Christmas traditions

On this special day of Christmas, I'm truly grateful for my family, my friends and my Heavenly Father. For me this day is the happiest of the year, not only because of the presents and food overdose but because of the special occasion to celebrate the birth of my Savior. 

In a more secular perspective, I'm grateful for blogs and cameras (especially the hot new DSLR camera I got for Christmas!!). If it wasn't for this blog and the pictures, I know I'd forget all the great memories we've created this week-end. Since we were by ourselves for the first time this year, our goal was to create our own Christmas traditions. We managed to do quite a bit, but there's still a lot of cool traditions I want to try next year.

Fun things we did (and liked... but might not turn into a real tradition):

- Visit Santa, ride his horse carriage, take pictures with him

- Decorate cookies (I'd probably keep that one if I had girls... but the boys were not big fans)

- Wear matching Santa costumes on Christmas morning (I recycled our Halloween costumes and turned them into Santa costumes, I thought it would be a good idea to teach the kids we're all Santas... but it didn't work as well as I was hoping. Russ was a grinch the whole time, and Josh loved it but he sounds a little confused when he talks about Santa now.)

- Chocolate advent calendar

Fun things we did and would like to keep as traditions (at least I do):

- Caroling with friends

- Acting out the Nativity Scene for FHE

- Sledding/snow/outdoors activities (if weather permits)

- Singing Christmas songs before bed time

- Reading parts of the Christmas story in the scriptures every night

- Driving through the town to look at Christmas lights

- Eating tons of good food

- Ward Christmas party with Nativity Scene, songs, dinner and Santa

Things we had planned but didn't end up doing (definitely on the list for next year):

- pipe chimes / bells / playing music together

- Singing at a retirement home (the Primary had organized it and it was on my calendar but I spaced out)

- Spiritual Christmas program for our family (other than the one we had at church)

Other things I want to try next year:

- Different kind of advent calendar (scripture based or build your nativity scene)

- Involve the kids in gift making/offering

All in all, we had a great week-end and hopefully we've learned a few things so that next Christmas can be even better.

Another reason why this week-end was so cool is I tried snowboarding for the first time, and I liked it. We went to a park close to our apartment to do some sledding, Josh loved it, William hated it. When the kids got tired of sledding and wanted to play at the playground near by, Russell got my snowboard and gave me a snowboarding lesson. I was afraid we were going to meet lots of people we know there, since we'd chosen that park, and it ended up being true... but helpful. Joshua's cute friend Elsie was there and her parents ended up watching him and William while Russell was helping me. Afterwards they invited us for some delicious cinnamon rolls at their place and we had a very nice chat.

I was dreading having to prepare all the Christmas dinner by myself but Russell insisted he didn't want turkey, Ham or chicken, which helped reduce my work load a ton. I made Salmon tart, Russell's favorite green beans, potatoes (left over from our ward Christmas party I had in the freezer), foie gras (thank you Maman et Papa), a few other appetizers, a yule log... and that's it. Super simple, but tasty.

On Christmas morning we all dressed up as Santa and opened one present before church. Then we went to church for a very nice musical sacrament meeting. We opened the rest of the presents when we went back home, ate leftovers and spent the rest of the day talking to family on Skype and on the phone, and playing with the kids' toys (I had a blast with the legos).

I still want to emphasize that we missed our Family A LOT, despite Skype and the phone, and I hope we won't have to spend Christmas alone too often...
Merry Christmas to all! We missed you and we love you.

Graduation and Holiday fun!

There's been a lot going on in the last few weeks, but not much time to post about it so here it is all at once. 

The most exciting event was Russell's graduation ceremony. He finished his Master's classes in the spring but he had not defended his thesis, so he didn't graduate then. Now he is officially a Master in Communication. Congratulations Russell!!

And now that the semester is over we've had time for more Christmas fun: 

At the ward Christmas party. I captured a picture of Josh hugging his friend Sammy. So cute!

 At my friend Emily's Ugly Sweater Party (Sammy's Mom). She is the absolute best party planner. I mostly took pictures of the kids in their ugly sweaters (Josh won 1st place for the ugliest sweater), but the best part of the evening was singing Christmas carols while Emily played the piano. We also shared some tasty Christmas treats.

