Jesus is the Reason

I look around and wonder where to even start this post, when my heart is so full and I have so very much to be thankful for. This Christmas season has been all about starting new family traditions as it has been our very first Christmas as a family. Our desire was to make Jesus the center of this holiday season which always gets so carried away with presents and Santa and materialism. While we did succumb to buying presents for one another we also wanted to center and focus this season on the real reason. We started a new tradition of an advent calendar that I had picked up at the thrift store in November. It came with an advent book that has a story for each day of December with the Christmas story. On the chain there is a new name for God for every day of the month. It has been very special for both the girls and Steve and I. Today as we finished up the book and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus, complete with a homemade chocolate mousse cake- Danika asked if we could do this book every year. And this morning before we opened presents I asked the girls what they learned through reading the book and Danika recited the entire Christmas story, which totally blessed both Steve and I.

This morning was everything I had hoped it would be and more! Steve and I wanted a simple Christmas day with our family, spent in our new Christmas jammies and having lots of family time. And that is exactly what happened.  After our Christmas Eve service last night in which Steve sang in, we went to our friends the Olson's for appetizers and we didn't get home until late at night. So this morning both the girls slept in until 8:30 am. I popped in my Christmas morning 'Wife Saver' Casserole and we went and opened our stockings. The girls were completely satisfied after they opened their stockings and played until breakfast. We had a nice long breakfast and then went and sat down and opened the rest of the presents. We were all so blessed and spoiled!! I loved watching my Danika's face as she opened up her beloved Maplea doll she has been asking for, for 2 months. And Adessa's face as she squealed with delight in opening her presents and her contentedness of wanting to just play with what she opened before moving onto the next. I loved watching  Steve's face as I pulled out the hidden fishing rod that he has secretly been coveting.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with new toys, talking to our families and thanking them for all the amazing presents we got from them. We then put our Christmas dinner together which consisted of ham, salad, scalloped potatoes and homemade french bread. And we took off outside with our toboggans to enjoy the  white Christmas that had been falling since morning. It was perfect outside, the snow was quite wet, but enough to get in a few runs down the hill and a couple of little snowmen! When we got home we had our yummy Christmas dinner complete with white tablecloth, china and wine glasses filled with our classy Martinellis!

Many times today I caught myself just staring at my beautiful family and just smiling. I know that there is so much hurt and pain in this world and I just feel so blessed to have everything so perfect right now. I have 2 beautiful, healthy girls, a husband who is my absolute best friend in the world and a little miracle growing rapidly inside my belly. I don't want to sound like I am bragging- I just feel so blessed. God is so good, I know hard times come and I pray I can be as thankful as I am now today, in this moment.
I pray that our world would come to realize how special and amazing the gift of Jesus is and that we would savor His goodness and blessings because they are all around us!

 Enjoy a few snapshots of our last few weeks...

Our homemade Christmas Cards, made with finger and hand prints

Adessa my little helper- she helped with all the Christmas baking and we also made ornaments

Having a good friend over to paint our homemade ornaments!

Christmas present for Mrs. Mitchell! Homemade baking, ornaments and chocolate!

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

My Christmas Angels!

We love our baby sister! 

Self timer family portrait!

My beautiful girls ready for Christmas Eve Service 

Opening our one present on Christmas eve... New Jammies and slippers!!!

YAY!!!

30 weeks... getting excited to meet this little gift!!!

'Winter' Concert

Last Thursday night was Danika's 'winter' concert... of course they can't call it Christmas... which is sad and the whole focus was on Santa. But it was very well done and Danika had fun. She told us that both her and one other girl were the only ones that sang and did the actions and no one else in her class did... but it looks like her class did quite well and like Danika was a little timid!!!

Danika's class trickling onto the stage

My beautiful little girls!

