Christmas 2007

As much as I have complained about how busy it is in the house with two little ones... somehow I managed to do more baking than I ever have before! It is also super fun to bake with Rya and have somthing to do after nap time in the afternoon. We made three different kinds of Shortbread, Gingerbread men and ladies, and two Sweet Potato pies! (nummmy). For all those who may have wondered... yellow sweet potatoes are no sweeter than regular potatoes.. yes I bought the wrong kind. Thankfully I Googled "Sweet potatoes and yams the difference" and found out the truth before I made the pie. Yams are best if you want it sweet. Just so you know.

We had Christmas at my brother's house this year with our parents and also Jen's(Malcolm's future wife) parents. They live in Brakendale just passed Squamish. It is the Bald Eagle catitol of the world. This time of year there are so many we saw upwards of 20 just in and around the river walking distance from Malcolm's house. Pretty cool.

Rya loves the Christmas tree and all the ornaments. Notice the tiny little ranger outfit to the right. Grandma brought that back from her trip to the Grand Canyon... it is freakishly cute! It should fit Sebastian by the summer... there will be pictures forsure!

Rya is having Grandpa read her favorite story from the Berenstain Bears. We all read it several times on this trip. Rya loves the doctor story and talks about the stethoscope and autoscope and the "shots". She is very interessted in all things "Doctor" these days. We went for a checkup after Christmas because her cough seemed to be getting worse.. and well it was a good excuse for her to go while she is so into the Dr. Se blew our Dr. away by naming all the things he was to do to her while getting the check-up. Named the tools too! It was pretty funny. Then she said "don't forget the booster shots"! She didn't need any this time... hopefully she will be this easy when it is time for those shots!

This is the family Christmas Eve taking in a Danish tradition from Jen's parents Joan and Paul. They prepared a full 8 course Smorgasborg (sp?). Inbetween each course we toast and drink a full shot of shnapps(sp?) those who were breastfeeding were excused of course! By the 5th toast it was getting pretty funny!

We had a 5 dog Christmas. The dogs were almost as spoiled as the kids. Sorry about the allergies Mal.

Rya loved all the dogs... especially little Patches! When she first saw him she said "there is a teeny tiny dog!" It was love at first sight.

When we had had enough of the doctor story, Rya had to read it on her own.

Auntie Jen reading "The Night Before Christmas" to Rya.

Jen and Richard Christmas Eve... after the Shnapps.

Rya was pretty excited to get the last two characters from her fav. DVD The Little Einsteins.

Sporting her Christmas cracker crown and her Kinder eggs

Poor Sebastian... gotta sport teh darn reindeer antlers. Cute though... can't help it.

Merry Christmas little man!

Uncle Malcolm had to wear the reindeer antlers too.

This clip is of Sebastian rocking with his Maracas from Jen and Mal. I walked into it and could stop laughing.

Here is Rya opening her gift from cousin Tynan. It arrived late so we got to open it at home. For Rya Christmas just kept on giving. I filmed the first half of opening the box but for some reason I couldn't upload it. This was the best I could get.

Thanks again Tynan She loved the pressies! especially the toy camera... she slept with it last night. (sigh)