Here and there

Sorry for not posting anything lately. I have been busy the season traveling to visit some family. First we went to see my Dad and brother and sister up in Kingston on the 23rd then came back to have Christmas with my home then it was off for a 7 hour trip the next day
to see Mike's family down in Mich. We just got back tonight and I'm tired. We did have a wonderful time though and it was so nice to see everyone again after so long. (I will be posting pictures soon.) This has been an extra special Christmas for me as I'm feeling much better after being sick for so long and I really got to enjoy my time with everyone so much more. I'm very thankful for everyone's prayers for me, that has truly been my best gift this year... my health and everyones love and concern for me. I means so much and I can't thank you enough! Your wonderful!
A now for a surprise I'd like to share with all of you......
as of today I am now up to 120 lbs. I have a healthy round face and my thighs and butt have come back! I have so much to be thankful for.
I do hope to get up to 125 and my prayer for this new year is that I will stay healthy and fit this whole year round and for many more to come. This is going to be such an exciting year no?

For my Family with love

We will ROCK YOU!

My dad and his wife Janna came down to see us on Saturday night. He bought us some tickets to go see the musical "We will Rock you" by QUEEN at the downtown Toronto Canon theater. And I have to say I really enjoyed it. I just love live theater. The only other time I've gone to one is when I was 15 I saw "Beauty and the Beast". That was an awesome performance that I still remember. This show "We will Rock you!" had a great story and dialog, great outfits and lighting. The song numbers were amazing and man can those guys belt it out, just fabulous voices. I wish I could have taken pictures of it but they don't let cameras into the theater. I'm so glad my dad took us out to see it, it was so much fun. It's something I hope I can do again with friends as it's quite an experience.

Please forgive the horrible photo of me but it's the only one we took of us in the main lobby
They had these beautiful paintings on the walls
It was a full house
Some ceiling art work I was admiring. Beautiful no?

Gingerbread house

I found this cute gingerbread house at the dollar store the other day that I thought would be a fun project to do with the kids, so for an afternoon activity the kids and I put it together . It was a rather sticky messy ordeal as the icing was getting everywhere but the kids had fun placing all the candy around it and then sprinkled some coconut around the house for the snow effect. We enjoyed looking at it for a day or two then the time came to demolish it as some of the candy on it started to mysteriously disappear. So the kids gathered round and I broke it up for all the kids to get a small piece with some coconut sprinkled on top.

Christmas Party

We were able to host a Christmas party for the teens in the area on Saturday night. It turned out real well. Lots of people showed up, We had snacks and drinks (everyone helped out) and we were able to set up our Christmas tree just in time. It had been a real hassle getting it up as we couldn't find any of the lights or decorations from last year. But we found a few and bought a few more...sigh of relief! We had games planned thanks to Abi but ended up playing only one, which turned out to be lots of fun (see pictures below). The rest of the time was spent with just everyone enjoying time together. Thanks to all who were involved in making it happen.

Some of the lovely, crazy ladies

Mike and Amy sharing a moment...
Sonya, Gideon and Amy
Laila and me
Seti and Jack frost???
Game fun.....love the outfit!

Oli showing off his new look

Christmas singing

The kids here have been practicing so hard every day for the last 2 weeks and yesterday was their first show. It was a mad house as we worked on getting last minute things for their outfits, going over their songs, getting dressed, doing hair, bundling up for the cold,  In the end the kids were so sweet and well behaved and everyone had a good time and enjoyed the songs. Then later that day we got a Christmas tree. The man was so sweet and started to giggle as the girls sang a carol for him. He then gave a big Boston Fern tree!So pretty... what a surprise!
Here are some pictures of the kids singing



My little singing man

Check out Devin's belly sticking out and how he's so intent on listening to the little old lady
Here's my cookie monster...yummm COOKIES!





And here's the manger I made from bark,sticks and twigs. I even got to work with some bark that came all the way from Italy (thanks to Sarai) It was a lot of fun putting it up. I placed it on the ledge by our staircase.


Here's more snow!

Let it snow

So I braved the cold yesterday. It was family day and there had been a snow storm during the night so there was lots of beautiful snow on the ground that I just couldn't resist going outside with Devin. After bundling him up to where he could hardly move, I got myself dressed up in the same manner (not so fun). We then proceeded out to the back yard where the fluffy yet cold white snow covered everything and waited for our presence. We then began to make a snow man...I started it off then Devin and his friend Mikey took over once it got to big for me to roll around. The sad thing is we didn't get to finish our poor snow man as Devin and the kids got board of rolling this big ball around and just wanted to run and dive into the snow and do what kids do best....get crazy! Ha! Plus it started to get to cold and we had to hurry inside to the warmth of our home and have some chocolate pudding and pancakes. But all in all he had fun and so did I and I know we'll be able to enjoy more adventures in the snow on a later date.
Oh I also set up a manger scene that day and will post a picture of it soon as I think it came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself!
Here's Devin in the snow

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

24 days till Christmas!