December 29th

This afternoon, we took my niece to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the theatre (it was Austin's Christmas present to her-- he'd picked her name for our gift exchange.)

And for the past couple of days, I've been scrapping. Ahhh, it's felt so good!
I set up my tools on the dining room table and broke out my MSS January kit. It feels like old times-- I made seven layouts with this kit!

Here are a couple of peeks:





Thanks for looking!

December 28th

Austin's best friend, Soren, came over for the day. They played PS3 (Soren's), Wii and watched videos. They also went tobogganning with Jonah & Sage. My niece, Heidi, came over for lunch and to scrapbook together.


December 27th



Sage spent the night at my MIL's, so the boys and I went to Winkler in the morning to spend their Christmas money. We relaxed for the rest of the day. I scrapbooked at the dining room table. My niece, Heidi, dropped in for a bit. After supper, we had a movie night.


December 26th



We went to the farm in the afternoon to celebrate Cam's mom's birthday.


December 25th



We spent the morning at home, opening gifts and putting together Lego sets. In the afternoon, we went to the farm. Cam's sister's family was there, too. We skated for a bit on the rink Cam built. I went for a walk with my SIL & her daughter. We had supper together and opened gifts afterwards.


December 24th



Cameron took Austin & Sage to the farm with him in the morning, so Jonah & I hung out together at home. We did patterns, practised piano and made cookies. After lunch, Austin, Jonah & Sage went tobogganning while I walked to Coop for some groceries. When I got back to the school, we walked to the library together. In the evening, we attended a fabulous Christmas Eve service at my church.

December 23rd

I was so excited to get my last gift done last night and all of my wrapping finished, too!



This morning, Cameron took Sage with him to the farm, so it was just the boys and me. I let Austin use some of my supplies so he could finish off his gift for his secret person (we drew names back in November and it has been top secret!)
We also ran some errands in Winkler this afternoon and went to Twister's for supper. The kids loved the little juke boxes in the booths-- so wishing I'd brought my camera along. Jonah already asked this evening if we could go back next week! LOL!
We rented and watched Elf this evening-- a first viewing for all of us! Lots of laughter and cuddling-- a perfect evening!

December 22nd

Today, I spotted a photo challenge on the For the Love of Art Blog. The challenge was to post a picture of each of the following things.

1. Your Christmas Tree. Let's see 'em!
2. YOU. Take a photo of yourself. You and only you. No family, no pets. Just you.
3. Your favorite thing right now (sky's the limit)
4. Your Scrapbooking Table/Desk RIGHT NOW!
5. Someone you love in a Santa hat.
6. Your favorite project you created within the last 3 months.
7. A favorite decoration or ornament.
8. Freebie--> any photo you want to share..make sure you tell us why!

So, here's what I came up with....

1. My tree:



2. I tried to take a picture of myself in the mirror, but it didn't turn out, so I asked Austin to take one of me. This one was my favourite:



3. My favourite thing right now: the fact that I got all of my presents wrapped this afternoon:



4. My scrap space right now. It's messy, but unfortunately not with scrappy stuff per say. I also use my space for sewing and have one more apron to make as a gift.



5. I'm skipping #5, because we don't have a santa hat.

6. My favourite project that I created within the last 3 months is, surprisingly enough, not scrappy. It's a quilt that I made for Sage for Christmas. I managed to keep it a surprise and cannot wait to see her open it on Saturday morning!



7. A favourite decoration or ornament: my Willowtree manger scene:



8. Freebie--> a photo I want to share: our family's Christmas card photo:



I wanted to share this photo to wish all of my bloggy friends a very merry Christmas!

December 21st

I had the day off of work and got 10 things accomplished today...

1. I had coffee with my friend, Susan, this morning.

2. I attended Austin's french immersion Christmas lunch at his school.

3. I attended Sage's assembly at her school this afternoon. They did a great job singing and performing poems. They sang a song about Jan Brett's The Mitten and some of the kids got to wear hats on their heads representing who they were in the story. Sage got to be the bear (& was quite excited about it!)



4. I showed up for my hair appointment at 4:15, only to be told that it was yesterday. :( They're seeing what they can do to reschedule me, but I'm not holding my breath that it will be before Christmas.

5. I wrapped up the kids' teacher gifts that I'd made.



I made each of the teachers a set of eight cards "from the desk of", with two different designs.





I used Bo Bunny and Crate Paper patterned paper, a Hero Arts Cling stamp, SU! stamps & ink and my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. (By the way, I love that Austin's teacher's name is Mrs. Smart-- what a perfect teacher name!)

6. I made my gift tags for my Christmas presents.





I decided to go a little fancier than in past years. I cut out circles from kraft cardstock and stamped them with my Hero Arts Cling stamp in white. After that dried, I added some SEI stamps in red ("to" & "from") and a punched scallop circle and snowflake. I used American Crafts for the blue and the red is some wrapping paper I picked up at Walmart.

