christmas eve traditions

Every year on Christmas Eve, the girls are allowed to open 1 present. Abigail has figured out that this present is always pjs....I think I was much older than 6 before I figured that out! So Christmas Eve, we headed downstairs to sit in front of the tree and watched the girls open their new Christmas pajamas...





They actually posed very nicely for me in front of the tree this year....they are usually too wired to agree to this...



Then the cookies get put out for Santa....always home made Belgian cookie!



And this year we added reading "The Night Before Christmas" together...



We also sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn to help guide the reindeer to our house, and put a special Santa key on the front door. (we don't have a fireplace)
Then it was off to bed to try to sleep while they waited to hear sleigh bells in the middle of the night...which we did hear!!!!

merry christmas!

the olympic spirit

On December 21st the Olympic torch came through Caledonia. We got into the spirit of the event and headed down to watch it go by!




Runners for other legs of the run in the buses driving by were shouting out the windows at Pierre about loving his face!!!






And then the torch came by and a guy stepped right in front of me as I tried to take some pictures! But I got this one!


GO TEAM CANADA!!!!!!

a new game for family game night

One of the envelopes the girls opened for the 25 Days of Christmas said they could open a present under the tree! This was last week sometime, so Christmas morning was still forever away for them....they were beyond excited about it!! Of course the stipulation on the gift was that Pierre and I got to pick which gift they could open. We chose the game Jenga! What a hit! We are always in the market for a good game for family game nights. These pictures are from another night when Pierre and Emma played together and managed to get the tower up to about 36 layers! And look closely in the first picture at the very bottom layer.....the whole tower is teetering on just one block!

let it snow!!!

Our 25 days of Christmas seems to have taken on a snowman theme...maybe because it hasn't snowed here yet...at least no snow has accumulated, and this is just our way of making snowmen!
(The last post about the 25 Days I said I was at a loss for what to do on Day 12, and that I only had about an hour between getting home and the girls' bedtime...well, we decided to make treats for our animal friends! Dog treats! The intention was to make a whole bunch so we could have cute gifts to give our friends and family who have dogs...but we have been giving so many of them to our dogs-lucky bums!-that we are going to have to make more!)
Day 13, we were going to run into the same time problem at night, SO....we did our activity in the morning instead!







And what snowman pancake breakfast would be complete without hot chocolate and marshmallows?

i ♥ faces - "pets only"

Over at I ♥ Faces, the theme this week is Pets.
This is my sweet puggle Max the first week we had him.



I love this shot because he has his paw 'backwards' under his head, and I thought it was quite a strange position, at the time I was so happy I captured such a cute picture! Max is now 1 1/2 years old and he STILL sleeps like this! He's such a goof!
Check out the other pictures at

pizza anyone?

I have fallen a bit behind with posting the 25 Days of Christmas activities...I left off at going to Dundurn Castle last weekend. This week, Pierre has been on Night Shift, so we have had a combination of calm, easy activities and a couple of pretty cool ones.
Day 7 - The girls and I read 3 more chapters of Holly Joliday...almost done!
Day 8 - This was a cool one. We made our own pizzas tonight...but we added a twist, we made them in the shape of a snowman!





They were yummy!

Day 9 - Pierre was on Nights again, so we had a really girly night..we did a Christmas manicure and pedicure! I got red and green nail polish and some cute little gems to glue to the girls nails and we spent the evening painting toes and fingers. (I don't have pictures of everything, because I am actually leaving the camera alone every once in a while and just enjoying the time I am spending with the girls)
Day 10 - We finished the book! It was very cute!
Day 11 - The girls and I watched Home Alone (because it's set at Christmas time) snuggled up together on the couch while we ate candy cane ice cream!
We are now at the half way point...but tonight I have exactly 1 1/2hours between getting home from work and the girls bedtime...so I am at a bit of a loss for what to do tonight...at least I have all day to think about it!

mmmmmm..........

Christmas baking treats!


How cute is that?
Super cute! Who wouldn't want to make these?

Another fav around this house at Christmas time is these:



The Empire/Belgian cookies are a favourite around here! I am the only one in the family that makes them (actually I am the only one who makes them at all that I know!.....mostly because I refuse to share my recipe!)
My Great Gramma used to make these for my dad....now I am the only one who makes these for everyone in the family!!!!! I used to make them only for my dad, but then everyone who tried them, wanted some for themselves! I have now made 4 dozen this year and they are all gone already! I need to make more!!!! They are my favourite gift for people! (can you believe my husband didn't want to even try these, because they had jam in them????? They are now his FAVOURITE cookie!!!!

dundurn castle

The 25 Days of Christmas continued...
This weekend we took the kids ice skating on Saturday, which was great for the kids, but not so nice for my feet! OUCH!
On Sunday we went on a tour of Dundurn Castle. All decorated for a Victorian Christmas circa 1855. It was beautiful! I am amazed at how many details the girls remembered from our tour.



You can see the girls teeny tiny at the base of the columns at the front doors of Dundurn. We will definitely be going back again!

i ♥ faces - "sweet dreams"

May I present my beautiful nephew Jack.....



I ♥ Faces theme this week in Sweet Dreams...I bet a lot of the photos will be of babies this week. They ARE a little easier to catch sleeping. Check out the other entries at

gingerbread men

Our 25 Days of Christmas is underway!
Day 1- The girls got new pjs and we started reading Judy Moody Holly Joliday.
Day 2- We watched the Polar Express with egg nog and candy canes.
Day 3- We read 2 more chapters of Holly Joliday.
Day 4- We made gingerbread man cookies....



The girls had a lot of fun with that activity!



Notice the green and red nail polish?


Now we get to eat them!

the santa claus parade

All bundled up waiting for the parade to start last weekend!





Here comes Santa Claus!

another count down

The girls got the typical Advent Calendar with the chocolates, and we are doing the 25 Days of Christmas as a count down...but last year I found and painted the cutest count down ever!



We put 2 candies inside each little door. So now the girls get the chocolate one in the morning with breakfast, and the candy from the snowman in the evening. Lucky girls!

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas!

I came across the BEST idea ever from a friend's blog...
The 25 Days of Christmas...sort of an advent of activities for the month of December. The whole point is to spend a lot of family time together. I love it!
I am only doing the 24 days of Christmas...we are going to stop the countdown on the 24th....I figure they are going to have tons of extra special things on Christmas Day!





We opened the first envelope tonight, "Put your pjs on and come back out to the living room to read the first chapter of Holly Joliday"...(a Judy Moody chapter book that we will read a chapter at a time throughout the month) At first the girls weren't sure why this was special, but I think I built the activities up too much....once they got their new p.j.s that were laid out on their beds to kick start the month, and had the first chapter read to them, they really liked the extra attention....

Some of the other activities the girls will have to look forward to are:
-make a Christmas tree ornament
-eat dessert before dinner
-tour Dundurn Castle
-drive around to look at the Christmas light....don't forget to take along hot chocolate!
-go to the Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls
-make peanut butter and bird seed covered pine cones for the birds
-play a board game in front of the Christmas tree
-make gingerbread cookies
And if the weather actually gives us Winter at some point this month, we will also go ice skating and tobogganing at night and make a snowman together.
I am REALLY looking forward to all the fun we are going to have!
I wonder what we will do tonight?