Happy Ukrainian Christmas!

I think it's an Alberta thing to add "Ukrainian" to something if you're celebrating it late, or perhaps it's just my mom's side of the family who does that... at any rate, I can call this a Ukrainian Christmas post and maybe a Chinese New Year post and then I won't be so late!  Problem solved.

We had a fun "Ugly Sweater" party at Steph and Brandon's place. Madeline went to town decorating cookies while wearing her "Best Kids" sweater that I found at Goodwill.  Awesome.  

I got to go with Claire's class to the Royal Alberta Museum for a fun field trip.  She has great teachers and such a fun group of classmates who make her feel welcomed and loved.

Madeline's preschool teacher is always coming up with fun activities for the kids.  For example, each child got a special sleepover with a teddy bear and could dress him up in PJs, read him stories, take pictures with him and do some drawings about their activities.

Madeline also attended the recital for Auntie Stephanie's piano students (who included Grandma and Uncle Robbie!)  She had a fun time with grandpa there while mom and Claire were sick at home.

She also had a very cute Christmas concert at her preschool.  Here's a small video of one of the numbers:

I had a blast from the past when I attended a jazz band practice at my old high school.  I'll be part of an alumni jazz band at the 25th Annual Big Band Dinner Dance in March.  I'm so excited!  It was lots of fun to play my saxophone again.

We spent a day out in Wetaskiwin doing baking and dipping chocolates.  I'm hoping we make this a yearly tradition because it was a lot of fun and we got all our Christmas plates done in one day!

We had a really fun night at Claire's school for a holiday party.  The sleigh ride was the best part!

Ryan is busy, as always, with two jobs.  His parent teacher interviews went well, just before Christmas, he had a holiday beard and is having fun with his new camera.

We celebrated Christmas a few times this year.  Our first was mid-December with Ryan's family before his parents went on their Christmas excursion to Mexico.  Then we had Angela, Broc, Olivia, Rob and Cairo over for Christmas Eve chinese food and games.  It was a lot of fun!

We exchanged gifts while everyone was there.

Claire kept us in the holiday mood with some Christmas tunes on the piano.

Love this picture!  The girls with Auntie Livvie

We kept the PJ tradition alive, giving each other new ones on Christmas Eve and taking the annual photograph.  

Madeline and Claire made sure that Santa had some shortbread cookies and milk.

We spent Christmas morning at our house for the first time!  

It was a lot of fun to make sure everything was ready for the morning.

Ryan got up early to take Olivia and Rob to the airport to visit family in Ontario and the slight disturbance in the force also woke our little gremlin.  (I know, mixed media references...)  

Somebody was a little excited...

 Claire had lots of fun opening her gifts this year.  

It's one time we don't have to worry about her tearing and ripping things apart!

It was a very fun morning.  We then got ready and headed out to Wetaskiwin for Christmas number....3.

We all got very spoiled!

Ryan and Claire had the right idea.  There's nothing like a Christmas afternoon nap after all the excitement.  We enjoyed a delicious meal and headed home to find places for all our new goodies.

 We took our traditional trip out to Auntie Sheila's house for Boxing day and ate lots of good food and had lots of good fun.

It's always fun to visit the animals.

Luke, Brooklyn, Claire and Madeline had lots of fun together.  Luke and Maddie even tag teamed Ryan for a bout of wrestling in the hallway on our way out!

We had a lot of fun playing with our Christmas gifts.  We got sledding equipment (Thanks Auntie Val!), chocolates and a night out package (Thanks Dave & Jeannette), books/toys/concert tickets (Thanks Laytons!), candy/books/decorations/IKEA wardrobe/movie passes/clothes/stories from Grandpa/shoes/stuffed animals/toys/blankets (Thanks Pattersons!) and lots more.  Spoiled, I say.

Here Madeline is enjoying her face painting kit from Auntie Val.  We've made really good use of this!

Noah is just so cute.  It was fun to watch him open gifts this year.

 As is the case every year, Ryan got older just after Christmas.  ;)  

We had a fun family dinner for him at our place.  

We had a lot of down time between Christmas and the start of school in the new year.  It was nice to get some household projects done and to just relax with one another.  

New Year's Eve found us out in Wetaskiwin.  This was also our...4th celebration of Christmas with those who had been at their in-laws for the big day.  

This oh so flattering photo of me illustrates two things:  (1) Just how sick I was at the time, having to protect everyone from my yucky germs, and (2) the awesome shirt Ryan made me for Christmas.  When/if I start my Rollerderby career, that will be my name and you'd better watch out.  :)

I think Madeline's favourite part of New Year's Eve was spending hours in the hot tub, although you couldn't really tell that by her expression here.  

She did manage to stay up until midnight and had more energy than most of us.

Happy New Year!

 The fun chaos of family get-togethers always makes Claire so happy!

What is an elephant's favourite game to play with ants?

Squash!

(This joke is brought to you by the internet, which I have to search every school day to find jokes for Madeline's snack bag note.  It started out sporadically, but she insists upon it now!)

This will be a quick (ha ha) recap of our activities the past little while.  I hope to do better in the future with providing timely updates, but such is life.  It gets away from me quite often.

Madeline's bed got a little upgrade.  She was a bit leery at first about having such a high bed, but has quickly become used to being the Princess and the Pea.