Playing with Daddy. My kids are lucky they have such a fun, hot-looking Daddy.

  Family Home Evening this week. It was totally improvised... as you can tell. Josh distributed the roles and he insisted he wanted to be a shepherd... 

And our 6th year anniversary was this Tuesday. Russell took me to a SUPER DUPER fancy restaurant in Boulder. Ah! Good food, I love it... mini appetizer, foie gras, fillet mignon... Yum! It was absolutely unaffordable, but delicious.

And today, we woke up buried in the snow. I was in charge of the Knitting Club so we had to go out. (Actually we could probably have cancelled it but I needed to occupy these kids and I'm glad we didn't cancel cause I got to hang out with 2 good friends while the kids ran around the Community Room.)

We played outside a little bit afterwards and "decorated" our wall. (Ok I did) 

The long-legged, skinny-tail creature is supposed to be a dinosaur.

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 days! We'll be home alone for the first time so we'll get to start our own traditions... kind of exciting. 

The birthday boy

Our big boy turned 3 this week. At last! I feel like he's been 3 for at least 6 months... Weird, but with his birthday being at the end of the year, a lot of his school friends turned 3 before him and it seemed his birthday was never coming.

What a joy this little man has brought into our life these last 3 years. I know I have moments when I wish I could relive the freedom and carelessness of my pre-Mom life for a few hours, but I can honestly say I have never been happier than since this sweet, cuddly, smart, mischievous, overly active tornado has come into our family.

Josh is a very independent and responsible child. He loves to be a big brother and boss his little brother around (which results in more and more fights since little brother is proving to have the same independent strong-willed personality). He is incredibly tall (40inches-just over 1m), and rather skinny (34lbs-15.5kg). He loves to eat (broccoli, soups, pizza, pasta, cheese, and basically anything I put on his plate), he has been potty trained since September. He can spell his name and is getting close to recognizing all the letters of the alphabet (capital). He loves to play with cars and planes, likes to pretend he's a pirate, or a tiger, or a race car. He likes to build "temples" with his blocks. His favorite song is ABC. His favorite books are 10 Little Ladybugs (he can read it by himself and insists on counting the ladybugs on every single page) and Horton hears a Who. His favorite TV shows are "Super Why" and "Little Einstein". He likes to add "ie" at the end of all his adjectives like:

I'm codie (I'm cold)

It's goodie - talking about a lollipop

It's hottie - talking about his halloween costume freshly out of the dryer 

I need a kissie

That's an eggie

Mom, give me a kiss on my headie etc...

He still speaks a lot more English than French but he's slowly adding some French vocabulary to his sentences:

Me: Joshua tu as tout mange? (Did you eat everything Joshua?)

Josh answers: I tout monge it.

Me: Josh, partage un morceau de fromage avec William. (Josh, share a piece of your cheese with William).

(He cuts a tiny piece with his nail).

Me: Non pas celui la il est trop petit. (Not this one, it's too small)

Josh answers: It's trou piti? 

He still likes music and dancing, but not as much as he used too. 

He likes to comment on everything, and make up stories, he calls EVERYONE friend and likes to hug his friends (mostly one friend in particular), he is very organized (slightly OCD), he loves to organize his cars in rows, he likes to label things and loves to enumerate. Recently he pointed at the poop in his potty and said: This is Daddy, this is Mommy, this is Joshua, this is William and one more.

Aside from Josh and Joshua, I like to call him Jo, Jobanjo, Joshy-Jo, Jo-loulou...

There's so much more I could say. This child fills my days with fun, excitement and an abundance of energy. 

 3 days old

 1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

We had a fun little pirate party for him last Saturday. He and his friends had a lot of fun fighting with their balloon swords and digging for their treasure in the bathtub. His birthday falls at a bad time (finals/end of semester, Thanksgiving/Christmas season) so it's always stressful to plan a party around this time. It was a very last minute thing, I HAD to ask Russell to help cut out the decoration when people started arriving (HAD to because I would never otherwise - he can not cut a straight line). But thanks to great friends we had a great time despite the lack of organization or the last minute decorations.

 pirate island cake

 pirate ship pizza bread

  Ahoy mateys!

 tattoos and snacks

 "look at that!"

