Christmas 2011!!

Well, I am pleased to announce that the interminable wait for the blog posting for Christmas 2011 is finally over. End of the first week of March and I'm finally ready to face the daunting task. The stumbling block to the yearly Christmas posting is, of course, the wading through and culling of the zillions of photos I take. The bigger problem this year is that so many of the pictures were crap. The new camera is great outdoors but terrible indoors - blurry photos of kids running around a blurry tree do not an interesting blog posting make. Below are the whopping nine photos that are somewhat in focus and that capture the week that was.

We drove to London, ON for Christmas this year, adopting a twin monitor DVD player into our family just for the occasion. The kids loved it and it made the 7+ hour drive withstandable.

The cousins were thrilled to see each other. Maggie and Gabrielle have more and more in common each time they see each other. The notable exception is obvious - they couldn't decide on a suitable dress code for the opening of Christmas Day gifts. Gabrielle opted for "pyjama casual" and Maggie chose "fairytale ball." In my opinion, they were both super-appropriate.

Isaac and Trevor were both dressed in pyjamas. Men!

This photo is funny. It looks like Isaac has murdered Trevor for his sippy cup. He didn't. In fact, it was Trevor melting down after opening two presents. Isaac followed suit ten minutes later.

Mother and daughter in their "I've been a good girl this year" poses.

The kids really did have a good time together. Here are the four of them crammed around a ten-year old digital camera with a screen the size of a postage stamp. Of course, they were in a room filled to the brim with brand new Christmas presents for each of them, but this old camera was a real hit.

Ray and Katharine have a huge backyard with a tremendous playset. This was also the last day of green before a foot of snow fell the following day.

A self-portrait of Trevor and I. He's cute, sure. But notice that I'm wearing a Saskatchewan Rough Riders hoodie. Go Riders!! (At least when you're having Christmas dinner with Ray and Katharine.)

Katharine taught me how to make log. With a smile.

The kids and their amazing homemade knitted hats from Aunt Katharine. "Smile everyone, look at the camera, no Isaac, stay in place, wait Trevor, don't go yet, no Gabrielle, just look at the camera, Maggie, please, just smile and wait until we say you can go, oh forget it, this picture is good enough...."