Food Network Marathons

I love this time of year when the Food Network has all their marathons. It's a strange indulgence that I have. I love watching Iron Chef and Food Challenges and the Next Iron Chef and things like that. :)

Besides my watching too much tv, we've had a bunch of fun activities lately.

Claire's school had a Christmas party and they had a sleigh ride around the school yard. It started to snow just as we got on and it was a beautiful ride.

Claire really enjoyed singing with her schoolmates and it was fun to watch.

Madeline and I were also able to go sing Christmas carols at the year end assembly at Claire's school. All the kids were buzzing with excitement and it was a lot of fun to hear about their accomplishments and spend some time there.

We were also lucky to attend Ryan's school Christmas concert. Being a Fine Arts school, they really put on a grand production and we always get very good seats since we have an "in." :) Ryan did a great job with the slide show during the concert as well. It's fun to see him in his element there.

We had a jam-packed day in Wetaskiwin. We enjoyed Rob's Christmas concert at the high school. He's such a talented musician. It's always a bit strange to go back to your high school. Everything seems....smaller, in a way.

We had a fun time making gingerbread houses and celebrating Dad's birthday. It felt almost like Christmas day as we opened lovely gifts from Val that she picked up on her trip to Nepal and Tibet.

Photo bomb courtesy of Mel.

This is what happens when I'm the one trying to do the self-portrait.

Having some cuddles in front of the tree.

Here's Madeline and her house. She looks a bit tired since she fell asleep in the car on the way home. She's wearing her "Princess Jasmine" outfit from Val. They were specially made for the girls and they are beautiful!

Ryan's been quite busy with work. Trying to hang on to the kids' attention during the last week of school, culminating in his Rockband party for his class and then rushing to the Apple store to work has been pretty hectic - he's working so hard for our family. We're all looking forward to the next two weeks when things will be less stressful and more festive.

He was asked to play a certain role for the kindergarten class in his school and had a lot of fun with it.

We were also lucky to attend Desiree and Daley's wedding brunch. It's always good to reconnect with family and to celebrate those kinds of things!

This is something awesome. I threw this pillow from Maddie's room to our room, and this is how it landed. I laughed really hard and just had to document my pillow tossing prowess.

Madeline was definitely excited for her Christmas party at school. She's got this cheesy new pose smile that makes me giggle. She also insisted on wearing her "wedding dress" to the party.

Yep.

There were a lot of fun games and they did the cutest little concert for all the parents.

We had quite a dump of snow recently. I hate those days where you have to shovel more than once just to make your way around. We did get a pretty awesome drift off our roof though.

The girls helped me do our Christmas baking. Madeline attacked those candy canes like nobody's business.

Claire contributed by being patient and enjoying the smells and sounds.

I love spending time with these girls!

The finished product.

Claire is a serious sleeper. When she wants to sleep, it happens, no matter where she is.

Maddie and I snuck over to Steph and Brandon's new place to help out for bit. It's coming along and we had fun helping.

Time certainly does fly in December. Luckily we've done almost all our shopping, made most of our deliveries and sent all our packages. We just have a bit of wrapping to do and all will be well! Huzzah!