Clearing the snow....

And Sam was quite upset that it was too cold for him to join Daddy on the tractor - he looked so sad watching from the window:

-22c today  BUT we did get sunshine at last ;)  and it didn't snow!!  :)

party pictures...

Lloyd and Sam watching Abby visit with Santa...

Lloyd helping Abby with her crafts....

Abby in her Santa hat....

Laurie and his grade 2 buddy from school :)  Looks like they are good friends :)

Oh my......

Today was our community children's Christmas party.  They used to be good.  USED to be good.....sadly the team that used to run them got pushed aside and now things are run very differently.  The people that run it now run EVERYTHING in the area and are one of the reason that I no long volunteer for anything at the CL or at the school :(  Such a shame.  The woman is the one who told me that I was a terrible Mother for making my children walk from the corner of the road HOME from school (lol - about 200 yards along a country lane, where they often didn't see a car more than once a week!!!!  And the bus picked them up in the mornings at the end of the driveway, so this was only in the afternoons and I'd pick them up in really bad weather lol).  She was serious too!!!  We live in a very safe rural area where they chat to the horse in the field as they walk home and where more often than not we walk down to meet them from the bus.....sigh....this isn't why I don't join in with anything - the reason is because of HOW everything is run and the WAY it is run.....and how RELIGIOUS everything has to be in THEIR way.......

I'm soooooo sad with the way the Christmas party has gone :(  So sooooo sad :(  when I remember how it used to be.

Anyway, we suffer this terrible party - the details of which I won't get in to, and then Abigail and Susannah line up to see Santa.

I go to the front eagerly waiting to take pictures of my girls on the fat mans lap!  Those precious pictures!!!

Abigail walks up when it's her turn, and then REFUSES to sit on his lap!!!  Santa prompts her...he tempts her..but NO!!!!  She refuses!!!!  So instead, she stands there chatting to him with her BACK to me!!!!!  Oh my Gawd!!!!  Hahahahaha!!!  So I don't get a picture of Abby on Santas lap!!!!  :(

She then walks off towards the Elves with a devilish glint in her eyes and I just KNOW she's asked Santa for something that I don't know about ;)

Hahaha!!

And you know what???  She came off that stage and got her candy bag from the Elves and raced towards me YELLING "His breath STINKS"   Oh my gawd!!  Hahahahaha!!  I'm sure the whole hall heard!!  Now all she is going to get is COAL!!!!

Then Susannah was in line but when I tried to get a picture of her in line all she did was stick her tongue out:

and then JUST as Susannah was about to go up and sit on Santa's lap, that stupid STUPID woman who was running the stupid party, went and told Susannah that she could skip the 'sitting on Santas lap' part and just have a candy bag!!!  Which may sound all good and fine but Susannah is 11 and she was ok with sitting on Santas lap so long as she got candy - anything for candy lol - but this would have been the last year she would do that and do you know how PRECIOUS that picture was to ME?????  How DARE that STUPID woman take that away from me????  What gave her the right to do that???  Especially as she had seen us stand there in line for half an hour!!!  OMG!!!!

So now I have no picture of any of my children on santas knee yet this year.....and we will trek over to one of the malls and try there instead.....

poo :(

Trimming the tree....

Every year I try and get a picture of all the children decorating their tree at the same time.  It isn't easy.  These days they are all so big that it kind of has to be timed - ie everyone has to pick an ornament at the same time and hang it at the same time - several times in a row so I can take several pictures in a row and get at least one good picture.  The kids get sick of doing this and start joking about....hence:

sigh......just another step away from my idea of a perfect Christmas......hahahaha ;)

This is the childrens tree and is normally covered in all different ornaments that have been collected over the years - including ones the children have made themselves.  this year though, we can't put anything fragile on it - as the kitten is enjoying climbing the trees and knocking all the ornaments off and then booting them across the floor - so we are only putting unbreakable ornaments on our trees.  It's very sad not to put out many of our very special ornaments (including the ones Val has given us over the last few years) BUT we do not want to have them broken!!  Next year will be here before we know it, and then Kitten will be older and not so interested in playfulness...

This is how we kept him out of trouble while we decorated another of our trees:

My obsession continues...

I'm still obsessively making/ decorating/ altering notebooks and journals.  Last night I made this one above.  It's  for me to write down all the lovely things Lloyd says and does for me/ to me.

Susannah is making notebooks for each of her friends at school - personalizing each one.

The rock has disappeared....

Underneath that there snow there be a big rock ;)

Lol - yes, the big rock that we all sit on for pictures in the Summer months is under there somewhere ;)

It does sometimes happen :)

A smile :)