Our week continues....

5am Tuesday morning:

Abigails ornament:

Sams ornament:

My ornament:

How they look in the tree:

Our little green kitchen tree:

Susannah and Laurece worked to put up the big tree:

Sam and Abby decorated the kids tree today. This is the tree that all the handmade and collected ornaments go on.  Filled with memories and sentimental ornaments :)

Today I made beef stew - It was a cold stay-at-home day, and I thought a stew would be ideal :)

We continue our Christmas themed reading:

Tonight I'm enjoying sitting by the tree in the glow of the lights, 

watching Christmas movies and knitting :)   

For today....

Outside my window...dark and snowy....pretty, pretty, pretty.

I am thankful...for sooo much right now....despite some really difficult times, I have some amazing people in my life and am sooo fortunate :)

In the kitchen...Abigail continues to bake endlessly.....whenever we are at home for longer than a couple of hours, she bakes.

I am wearing...black pants, top.
I am creating...JYC album, Advent calendar ready for the weekend (the kids are so excited)  Snowflakes and owls out of tubes that J kindly gave me :) 

I am looking forward to...meeting new people this Friday :)

I am learning....how to ask (and accept) help (and this is VERY new to me and something I have always found very difficult)...how amazing my circle of friends are.  How you can never have too many friends.  How welcoming new friends in to your circle is such a GOOD feeling :) How being with friends who accept you as you are - who allow you to speak your mind - who KNOW you....is soooo WONDERFUL :)

Around the house...We have been sick and miserable and grouchy and lazy and at home a lot over the last week but that has given us time to rest, to 'be' to craft, relax, bake, play, think....my friends B and S kindly came over and got the furnace in the garage going for me.  I want to put out a few Christmas decorations but it's getting around to it....

I am pondering...life and all it has taught me in the last few years - and how good it is and how RICH it feels and how blessed I feel and how wonderful it all is :)  and how all the BAD stuff really does make you so much stronger and really does show you that you can make it through anything that life throws at you - and I think that is what life is all about :)  THAT is what we are here for.  To learn :)  And life is good :)

A favorite quote for today..."Friends are the family we choose for ourselves".

One of my favorite things...how much Susannah loves to read :)

A few plans for the rest of the week...Thursday we celebrate our dear friend A's 18th birthday with an evening out!!!  Woot woot!!  :)  Friday I am off to meet a new group of friends down in  Churchill Square :)  Soooo looking forward to that :)  Saturday we have the Festival of Trees followed by our first Christmas party of the season - and Sunday we have the Christmas Gathering at the garden centre :)  - the following week things get REALLY crazy!!

snapshots from the last couple of days....

They finally cleared the snow from our street today - just in time for us to get a lot more snow this week!!

Abby used some of he tubes J gave me to make a fairy castle for Rapunzel:

Rosie cuddling 'Tigrey' - Sams tiger :)

This is me:

Susie and her messy bedroom.  She says it is just clothes lol:

Sam checking out the library books tonight:

We continue to read Christmas themed books:

My girly.  Love her soooo much :)  

Tattoos and teddy bears:

Tonight we headed to the library to pick up a book Susannah had ordered, look for some books I wanted, and get some books for a project Abigail wants to work on this week.  While we were there, we stopped to see the digital Christmas tree show with the 3d glasses we have.  

The glasses let you see snowmen in all the lights of the tree and wherever you look - they were so neat :)  

Celebrating with friends :)

On Sunday Susannah and I went to join our friends to help Lorraine celebrate at the Open House of her new office space for her photography business in Sherwood Park.  

So proud of my wonderful friend Lorraine :)  

Her space is so lovely and the afternoon was so nice - it really was so good 

to see everyone come together for her :)  

The lovely Alora:

We were each given a lovely little camera charm as a thank you for attending.

I love it :)  

My friends are a crazy bunch but I do love them so:  

Festival of Trees...

On Saturday we went to our local community festival of trees.  

I wasn't too impressed with it to be honest - not the best of years, BUT it was still a nice afternoon out, and after two days of being home sick, we enjoyed getting out.

There was of course cookie decorating and craft making:

And Sam got a spray on tattoo of a dragon:

There was a wreath display as a well as a tree display, and live entertainment:

Afterwards we called in to say hello to friends and pick up some craft supplies, and headed to Swiss Chalet for their festive supper before heading home to curl up the evening.  

If I lived in a Snowglobe.....

This is a project I did for Abby and Sam this week.  I'm putting it in my JYC.

I created snowglobes and got them to draw pictures in them and write what they would do if they lived in a snow globe :)  

Tag time.....

Fighting -  a virus.  Not sure what it is but I seem to be winning the battle finally.

Feeling - fed up and grumpy.  Tired.  We had fun plans yesterday and today and they had to be cancelled.  But grateful that my kids are happy to stay home and play, bake and generally chill :)

Reading - lots of ideas for Advent :)

Wearing - yoga pants, tshirt, hoody.

Struggling - with how slowly this horrible month is going.  It seems like however hard I try I am up against a brick wall....

Learning - to take it a day at a time.

Savoring - the small stuff.  The joy of watching and listening Sam to Sam play with his toy cars, watching Abigail working away in the kitchen as she bakes, listening to Susannah singing....hearing the key in the lock when Laurence gets home, seeing updates from Chris :)  

Watching - Christmas family movies in the run up to Christmas - an annual tradition.  Whenever we are home in the evening we all curl up and watch a family movie - preferably with a candy cane or some chocolates :)

Anticipating - all the fun events in the next few weeks :)  and starting Shimelles Journal Your Christmas :)  

Thinking - that the struggles this month have made me stronger.

Snapshots of life the last few days....

Yesterdays lunch:

Watching the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade:

Our second Christmas movie of the year:

Sam playing with his cars and the great garage and ramp he built out of boxes:

Pot roast and roast potatoes with stuffing and veggies last night:

Poor Rosie has to go out in the cold to pee:

Abby baked Whipped Shortbread this week - they are AMAZING.  Today she is making Brownies.  She LOVES to bake:

We picked up a big pile of Christmas themed books at the library this week and are reading a couple each day.  This one was hilarious....The 12 days of Christmas - Canada style :)  

All this girl does is bake bake bake:

Rosie supervising:

Greek yogurt and honey: