Christmas fun!

Christmas was really fun this year!  So fun that it has taken me until January 22nd to write about it, lol!

We of course did our Advent Calendar again!  I asked the boys if they still wanted to do it, and they did!

Dec 1st:  Come ask mom for a "first day of December" treat! - bought them a few treats from The Bulk Barn!
Dec 2nd: Watch an Xmas movie!  We watched Elf!  Pretty funny... they were showing a movie at the younger guy's school but he didn't want to go to that... and yet I was asked to do a singalong with everyone there, so I did that.... but my own kid didn't go!  He just wanted to hang out with us at home... which was just fine because I was done that by 6:30pm and was back at home for movie time!
Dec 3rd:  Look up Xmas photos or movies:  We all love watching old movies of past Xmases!  This was very fun!
Dec 4th:  We all went to the joint birthday party of 2 family friends!  Such a great afternoon!
Dec 5th: Set up the Nativity!  We have a few nativity sets... one is from 10 000 Villages and is lovely!  Funny thing is I couldn't find Mary for the entire Xmas holiday, but found her at the end... so ... next year!  Haha!  The other is a cute little one the kids set up in the sunroom... and finally a gorgeous stained glass one that belonged to my Poppa and Granny, who I miss so much!
Dec 6th:  Find and send an E-card to a friend or family:  Sent an ecard to Nana and Bop!  Then they sent one back!  Cute!
Dec 7th:  Do an extra job around the house without being asked.
Dec 8th:  A Starbucks hot chocolate after getting poinsettias:  we had a poinsettia order from a fundraiser for the oldest one for his school trip to Quebec (and that is going to be amazing for him)... so this was the pick up day... and on the way home the boys got hot chocolates :-)  Why specifically Starbucks?  It is close to the school.
Dec 9th:  Write a list of 10 things you are thankful for this year.
Dec 10th:  1)  Take Skye for a Santa picture!  A fundraiser for a dog shelter, and adorable!
         2) Decorate the tree!
Dec 11th:  Cupcake day!  I was making cupcakes for the 10 year old's birthday party with kids!
Dec 13th:  Buy supplies for a foodbank/Humane Society!
Dec 14th: Make icing! - We made icing for the cupcakes... favourite part!  They were red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing!
Dec 15th:  Get a holiday treat at Tall Grass, and gift certificates for the party - we were getting gift certificates for this famous bakery instead of a loot bag!
Dec 16th:  It originally said it was the 10 year old's party, but he suddenly had an extremely sore throat that day, and the day before he had been super tired... my mom took him to the dr right away in the am and the dr felt it was strep throat (test later confirmed that it was) so we replanned the party for January 7th (pretty much everyone could still come!!) and we had a movie night and a smoothie from Booster Juice for his sore throat!
Dec 17th:  He felt soooo much better the very next day!  We had pajamas and game night by the tree!
Dec 18th:  Make cookies for teachers:  We made shortbread, the ultimate holiday cookie!
Dec 19th:  Make dad's cake... this is in advance of Kurt's birthday!  I always ask him what he wants, and this time it was chocolate pie!  Here it is, and he loved it!  http://numstheword.com/easy-chocolate-pie/
Dec 20th:  Getting the presents ready to give to teachers!
Dec 21st:  Dad's birthday!  Give presents to him while mom away (I was conducting the choir at my school's concert)... came back and we had pie!
Dec 22nd:  Last day of school!  Have a special treat when mom and dad out!  Kurt and I went to Thermea for Kurt's birthday!  Beautiful!  And the kids love when we leave and it is just the 2 of them!  The treat might have been some treats from my school...
Dec 23rd:  Have friends over to watch a movie together!  They had 3 friends over to watch a movie then kept playing after!
Dec 24th:  Went to see Rogue 1!  Also Christmas Eve family service at 1st Mennonite!  Also new pajamas!  They asked for onesies!

So that is it for the Advent Calendar!  Now it was Christmas!  A wonderful day with my family coming over!  Very fun!  It was relaxing during the day, with kids loving their new things they had asked for!

There was looming bad weather from late on the 25th to 26th, that was so bad that even though that is when we always go for Xmas to Kurt's parents' place, we had to change it to the following weekend and wait for the weather to clear up!  So - for once we got to go to a Boxing Day Open House party of family members... we never get to go it because of having to leave early on the 26th... so this was quite fun to attend this for once!

27th:  Finally just got to chill out!
28th: We all went to visit the new house of good friends!
29th, 30th....  One of these 2 days we went skating!  Lovely!
31st:  Went to Grandma and Grandpa's!  We kinda dropped off our stuff and then went skiing and tobogganing!  Then we had our traditional chocolate fondue - except had it at their place!
1st:  Xmas gathering with all Kurt's family!
2nd:  New Year's dinner at my mom's!
3rd:  Chill out!
4...5...
6th!  Dinner at good friends' house!
7th:  Finally the bday party for the 10 year old!  Was a great afternoon!
8....
9:  And... school starts again!

What else have we done?  It was super freezing the first week... like -45 with the windchill by Thursday and Friday... but then it eased up and we went skiing at Beaudry!  Gorgeous!