lucky

We were lucky enough to have an overnight visit with the mini monkey-cousins this weekend.

They are very busy little people.

Who tired out whom?

We are lucky to live close to our families. Our children have grown up with great-grandparents (my grandparents shared a house with a granny suite with us for a few years), grandparents and all of their immediate aunts and uncles and cousins. I think it has made them happier, more confident and well socialized kids. At least they always have someone nearby to fall back on.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

This is my digital Christmas card for 2012. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I may write something over the holidays, but then again I might just take a little break.

Finally, the tree is up. I tried to take a good photo, but with the low light and my suicidal camera (it jumped off the piano last Christmas while we were all eating dinner and has never been quite the same since), it just wasn’t happening tonight. And I ran out of steam after trying to dust the drywall dust off of EVERY surface of my house. Who knew that a powder room renovation could be so intrusive?

This year’s Santa hat photo also didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. I knew it was doomed right off the bat when I could only find one hat, which meant I could only take one photo at a time. But I also had low expectations of myself this year and didn’t send out Christmas cards, so the only copy of this will be the one in the frame on top of the piano. Next year I’ll do better.

And for your entertainment, I leave you with The Twelve Days of Christmas, as re-written by the tall hormonal kid (I bet you can’t read it without singing inside your head):

The Twelve Days of Christmas

by Charley

On the twelfth day of Christmas my hockey wish will be:

Twelve Stanley Cups,

Eleven free ice times,

Ten break-aways,

Nine backyard ice rinks,

Eight NHL players,

Seven coaches reffing,

Six water bottles,

Five HOCKEY BAGS,

Four scrimmages,

Three hat tricks,

Two pairs of skates,

And a lock-out free season!

Christmas memories

Every year I take a picture of the girls in Santa hats, just to see the changes that have happened each year. I have a photo frame on top of my piano with layers of Santa hat photos squished inside, the most recent always on top. I like opening it up each year and looking through the old photos as I layer on my latest photo. This is last year’s picture. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Even better, my camera battery had died, so I had to leave them tied up and taped while I drove to my mom’s house (just a few houses away) to borrow her camera.