Crazy-Busy Weekend, Part 2

(See post below for Part 1)

It’s always a balancing act to get ready and out the door on Sunday morning in time for church. This past Sunday was more challenging than usual as we wouldn’t be returning home until the evening and had to pack gifts, clothes, food and directions for an event later in the day.

Bryanna was reading a lesson for the first time during the church service and it was a looong one! (Isaiah 61: 1-4 and 8-11). She did fantastically well – clear, loud, and confident (and there are some hard words in that reading!) I think she was overwhelmed with the number of people who came up to thank her afterward for the lovely job she did.

Then we raced over to the church gym to join the rest of the Club Matt children’s program in practicing for the final Christmas pageant being held next week (Sunday, December 21, 10:00 am).

The kids are a hoot and the pageant is a puppet show that has been filmed and edited over the last few weeks and will be shown to the congregation on Sunday. If you’re in the neighbourhood of St. Matthew's, feel free to drop by!

THEN, after church, we got back in the car and headed to Ancaster for our annual Christmas get-together with friends from Bryanna’s china travel group 70 (the reason for the baking I did on Saturday). Knowing this was the final event in our busy weekend, I gratefully accepted a glass of wine from our hosts and collapsed onto a chair for a lovely afternoon…

...the kids played, the adults chatted, we all filled ourselves with a wonderful meal and then sat back and enjoyed watching the kids open and exclaim over their gifts.

When we finally returned home, B. finished up some homework and Cassidy coloured. Later while B. played online with a new Webkinz, Cassidy and I watched Rudolph on television while I finished up my Christmas cards.

This was probably the busiest weekend of our Christmas season this year, but at the end of it all, I felt a warm glow…we had spent time with family and friends, the kids had had a great time, our home was warm and cozy and filled with twinkling lights and music, and in another week I will be on vacation for a nice long stretch.

Ahhh. All is right with the world.

L.

Crazy-Busy Weekend, Part 1

The past weekend was so full, that it requires a couple of posts to capture it all.

Friday night, the senior choir at Bryanna’s school sang O Canada for the St. Michael Majors hockey game at the Hershey Centre. As everyone who knows me knows, hockey is NOT my thing. However, Bryanna wanted to go, and even more, Cassidy was dying to see the hockey game. So we brought along my dad as the hockey support person and off we went. The choir did great, Cassidy was in her element and I had some good hot chocolate.

Dad and I left part-way into the second period to take Cassidy home to bed, but Bryanna stayed with her friends until the very end and came home with another mom after 10:00. Were the girls enthralled with the game? Uh, no. All of our little pre-teens were having a blast buying snacks at the concession stand and chatting up a storm in a group of empty seats some distance away from their parents. *sigh* (Pictures were taken by another mom - will post when I have them.)

Saturday was gymnastics, shopping, baking...



... and wrapping presents, and then mid-afternoon our special friend and babysitter, Jan (or Santa Jan as she is called at this time of year) stopped by with armloads (seriously) of presents for the dynamic duo. Well. When Cassidy opened up a pink and white hockey jersey, you would not believe the exclamation...you would think she had just been given a trip to Disney World, she was that excited (and has worn it for 3 days now). Bryanna was delighted with the latest in Tamagatchis and all the latest accessories...



Two very fortunate girls.

Soon after Jan departed, my mom and dad arrived. We all bundled into the car again and set off for the home of cousins Bret and Joanne for a Christmas gathering with my mom’s side of the family (to celebrate the season before my aunt heads off to spend Christmas in CUBA!). We missed our other cousins B&B and sister Kim and family but they were in our thoughts throughout.



After a fun get-together (while the 4 cousins played enthusiastically and unceasingly in the basement)...




it was back home to collapse.

Ahh, but Sunday was going to be even busier…

Travelling the road to Christmas...

When I was growing up, I was the kid who begged in November to put up the Christmas tree, who sighed in delight the weekend that my dad carefully hung the red and green string of lights on the roof and spotlit the beautiful birch tree on our front lawn. Each day on my arrival home from school I would race to turn on those lights; in the twilight of the short December days the twinkly lights outside would fill the living room with their glow. And how I loved the weekends when my mom would bake shortbread and carefully pack those melt-in-your-mouth cookies in the large round film canisters kept from her Kodak days.

Every year, my heart and soul loved and rejoiced in the Christmas Eve service at St. Matthew's Anglican Church in Etobicoke...the candlelight that filled the darkened church as we reverently and quietly sang "Silent Night" to welcome the Christ child into our midst.

The journey to Christmas was, without question, my most favourite time of year. It still is, but sometimes it takes a little more effort for me to get there, and the busyness of all the preparations sometimes distracts me from the beauty and expectation and, cliché as it sounds, the true meaning of Christmas.

Interestingly it was today that those feelings came back to me and in an unexpected way. We were a little late in writing letters to Santa and both girls sat down to write theirs after dinner(Cassidy on her own for the first time)...

However, it is WHAT they wrote that touched my heart...hope you can read these...click on the image to enlarge them...

It's always the children, isn't it? How can I not feel excited when I see these faces every day?

And I suddenly take the time to remember the joy of Christmas Eve 1999, when another little baby arrived suddenly...who changed my life forever and made room for my family to grow even more...

