A picture for Bubba!

Here we are with our Christmas crackers and just finished our dinner!  Hope yours was good.  We enjoyed our day and I just realized our kids had a total PJ day!  Good for them. 

Every year I joke that after Christmas dinner I am going to start taking the tree down but I am never really that serious.  Except this year my husband took me up on it - don't flame me here.  It just works for me, doesn't mean that it has to work for you.  I like the tree to be down on the 26th or 27th of December as I want to start the New Year off being organized and not worrying about when I will have the time or energy to deal with all the Christmas stuff. Plus I like the fact that the Rhino is home to help as I can't take down the tree by myself.  We got the kids to bed and the next thing I knew Rhino was bringing up rubbermaids and I will admit I was a bit surprised but thought why not!  It was so easy to do without kids "helping" and asking for snacks!  We were done in 2 hours.  It was easier that putting everything out.  Now we can just hang out and relax.  Again it just works for me!  As an added bonus I got to rearrange a few things in the house.  Maybe I'll take some pictures tomorrow...

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick pop in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa is good to each and everyone of you.  To Bubba in Ontario I hope your day is filled with good movies and excellent sound!  I know ours will be.  One particular movie is calling my name .... Frost/Nixon.  Can't wait to watch it!  Is it wrong to tell a slight fib on Christmas Eve.....only slightly kidding Bubba!

To my other friend in Ontario I hope you are enjoying your family!

To my friends here I'll be thinking of you!  And hopefully seeing you over the holidays!

Cookies and more cookies!

Sunday found us in the kitchen for what seemed like all day.  We started off making Peppermint Chocolate Popcorn - seriously so good but you can only have a little!  Then we made coconut drop cookies - not my favorite but the Rhino was remembering his childhood.  I'm pretty sure his Mom makes better ones than me!  And then the grand finale for the Princesses - sugar cookies!  We made 2 huge batches and one batch of royal icing.  Princess Belle had fun decorating them with her Dad.  Poor Miss Cinderella had a horrible headache.  It wasn't pretty.  Even after vacuuming a couple times I am still finding little balls all over!

Only 2 more gifts to wrap - can anyone guess who wrapped ALL the presents this year (except of course their own?!).

A sampling of the sugar cookies

Are you ready for Christmas?

It's the most wonderful time of the year....!!!

I'm done making all my crafts (except for 2 little flowers) so I can put the glue gun away finally!!  Between making wreaths with October Moon and doing a "few" projects on my own I went through almost 300 glue sticks!! Yes you read that right 300 glue sticks!!  I bought a low temp glue gun and I do believe it helped but it still hurts when it is searing onto your fingers.  Here's a sampling of what I made.  Since I've been getting my craft on the housework has fallen off  so I better go work on that.

Cupcake Wreaths - I may have got carried away!



Flower on wreath



Headbands and barrettes

The Tradition Continues...

Every year we receive and have for the past 14 years a beautiful fresh wreath from Rhino's Aunt and Uncle in Nova Scotia.  Every year I always hold my breath and wonder if it will come. And this year it even came early.  It is such a great gift and it smells wonderful!  Thank you Auntie K and Uncle C!!  We love the tradition!

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Good Eats (for the most part!)

Miss Cinderella had a cultural feast at school today.  The quantity of food was unbelievable.  There was enough for about 135 students, volunteers and staff  PLUS  left overs for each class. Each child was to bring in a dish that represented their cultural background.  Haggis anyone?!  Actually it was brought in. And yes I passed. There was also something that looked like p**p on a stick.  Safe to say I passed on that too. I wish I had passed on the what looked like fudge but turned out to be dates.  I still cringe when I think about how awful it was.  Miss Cinderella stayed on the safe side and loaded up on cheese and cookies.  Can't say I really blame her.  She definitely gets the picky eating thing from moi!

There was a slight miscommunication between the Princess and I as I was going to bring in tea sandwiches to represent England however she drew up the flag from Nova Scotia and thought I would bring in something from Scotland.  Ummm....thanks but yeah I'll pass.  So I made the sandwiches as planned and as the Rhino said (in Scottish accent)..."well they are made from Scottish eggs".  I am glad that I made the sandwiches as there was a lot of cookies and desserts to be had.

Our egg salad and cucumber sandwiches (pronounced with Scottish accent)!



One happy Princess!



A birthday and a party!

What a weekend...it felt like we were hardly home at all!  It was Rhino's birthday on Friday so took him out for a great dinner in the evening then we went and did a bit of shopping thanks to a discount coupon from Bubba.  Gotta love a Bubba that has connections!  Earlier in the day both girls went to the same birthday party and both brought home a 9" round cake so we had a lot of cake to eat!  With 2 cakes already in the house there wasn't really a need to make a cake for Rhino.  Or maybe that's just me being lazy. 

Saturday the girls had their usual activities then we went to Alice In Wonderland at the university.  It was amazing to see you could tell a lot of time and resources went into it.  The talent of all the dancers was great.  After that we went for dinner out again (no wonder my waist line is getting thicker!) and then I almost finished my Christmas shopping thanks again to the coupon from Bubba.

On Sunday the girls were invited to a Christmas party and we had a great time again - they served a nice turkey dinner for lunch and the kids quite enjoyed the "atmosphere".



Just Rhino's coffee (I promise!)



Yes, that's right the party was held in a pub!!  Now if this wasn't exhausting enough after the party we went to our friends house for dinner (see why my waistline is getting thicker!).  I might actually need another weekend to just get caught up and rest.

Our Skater!

Miss Cinderella had a great time at her very first skating "competition". Miss C just started skating lessons in September so she hasn't had lots of experience, but she really likes going to do it.  The evening started with Uncle M and his girlfriend K coming for dinner, plus Grandma.  Then we all went to the rink to watch the competition.  It was interesting to watch as we had a very casual attitude about it because I didn't get the memo about hair and makeup being done!  The best part for Miss Cinderella was the skating dress.  She loved the dress and didn't want to take it off.  The actual receiving of the medals was pure chaos but we managed to survive that too.  A good lesson was learned that night that sometimes life isn't fair but we just move on.