Mt. Washington

Last weekend we went up to Mt. Washington with our life group. It started as a neat idea with Mark and Caroline saying how fun it would be to get away and go to their families chalet on the mountain, not thinking it would happen as Mark and Car are Dairy farmers and NEVER get to get away. But with little planning it all came together and everyone was so excited to go up there. There was 23 of us in the chalet, 11 of which were children under the age of 6. I can truly say it was amazing though- everyone got along, the kids all played so well and I found myself looking around just feeling blessed. I grew up going on family trips and those were such special memories and now I get to do that with my own children. It was a very neat, special feeling. Sleeping didn't come too easy as a few kids were up most of the night crying... thankfully our kids slept like babies due to the outside playing in the snow. And Steve brought the industrial sized box of earplugs so everyone happily took those!

One of many kid-filled hot tubs of our weekend

The beautiful snow covered chalet

Tobogganing with the kids down the road in front of the chalet... aka... tiring them all out! 

Gorgeous and peaceful

Me and my little fair weathered child... she is definitely an island child, she can only handle the cold in small doses!

Hubby and I 

Danika loved every moment out in the snow

Not enough sleep in the chalet... so moments of closed eyes were needed!

Alycia planned a bunch of crafts for the kids... it was so awesome,  Alycia and Steve were the only ones without children and it was such a blessing- when all the parents were tired, Alycia and Steve would entertain, they are such an awesome couple!

Decorating cookies with our best friends is the BEST!

We went up to the ski hill to do the tobogganing... it was my kind of tobogganing. Once you bomb down the hill your tube gets hooked up and you sit and get pulled up the hill! 

Having too much fun!!!

Adessa was done after a day in the snow!

Our wonderful friends, the Nagtegaals, who set this whole weekend up!

My wonderful family!

Saturday night we had an ugly Christmas Sweater party and a good ol Christmas feast with a Turducken!
Yes... that is a boneless turkey stuffed with a duck and a chicken with sausage in between each layer! And it was actually DELICIOUS! 

We didn't get a picture of the WHOLE group... but here is our life group (in our ugly Christmas sweaters)... such a blessing to do life with all these wonderful people!!!

I love living on the island it is so neat having a ski hill with amazing snow a couple of hours from our house, when you leave the hill that is covered with snow you get less and less until you get to the bottom where there is green grass! On our way home we were passed by a truck with 2 surfboards on the roof! Love that you can ski and/or surf all on the same weekend!!! 

Shoe Boxes and our Christmas Tree!

We have always tried to do Christmas shoe boxes as a family, as that is the least we can do! And it is such an awesome opportunity to have the girls learn to give. We went shopping together for the boxes and even though the girls really wanted the barbies for themselves, they both realized that the little kids that would be getting them would need them more. It has been neat seeing them understand, as we support a child through Compassion (her name is Edessa and she was born on August 5th, 2004... such a cool thing as our Adessa was also born on August 5th!!!)
The girls packed their shoe boxes with lots of enthusiasm, as Adessa was giving it to someone her age and Danika packed hers for someone her age. They both colored pictures and we sent a picture of each girl with a little note on the back. We prayed for the boxes and sent them off with lots of love!!!

This is our very FIRST year having Christmas by ourselves. Since moving to the island we have always driven back for Christmas to spend with family. But with 2 weddings this year and 2 trips back to Calgary we decided we would try a Christmas by ourselves. And I am looking forward to it!!! We will definitely miss our family and all the traditions we have with each side, but we are also very excited to start our own family traditions. Like getting our first REAL Christmas tree!!!! 

Adessa Mattie.... she wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of  us  as it took us SO long to find the 'perfect tree'  she was ready to pick one and leave as soon as we got there! 

They were all such beautiful trees and it was such a beautiful day out!

THIS ONE!!!! hehe

Daddy and his girls with the saw that would cut down our tree! :) 

The girls wanted right in there to help daddy saw down the tree

The perfect tree! Adessa was quite relieved!

Our decorated tree, it has a lot of room for many more... but we will slowly collect them!  We also still need a star for the top! 

We didn't realize that cutting down a real tree would come with so many SPIDERS... my biggest phobia. Since setting up the tree we have kept our vacuum out to suck up the spiders that keep coming out! AHH!! 

Re-Cap!

