2013 in pictures ~ december

presents
christmas cracker queen
santa visit
magna-tiles
cozy sisters
forever lilah day portrait
lego lover
toboggan hill pile-up

tobogganing!

My girls love tobogganing! Especially Lilah... as soon as the words 'snow hill' or 'toboggan' are uttered, Lilah will start jumping up and down and squealing with excitement. She certainly doesn't take after me, because to be perfectly honest, when I'm standing at the top of that hill I get some minor heart palpitations. The height, speed and out-of-control feeling is not my thing - you can tell I'm a total adrenaline junkie, can't you?! Ha!

Just as well Baba likes a bit of an adrenaline rush!

boxing day

Just in case I forget the date, Lilah is always around to remind me!
I found this sitting on my laptop this morning.

christmas day

It was exactly the day I always dream Christmas to be.
Lots of delicious food, two deliriously happy children, relaxing, cozy...
I could go on.

For dinner I made... ham, turkey, walnut/apple/celery/olive bread stuffing, roasted brussel sprouts,
turnip & carrot mash, maple syrup roast parsnips, garlic mash potato and roast potatoes. Yum!

If it wasn't so much work, I'd make the same again tomorrow!

the night before christmas

There are two very excited girls in our house tonight!
I mean, REALLY excited!

And I love that I get to read them one of my very own childhood books on Christmas Eve.

loving lego city

Lilah's latest love is LEGO city.

The best part, is she can follow all the diagrams in the book and build them herself!
I love her focus, her patience and how proud she is of her accomplishment.

As I was getting supper ready last evening, she had changed into her pajamas and was building the firetruck.

[ the flickr set is here ]

annual santa visit

Look what we did today! Now to peel my girls off the ceiling!

Yes, they were THAT excited! Funny, because I've chosen to be 'that' parent and I've told both of my girls the truth about Santa. That was really hard for me, but I have my reasons. I've always wanted honesty with my girls, mainly because of their story, adoption and all the questions that already have and will continue to surface about their birth, birthparents, etc. I also want them to know that the (real) story of Christmas is true, that our Lord Jesus' birth, death and resurrection really did happen, it's not a fairy tale and it's not pretend... I never want them to question that.

And even though they know Santa is 'pretend', there is still a huge part of Santa that my girls find magical. I like that.

blizzard bizarre

Lilah's school had a 'Blizzard Bizarre' last night.

She's been telling me about these special gift tags she's been making for the bizarre for a while now. So tonight, you know, the minute the doors opened, we were in there searching for the stall that was selling my Lilah girls gift tags. Seems like I wasn't the only parent worried about getting her daughters gift tags before someone else bought them! *grin*

They are worth way more to me than the $2 I paid for them.

five years ago today...

Five years to the day, since I became a Mama and held my lovely Lilah Grace for the first time.
My love for her can't be expressed with words.
How blessed I am to call her my daughter.

it's beginning to look...

...a lot like Christmas!

love notes & cards

One of the many rewards of being a Mama.
Love notes and cards from my lovely Lilah.

[ I got these two today ]

christmas cards

Finally finished... 89 cards!
There was a lot of tea consumed.
They are now in the mail.
Phew!

wheelers pancake house

What a great way to spend a snowy Saturday!
Our girls were thrilled to hear we were heading to the Maberly Conference, yesterday, not to mention it's held in a pancake house.
The pancakes and sausages are THEE best! And the setting is picturesque.