HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! We have :-)

Sean is currently doing an elective in Lethbridge Emergency for 4 weeks (starting December 19). Because he is now in a large city Residency program, Lethbridge is considered a rural site, so the program provides housing for him (and us!). So the kids and I headed down here December 23 once school was all finished, and have enjoyed having a bit more space, a dishwasher (even though it's a dinosaur and has to be dragged across the kitchen and hooked up to the sink) and a free washer and dryer that's actually inside the house! Those things alone would be a great Christmas present for me, but in true fashion, I was spoiled with other presents this year too.

My sister and her hubby were able to come up for a week for Christmas too. It was so great to see them again. Now if only I could convince them to move closer :-) In August, when Lurel was visiting I got this crazy idea that we should make a quilt for Dad for Christmas. We were fabric browsing and saw the cutest Dr. Seuss prints, and since Dad is a Dr. Seuss fan, and I wanted an excuse to buy some of it...well, you see where it went. Problem is, Lurel lives almost 15 hours away from me, and neither one of us has a private jet so getting together to work on it together was out of the question. So I made the top (since it was my idea in the first place) and she was in charge of getting the backing, batting and yarn. The plan was to back, quilt and bind it on the 23rd after I arrived with the kiddos. Now, for any of you who have ever traveled with kids you know that a scheduled departure time is just when the ideal time to leave would be. It has absolutely nothing to do with when you will actually leave. Add to that all the extra Christmas gifts, winter gear, dirty laundry (because it was free to wash and dry for two whole weeks! So of course I brought all the bedding too) it became van Tetris really fast. Needless to say, we didn't leave when I wanted to. So by the time we got here, unloaded the van, quickly took Kaden Christmas shopping for Sean, and made our way to Grandma's house it was time for dinner. By the time all that was done and cleaned up, it was getting late. Mom helped us get the backing cut and sewn, and then did the "pillow binding*" to save time.We got it on the frame, and called it a night.

Mom hates to hand stitch, and I inherited the aversion, but she may have sewn the hole a bit too small to get the quilt through. 

*I have no idea what this is really called, or if it even has a name, so we'll go with that. You put your fabric right sides together, put the batting on top and stitch around the quilt leaving an opening to turn it right sides out, like when you make a pillow. Then hand stitch the opening shut - you don't have to do any binding, and very little hand stitching and save a ton of time.

Christmas Eve, we had Raclette and chocolate fondue. Maggie and Anise were extremely fond of the chocolate. Oh so yummy!

Raclette!

Carrots and chocolate, a winning combination

Ready to get started

Afterwards Lurel and I snuck downstairs to quilt for a bit before the kiddos were ready to get ready for Santa.

Maggie was even helping so we could be done in time for Christmas

We all came back to our place, opened Christmas PJ's and watched Mr. Bean's Christmas. We sent the kids to bed, and Lurel and Mom took off for Grandma's to get the quilt finished, while Sean and I finished wrapping presents.

Christmas PJ's sewn by Grandma

Yearly Christmas Stocking picture

 Christmas morning was present time!

I made the pigs - thank-you pinterest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maggie trying to get to the bottom of her stocking

Kaden and Anise trying out their new Zipfy snow racers. Might as well, there is just as much snow in the house as there is outside.

Dad checking out his quilt!

Every one's all time favorite present this year

Luckily for us my parents ward started at 11:30am, so we weren't too rushed to get there. Lurel, Sam, Sean and I sang in the ward choir with Mom because they needed some extra voices with so many people being gone for the holidays. It was great being in a choir again.

After sacrament meeting, we headed home to change, and then back to Grandma Frache's for yummy Christmas dinner. We had so many people there, I don't think we could have fit anyone else in - it was great! Grandma and Grandpa Brooks came in for dinner too, and Uncle Rick and Aunt Sheila surprised them by flying in from Ontario for Christmas. After we played games and visited and had fun together.

As Maggie would say "OOOOOOOOOOO!  Peety!"

The next couple days were pretty low key. We went to look at Christmas lights (which Maggie LOVES! - she even had a small tantrum when it was time to leave Bland's house. I think she could have stayed there all night) Sam, Lurel, Sean and I went to the Temple Tuesday while Mom watched the kids for us. We played games, we ate more yummy food, we watched movies and we relaxed.

Friday night we got together with friends from Med school and Family Residency. It was so great to see them and their kids (and our kids were uber excited to see their friends again too) and laugh and visit. I'm excited to live closer so we can make our get together a more regular thing.

The kids then got to go have a sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple days, while Sean and I had a  "stay-cation". We got somewhat caught up on our sleep, played games, watched a movie, went out to eat and hung out just the two of us. It was a much needed break after all the chaos of the last few months. Thank-you Mom and Dad for watching the kids!

Sean with the giant Carcasonne game with all the expansions we have with us added

 We've got a lot planned for this week before the kids and I head back, so I'll have to make sure I stay on top of posting here - it's my New Year's resolution :-)