A Big Dose of Family and Friends - at Christmas!

This post could not be more untimely.

I know!  

(I am finally hitting publish on February 26th!)

So seriously, this will be quick and simple.  The days of Christmas are long gone and my memory of all  the small details of our fantastic time home with our families have all slowly faded.  

So here is our Christmas in a nutshell...and mostly (unedited) photos.  

We arrived in Toronto, fresh off the airplane from Mexico, tanned and unfortunately fearing that we had packed the bed bugs that we had been exposed to in our hotel room.  Ya, that was the only downside of our Mexican holiday - we had beg bugs.  The girls and I were spotted, my bites were bad an caused an itchy and pussy reaction.  But fortunately early on in our trip we figured out that they were not mosquito bites or sand flies and so we got rid of our mattresses' and assumed that we were done with them.  (Our research into it was a tad limited).  Sadly, we were informed that they just may be travelling back to Canada in our belongings.  Totally sucked.  After freaking out and panicking, thinking that I had ruined Christmas, we spent the first two days doing laundry in extra hot water and high heat and going through everything we owned with a shop-vac to make sure we were in the clear.   We were good.  The whole experience sucked though.  

Fortunately Kevin had brought home a few bottles of tequila to get him through it all.  

Family Christmas party #1........

I loved getting the girls all dressed up!
They are the youngest on Kevin's side of the family so they get lots of attention and snuggles!

Can you blame them?

My sister has is the coolest sister ever!  She loves kids, she has three herself, and she has never objected to having my two around when we are home.   Because there was mass hysteria for me when we arrived home, I needed some time to do shopping - alone - so my girls hung out with their most favourite cousins quite a bit!  

Kinglsey!  

Kinger and the girls.....

Karis trying to be cool like her lil' cuz Kingsley.

There was a spontaneous "Jillian Michaels" work out led by Kamille.

just call her jillian!  

Love these kids!

Kingsley is one of a very few number of children that have a Bumbo Wheelchair.  He actually had just received his very first big boy chair but it was easier to wheel around the girls in this one!

Baking with Nana.
(Yikes, no edit on these...yuk)

Christmas Eve dinner at Nana and Grandpas

Tracking Santa's progress as he makes his way towards Ontario!  ; )  So exciting!  

The farting girls.  Whoever taught them this, I do not know, but seriously they all thought it was the funniest thing ever!  

My Dad's ridiculously perfect Christmas tree.
Yes, he is very particular!  I just might have some of this trait in my DNA. ; )

And of course we attempted an "all cousins" shot as we usually do......

i call this one, "the good catholic girls" guess who!

My mom and Kamille wrote a letter to Santa Claus and left some treats by the fire place before tucking the girls in for the big night!  

Santa Claus came to my sisters house.  It was so fun to arrive and see all the presents!  The kids were loopy with excitement!  We had to follow strict wrapping procedures as dictated by Jill.  A certain wrapping paper, a certain type of gift tag and definitely a red pen to mark FROM SANTA for all the gifts that were "from Santa."   She was thinking that Rachel would be suspicious otherwise.

As a precaution when we arrived from Mexico we chose to toss Karis' baby that had stayed tucked in our "bed bug bed."  Luckily Santa knew just the thing to bring for her.

this baby cries very briefly when you take the bottle out of its mouth.  so cute.  she loved being the little mommy! even cuter is that kevin picked this baby out for his baby!  xo

Jill's kiddos got an ipod from Santa.

However, this didn't go over so well for Kamille because she had an iPhone on her Christmas list and we had already talked about the fact that Santa does not bring iPhones to little girls.  But, iPod, iPhone there is no different to Kamille, she was distraught.

Kingsley showed off some moves in his stander on wheels.
Poor guy is the only boy in the family.....Oh is he in for years of girly girl drama, eh?!  ; )

Our Christmas day started with a trip over to Jill's home, then we relaxed at Mom and Dad's and then we ended our day with Kevin's mom and step-dad.  Always a whirlwind, but always great to get a good dose of family.

This little coat that Karis is wearing used to belong to my Mom.  It was hers when she was teeny tiny.  It was so cute on Karis.

