The events leading up to Christmas eve!

Time flies when you're having fun! And it's been awhile since I've worked on the blog....I know, I'm lagging behind. So much has happened since the last update! School is over (well almost back on again now!), Steve went to Australia, we've had Christmas and New year's celebrations and of course, lots of other happenings in between.

With Christmas approaching, the lounge took on a festive look! 

So cozy with the fire on, candles and fairy lights!

Cassie came over for a day and they did a big floor puzzle and were looking for all the objects around the edge and finding them somewhere in the puzzle. These two have so much fun together!

And finally Anthea's two friends Marlies and Natalie arrived!

And along with them came a whole lot of goodies! So exciting!

When Mum visited in July, she made myself and two little girls trace out our foot size on paper. The result were these beautiful warm slippers just in time for winter! Thanks mum, they are warm, snug and cozy!

On the last day of term, the high school students went iceskating and the elementary students went roller/inline skating. Shantel knew how to skate and had a wonderful time! She just flew around that  rink!

On Saturday, Steve took some of the girls up Mt Baker. Natalie stayed behind and helped the girls cut out cookie shapes.

And here are the girls on the mountain!

Of course a snowman was a must!

So the house is filled with girls. Here they are planning or at least trying to!

 So now that the cookies were baked, it was time to decorate them. The girls thought this was so much fun, especially licking the icing!

Not sure, but looks like icing got on her face too!

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Jaclyn and Aliesha had a go at decorating too!

Their results were amazing!

We have two weird cooks but they did a great job cooking up a storm, oops I mean a meal for us.

Aliesha cutting up the fixings for a salad.

Jaclyn working on chicken cordon bleu.

And Elyssa was the supervisor/quality control manager!

The table was beautifully decorated!

And we had a crowd for dinner!

And a chocolate mousse pudding for dessert to finish it off! It was delicious girls! Great job!

The meal was a sort of farewell meal because the next morning Steve left for Australia. He had an opportunity to visit his parents who are getting older and was looking forward to spending some time with them. More photos of his visit there to come. Here he is at the airport ready to go through to the departure lounge.

Another project for the holidays was make/decorate gingerbread houses. One house and the train were shop bought and the other two houses were made with graham crackers and hot glue!

And the finished products!

That will be it for this post. The next update will be Christmas and the days following.

Thanks for looking!

Thanksgiving, a snow teaser, Lynden Lighted Parade and a bit more!

Well, it's been awhile! Lots has happened since the last post, so let's recap!

After our anniversary, the kids had Book Character day and had to dress-up as their favorite book character. For Shantel, that wasn't hard. Since she loves fancy and all things la-dee-dah, she was...... Fancy Nancy! And well, Steve was easy. Fancy Nancy's dad!

Anthea's school in Yarrow had the exact same event on the same day, so can you guess who she is?

Yep.... Pippy Longstockings!

They had a fun day, and had hot lunch as well. About once a month, the kids get a hot lunch. They get either chicken burgers, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, grilled cheese along with a drink. In the in-between weeks, kids also get pizza for lunch. The kids love it and so do I!

The next day was Thanksgiving (Thursday). We could reflect on the many things we could be thankful for in the past year. We had a church service in the morning and later in the afternoon headed to DeMooy's for dinner. It was a very enjoyable afternoon/evening and lots of food! It was late by the time we got home, and we only live around the corner!

After dinner, the kids watched a movie and we enjoyed dessert in peace!

And of course, the pavlova!

The forecast for that weekend was very cold i.e. -9 celcius at night. During the day we were having wind chills of around -22 degrees. Freezing!

The tops of the mountain were getting icing sugar dusting (snow!)

On Friday afternoon we headed off to the warm pools in Abbotsford with the Kleyn family. Everyone loved the water and it was with regret that we had to leave! When we got outside, it was flurrying and  very cold!

When we got home and after dinner, it started snowing in earnest. The kids were very excited. But alas, after an hour or so, it got too cold and snow stopped. Hopefully we get more in the coming weeks!

On Monday Jaclyn's friend Aliesha arrived for her two month stay here in the States! Let's just say we have two very happy girls!

And on Tuesday, after passing all the loops and regulations, I had to go to Everett (1.5hrs drive one way) and finally got my Washington drivers license! Yay! Very happy! 

Saturday night was the Lighted Parade in Lynden, so we headed downtown and met up with the Klos'. Here are the girls with Vincent.

Compared to last year (our first year which was freezing cold and we didn't last longer than 15 minutes), it was a beautiful evening. The rain held off and there was no wind and it wasn't too cold either. The parade was well done, with all the vehicles lit up with little lights. After the parade, we headed to Klos' for a hot chocolate to warm us up. We had a great evening.
(But guys, you'll need to do something about that egg nog recipe!).

Anthea and Shantel decided to dress up our lounge window with paper snow flakes. Didn't they do a great job?

On Friday night we went to see the Messiah sung right here in Lynden! Always very moving and it was beautiful to listen too! 

On Tuesday we had our Christmas Ladies Bible Study Social. Lots of good food and the gift exchange game is always fun!

Basketball season has begun. Both Jaclyn and Stefan are looking forward to some exciting games!

And as we head into winter, the Canadian geese are on the move and heading south. Here they are honking their horns!

We've had some rain, some (very strong) winds and the outlook is some sunny weather at least till Tuesday!

Only one more week to Christmas break! Next Friday is the last day of school and the high-schoolers get to go ice skating and the elementary kids roller skating!

And more week for Anthea's friends to arrive! We will have one busy and noisy household! Fun times!

Well that's the recap. Thanks for looking!

We hope this finds you in good health.

Till next time.