Christmas Recap Part 2

We all made sure to get out of the house on Boxing Day.  We went down to The Well first.

We all grabbed some lunch from the food market.  Dave and I shared a sandwich from La Cubana.

The boys had coloured samosas.

Then we walked up to Graffiti Alley.  We have been here a few times this year but Dave's sister wanted to see it, and there is always something new to see.

We circled back to The Well and took a detour by the Stackt Market.  As usual I was underwhelmed by their offerings, I really don't think we need to bother going there again.

A few photo ops!

Our snowman was sticking around, but was on the lean.

Another outing the next day. This time to see Wicked. I thought it was great, having never seen the musical or having any idea of what happens.  Ariana killed it! The boys were less than impressed but did well to sit through the movie.

We rebuilt the snowman's face when we got back as his nose had fallen down.

I also had this to deal with.  I got Dave a new Apple watch for Christmas and when he opened the box, the actual watch was missing!! Have you ever heard of this happening?  Somewhere along the line of it being packed up and delivered to us, someone had slipped into the box to remove the watch.  Apple and UPS were quick to deal with it and Dave got a new watch delivered within days.

That night we went out for dinner at Mamakas Taverna on Ossington, a Greek restaurant.  We had such a delicious meal.  Q loved the fresh pita.  We sat right next to the kitchen so that kept us all entertained as well. 

A few games when we got home.

The next day Dave's parents and sister took Q while they did some errands, including returning a game at Mastermind, and Dave, E and I went to pick out new glasses for Dave.

And picked up a few things, it was a warm sunny day.

Dave's sister brough Beaujolais Nouveau all the way from British Columbia, the only province in Canada that still imports it.  Enjoying it in my new wine glasses.

That night Dave and I left the rest of the family to go to the Maple Leafs game. 

We stopped in first at Aloette Bay for a bite to eat.

We had excellent seats.  

I ran down to get my photo "with" my favourite Leaf, Morgan Reilly.

Dave's parents and sister packed up to leave on Sunday following Christmas, and the next few days were a bit quieter.  Lego has made a resurgence.  The boys got a few new Lego kits, but Q is also interested in rebuilding the x-wing. 

The boys also hung out with their friends for a bike ride, some geocaching, and a movie.  The four of them went by themselves, no adults, which they loved!

On New Year's Eve day we were invited to go skating with some friends.  Q knows how to skate but doesn't get much practice, so he did well and got to play around with the hockey stick too.

E is pretty good at skating but got a blister from the skates so was only out for half the time.

Dave hung out in the bleachers.  He had to surrender his skates to E.

Our New Year's Eve was pretty quiet, and that was fine with us.

We played Catan.

I made chicken fettucine alfredo (inspired by The Holiday when Kate Winslet says "let's make some Christmas fettucine".)

We watched the World Juniors hockey game and got into bed well before midnight.

On New Year's Day we hit the slopes.  The conditions were pretty good after a couple days of rain, and we had a good morning, but it was getting quite busy after lunch so we left around 1:30.

My mom arrived for her visit on the 2nd.  It was cold that afternoon but we went out for a walk to do some geocaching. 

At least the sun was out!

We enjoyed some BBQ'd steaks and roasted potatoes for dinner that night. 

On Friday we decided to head down to the Distillery District in the final days of their Christmas Market.  Another nice day in the sunshine. 

Perfect for a hot drink from Balzacs.

Q wanted this Christmas tree stuffy, it was about 5 feet tall!

Lots of places for photo ops.

A Grinch themed rice krispie square.

Pizza night when we got home. 

My corkscrew that I have had since I was a waitress in university finally broke.  It served me well over the years. 

Trying out his new hot honey.

On Saturday we were almost back to our normal routine with ski racing season getting underway.  It was snowy on Saturday.

Second year of U14.

First year of U10 for Q, and he got his own ski team jacket.

Q's team was having a bowling event on Saturday afternoon.  The kids bowled and the parents chatted, nice to see some familiar faces and meet new people. 

We decided to stay the night in Orillia at a hotel with a few other families. Then the 21 of us trekked through the snow for dinner at Montanas. It did not stop snowing the whole day and night.

Only a 5 minute walk, but a welcome sight!

This makes it look worse than it was, but it was very snowy!

Kids grabbed a quick hot chocolate and watched a few minutes of a movie on the lobby TV.

Settling into bed for the night.

There was quite a bit of snow the next morning but the roads back to the ski hill were pretty clear. It was a winter wonderland. 

Perfect conditions for skiing that day. 

(My mom did come up to the ski hill with us on Saturday but then went to spend the night with her friend that lives in Barrie.  She met us back at the ski hill on Sunday afternoon to head home.)

Whew! We packed a lot in and enjoyed being at home!