post holiday rundown

What a Christmas this year was. This is the first year Owen is aware and able to anticipate in the holiday. He enjoyed meeting & talking about Santa and attempting to make his own Frosty the snowmen with his collection of rubber balls. He sang Christmas carols like Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Jingle Bells. 

Christmas morning Owen only had enough attention span to get through his stocking. 

Here we are enjoying Avo & Avo's nativity. Actually, that's me attempting to teach Owen to keep the rocks and pine cones out of his mouth.

Our holiday included driving over 500 kms from one side of Southern Ontario to the other, visiting with over 50 friends and family. Owen wished everyone "Merry Chris-ke-mas" and thanked everyone for his gifts (of which he was truly spoiled to bits). It was so much fun but there just didn't seem to be enough time throughout the holiday. 

I'd say this photo sums it up best - we're exhausted!

happy holidays!

Christmas 2009

Wow, finding time to blog is getting more and more difficult. Owen is spending quite a lot more time awake now (and having difficulty napping). I have lots to update so I might just have cluster updates when I can spare a moment at the computer.

Thanks for the supportive comments, some in person and others online. I'm not sure I can put to words just how good it made me feel. It certainly brightened my mood. It was a rough few weeks but I'm pleased to share that at our final trip to the lactation nurse between Christmas & New Years gave us the thumbs up! Our little guy is packing it on at a steady pace and is now 10 pounds. This means no more pumping after every feeding, not needing to feed every 3 hours and we can now attempt to start having Owen sleep through the night. Life with baby has become so much more manageable!

Loads of people were quite surprised with our decision to travel over the holidays. I've heard so many times, "Everyone will come to see the baby." That's just not the case with some of our family. We spent 2 days in Sarnia visiting Great grandma and Great grandpa for the first time and all our aunts, uncles and cousins. I have the best extended family - hands down - they are the best group of people. I wish we were living closer so we could spend more time.

My family did this when I was born - the Four Generations shot! Owen must think this type of photo is lame-o since he stuck his milky tongue out for this pic.

The little guy was showered with gifts, thank goodness he won't remember how many or we'd have a spoiled Owen on our hands. We needed to have my parents truck many gifts back to Niagara with them just because our trunk was so full.

We then moved onto Brampton for Christmas and Owen's cousin, Paige's baptism.

We are choosing to raise Owen with no religious affiliation. We feel this decision is for the best since we both no longer feel aligned with our Roman Catholic upbringing. But that doesn't mean we don't support and appreciate the values of all others around us.

Unfortunately, Owen became quite gassy while in Brampton which was very stressful. After limited sleep, loads of driving and a mother-in-law that just would not quit, we went home early.

The holidays were something way beyond any other Christmas I've celebrated before. Having our baby with us to celebrate was the most special experience.

christmas hopscotch

I didn't think I was going to do any holiday baking this year since I'd need to have the treats done from start to finish in an hour. Fat chance since I have a habit of always choosing some of the most challenging or expensive recipes when baking. But this year I've resolved to have it both ways by cutting out the time consuming and difficult part to make cookies that my mom used to make around the holidays. The reason I've chosen these cookies is because my sister and I always turned our nose up at 'real' Christmas cookies like shortbread and jam thumbprint cookies for simple and quick treats. Luckily for my mom, these candy-like cookies were no bake and usually involved melted marshmallows and adding cereal.

I grabbed this recipe for "Christmas Hopscotch" from my mom's recipe box.
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 6 oz package butterscotch chips
Microwave 30 seconds at a time and stir until well blended.
Add
2 cups mini marshmallows
3 oz chow mien noodles
I don't think anyone in my family has made these cookies in 15 to 20 years! When making these I had my doubts that these would be any good, I mean, just reading the ingredients doesn't sound very appetizing. But after making them yesterday I had one taste and it was total nostalgia. They are so addictive!

Christmas Card 2008

Incase you're not on our Christmas card list (you should be!),

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!!