videos that are on the lds website: lds.org. They're great. I've watched them all. So far, my favourite it the one where Jesus is presented at the temple. But they're all good. I love the First Presidency Devotional every year and listening to the Mo-Tab sing Christmas music. They just do it best.

I love singing Christmas Hymns all month in December. I wish we could come up with a reason to sing them a few weeks longer. Favorite Hymn: Joy to the World, oh, and O Come All Ye Faithful...and Angels We Have Heard on High...and, well, all of them I guess.

This year, I think I love traveling at Christmas...we'll see! An airport, 3 days before Christmas with 3 kids...who knows? But it's WORTH IT!!!

I love Cochrane Ward on Christmas Day. I'm looking forward to hearing that singing! I miss Sarah & Janeen & Janie, and Shannon, and Ali and Becky and Sydney...can't wait to hear what you ladies have cooked up this year.

I love Christmas breakfast. Pancakes and waffles, french toast, eggs, hashbrowns. Mmmmm! At our house, we always had our favourite cereals on Christmas morning. We would eat shredded wheat and shreddies all year, and then Christmas morning was a blow-out of Corn Pops, Fruit Loops, Golden Grahams, Frosted Flakes. Mmmmm. There's something about waiting that makes it so much better.

I love Christmas Trees. I love OUR Christmas tree. It's a good one. It's been the same every year since we got married. We've added a few decorations every year, to replace broken ones, but pretty much, it's the same. Sometimes I wonder if I should change it up year to year, but then we decorate our tree, and I just love it. We have a tall skinny tree. We do Green, Red and Gold. We're traditional here. I love it. The whole tree is decorated with stars and jingle bells. Again, traditional. Just love it. I have these gold stars that I ordered from one of those Home Parties years ago. I only have 12 of them, and every year, they are my favourite decoration. 12 gold stars on my tree. And now I have 1 more...a gold star for the top. Finally.

I love watching my kids get into Christmas. This is the first year that Logan is kind of getting it. He knows who Santa is...I don't think he really knows what Santa does. But he likes to say, "Ho Ho Ho". And he can identify baby Jesus, which is so sweet. Even on my little snowman nativity, he knows that the tiny snowman in the little sleigh in Baby Jesus. I love that my kids enjoy watching the Joy to the World DVD with me. I love that they know the story. I love that when we ask them what December 25th is, their first answer is "Jesus' Birthday!"

I'm sure there's more. I just love Christmas. And today, that's what is making me happy.

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween is seriously one of my most favourite times of year. I don't know why. Costumes and Candy and my birthday...it's just ALL awesome! I get excited to see my kids get so excited. This year, Lucy was a butterfly fairy. Originally it was just a butterfly, but she has recently started reading the Rainbow Fairy book series and so the costume had to incorporate a fairy. Grandma helped her do her make-up and hair so she would be just perfect.

We had our friends, the Larocques join us for trick-or-treating.


Max was dressed up as a Cobra Ninja. And Logan was a chicken. He kept shaking his tail feathers. It was so cute. He was really excited to dress up and go outside, but I'm sure he had no idea what we were doing.

At every house, Max would say, "Mom, look how much candy I have!"

We hit our neighbour's houses first. It was fun to trick-or-treat and see familiar faces. We went to the first house and held out our bags and they were filled with candy. Once Logan saw this, he was in. You could see that he became very aware that this is probably the best day ever. He was determined to hit every house and to carry his bag up there to get his share of the candy. And he said thank you at every door. So cute.

It was BEAUTIFUL out too, which totally made our day. I love trick-or-treating in nice weather. THAT is a treat. And our neighbourhood is awesome. Man, people go all-out here for Halloween...I need to step it up for next year. Apparently my typical pumpkin and skeleton decorations just won't suffice. One neighbour had a haunted garage, and the other had a pirate's lair set up in their garage. We had so much fun on our street.

The kids were always leery of statues that made sounds or moved. Checking them out carefully. We did both sides of our street, and about 2/3 of the way up the street that runs across from us, before we were all exhausted. And the bags were BULGING. I can't believe the handfuls of candy people were handing out. Crazy! This candy will last us forever, I'm sure! Partially because we got a whole bag of candy for Logan and he will not be allowed to eat much of it. But he did munch on some chips when he needed a break.
And since then, I keep hearing, "Mommy...a canny?"

