Happy New Year Everyone

Hey kath - how did you like that post!? ;)
I'll put a real one up now with something to read.

Hello Everyone - Happy New Year.
Michael and I enjoyed our Christmas this year. I was able to get from the 21st to Jan 2nd off with pay from work which was a real treat for me! School campuses close for that week and so the UofC and SAIT just give their staff that time off as well (with pay) and you don't even have to dip into your regular vacation days. That was great..but it's been a tough week getting back into the swing of things.
Here is our Christmas holiday in a nutshell:

December 20: Michael and I made our way to Wetaskiwin to watch Tyler's first Christmas concert. He was great - and hilarious. He was very at home up on stage...hmmm wonder where he gets that from :) At the end of his piece, he even blew mom and Kelly a kiss and bowed while people were clapping. What a hambone!

December 21: Michael and I along with Kale and Sherry (our Mattress Gallery partners) went to the Keg to celebrate our Mattress Gallery Christmas. Kale surprised Michael by giving him and XBox 360 (Michael really wanted one but they were pretty pricey). We all enjoyed a nice steak dinner and then headed over to catch a movie together.

December 23: Michael and I went to my cousin Joel's house for a poker/Christmas party. It was "interesting" to say the least and we slept over at his house. Joel is a great guy, but he also invited a bunch of his snowboarding buddies...who I don't think I would choose to chum with if I had the choice. It was a great poker game though (I almost won and I was the only girl!!!)

December 24: We celebrated Christmas with Mom, Kelly and the boys on December 24 this year. We went to church with them in the morning and then headed back to Wetaskiwin to eat brunch and open some presents. It was kind of a rushed day - more rushed than I would have liked, but it was great to spend time with them all. Tyler accidentally opened his "big" present from mom and Kelly - so he got his play laptop (he's been asking me to win him one since I won mine!) a day early. He loved the wetsuit we bought him...though it's a bit small but I can exchange it. We gave the twins some shoes since they are starting to walk and some cool sweaters too. Mom and Kelly gave us a REALLY nice camera. We are SO excited about this because we wanted to buy one before we went on our holiday and also to record special moments...like Christmas. The Smallwood family came over in the evening and we all went out Christmas caroling with them, along with Sandra, Yoshia Kim and their 2 daughters. It was a great time. Afterwards, we all went back to mom and Kelly's for some hot cocoa and Christmas baked goodies. Yay - one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

December 25: Happy Birthday Jesus!
I set the alarm on my cell phone for 6:30am and got up - and went upstairs and woke up Tyler, Joshua and Luke. They were all sleeping...and it actually took a bit to get Tyler out of bed...lol but once he was up - he was excited. I carried them all downstairs and we woke up mom and dad...then Mike (that took a while too...Michael is not a morning person) I wanted to wake them all up a bit earlier because we were going to the Hutchy's for 9am and I wanted to see them open some presents. We all went upstairs and watched the boys open some of their presents before we loaded up and drove to the farm.
At the Hutchy's we all got together and opened stockings...took a break for breakfast and then went back to opening presents, giving them one at a time. There were some great gifts (see Karyn's blog to hear more about the gifts). Michael and I were pretty excited this year for Christmas because we were financially able to get people what we wanted to (within reason) and it wouldn't break the bank. I was especially excited to give Rob a dvd that I (we...Michael helped too) had been looking for to give him since last year when they were in the playoffs. It was awesome to finally find a copy (it's pretty old and it took almost 3 months to find) and so I was really happy to see that Rob liked it AND had never seen it (it was about the Oilers around 87ish..when Gretzsky, Messier, and a bunch of the all stars were still here)
We were also pretty pumped to give Andrew his cool hats that we had found him. It was one of those presents that you buy way ahead of time because you saw it (them both) and immediately thought of Andrew....a cool superman hat and a Corona hat with a bottle opener in the brim.
The day was fun - but unfortunately for me - my stomach does not like the smell of Lutefisk and decided not to keep supper in my belly. (But in a positive note - I didn't gain any weight from Christmas evening supper!) So I spent most of the evening on the couch...but Michael had fun playing Risk with Rob and Danny and just hanging out. It was a great time.

December 26-27: Michael went back to work on Boxing day - it's a very busy time of the year for Mattress Gallery. I stayed in Wetaskiwin and visited with mom and Kelly and the boys. On the 27th, I went to work with Kelly to help him clean one of the schools in Wetaskiwin. We also finally got the neon into the mechanic to get it looked at - prognosis: the car's not worth fixing (not a surprise) so drive it until it dies. Good thing we have another one too.

December 28-29: Michael decided on the 26th to start working on our bar in the downstairs living room. This turned out to be a bit of a project and so Michael (after work) worked on rebuilding the bar. I stained it and so now our bar is an espresso brown...looks good - not quite done yet - but it'll be nice once complete. I spent these days doing some cleaning around the house and just enjoying not having to be at work. Rob and Lana and the girls came to visit on the 28th and stayed overnight. It was so much fun to have them around to hang out with. We were all pretty tired from the Christmas rushes, so we rented some movies and just enjoyed spending some time together watching movies and visiting. Thanks for coming guys - it was such a highlight of my Christmas holiday - Michael wishes he could have hung out more - let's do it another time too.

December 30-Jan1: Dad, Rena, Katie, Matt and Jenny (the dog) came to visit our house to celebrate Christmas and New Years with us. Michael was able to get the 31st and Jan 1st off so it was the first time in a long time that he was able to be around and visit with them as well. We did our "Christmas" with them on the 30th - and got lots of cool souveniers from Disneyworld (they were there for the first two weeks of December) We also got a really cool dvd/boardgame called Seen It. Can't wait to play it with people - it's fun. My fav gift to that fam was a slingshot to Matt...maybe not dad and Rena's fav - but he'll have fun with it. There's LOTS of rules to go with it though...lol and Michael told Matt about what he did with his first slingshot...(Mom, do you remember the story? Maybe that would be a good post for you!)
On the 31st, we went over to the outdoor rink by our house and went skating. Some of the guys from the neighbourhood started a pick up game of hockey on the boarded rink - so Mike and Matt played that. Matt was so excited to play hockey with his big brother...it was a cool experience for them both (brought back a bit of a hockey spark for Mike from days past)
New Years' Eve we spent the evening eating fondue, playing lots of games and trying not to go crazy with two (well Matt more than Katie) energetic, sugar-highed kids waiting for midnight.
Once it clock struck 12 it was good-night everyone.
New Years' day, we all got up and had a late breakfast. Dad helped us re-caulk parts around our upstairs tub and gave us some ideas for the downstairs bathroom. They packed up and left around noon. Michael and I spent the rest of the day napping on and off and just enjoying hanging out together. We also went skating for a bit - I love skating.

That was our Christmas holiday - but it doesn't capture all the love, warm cozies and little moments that we enjoyed over the holiday. God has truly blessed us and we are grateful for all that we have. Love you all!

ps. We didn't get a memory card for our camera until just before New Years, so I'll post some pics from that once I figure the software out. I'll also see if I can get some pics from our Christmas with Mom, Kelly and the boys to post....might be a little while - as they are pretty busy with little people and don't get much time on the computer.

Just for Kath

Here is a new post just for Kath....there you go Kath...