Christmasnooch part 2

Katharine and Ray spent real Christmas with Ray's family in London and then bravely strapped their kids in and drove to Ottawa on the 26th. We had a stocking redux the morning after they arrived and it was like Christmas all over again. As an aside, on December 31st Gabrielle asked if Santa was going to come again. After first Christmas, second Christmas, and then her birthday being celebrated at two-day intervals, it's no wonder. But I digress...

We finally had guests in our new guest room! Even Trevor and Maggie got some real estate on the new bed, with Ray apparently drawing the short straw and having to sleep on a short little cushion which was gaily covered in purple Dora sheets.



The cousins generally had a great time playing together. Gabrielle did her usual following Maggie around with adulation routine and Maggie did her usual exasperated with Gabrielle routine. Maggie is a very mature little girl who seemed to understand the power she has over Gabrielle and so she agreed to keep her "ewww... broccoli!!" comments to herself.



G seemed to really like Baby Trevor. I'm not sure what he thought of her - he's a pretty easy going guy, making Isaac seem positively screechy (which he's kind of becoming, in any event). Trevor and Isaac's development were at very similar levels at Christmas, with lots of crawling and some standing going on by both. On the last day of their visit, Isaac took his first solo steps, so I guess he won that contest but not by much, I assume...



Jane demonstrated some culinary skills with a big knife. Gabrielle is rightfully scared of big knives, so I expect she was warning Nana repeatedly of the dangers of big knives. "Careful Nana. Careful! Nana? Careful Nana. Knives are sharp, Nana. Nana?"



Pat engaged the girls on the physics of Weebles. Also, note Mark in the background, enjoying a beer. He was the chef on duty that night, making his now-famous roast beef dinner, with Yorkshire puddings, roast vegetables, and all the trimmings. I guess making dinner is thirsty work - every time I looked over, Mark seemed to be chugging back Coronas between checking on the meat. Nice dinner babe - not bad for a drunk guy.



The boys in all their cuteness. Smile!



OK, now serious.



So cute. As different as can be except for the very obvious.

Next up: Christmasnooch part 3: G's birthday

Christmasnooch part 1

Last Christmas, in a fit of madness no doubt brought on by too much turkey, Mark and/or I (we can't remember who is to blame) declared "next year, in Ottawa!" It seems people were paying attention and actually took us seriously. As Gabrielle likes to say, "we have a job to do," and so as December arrived, we hurriedly unpacked our boxes, hid the ones we couldn't unpack, bought a wall bed, and crossed our fingers, hoping we could pull off hosting Christmas for the Draper clan.

Luckily, the family appeared in waves, and so we were lulled in, gently, into the festive season. The first arrivals were Pat, Jane, and Aunt Kitty. They arrived on Christmas Eve, had a short visit, then returned to the nearby hotel where they were staying. They returned on Christmas morning for the customary opening of the Christmas bags.

For those faithful readers of this blog who do not have the last name of Draper, the Christmas bags are my own name for what the Drapers call "stockings." They don't look like stockings - they look like laundry bags, or perhaps pillowcases for those nice Queen- or even King-size pillows. The bags or "stockings" are huge, and often filled to the top with goodies. Anyways, this is how Christmas morning traditionally begins - with the stockings/bags/cases. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of G and Isaac in their red pyjamas in front of the bags but Isaac wouldn't cooperate. By the time we were ready to open these, it was time for his morning nap, and so off to bed he went so that we could open presents in peace.



Here are Kitty and G comparing foot sizes. This is not a Draper tradition, it's just something they were doing.



Pat and Jane showed up on Christmas morning all gussied up, dressed to the nines. Whereas Mark, the kids and I were all in our pyjamas for the entire day. Next time, we'll agree on the dress code ahead of time. Pat showing off his profound tea towel.



G was great at opening gifts. She squeaked and squealed after every one, although she moved pretty quickly to the next one. Here she is pleasing me by modelling her new slippers, but you can tell she just wants to get it over with so that she can open more presents.



Finally Isaac woke up, much happier, and ready to open his big red bag presents. The first present was this plush soccer ball, which he absolutely adored and killed his interest in going any further. Luckily, G was there to assist, basically opening all his presents for him. I can't tell you how many times we said "Gabrielle, remember, those are Isaac's presents," as she squeaked and squealed with every one.



Isaac got a bit shy when Mark's friend Jim came for his bi-yearly visit to drop off the "ding a ling" card Mark and he have been passing back and forth for over 25 years. Isaac does the cutest things when he feels threatened.



Christmas dinner. It all came together in the end but it was a bit harried in the last half hour. How could I have forgotten to boil the potatoes??



After dinner is traditionally the opening of the "tree" gifts, so-called because they are put under the tree. So much for a Jewish girl to learn. Because Katharine and her family weren't here yet, we only opened a few gifts, saving the rest until the Draper-Quinns arrived in a couple of days. G got the Weebles she'd been pining for and here are the kids, unknown to me, chomping down on Belgian chocolates sent by Mark's Uncle Mike and Aunt Heather. Sweet sweet Christmas...



Next up: The Draper Quinns and Christmasnooch part 2.

Tobogganing success!

Last year, G had no interest whatsoever in tobogganing and was miserable even sitting in her sled and having us pull her around gently on flat ground, for whatever unknown reason. With trepidation, we headed to the tiny hill at Dovercourt, hoping a year of maturation will have done its work on her, but secretly knowing that it wouldn't have. We were wrong.



From the first run, G loved it, and yelled "again!" at the bottom. Hell, let's try Isaac:



The little man just sat there, upright and expressionless, until the bottom, at which point he'd flap his arms up and down, which we took as a sign for "again!" It's been a lot of fun, and we've gone a half dozen times since then, with Gabrielle working up her skills and trying new things, like going down the ice slide on her tummy, head first! I don't think we've discovered her hidden genius at luge or skeleton, but we've found something fun we can do outside that tires them out. Excellent.

Three going on thirteen

Indulge me while I get one more post in before I delve into the millions of Christmas/birthday photos...

Gabrielle spends a fair bit of time with her new pal Madeline, who is about 6 months older than her and a somewhat corrupting influence. Suddenly, Gabrielle's speech is full of the word "like", not as in "I like ice cream" or "I like mummy's chicken biryani" but more "I was, like, outside today and, like, was walking down, like, the street, like, and I, like, had to wait for baby Isaac, like, and it was sooooo annoying!" Seriously?? You don't know the meaning of annoying, G.

But I like Madeline - she's energetic and fun and has a similar devotion to the colour pink. Here's one of their dance parties:





And then they disappeared upstairs. I followed them up after about 15 minutes of silence and they were just, like, hanging out, totally dontcha know.



Later, they were vegging out on the couch, reading their fave library books.



And here they are recreating the time when G fell asleep with a book on her head:

Two against one

These little people have finally figured out that although they're small, there's power in numbers. This is but one example of how they are using teamwork to exert their domination over us: