Merry Christmas to all.

We hope that you all had a wonderful day today.  It was quite a nice day here with us.  The morning began with stockings and the girls must have been very good this year because Santa delivered – Calico critter house and a new Om Nom had Elspeth smiling while Katrine was doing a happy dance over her new bedset (complete with fluffy pillows) and Moshi Monster guide.  After a delicious breakfast it was off for presents.  Elspeth did much better this year.  She gets the whole “gifts are meant to be unwrapped and hold good stuff” this year.  Two of the girls’ favourite gifts were their new glasses with their names (a big deal because you pretty much never find stuff with either Katrine or Elspeth on it).  Glenn?  Can’t you tell that he absolutely LOVED the Santa mask that Katrine made him out of pipe cleaners? :-)   Me?  A ticket to the gala performance of the WorldFigure Skating Championships for next year!!!

Once the gifts were done, the kids were pretty wired.  Left my parents and Glenn inside to work on getting the turkey in and lunch ready and went outside to play in the snow with them.  It was awesome.  Our finished product was as cute as the fake snowman one of my gifts came in.

Of course, the day ended with LOTS of food and some games as a family.

Christmas Eve Catch-up

Just realised how far behind I was in updating so here goes:

Elspeth’s nursery school hosted a ‘Cocoa Party’ one afternoon last week.  The girls were quite happy to decorate a cookie (Katrine ate all of hers while Elspeth just picked off the candies), drink hot chocolate (Elspeth actually just poked at the floating marshmallows and giggled) and eat treats.  Me?  I was thrilled to get a photo of all of us together!

We celebrated Christmas at my brother and sister in laws two weeks ago and it was a blast -yummy food, great company, and decorated sheep.  I suppose everyone loves to be festively dressed on special occassions.

For said celebration I was asked to bring dessert.  My mom had mentioned seeing a photo of cupcakes in mason jars in a magazine.  Well , I figured that I should do something creative and designed a mental picture of a beautifully stacked red, white and green cupcake jar of yumminess.  Hmmm.  Didn’t work out quite as I had invisioned.  Funny thing is, just saw on the cover of a magazine while waiting at the check out that they had instructions for making….red, white and green cupcakes in jars!  The featured cupcakes looked just like my vision.  Sigh.

Although Katrine is taking a break from the ice, I had Elspeth out the skating trail this past week.  One time her beloved blanket sheep had to accompany us and skate.

Yesterday we went to celebrate Christmas with Glenn’s extended family.  It was fabulous.  The girls have been blessed with a great group of cousins once removed (?)/second cousins (?).  Anyways, for five hours there was laughter, play and smiles.  Plus, Glenn and I got to partake in adult conversation and get caught up.

Today we will be cleaning and doing some last minute prep before heading out to church.  Then it is set up for Santa which is a big deal for me as I know that Katrine’s days of believing in Santa are quickly ticking away so I want to treasure it while I still can.  Then tomorrow and the next day will be Christmas present chaos.  Then Thursday is the big day with the neurologist.

That pretty much brings you up to date.  Have a great Christmas if you are celebrating and if not, enjoy the little bit of snow that we actually have thus far.

No more Speech!

Elspeth is no longer involved with Speech and Language. She was discharged this morning!!! Apparently our little sweetie has gone from delayed to being normal. Yippeeee! Her favourite part of the appointment? Certainly not performing on demand for the therapist. Nope, loved the fake cupcakes and the Mr Potatoe Head.

Some Christmas fun

This is just a random post of Christmassy stuff we are doing.  I have been pretty stressed over Katrine as well as Elspeth’s upcoming speech assessment (hoping it is the last) so this post is a way of helping me to focus on some of the positives happening right now.

1. Christmas nails: Now it was suggested that I try to paint reindeer on my nails but that seems a bit out of my level of expertise.  Instead I chose to go with a candy cane focus…at least for this week.

2. Christmas Treats:  It might seem small potatoes to some but I was out at a doctor’s appointment with Katrine this week and when we stopped for a snack I was able to buy one.  A nice cup of pepperminty yogurty goodnes. Yum!  Gotta love it when companies are smart and mark gluten free on a product’s poster! 🙂

3. Cookie/House decorating:  I haven’t yet mastered gluten free sugar cookies but you can get great premade cookies and then let the kids at it.  Here are their interpretations of decorated cookies.  One done by Elspeth and the other by Katrine and a friend.  Can you guess whose is whose?

 

Katrine Concussion update

Well, turns out that the girl whose symptoms were disappearing and we thought was getting better by the day was not so much.  This past week she hit some particularly rough spots and opened up to us that she has simply been coping.  Instead of telling the teacher or us when numbers and letters are dancing she forces herself to focus.  When he head hurts at the end of the day, she yells at us or Elspeth.  When she feels dizzy skating, she shuts up.  Overwhelmed while in a group, walk away.

Why?  Because she wants to be at better and able to get back to her full skating training schedule and working on her axel or flying spin.

Needless to say, we are working through some parental guilt right now and have scaled back her activities yet again.  Plus, we have a referral in to a pediatric neurologist.  Keeping our fingers crossed that the referral comes in record time.

I will finish on a happier note with some photos of Christmas baking (gotta fill the extra free time some how).

Oh, and I love this picture that Elspeth painted.  Her Baba and a snowman.

Santa – a unique take

Last year a local big chain outdoor store had a Santa who you could go fishing with.  Elspeth would have nothing to do with it but Katrine was game.  We thought that this year, perhaps…maybe…if mommy was nearby, Elspeth might give it a go too.  Well things got changed up a little as you will see and neither girl got to fish with Santa.  However, they did get to shoot arrows, air guns, drive 4 wheelers and race cars while waiting to see the big guy.

My grandpa T would not have been very impressed with us;  duck hunter that he was.  All of the wooden ducks were laughing as we marrily missed them all.  The floor, as you can see, was pummeled into submission by streams of arrows. (No, I didn’t let Katrine go out without pants of a skirt.  We had come from skating and she refused to take off her jacket so it just looks….interesting).

He he.  The gun is camouflaged by her jacket.

Advent Begins

Yesterday marked the beginning of the count down to Christmas — Advent.  We had to light the candle in our advent wreath at breakfast because we were not going to be home for dinner.  Sitting at the table looking at the wreath it is obvious that we will need to upgrade next year.  The artificial greenery simply didn’t bounce back as in years past.  Never the less, the girls liked it.  Katrine declared it pretty while Elspeth tried to blow it out like a candle on a birthday cake.

Why weren’t we home at dinner?  Well we were busy crafting at our church for their annual advent craft night.  Basically, you get to take your kids and have them do a bunch of fully prepared Christmas crafts.  Then enjoy a potluck dinner with friends before a brief kid targeted service.  The crafts as usually were fabulous but I think that my favourite part this year was the service.  It consisted of two prayers, three carols, movement and a lit candle (which Elspeth again blew out but that said, at least she didn’t manage to burn anything).  It was the perfect mixture to hold the kids attention and it ended before they got stir crazy.

We took a roundabout route to get home so that we could soak in some of the local lights.  It is much more fun this year as Elspeth is finally tall enough to see out her window instead of simply getting mad that Katrine could see something which was hidden from her view.

I think that this was the funniest craft of the evening.  At this table the kids were suppose to make cards for shut-in seniors.  Well when there is gold paint and glitter on a table, Elspeth is your girl.  I love the upside down Noel and gloopy holly.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo once she had attacked it with the various shades of glitter glue but it was certainly a unique Christmas card.  I did tell the lady running the table that she might want to put a rider on the card stating that it had been made by a three year old.