The Sketch Challenge

Always love this challenge each month for Skrap N Chat...

Here is the sketch


And my take on it

And Jessica's

And April's

And Dawn's

And Suzanne's

And Jenn's

And Angela's

Sweet Nutcracker Suite

When I was a little girl, I remember going to the Nutcrack Suite when I was about 6 with my Mom and Grandma.  And this year, I got to do it with Mom and Kaylee.

While I had the best of intentions of organizing this and getting us there, I had left it too late but made myself a note to be extra on the ball for next year.  But as luck would happen, I was given three tickets for the matinee, which was perfect.

This years performance was the Alberta Ballet, and it was beautiful.  It has a very Russian feel to it and the set was absolutely spectacular.  Kaylee enjoyed it (although the last 10 mins was almost asleep) and hopefully she is gaining an appreciation of arts.  She did say that she didn't think ballet was super girly anymore and that she would like to give dance a try again.

I'm glad that we went, and will definitely do it again.  It really is a good part of Christmas.

Merry Christmas

A day filled with fun, family and lots of new toys for us all!!  Santa brought just what the kids were looking for (Millennium Falcon for him and a microphone and speaker for her) with other great things like Etcha Sketch and books

They shared the day helping each other, reading cards together and handing out all the presents to my parents and my brother..

Many of the cards had special wishes in them, and some even filled with gift cards or money for them to go pick out their own things later (a favourite are the gift cards to the book store)

It seems as though so many gifts were a hit, it's hard to tell a favourite yet.  The cameras were both a big big hit, and I'm sure we will all see the world from a different perspective!  I can't wait to see what they take pictures of.

Dinner was an awesome turkey at Mom and Dad's and by the end of the night everyone was pretty tired.  All in all, an amazing Christmas at the Heal house.

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve.  It's when the magic it at it's most and the anticipation is so thick you could cut it!!  This year was a little different, but I really enjoyed it.

First we headed over to Nana and Papa's.  These are one set of the kids great grandparents.  Nana is a young 88 this spring and Papa will be 90.  They still live on their own and have a pretty good life.  I love that my kids have all of this surrounding them.

Afterwards we headed over to Chris' moms.  Usually we have dinner with them time year (we rotate who goes where what year) but she suggested an afternoon visit which suited us just fine.  We saw Doug and Leann (Chris' brother and fiancé) and then headed home.

A simple roast beef dinner, and a movie was on the schedule.

Of course, what is Christmas Eve without new Christmas PJ's??  A long long standing tradition that has been passed a long.  I love my  new cozy red ones, Braydon was thrilled that there were snowboarding dudes on his, and KJ is cute with reindeer and snowflakes.

The movie of choice was the Santa Clause, which helps explain a whole lotta questions that can come around Santa Claus.

After the movie we set out some carrots for the reindeer (9) and some eggnog and cookies for St. Nick.  Then we sprinkled magic reindeer food on the roof complete with sparkles in them to ensure that they could find out place easily.

Going to sleep was wanted more than it seemed possible, both kids were a little on the excited side of things to say the least.  But eventually visions of sugar plums danced in their heads and they drifted off.

 Chris and I stayed up a bit later to see if we could catch a glimpse of the big guy, but no luck for us either so we too headed for bed.....where I had the same problem as the kids getting myself to sleep.  Happy Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night

Snow Babies

I have always had a love for skiing.  And when I started the kids, they just didn't seem to have the passion for it.  So I made the hard decision NOT to make them and just wait it out as hopefully that moment would come.  Well this week, it did!!  Braydon didn't love skiing, so he asked to try boarding.  Ok, I said.  Hopefully this will come easier than skiing did to him and we would get those days on the hill together.

 Skiing on the North Shore can be a wet sport.   But wow did we luck out with the weather.  They had lessons planned for three days, two with blue bird sky and one with snow.  Worked out pretty well I think. Can you see how big his smile is??

Kaylee did enjoy skiing, and was excited to have another go at it.  She hoped onto her board and headed down the slope.  She went from purple to orange and I know with a few more days on the hill she and I will be doing some bigger runs together.  She did get onto the chairlift and ended the days tired but loving skiing!!

 I'm such a happy snow person myself!  The kids are keen to go into lessons again in the New Year and I'm hoping to make this a family sport once again.

I love wrapping

I remember sitting at my dining room table wrapping gifts with my Mom and Grandma.  Learning how to curly ribbons, how to fold the paper and how to make each one pretty.  Maybe this is where my love of paper and ribbons came from????

Tonight, when everyone else was all snug in their beds, I went downstairs and wrapped for a little while.  I'm not done, but it was nice to plug in the ear phones, listen to some Christmas music and wrap away.

We Fish You a Merry Christmas

A long time ago, in a land just up the road, my Mom bought me a fish tank.  The deal was, she bought the tank, I bought and cared for the fish. I thought it was SUCH a great deal because the tank was $200 and fish, well they were cheap.....right??

Let's just say, Mom's always know best right?  Fish are cheap, sure.  But when you keep killing the fish over and over again, it quickly becomes more expensive than the tank was originally.

The tank already wasn't doing well.  I loved my fishes, but I wasn't a good fishy owner. I eventually moved out and took the tank with me, thinking I can do this.  Set it all up and bought (more) fish.  My friends called it the tank of death.  I mean, sure an aquatic frog actually jumped OUT of the tank, we think in attempt to take it's own life.  But tank of death seemed just so, well...

Eventually I gave up.  But when I moved in with Chris and got all domestic and stuff, I tried again.  All faithful, it was fine till my friend showed up at the house and said "you brought back the tank of death".  Chris looked at me and asked what that was about.  I smiled.

When we moved here, the fishes had all gone to fishy heaven.  But when Braydon was about 4 he found the tank and asked me to fill 'er up.  Chris looked at me again (this time knowing better) and said this should be interesting.  The first few didn't' fair well, until I actually listened to Chris and added an air filter. You see, in my defence, I had asked what I'm doing wrong, and I was told that a small 20 gallon tank didn't need the air, so I never had one.

Well guess what.  A 20 gallon tank NEEDS air.  It's amazing how long fish can last when you start to figure it all out!!

So today when I got home, I noticed water on the counter by the tank.  In hopes that I had knocked something liquid over I wiped it up, only to find more water.  Chris looked at me (this time knowing that I could keep them alive) and said I guess you are setting up a new tank tonight.

Instead of finishing up my Christmas shopping, I headed down to Pet Smart to simply pick up another 20 gallon and use all that I already had.  But of course, in true me fashion, I found a nicer bigger tank.  I sent a quick text to Chris and he said go for it and Merry Christmas.

So now my fish have a beautiful 37 gallon house.  The 11 I currently have will soon be joined by some new friends and this tank of hope should last me a long long time.

BTW - Bruce our shark has been alive for four years and seems to be thriving in his new home.