Madeline's been a busy girl this month.  Some things she's been involved with include:

~She had playdates with friends like Isabella and Hayley

~She attended two musicals with me:  Annie and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (she has a taste for the theatre now!)

~She had a very fun tea party with Janet

~At preschool she presented her "All About Me" bag of precious things, had a teddy bear's picnic, attended a puppet show and had a library fieldtrip.

~She had a few fun dates with Grandma Patterson.

I think Maddie was the only one of us happy to see all the snow begin to fall!

Ryan came up with this interesting way to hold Claire.  She's such a flexible little pretzel girl!

Claire's also been busy with:

~Having school pictures taken and helping mom with Parent Council meetings.

~Attending the Glenrose seating clinic to figure out her new wheelchair.  Hopefully it comes in soon!

~Spending an evening with Grandpa Patterson

~Staying awake at school more regularly and having some really positive experiences there.

Madeline passed Level 3 gymnastics with flying colours and is on to Level 4!

Claire's last day of horseback riding was Achievement Days where her goal was to have a relaxed ride. She did well!

Here is Claire with her faithful helpers, Stewart and Hilary.  Little Bits volunteers are the best!

Auntie Olivia and Cairo surprised us by coming to support Claire.  Here are Madeline and Cairo getting ready for when they start horseback riding lessons someday!

Madeline got her teeth checked by Grandpa Patterson.  She was very brave and had great teeth.  Claire's check ups usually happen at impromptu moments when she's sleeping and grandpa can take a quick look without getting chomped.

Ryan and I got a fun night out to see one of our favourite bands, The Arkells.  We snuck right up to the front and stayed against the stage the whole time.  The opening act included chanting, confetti bombs, serious crowd interaction and a giant parachute.  It was a really fun night!

Ryan and I have also been busy, don't you worry.

I've been working with the Lee Ridge Park Redevelopment Project group and we had our big Silent Auction fundraiser which was a great success.  The Malmo Preschool also had a big Silent Auction fundraiser.  Both were on the same day!  I helped out one night selling programs at the CFR for Little Bits.  Every time I do that I think, "I should buy tickets for the rodeo and actually attend next year!"  I had a fun night out with my sisters and another girl's night with Kathy.   I also, unfortunately, got pretty sick recently, and had to rely on the kindness of friends and family to get through.  Luckily things seem to be back to normal.

Ryan's been busy as usual with work and work.  He was acting admin at his school for a couple of days.  He had a Christmas activity with his Apple co-workers.  He managed to make it through a bout of the flu.  Recently his class did very well at their Christmas concert and he's making his way through report cards and parent/teacher interviews this week.

One morning Madeline woke up early, spread out a picnic blanket and got a fancy breakfast all ready for us.  It was the cutest thing.

And let the Christmas festivities begin!

This year we started things off by attending the Legislature Christmas light-up.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to make this a yearly tradition.

Here's Claire and I before things got started.

We were lucky to have Grandma Patterson and Auntie Steph come along.  

The girls were pretty excited about being there.  Claire really enjoyed feeling all the marble on the walls and bannisters.  Madeline was impressed with all the gold.

The University Mixed Chorus sang some really beautiful songs and we had a great view from the second floor.

The lights were beautiful and it was a lovely warm night.  We couldn't have asked for better conditions!

A very important event of the Christmas season is the Ballerina Dreams recital.  

For 8 weeks the girls practiced with their mentors. 

Here they are, seriously contemplating life at the dress rehearsal.

 

Here's one of our little reindeer before the show began.

 Here's Claire and her helper Mark.  They did a great job!

 It was a lovely evening and we were very proud of the girls.

In between the concert and the Edmonton Cerebral Palsy Association Christmas party, we braved West Ed on a Saturday and Madeline rode a couple of rides, we ate some food and then headed over to the party.  

At the party, for the ECPA, a wonderful group helped with all the crafts and activities.  INspired made it a very wonderful night and it was great to meet new families and interact with old friends.

Here are the girls working on some crafts with a little helper.

We finally managed to get the tree decorated, but it was while I was still sick so Madeline and Ryan took over all the duties.  It turned out wonderfully!

We got to attend a fancy dinner at Beijing Beijing with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday.  Madeline enjoyed spinning the lazy susan around the table and Claire slept through the entire thing, but it was a lot of fun.

I got to attend a special night with Claire where she showed me some things she's learning at school.  She was very excited to show me her beautiful snowman picture!

 This picture is presented without comment.

 Claire and I got to attend a play at the Jubilee with her school.  It was a lot of fun.  She wasn't too impressed with me trying to take photos of her, but here she is in front of one of the beautiful trees at the Jubilee.

We got to break some rules and have her wheelchair near the front of the stage.  I was really disappointed when we first got there because the wheelchair seating was quite far away and since Claire has a visual impairment, I didn't think she'd get much out of the performance from such a distance.  Luckily an usher heard our debate about what to do and suggested that we take a secret passageway down to the front.  It was pretty cool.

Here are the girls cuddling with Grandma Patterson.  She basically took over their care for a good portion of a week while I had tests done and recovered.  I was so grateful for her help and for everyone else who pitched in.

We're in the midst of Christmas preparations - cards, baking, concerts, presents, activities, etc.  School goes right until December 23rd so we won't have much time to rest before Christmas is upon us!  Luckily that means the holiday extends to January 9th so we'll have some downtime before the schedule kicks in again!

Merry Christmas everyone!