And on Monday we had a second celebration with Joshua's preschool classmates. 

Phew... now we have 1 year to start preparing for the next one.

The holiday season begins

Thanksgiving kickoff interview with Josh: "I'm thankful for..."

William's interview: a one track mind!

The thanksgiving table (before the turkey and mashed potatoes arrived), with the cute decorations of our friend Staci:

More thanksgiving delight. Yum, I'm really getting to love this kind of food.

When food doesn't shut them up, I know what does (even on a pocket size screen)...

The most boring story time ever, but the beard makes up for everything:

Josh: "I think I'm supposed to like this..."
Santa: "When is my coffee break?"
William: "Get me out of here!"
Russ: "Act natural, she'll stop taking pictures eventually."

Santa: "What do you want for Christmas?"
Josh: "uh... Nuhcember 7" (his birthday)

"Oh... a car!"

Not bad for trying to look classy in freezing temperatures and intermittent rain after the kids bed time, wouldn't you say?

November in Boulder

Another month is coming to an end. It's been busy as usual: 1 craft club, 2 knitting clubs, 2 baby showers, 1 thesis defense (Yeah!! Congrats Russ), 1 primary program at church, 1 preschool class at home, a conference in New Orleans (Russ),  the big Family Housing Thanksgiving dinner (inconveniently during Russell's conference), our own Thanksgiving dinner (with a few friends)... and especially the busy day-to-day life of a family with 2 boys under 3.

Every day brings new challenges and new opportunities to learn. I never expected my children would teach me so much about life and about my own limits. I am still trying to find a balance between the chaos they joyfully and repeatedly create around me and my slightly OC vision of the perfect home and family.

It starts with trying not to freak out when William takes every opportunity available to sneak into the bathroom, climb on top of the toilet and play with our toothbrushes. I had to replace all of our toothbrushes this week after he shoved them down the drain of the sink. Of course that's better than finding him drinking from the toilet bowl. (Ew!! And to think Joshua sometimes forgets to flush and close the door behind him...) He loves to climb over and over again, and jump, and giggle. He seriously needs a full time lifeguard.

He is cute that's for sure, and sneaky, playful, mischievous, teasing, clever, funny... and I wouldn't want him any other way. 

 and he's cuddly (he'd passed his arm around my neck on this picture).

Coming home from church on a sunny Sunday morning in November. Boulder is so pretty!

 Our little Willman got his good looks from his Daddy.

On a completely different note. Tonight was the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony on 29th St mall. We had no idea, but we were looking for something to do before dinner and I thought Santa might be at Macy's so we headed there. When we got there, we found a crowd of people listening to a live performance of Christmas songs outside of the store and we found out that Santa was scheduled to arrive on his horse drawn carriage 20 minutes later. So we listened to the music, had some free roasted chestnuts (a treat!) and admired the reindeer while waiting for Santa.

After Santa arrived, people were allowed to ride in his carriage down 29th street. The line was a little long but judging by Joshua's smile when the carriage arrived to pick us up, way worth it!

 William freaked out a little bit when the carriage left, but we faced him forward and he relaxed.

After the horse ride we took Josh and William inside Macy's to take a picture with Santa. While Russell was waiting in line with William I took Joshua up front to see Santa and the kids sitting on his lap. I asked him if he wanted to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. He gazed at the old man and squarely said no. I insisted a little bit and showed him all the kids who wanted to sit on Santa's lap but he was definitely not interested. So we left. Before we could reach the door he had changed his mind and was screaming his guts out that he wanted to see Santa. Well, it was way past dinner time, almost bed time and we didn't want to reward his obnoxiousness so we said no. He threw a fist and screamed the entire way back home until he had no idea what he was screaming about. When he'd calmed down and gathered his thoughts about what was making him so upset, we told him we'd go back tomorrow. Hopefully he won't freak out again tomorrow when he sees Santa...