a happy day (again)

We had the pleasure of standing up beside Kate and Craig yesterday - a very lovely day. I will leave all the great shots to John, Kate and Craig. We had an absolute blast celebrating with you and look forward to August and seeing the entire Hyatt gang again.

family and feasting

This week has seen a lot of feasting, family and friends. We have soaked up many visits, kisses and crokinole, most of it being very close to home. We caught up on stories, travels, progress and learned nineteen new things about the penny, yes, the penny. We are having a great time, and will continue to enjoy all things family for another week, as we move from celebrating the season, to celebrating the love between two very special people.

merry christmas from us

We are as busy as elves over here -wrapping up at work, packing at home and getting ready to celebrate a very festive season. I'm hoping to pop back in with a few updates over the next week, but in the meantime we wanted to thank all our family and friends for spending a moment of your day here with us over the past year. Your comments and thoughts are so very appreciated. There was a great article in the Herald today telling a touching story about how to live life, love and laugh everyday - something we strive for and in return, share with you here.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

All our love: Stew, Jess and Anna xoxo

an edmonton christmas

We have returned after a very merry (and snowy) Christmas - we celebrated with a traditional Japanese meal. Katie treated us to lots of great food - salmon, cucumber, avocado and tamogoyaki rolls, miso soup, sake, koya-dofu, kabocha squash, chicken and leak skewers. She used all her Japanese dishes (yes, they are original) and Jacob even said a traditional Japanese 'blessing'. These meals are very fun for us because they are interactive and we get to hear lots of fun stories and tales of when her and Jacob lived in Japan. We also had the most fantastic beverage - it was cinnamon flavoured, it is from Korea, and so tasty.

A number of very thoughtful presents were gifted to Anna - a teddy bear wall hanging from Jacob, a number of our favourite nursery rhyme fabric books from Grandma, an Anne of Green Gables tea set (all the way from PEI) from Grandpa, and the most amazing advent calendar from Katie. I have longed to make one of these for our family, ever since I saw her's a few years ago and we are so lucky to have received a felted version of our own. In this calender you move your 'family' from house to house, until you reach church on the 25th day. She has created a felted version of us, and you'll also notice that the 24th house is actually littlereds'house - so thoughtful - it will be the most wonderful keep sake for us as we travel through December together over years to come.

a new bib

Anna is sporting her new bib - given to her by Tobi for Christmas. It is the best. Leather, with a magnetic clasp and super easy to clean.

These photo's were taken in series - I simply held down, and kept snapping. Oh so cute, thanks Tobi.

our mini santa

Beard and hat included and smells delicious.

her travel backpack

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we have a bit of travel ahead in the coming year. Some of it will be on a plane, others will be by car. And, after all the travel we did this year, I'm starting to see the value in a few 'new' items for the travel time, especially when you are on your own and hoping to be able to go to the bathroom.

Anna is good travel passenger - actually I lucked out, when she was little she slept a lot, and our last flight in October she was very interested in buttons and the other kids that sit with us in isle 14 (yes, if you are flying and don't want to be near kids, don't pick this row, WestJet always put the youngins' together, so steer clear if you don't want food on your clothes or your hair pulled.)

For Christmas this year I wanted to get her something to keep all her travel items together and hopefully make the busy Christmas flight less stressful for all of us. We also have a bit of car travel once we get to Ontario, as we are planning to visit Stew's family in Kingston (hello everyone!) as well as the wedding, so these items are going to be working double duty:

two new animal books, one with sliders, the other is thick and small with great pictures

travel cards (I've been saving these for awhile now, they are from my friend Jennice, alittle advanced, but it always pays to have things that might help other little passengers....yes I believe in travel carma)

finger puppets

small musical instrument

glow in the dark fairy (kinda hard to see in the light)

farm animal set from UFA (sorry, had to plug, these are so beautiful)

backpack is made especially for toddlers, so kid sized, with a pocket, draw string and button

And finally Oopik - he was lost, but now is found, and she hasn't seem him in awhile, so they will have a happy reunion the morning we depart.

our christmas traditions

When thinking about how we wanted to celebrate our Christmas, and what sort of traditions we wanted to start as a family, we came to the conclusion, less is more. Just like birthdays, we wanted things to be simple and special. So, with that in mind we made the decision to get one larger gift for Anna, and try to incorporate a charity aspect as another.

We will also be travelling to five weddings over the next year (so exciting!) so, we are in some respects also on a bit of budget, and it made sense to start our simple tradition early. So....I tasked myself with looking for (I'm going to call them) thrifty Christmas ideas - I found a tonne of fun things to either make or build for her - she is too young for these, but in years to come these will be fun things for her to enjoy. It's really amazing what you can find out there when you start planning/thinking about these things early.

Yesterday we put our above plan in action, and it was nice, very nice. Stew made a yummy roast chicken, I did a coleslaw and some veggies, and we bookended our Christmas meal with our present opening. A few gifts, with very special meaning to all of us. Here they are for you to see:

Anna finger (and foot painted) her first real piece of 'art' - I found a canvas on sale at Michaels - she picked these colours (she grabbed the first two offered so to speak) - this was for Stew, and I think it turned out really nice. He loved it, and has actually taken it to his office for everyone to enjoy.

I received a beautiful pair of earrings - they are copper, something I don't have a lot of, and Stew found them in Inglewood at his favourite store.

Anna was the recipient of a Learning Tower - this is an item we've been talking about and considering for a long time. And, over the past week at home with the pinky eye, I'm so glad we got it. Despite her understanding the stove as - 'hot, danger!', it's still a challenge in the way our kitchen (and our house) is set up. So, thanks to Grandpa, he has picked it up for us and we will be getting it this weekend.

Anna has also sent a shoe box to a child in Haiti. This box contains school supplies, clothes, a toy and a few small treats. For both Stew and I, our families tried to give back as much as possible during the holidays, so we are hoping to continue this tradition for Anna in our own special way.