Soaring to new Heights

Last night, Tyler planned on us taking one of his employees out for a nice Christmas dinner before he moves back to Africa on the 28th to become a preacher. He has worked with Tyler for a number of years as a programmer, but has decided that he needs to go back home and preach, and so he has sold all of his earthly possessions - except for the clothes he will need when he gets there - packed up his home, and made all the arrangements necessary to close off this part of his life and begin a new one. We decided to take him to the Sky 360 restaurant at the top of the Calgary Tower. He has lived here for a number of years and has never been, so we thought it was an appropriate Calgarian send-off. The kids ended up coming with us, and they loved going up-up-up in the elevator and the idea of being so high off the ground. The rotating restaurant was also fascinating to them. They spent a lot of time looking out the window at the changing landscape below them. It was a weird sensation for me, as I was sitting backwards to the rotation. I wouldn't really call it motion sickness, but it was an 'off' feeling for most of the night that created a bit of a headache. I wondered if it would have been different if I had been sitting the right way. We visited for a while and ordered our food. Let's just say that for the price, it wasn't that great. They had a kids menu, so Max ordered a cheeseburger and Lucy ordered Mac and Cheese. Unfortunately it was a home-made mac and cheese made with some really sharp type of cheese that definitely was not kid friendly, so she ended up eating most of my chicken entree instead. Max's burger was fine enough, except for the fact that it was huge and he was unable to get his mouth around it without a lot of squishing. Despite the below-average meal, the atmosphere and experience was fun and the kids were really well behaved. We took the opportunity to go to the observation deck so they could stand on the glass floor and look down. Again, another weird sensation. You get moments of dizziness and a sensation of leaning, which is really weird, but kind of thrilling. The kids were timid at first, but then totally enjoyed it and wanted to stay there all night. (A view of the ground below us with each of our feet on the glass floor)

Then it was a trip back down in the long elevator, which seemed much faster than the trip up - makes me nervous that they allow gravity to do part of the work...what if gravity gets it's nose in a joint and decides it wants to do the whole job itself...525 floors!
They had a statue of the Albertasaurus from the Tyrrell Museum on display in the lobby, so while Tyler said good-bye to his friend and co-worker, the kids and I took a look around at that, and the big Black Bear Mounty. Because the kids were so well behaved, we decided to stop and get them a treat of cheesies on the way home. Max ended up with cheesy dust everywhere, so it was a quick wipe down and off to bed when we got home. Tyler and I both commented that we probably would never eat there again, but because we ordered entrees, the lift ticket was covered, so we got a cool experience out of it anyway.

Hoppy Easter

This past weekend was filled with family, food and confections. We started out the weekend with a blast by heading to the zoo Saturday morning for Alison's birthday. Any Ken Bourne family member who was available was in attendance, as well as the rest of the city of Calgary. Apparently there was some Easter program happening that were unaware of, but everyone else seemed to know about. It was 'a zoo' to say the least, but the kids still enjoyed seeing their favorite animals and spending time at the zoo with cousins. Max felt brave for a moment and took a picture with someone dressed up as a wolf, but then soon came to his senses and watched from a distance. I'm not really sure why they were there, but the kids enjoyed seeing different feline and canine characters larger than life. We headed back to my parent's house afterwards for naps and snacks and winding down until Easter Dinner. Mom treated us with her fabulous turkey dinner with all the fixings and then the kids enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs and presents. The best part about the Easter egg hunt is all the kids put their eggs in one basket (I've heard a warning about that before), and go on looking for more. While their backs are turned to their treasure, the adults grab handfuls and re-hide them, so the egg hunt lasts a little longer. They think they're bringing in a huge haul, and have yet to figure out that the number of eggs found is not equal to the number of eggs received. Grandma got each of the kids a new pair of pajamas (and t-shirts for Cy, because he's ten and doesn't really wear character pajamas anymore). All the kids decided to have a fashion show and put on their pjs right away. Then we turned on some tunes and let the kids dance it out for the last few minutes they were together. We were amazed by Emma's Robot, Jilli's Worm, and Lucy and Max's...let's call them "Return Missionary" dance moves (ie. they don't have much rhythm, but a lot of heart). The next morning (Sunday), we headed to church and enjoyed the Easter Sabbath. Max had so much fun in nursery with his new teacher, Grandma Janielee, that he got mad at Dad when he tried to clean up the toys to go home. Janie made a chicken wing dinner, because Tyler had complained that both families planned Easter dinners for days that he would be working and unable to enjoy Easter dinner. We played games and hung out, and let the kids show the Williamson family their dance moves that they had perfected the night before. It's one of their favorite things to do, so the kids and I dance a lot. Max loves the song "Pokerface" by Lady GaGa and "Kung Fu Fighting" because it reminds him of Kung Fu Panda. Lucy enjoys "Our Song" by Taylor Swift, and "Just Dance" by Lady GaGa. Our kids are very current.
Monday morning saw more Easter festivities. We had a great waffle breakfast at Ma and Pa Williamson's house, and then headed outside for a windy/sunny/snowing/blowing/raining/all-of-the-above Easter Egg Hunt. This time, there was no need to re-hide Eggs as treasures were hid all around the property and kept the kids going for at least an hour. (This was not a gift for Easter, we've had this truck for about a year, but Max got more excited about it here, then he did when we got it). We got LOTS of candy and a few toys and some new clothes. Sarah got a skipping rope in her loot bag and that started a skipping competition that ended in getting as many people skipping at once as we could. We headed inside for some hanging out, playing (The Game of Life - which Lucy takes too literally), and Easter dinner at the Williamsons. Ham and Scalloped potatoes (Janie knows the key to my heart). Tyler ended up breaking a way from work to eat dinner, so he actually scored himself 3 Easter dinners, instead of the usual 2. We had a pretty awesome/exhausting time. Thanks to all the family who made it perfect.

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.

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.

Another view from the Nexis

I came across this photo from back in the day and thought it looked a little familiar.

Trevor. Age: approx 3. Max. Age: 18 months. Weird.