Christmas Take 2

We spent Christmas week in Canada with my family.  It was really special to have both my brother O.J. and my grandma there with us  since we don't get to see either of them too often.

Lots of fun was had as you'll see...

After the Christmas Eve service at church, we came home for dinner and a nativity production put on by the four kids.  It was fun to see Kai participate in this tradition that my nieces and nephew have had since they were his age. 

Then we opened gifts.
But, this year we decided to do things a bit differently.  Although we still bought some gifts for the kids, the adults chose to donate money to various charities of our choice instead of buying gifts for each other.  This ended up being such a nice way of reminding ourselves of how much we already have to be grateful for, and how much others in the world need.

On Christmas morning the oldest and youngest got to open stockings together :)  What a great gift for Kai to be able to spend time with his 91 year old great grandma!

And, just in time for Christmas it snowed!

Three generations of women in our family.

And here is the fourth generation!  All such lovely women.

Best buds!  They've even started dressing alike :)

O.J. and I spent a good portion of the holidays working on puzzles :)

And Kaden was so kind and patient to let Kai "help" him with his Lego.

A few days after Christmas, Bryon took Kai on a daddy date to Vancouver.  Of course, they stopped at Tim Hortons at least once that day!

They also went to the aquarium.

And to the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge - one of our favourite parks in the Vancouver area.

As usual, Kai wasn't so sure about it at first.

But, he soon loved it and was running and jumping.

Meanwhile, I got to spend the day with friends from TWU.  So good to see these girls again!

As a birthday gift for my parents, we arranged for a friend to come out and take our family photo.

 

We also tried to get a few of the kids while we were at it.  Needless to say, there were several outtakes!

It was such a relaxing week.  I so appreciated the help with Kai, time to nap, read, and play, all the delicious meals I didn't have to prepare and great company!

Christmas Take 1

I feel as if we're getting really good at celebrating holidays multiple times!  Just like we usually celebrate Thanksgiving twice, we also usually celebrate Christmas twice.  I mean, it's kind of like one big long celebration, but we have two Christmas Days :)  

This year the first "Christmas Day" took place in mid-December and was just with our little family of three.  The boys skied, I stayed home to prep dinner, we ate yummy food, read the Christmas story, opened presents from Gramma and Papa Budensiek while Skyping with them, put out treats for Santa and his reindeer and  watched "The Polar Express" until Kai was too tired to stay up any later.  Then after a long night's sleep for Kai and a short night's sleep for us (due to some late night work in Santa's shop and the kitchen), we woke up to filled stockings (thanks Gramma and Papa!), and yummy cinnamon buns.  This was the first year that Kai's really understood Santa, so although we didn't push his interest level too much, he seemed to really enjoy the bit of fun and intrigue that Santa adds to the day :)  And, it was really fun for us to play the part...as I got Kai up, Bryon rang bells and shouted "Ho Ho Ho!" downstairs.  The excitement/trepidation as he heard this and descended the stairs was pretty funny.

Skyping as we opened all of our presents from Papa and Gramma Budensiek.

Lots of love and gratefulness :)

Now Kai can be a doctor just like Papa!  I think he needs to work on his bedside manner a bit though :)

Wouldn't want Santa and his reindeer to get hungry!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Very excited but not entirely sure about going downstairs after hearing Santa!

Just what he asked for...a new fridge for his play kitchen.  Mommy, daddy, the ReBuilding Center and Santa pulled through :)  (Then, Grandpa Gamache added shelves for the doors later on.)

What would Christmas Day be without Christmas stories with daddy.