There is still a lot to do over the next two weeks, and I'm sure to lose it at least twice in that time, but the joy is there percolating... bubbling to the surface when I least expect it.

Lianne

Boston!

Boston has been on the list of cities I've wanted to visit for ages, especially after hearing so many amazing things about the city from my friend, S. So imagine my delight when work decided to send me as part of team to Boston for some software training.

So, okay. I was only there for just over 24 hours, and yeah, I was in a hotel ballroom for most of that time, with barely time to catch a glimpse of the Freedom Trail, let alone to travel along it, but, still, I was there! hee hee

Here are a few shots of my quick dash into and through the city.

The view from my hotel room over the Charles River at sunrise...

And from just outside the hotel later on...

Walking past Faneuil Hall...

One of my colleagues at the Cheers replica bar...

Here's a shot of an irish pub for AM...


Of course, now I want to go back and REALLY see Boston ...Loved it!

Lianne

A Brand New Floor!

I promised my friend, AM, that I would post the results when my living room floor received its makeover, so here it is!

My living room is the last room in our home to receive any tender loving care. All the other rooms in the house have been painted and decorated, renovated or updated but this room was still builder's beige, and the beige carpet had received some rough treatment from dogs and children. Doesn't look too bad here (other than blah)...



...but, yep, it desperately needed help and thanks to mom and dad, the decision was made to start with a new floor. I settled on a hard-wood look laminate and after weeks of waiting, the flooring materials were delivered and we finished emptying the room.



And Tuesday the installer came and laid the floor (apparently he was amazing). I was out of town on business and by the time I arrived home late in the evening, my parents had returned all the furniture to the room and the whole room was glowing from the warm colour of the new floor. I can't believe how much I love it!!!!!



Of course, now the curtains and old furniture are looking even worse, and the walls really need some colour, but with the Christmas tree up (just finished tonight) it looks pretty darn good! Have a look in this short video clip...



Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Lianne

Happy Birthday, Nanny!

Nanny's birthday was last weekend and Bryanna and Cassidy and I were delighted to welcome her and dad home from their trip to California and celebrate her day with this yummy birthday cake.

To our wonderful mom and nanny,

We love you!

All your girls.

Here it comes!

Here in Mississauga, we missed all the snow that our neighbours to the north and south-west have been receiving. But this morning we awoke to a fairy land and my daughters were ecstatic.



Even I can enjoy it like this...for a little while.

hee hee

Lianne

November Days

Just thought I'd post a quick entry with an update and some pics of the dynamic duo...

For all those asking, Bryanna's science project presentation was delayed till today but apparently she did very well. She was the only one who knew her presentation off by heart and even threw in a little humour... "Interesting fact about the Red Fox...did you know you can figure out a fox's age by studying the layers of enamel on his teeth? ....You might not want to get close enough to do that, though!"



Bryanna also had a big math test today but felt good about that too...however, she ended the day feeling rather ill so we're happy all the hard school work is done and she can relax for a bit...the picture above is Miz B playing a "mom approved" computer game before bed.

And this week, Miss Cassidy scored a new Winter coat, hat, scarf and boots (last year's had been worn into the ground - C is a little tough on her clothes) and just loves them. Here she is modelling her new ensemble.



That's all for tonight...

Fare thee well, friends and family!

Lianne

Princesses, The End of Autumn and Hard Work

Hi all ~

My friends and family regularly put me to shame with their much more frequent (not to mention, eloquent) blog posts so I thought I'd at least post a few nice pics from the last week...

First of all, I must confess to feeling a touch of sadness that my time as a mom of princesses is almost at an end...daughter number one now refuses outright to dress up as a princess any longer. Little Cassidy still will, though only for a good reason and not very often. Therefore, I was delighted that our good friends, Janet and Kate, chose a princess theme for Kate's 7th birthday last weekend and asked all the attendees to come dressed as their favourite princess.

Miz B resisted somewhat, of course, but did agree to wear a skirt and a tiara - for a short period...

(being silly...)

Cassidy, however, went all out and this princess mom was delighted...Here are some pics (the last?) of my little princess...

(...double tiaras!)

Here's the birthday girl in all her Belle finery, addressing the amazing cupcake tree!



After last weekend, we gloried in some beautifully mild and sunny weather for the first half of the week...perhaps offering us a final farewell to the Fall of 2008. The chinese maple in the back yard (which grew from a small branch in a flower pot only 4 years ago!) seemed magnificent against the blue sky...


...and the girls and I did garden work and outdoor clean-up over several mild late afternoons/evenings this week. Here they are saying farewell for another year to Larry, the scarecrow...



But as the weather turned cold, wet and blustery by the end of the week, we headed indoors to focus on other projects...Bryanna did a super job on her science project and spent the last 2 days practising her presentation on the Red Fox. Wish her luck tomorrow!


And after becoming a master at cranking out volumes of scrapbooking pages for my parents' 50th anniversary last June, I suddenly realized that it should be no effort to finally finish Bryanna's lifebook which I began two Christmases ago! So, over the weekend, I finished the final 11 pages of the book, leaving just a few spaces for some pictures still to be added, and now this gift of my daughter's early story is finally complete...



(Now to begin Cassidy's!)

That's it for now...a busy week, and one that was made more exciting by the history-making election in the States. Something to remember forever!

Goodnight family, goodnight friends!

Love Lianne