Christmas Recap Part 1

Well, it looks like we are back! Real life resumes today.  We all had two full weeks of holiday (with just a few work obligations) and so we'll see if I remember how to do my job today,  haha.  I'll do two recaps of our holidays, we had some fun, but got some relaxing in too.

Friday the 20th of December was the last day of school and Q was happy about wearing his pyjamas.

That night Q had baseball training and then the parents and kids were meeting at a local restaurant.  E and I took and Uber down to meet them. 

On Saturday morning I took the boys out bright and early (and in the cold!) for a little Christmas shopping on Roncesvalles.  We went to a few nice places including an Italian bakery, I pointed out some nice treats that I thought they would want, but Q said "No, I think I just want Tim Hortons"!

Dave's parents arrived that night and we walked up to the Momo (Tibetan dumplings) restaurant for dinner.

And we had a few cocktails when we got home.

I went to church on Sunday morning for the 4th Sunday of Advent, but it was really cold so I said the boys could stay home. (Dave's sister had also arrived in the middle of the night.) That afternoon we played some Switch games.

The presents under the tree were starting to build up!

Grinch Bingo

So excited for Christmas. 

A little egg nog by the tree to finish off the night.

Dave and I were up bright and early on Monday morning to go out and get the lobster and the turkey.   And it was snowing!! Dreaming of a a possible White Christmas!

Q and I had made another batch of sugar cookies so on Monday it was time to decorate them. 

Cookies tidied up and then it was time for lobster!  This is our family tradition to have lobster at Christmas, although some think the lobster tastes better in the spring.  They were really full but the flavour was mild. 

Q is not sure!

While we were getting the lobsters going, we got a lovely flower delivery from my dad and his wife.

What a treat!

Q got his own lobster and did really well getting into the claws, with just a bit of help. He left his tail behind which meant I got a lobster sandwich the next day, mmmm!!

E is a pro now, he's been doing his own lobster for years.

It was also Festivus so E took the tinsel tree decorations down and left the metal pole.

And remember that snow, look at how much we ended up with! Enough for a front yard snowman.

And some nighttime sledding and snowball fights.

Harry Potter in the backyard found the snow tricky to stand up in.

Christmas Eve and Dave and I were both up early for a workout.

We went for a walk over at the golf club and took the sleds along. 

Christmas Eve Service. We attended the early family service at 4:00.

And then one of my favourite things about Christmas - coming home after church for a spread of yummy food and games.

Oysters!

We did some minute to win it style games.

The goggles were stuffed with a buff as our blindfold.

Ready for Santa!

With our houseguests, the boys were sharing a room for the week.  This is Q's room and we had another bed for E, but for some reason they switched on Christmas Eve.  They were awake before us but had stayed in their rooms with plans to come and get us by 8:00 to go downstairs on Christmas morning.  They were reading! Aren't they so cute?

They continued to patiently wait to open gifts while everyone else got out of bed.

And then it was time! Stockings first.

A PS5!!

After stockings and Santa gifts, it was time for first breakfast.  Just some fruit, croissants, and bubbly.

Cheers!

Back to the living room for gifts.

Q was digging around trying to find them all.

Lucky kid, new electric guitar!

The rest of the day was spent watching football, movies, loading up the PS5 games, and preparing the turkey dinner.  Our bird looked pretty good when it was all done!

Help yourselves.

Our dessert - Black Forest trifle. I don't have a trifle bowl so I just made individual ones in wine glasses.  They turned out well, but made me crave an actual Black Forest cake.

We finished up our night with a game of Catan (new gift), and then a show.