So, I was happy to take the kids to the Living Nativity show in Uxbridge. It was an outdoor display, with people in costume, live animals and music to show the story of the birth of Christ. It was a bit cold, but that helped to make it feel like December as we have been having unseasonably warm temperatures. Sometimes in the double digits!
Shaye came for a nice visit to celebrate Christmas with us. Amongst other things, the highlight was making apple cinnamon tree ornaments.
By December 23, just about three weeks after the last tenant left Rands, we did a few reno's and now, it is rented again! The house looks great! It certainly needed a refresher and I am happy with how it turned out.
Star Wars... For the few weeks before the new movie came out, The Force Awakens, we spent much of our free time introducing the kids to the old Star Wars movies.
Brian had done a lot of reading about which order to do this, and after much conversation, we decided to try Machete order. 4,5,2,3,6.
The basic idea is to show the introduction of the characters in movie 4/5, then flash back to 2/3 (skipping movie one, since it is mostly self contained) and then move forward to movie 6. Followed by the new movie 7.
For the most part I would advise this. However, there were just a few small things in one that I now want to show the kids from movie one.
So, the next time we will do movies 4,5,1,2,3,6,7.
Brian and I have now seen movie 7 and were happy with how it was made.
Easton is eager to see the new movie and Hadley... a little.
Christmas Eve was fairly organized with just the right amount of last minute chaos..
Some shopping, wrapping, and we ended the night with stitching something onto our stockings and lots of music and cookies with some left out for Santa along side the carrots and milk.
Christmas day was wonderful.
We woke up at a decent hour, around 8am, opened our stockings, had a lovely bacon and egg breakfast, opened gifts, had lots of family time, and then had a turkey dinner followed by a drive to south Pickering to see the Christmas lights.
On the 26th we had Christmas with Brian's mom and sister Julie in Listowel (more turkey and Brian's mom's amazing stuffing)! We played Brian's new game, Ticket to Ride, well into the wee hours of the morning!
We took advantage of the time difference and facetimed his sister Lisa as she is on the west coast. :)
December 27th was a bit crazy, but it all worked out.
We went to my dad's Christmas for 11 am, and we were going to stay until about 4pm and then head to the Verkley Christmas which was also in Listowel, but my sister had van troubles, so we visited with my dad until 2, headed to the Verkley Christmas from 2-6, then back to my dads when my sister was able to get to Listowel and we celebrated until about 9... when all the kids were tired.
On the 28th we headed to Kitchener to do Christmas with Brian's dad. Another lovely day, with lots of food!
December 29th, we were at home, and I had a bunch of things to do to get our house ready for New Years, so we invited Matthew from next door to come over and the kids played while I started with the very long house work list.
On the 31st, there were just a few things left to clean, so I got the family to help out, and then I braved the grocery store... you should not do this on the 31st! However, I got back mid afternoon, and we were ready for our evening of fun.
This year we had Shawn, Delena, their kids Todd, and Julia, as well as Shawn K.
We did an early kids Netflix countdown around 9pm, with a balloon drop from our upstairs and the kids were so happy! They loved it!
Then after about an hour or maybe a little more of settling them down, they were all in bed.
This is when Shawn K's famous 7 layer dip came out to accompany our gaming which went until 2:30am or so!
A good time had by all!
Happy New year!