On a much needed gorgeous sunny day, we met up with Kevin's two best friends.   Cal owns a gorgeous property and it was the best place to spend time outside.   

I was really anticipating a white Christmas in Ontario, however for some reason I haven't had much luck with that in the past couple Christmas' that we have gone home.  Never much snow!  

 

YAAAAYYYY!!!  Another family photo!  

 

The air was crisp and the sun was warm.  It was such a great walk.  

Kamille was happy snapping photos with her new camera.  

Our morning walk ended with hot chocolate, followed by delicious home-made chicken noodle soup and the sharing of a bottle of wine with old friends!  

The Christmas Project :  an idea that my sister presented to my mom and I, and one that my mom went all out for.  She wanted to create a photo of them that captured this one and only time that she would have grandchildren who were 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old.  

Since I struggle with indoor photography I would not settle for them just sitting a couch together in a poorly lit room, I decided to create some sort of BRIGHTER space by getting my sister and her husband to hold up a table cloth behind the kids and they sat on the kitchen table.  

 

And like any attempt at getting these kids to all look at me and smile at the same time, it was more humorous than anything else.  

 

And just like that....it was done. 

Later that day we celebrated Kingsley and Kamille's birthdays, which were not for another couple weeks at that time, but since we were all together, we had a party!  ; )  

Happy 2nd Birthday Kingsley!  Happy 5th Birthday Kamille!

Cupcake Girls!

Kamille and Karis had such a great time annoying Grandpa Stu's cat when we went to visit him.  Poor Kevin is allergic to cats and there are two in his dad's house.  He was itchy, scratchy and watery the whole time we were there.  We learned that Karis is certainly a cat lover!  

Before leaving London we had had plenty of top up visits with friends and Christmas festivities with family.   Some other things we enjoyed were seeing Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe Christmas show with my parent, my sister and Jeff.  Before moving out west Kevin and I had gone to see Stuart McLean a couple of times and knew that it was always a good time and a treat.  It was just what we needed to get into the Christmas spirit soon after we had arrived in Ontario.  


My mom had treated Kamille and I to tickets to see Cinderella at the Grand Theatre.  It was a birthday gift to us both.  I invited Kevin's mom along with us for our big date.  It was awesome to introduce Kamille to her first live play.  She was in awe and totally excited about the whole experience!  


Most of our time was consumed with Christmas preparation or family dinners but I had the chance to spend time with my good friend Erin and her kiddos.  Her two girls were home with her when we dropped in and together with my girls they all had a great time and allowed Erin and I lots of time to catch up over coffee.  Such a great way to spend a morning.  Thanks Erin!  

Since we were flying out of Toronto, we left London a day sooner so that we could fit in a visit with my childhood best friend Erin and her family.  (My friend since I was 4 years old!  Hard to believe that at Kamille's age I already had my best friend...and still do 32 years later!)   

I love how our 5 year olds are like little besties even though they rarely see each other, just like their mothers!

Ian and Alexa are just so stinkin' cute.  

After having a great dinner and night of chatting, we had planned a fun morning with the kiddos at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).
Because Erin and her husband Cameron live in a great spot in Toronto we were able to walk there.

It was great to hit the streets and take a walk in the big city!

There was a great kids show put on by the ROM Earth Rangers.  After a short wait in line....

...we all took seats for the Earth Rangers' Bring Back the Wild show.  We had birds from different parts of the the world flying above our heads and other animals on stage that have been affected by human impact on animal habitat.

Kamille and Ian were right in there at the end of the show.  They had lots of curiosity and asked lots of questions.
Snack time...

Visiting some old Dinos....

And exploring in the kids area.....
Karis looks so much like mini-Kev in this photo.....Her expression makes me smile every time I look at her.

It was a great way to spend the morning with our good friends!

After a quick lunch at McDonalds, we were on our way to the airport for our 6pm flight back home.
Once we got to the airport, I was really looking forward to getting home.
Getting back to the same ol', same ol' I suppose.  
We had one day to spare before the beginning of 2012 was upon us!

What a fantastic holiday we had!
(and am I ever glad to have finally finished this post!)