Happy Holidays!

So, it's all over for another year. I love Christmas, but I must admit it's nice to have a bit of a break from all the last minute shopping and preparations. This year, for the first time ever, we stayed in Ottawa for Christmas. And I even made the big Christmas dinner -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, and rolls. And everyone ate, and no one got sick. :-) I searched, and searched, for cranberry sauce in the grocery store -- as much as I love homemade cranberry sauce, I thought that might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back -- but in the end finally gave in and bought a jar of lingonberry sauce, which it turns out tastes just like cranberry sauce. But, according to the label on the jar, is also great on fruit and ice cream.

The girls made out like bandits this year, even though DoT and I only bought them one present each. They have very generous grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, daycare provider and playmates. Our cleaning lady gave us a great gift too -- and really the fact that this lady cleans our total disaster of a house every few weeks is truly gift enough!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of good shots to post. Much of Christmas morning DoT held the camera, and apparently he didn't realize that photos of the kids are not acceptable if they have me in my pjs in the background. But, here are a couple of shots...

Posing on the stairs.

Reading one of the books at grandma and grandpa's house.

Christmas morning breakfast of kinder eggs.

Opening presents Christmas morning.

We are scheduled to leave for China in 13 days! Yikes. So far we have done next to nothing to get ready for the trip. Vaccines? Yup. Everything else. Not so much. I have printed a packing list, but have done nothing to start pulling things on it together. Also, I need to find all of our paperwork, which alone could take days. And, there were lots of other things that I really thought it would be nice to do before we go -- like make and freeze some meals for when we get back, organize the basement, and get some furniture for B's room. Right now the poor kid only has a crib. And if he's like our other two, he's not going to want to sleep in it when he gets back anyhow. We have nothing into which we can put clothes, which really isn't that much of a problem since we have no clothes for him anyhow. But, hey, some day we're going to have to dress him, and you know, a bureau might be a good thing at that point.

Well, the troops are getting restless. Gotta go.

Happy new year everyone!