It has has been awhile since I have written anything. Once again, as everyone says life is 'flying by.' So much has happened in this past month, so here is a quick re-cap. We went to Calgary at the beginning of November for a few weeks for my little brothers wedding. (I still can't believe he's married... bought a house, and a dog!)  We flew back for the first time and it was WONDERFUL. 18 hours of driving vs. 1 hour of flying... um yes please. The girls loved flying on the airplane and were very well behaved. We rented a car in Calgary so we could come and go as we pleased. We spent the first few days at my sister's house and it was so fun to be there. It was our first time sleeping at their place as usually we sleep at my families. We arrived the day before Halloween so we carved pumpkins together and got the kids ready together. That was so special as we haven't had a Halloween together with our kids yet. However it WAS FREEZING outside and all the kids had to bundle up in snowsuits under their costumes... Oh the memories! I don't miss the freezing Calgary air, that is for sure!

We also got to go see my grandma in her new home. She moved from her Condo to this beautiful Seniors facility in the south of Calgary. It was so special to see her new place and have a nice visit. She is 92 years old and has lived alone for a long time, so it is comforting knowing she is with many others in a safe place. Grandma totally spoiled her great-grandchildren, she had chocolates and cookies and then when she took us on the tour of the facility (equipped with libraries, a theater and a gourmet dining area!) she got the girls both an ice cream cone! It was a very special visit!

Friday night was the rehearsal and my mom put on a FANTASTIC meal at her house for over 25 people... she is amazing!

Both the girls were flower girls with their cousin Ella and their cousin Max was the ring bearer. Uncle Joel had to hold a box of raisins at the front of the room to get Max to walk up the aisle, it was pretty cute!!! The girls did amazing and the wedding was beautiful. Nikayla looked amazing, and my brother looked so grown up and handsome! The reception was at Priddis greens and was the most beautiful reception facility I have seen, and we have been to A LOT of weddings. All in all it was a fantastic day, and we were so thankful and blessed to have been a part of it.

We had majority of the girls that I went to El Salvador with. It was a very neat little reunion and so good to see all those beautiful ladies!

The following day we headed to my parents home and spent a few days there. It felt quick, but we still got in some fun times. We went to the zoo one day and spent the ENTIRE day walking around, the highlight definitely being the new penguin display. 

We also spent time with Steve's family and checked out the new science center with them, but were a bit disappointed, I definitely liked the old one way better!

The whole family came out on Saturday and it felt a lot like Christmas as my in-laws cooked a big turkey dinner and it was so nice having the family together.

I sure have learned to cherish these big family get together's as they are so few and far apart and both our families are growing so big.

When we got home, it was nice getting back into routine. Danika was happy to be back at school, she is doing very well. We got her first report card back and there are a few areas that we still need to work on. She is in a letter help class every day of the week and she really enjoys it as they get to play on i-pads. She is still quite behind on where she should be reading, so that is something we are working on every day. Her teacher has noticed her enthusiasm for school and said that Danika "Loves to learn!" She has such a passion for reading right now and is working really hard on sounding out words, and has memorized many of the 'site words,' Steve and I are both very proud of her!

I am now 27 weeks along in my pregnancy so almost 7 months! I have been feeling great, not too many complaints. And the baby is so active... I think she may be a gymnast! I have also started feeling the constant rhythm of hiccups! But I feel quite big. I have never been pregnant in the winter before so I am finding it tough to fit into clothes and none of my coats do up anymore! But thankfully my sister gave me a bunch of maternity clothes and a big, thick coat for winter... thanks sis! Love you... and I will be saving everything for you... just in case! ;)

Adessa is growing so much. She is such a big girl now. Our days spent at home are very enjoyable and I look forward to them. She LOVES puzzles, colouring and games and can spend long stretches of time doing them. She is such a smart little girl. She is very much looking forward to meeting her new little sister (I don't think I have mentioned that yet... but we found out we are having baby girl #3!!!) The other day she told me she was going to teach the baby to ride her bike, and she would just hold her on her lap! AH... I'm sure Adessa will be very helpful!!!