7. I played three rounds of crazy eights with the kids tonight.

8. I read one storybook and two chapters of our advent story (we're caught up once again!)

9. I picked up thirty juice boxes for Jonah's class party tomorrow and dropped off my books at the library.

10. This one isn't complete yet, but since I have two hours before bed, I'm hopeful it will (provided I get off of the computer and get my rear in gear!): I got my Christmas gifts that I'm sewing done.
(ETA: Okay, it's 10:15, and since I have to work tomorrow morning, I'm going to bed. BUT, I just wanted to add that I did get one apron done, so I just have one more to finish. :) )

Thanks for looking!

December 20th

Tonight, Cameron & I dropped the kids off at tae kwon do and went to the church for a choir rehearsal for our Christmas Eve service. My good friend, Darlene, is conducting the choir.

December 19th

This evening, the kids had their Sunday School Christmas program. All three of them sang in the choir, with Austin singing a solo for one verse of "Go, Tell it on the Mountain." Then Austin had a speaking part in the reader's theatre and Sage got to play Mary.







A fabulous evening!

December 18th

This afternoon, we decorated Christmas cookies. Such a fun tradition!


December 17th





Tonight, we had our annual "Dyck/Heide/Penner" gathering with Larry, Val, Layton, Logan, Pam, Walter & Alex coming over for appetizers and games. A fun evening, as usual!

December 16th

My first day off in a while!
Cameron & I drove to Walhalla to pick up a couple of orders from Amazon.com. I ran some errands in Winkler while he visited his dad.
Val came over in the afternoon & I gave her her Christmas gifts. This Willowtree figurine
and an apron I made for her (using an ePattern from Above All Fabric and some fabric I bought when I was in Congo last February.)



Now we're off to Austin's grade 5 & 6 concert.
Thanks for looking!

December 15th

Gotta love how in the midst of a busy, mundane day, a trip to the post office to pick up a parcel from Trevor, Noah & Tat, as well as my prize from Studio Calico can just brighten it ever so much!

December 14th

Tonight was Jonah's grade 3 & 4 concert. Jonah got to play piano before the concert and did a great job! He also did a wonderful job singing with his class and the voluntary choir!

December 13th

Work during the day. Homework after school. Leftovers for supper. Practise piano. Tae kwon do. Made some goodies after putting the kids to bed.

December 12th

One of our advent traditions is reading from this book (or this one this one -- we alternate them each year) almost every night before bed. Tonight we had to catch up from Thursday-- not bad for us, actually!
(Photo courtesy of Cameron)

December 11th

And after waiting almost two months after I'd ordered them, I finally got to pick up my new glasses. (Photo courtesy of Sage.)

December 10th



After nearly a week after we'd decorated the house for Christmas, we finally set up the ceramic tree that my mom made. We put it in Sage's room.

December 9th



Tonight, we had Austin's noon choir concert, along with the grade 7 & 8s choirs and bands.

December 6th

Today, I addressed my Christmas cards and photos. I also mailed most of them and put the photos in the boxes at church. I didn't order enough photos, so I reordered some from Walmart and hope to get there this week to pick them up.

Tonight, we had our tae kwon do fundraiser; we kicked for an hour (for me, this was a total of 350 kicks-- round house (125), front snap kick (50), step-behind side kick (25), axe kick (25), fast kick (25), back spin kick (50) and 360 roundhouse (50).) Our family raised $200 for this, with all the proceeds going to Christmas Cheer.

December 5th

Today, we went to church and Sunday school this morning. After lunch, we decorated the Christmas tree and then set up the tripod to take some family photos.



I got this one while we were waiting for Cameron and Sage.





A couple of family ones with the timer.







And then some of just the kids.
(The last one is my favourite!)

Thanks for looking!

December 4th

Today was a day of fun: some planned and some unexpected.

The unexpected: the kids' cousin, Luke, dropped by this morning and took the kids skating at the nearby outdoor rink. They were gone for over 2 hours and had a blast!



While they were gone, I cleaned up the house and put up the Christmas decorations. I kept it pretty simple this year, opting to not put out several things, focusing mostly on our two manger scenes: one is Precious Moments and the other is Willow Tree.

When the kids got home, we had lunch and then, after Luke left, we put up the Christmas tree and lights. I was happy to see that Sage still gets a kick out of playing in the Christmas tree box!



And I was thrilled to get this shot...



... and this one...



Then, this evening, Cameron & I had our school division banquet, so I had Sage climb up on a chair and take a picture of us. She took several and this was the best one (on the other ones, my chin was cut off!)



Thanks for looking!