We rang in the New Year all together this year. Friends of ours hosted a family party at their place which included sledding, skating, World Juniors and tons and tons of food. We put Leah to sleep in a pack 'n play at her usual time and had plans to pack the troops up and head home as soon as the boys called it quits. Shockingly they both had no trouble staying up until midnight and the four of us were able to count down the clock and share a family embrace (minus one) together to welcome in the new year. Definitely my best (and sloppiest) new year's kiss to date...
The day before we had made our trek back to the Toon after a great week in Calgary. Arlene, Aldo and Sue hosted us this year and lots of fun was had by all. Thankfully it all worked out, which is saying a lot given how close we came to aborting the mission. The night of December 22nd had 3 out of 5 of us praying to the porcelain gods all night and Pete running from kid-to-kid-to-wife catching, cleaning and laundering. Josh was the only one to peacefully sleep through the night but then had an adventure of his own one night in Calgary. Sigh. So needless to say it was a bit of a rough start to the holidays and it's only thanks to Pete that we made it to Calgary as scheduled on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed the traditional Christmas Eve fondue, Nonno read "The Night Before Christmas" and the kids put out milk and cookies for Santa.
By the time Christmas morning rolled around, everyone was in fine form. Ethan and Josh were beside themselves with anticipation and both woke up at the crack of dawn. Leah caught on quickly to the madness and was ripping into packages (and chocolate) in no time.
On the 26th, we had a ball sledding on the hill behind Nonni and Nonno's house.
For Sue's birthday on the 27th, we went skating at the Olympic Oval and bowling. The boys were somewhat discouraged that their scores were considerably lower than their pro status scores they achieve on the Wii (an early Christmas present) and still can't understand why neither managed to get a strike. This has had no bearing, however, on the number of times we get asked daily to take them "real bowling".
Pete gave me lift tickets to Lake Louise for Christmas and had pre-arranged with his parents for the two of us to take a day trip without the kidlets. We went on the 28th and had an awesome day together.
All in all we had a great week and extend a big thanks to the Calgary Longos for hosting us.
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