Christmas English Style

We had a great Christmas Eve and Day despite some challenges. By challenges I mean, Tonsilitis, ear infections, full body rash (chicken pox? the doctor thought so), conjunctivitis, nits (yes I mean Lice) and of course the good old seasonal flu/cold. Who thought you could pack so much into one week:) Anyway, despite all that we thoroughly enjoyed our last Christmas in England.

Christmas Eve the kids and I walked downtown with our buggy (wagon) and collected our turkey from the butcher(Olivia in the back, turkey in the front), Mark "manned up" as our friends like to say and made his Ukranian Christmas Eve meal even though he could barely swallow it, we spread reindeer food on the lawn (compliments of Auntie Heather), put out cookies, "hot chocolate milk" and carrots for Santa and the reindeer and opened a few gifts. Lochlan even heard reindeer on the roof:)

Christmas day we opened presents, went to mass where Lochlan read a prayer (very confidently) and the kids sang a new Christmas song. Miah stood shyly with her finger in her mouth, but was very brave going up;) We then played with toys and finished with English Christmas dinner, which means we added sausage stuffing, pigs in a blanket (sausages wrapped in bacon), Christmas crackers and Christmas pudding with Brandy Butter alight to the regular fair.

Hope you all had and are having a wonderful Christmas holiday! All the best as we look towards 2010! L and the gang

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

No it hasn't snowed here. Although we have had sub zero temperatures and it called for snow on Thurs. Well, it did...now it's calling for rain. Ah well, next year! We had loads of Christmas activity this past week and bought and decorated our tree this weekend. One of the highlights was Lochlan's Christmas play. It was too cute! Lochlan did a fabulous job and we all throughly enjoyed it. The girls even sat through it all.
Loc and Miah had their swimming parties and Olivia had a Christmas party at her new playgroup. Mark went out for a "Christmas curry" on Tues and served dinner to the junior ratings as is the tradition on Wed. I went out with Mandy after Mark got home on Wed. to catch up. After picking up our tree and wreaths we went to a friends place (Tracey and Bill's) for dinner and some hot tub action Friday night. Sat. we decorated our tree and Sunday the kids had another party (Lochlan actually had two at the same time so missed one). So between all the Christmas activities and the addition of our tree and wreaths, it definitely seems like Christmas around here. Hope you are all in the Christmas spirit too! Mark would just like to note that he went surfing the day we picked out our tree. Not likely to do that when we return! L

Happy Birthday Mark!

December 4th was Mark's birthday. He had cake, presents and a relaxing day. The next evening we went out to celebrate at a place called Country Skittles. Mark has been wanting to go there for a while to try it. Skittles are bowling and they have three lanes there. They also have a restaurant, bar, games room and board games to play while you wait for your meal. I'm not sure who had more fun Mark or the kids! L

Two Years Old!

Olivia turned 2 on November 28th. As we already had a party when Grandma and Grandpa were here, we had a melow day and some leftover (frozen) cake. What to say about our Olivia. She's 2 going on 20. She talks a mile a minute, tries everything her siblings do and accomplishes most of it and absolutely will not be ignored, even if it involves screaming...which it usually does. She doesn't sleep much, although sleeps well at night unless she has napped then we have an early wake up call. One morning it was 4:30 am ... for the day. She's cheeky, cute and knows it. One of her favourite sayings is NO WAY. She's still small weighing about 24 pounds. She likes Dora and loves the park. She adores her siblings and wants to do everything they do. She's our blond haired blue eyed bombshell! Here she is: L

Travel, Friends and Christmas Tree Lighting

A couple days after Mark's parents left we headed to London, actually, Surrey, just outside, for the weekend. We stayed with our friends the Howe's (Neil and Justine) and had a great time. They have a little girl Ellie who used to be in Lochlan's class and a little boy Owen who is Miah's age. After a melow Friday night we headed into the Natural History Museum in London on Sat. I had no idea it was so huge. It had real dinosaur bones (whole dinosaurs), a space area, different mammals, etc. The kids loved it, except for Olivia who slept through almost the entire thing. I was really surprised at how interested Miah was, I thought she might be too young. Anyway, we headed back, put the kids to bed and had some adult fun. A really nice diner compliments of Neil and some Wii action. Turns out I'm not so shabby in the Wii sports. The kids had a blast and the adults too.

November 27th was the annual Tree Lighting here in Helston. For a little rural town they do a pretty good job. Live music (drums and singing), stall with food, candy and games. Even rides and fireworks. The kids had hot chocolate, a ride and loads of fun. It was quite nice. Lochlan and Miah were even in the West Briton (local paper) in a picture with a couple of buddies. Here are pics. The ones from the museum are a bit blurry as they're taken with the

video cam. L