Weekend Recap

Q had biked to school on Friday so he brought some friends home with him and they played around in the backyard (and then inevitably came inside to play on the PS5), but then he biked his friends home when it was time to go so lots of outdoor time was still achieved. 

(You can see where we have cleaned half of the back steps with the new power washer. We will do the rest but wanted to see the difference first.)

I walked up the street at the end of the day to get a few things for dinner - roast beef sandwiches on ciabatta buns with some new mustard, some produce, wine, and new library books.  Meanwhile we were also watching the Masters.

On Saturday morning we drove downtown to meet Dave’s aunt for lunch. We passed the Art Gallery of Ontario, this statue is made out of leather couches apparently. 

Found a cool playground.

And this steeple.

We went to Fox On John. 

Nice to see Aunt Isabel. 

In the afternoon I decided to empty out Q’s closet and bookshelf and sort through everything.  It took longer than I wanted, but I was successful. I kept a bunch of good picture books even though we aren’t reading those often anymore, and then put the books that Q reads on his own on the shelves, instead of where they were, stacked up in big piles on the top. 

I went to church that morning and then we went downtown for the Blue Jays game with Q’s rep team from last year. It was fun to hang out with the kids and parents (because the game wasn’t great for the Jays). 

I chose this beer because I love marketing. 

E and V have been playing together for 3 years, but will be on different house league teams this year. Hoping to get on the rep team so we get to keep hanging out at the ball field. 

It was Jr. Jays Sunday so we stayed for the kids to run the bases. The cut off is 14 years so this was probably E’s last time. 

We got home to watch Rory’s second nine at the Masters (recorded) and loved seeing him win. 

Christmas Recap Part 2

You can see Part 1 of my Christmas recap here. 

Christmas morning was finally here! The kids came in to get us at 7:00 am which we said was the earliest time they could come in.

Q is ready to go downstairs!

Santa was here!

Stockings first.

A little Vecna stuffy!

Santa brought the boys a 3D printer. 

Gifts to each other.

New baseball gear for Q, including a custom glove.

We took a break for some breakfast. The casserole E made the day before turned out well. 

Cheers!

Q got this nice blanket from Pottery Barn Kids, it is the coziest blanket! We needed to try it out right away. 

Setting up the 3D printer.  E has access to one at school so he is already familiar with how it works. 

I talked everyone into going for a walk. It was colder than I thought it would be, but the fresh air was nice. 

Q wanted to try out his new glove so he played catch with Dave for a few minutes. 

I had a little nap while watching a movie and E piled up pillows and blankets around me. 

The prime rib ready for the oven. 

Looks good!

My successful Yorkshire Puddings.

I do love a turkey dinner, but prime rib is such a treat too!!

After we got dinner cleaned up, we got downstairs to watch Stranger Things.  The boys were sitting nicely together. 

We had a white Boxing Day the next day.  We shoveled a couple of times and got some sledding in. 

My mom flew home the next day, the 27th, and then we got in the car to drive to Dave’s parents’ house. 

Playing a few games.

There is a new batting cage place nearby their house, so Dave booked some time there on Sunday. It was pouring rain all day so we needed something to do.  This was a great spot and Q got to try out his new bat.

E hit a few balls too (they both did the pitching machine too, just warming up with the tee).

We drove home on Monday morning.  The weather was not great, blowing snow and partially snow covered highways.  That afternoon Dave and I both had work to do (and the next day too).  That night, it was nice to see the tree still lit up.

I like to do the Peloton Top 50 songs rides.  I did the first one on Boxing Day but then I needed to do the other four rides in three days.  

After some meetings on Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, we hit the road for Collingwood to stay with friends for a couple of nights at their cottage.  We have been here in the summer, and it’s so cozy in the winter.  This our bedroom view. 

Having a chat and some wine. 

We sent the kids out to play.  Q came back with wet mittens and cold hands but warmed up quickly.

The big boys coming back from the ice.

He didn't want to wear his snowpants, just a little damp.

The kiddos.

We had raclette for dinner, which was so fun and everyone loved it. 

Then it was hot tub time. 

Running out in the snow and then back into the tub.  I even did this!!

It turned into a bit of a snowstorm, so the big boys came back like this:

We watched a bit of the hockey game and then tuned into the last episode of Stranger Things.

The next day, New Year’s Day, we went to Blue Mountain to ski, and the snow as great but I didn’t take any photos!! It was my first day out skiing and it was cold so I was preoccupied and didn’t want to get my camera out.

We had tacos for dinner that night. 

And we played cards and the boys played Catan.

We had a nice easy morning on Friday and then got on the road again. We could not get over all the snow!

We had a hotel in Orillia booked that night. We walked over to Boston Pizza for dinner in all the snow. 

Ski racing season got underway on Saturday morning. E is in U16 this year.  This is in the morning and we had some fun powder to ski in.

And Q is in second year U10.

And it cleared up in the afternoon. 

Q’s team had a bowling event afterwards so we went there. E is not drinking the beer! Haha. The kids had a good time bowling and we met some new ski families and caught up with people from the year before.

Back to the hotel that night and out for dinner with some of the other families at Montana’s.

Q loves a photo op.

We had another day of skiing on Sunday and made our way home after that to get ready for back to school and back to work after the holidays!

I can’t think of anything we didn’t do over the last two weeks that we wanted to do, we are very fortunate that we had time with family, friends, and each other. We watched movies and TV shows, played games, skied, and enjoyed lots of good food.