one photo a month

It was a good year!

January - annual scrapbooking weekend in Courtenay with Joy, Lorna and their Mom

February - meeting my sister's baby boy Grey Charles

March - Vancouver weekend for a little friend's party and a Science World fun day

April - endless days of fun with these two before Walter starts all-day Kindergarten

May - Mother's Day family walk

June - old Emmaus and traveling-Europe friend Lisa comes to visit

July - summer vacation at the cottage with Jeff and Eli and families

August - Symphony Splash date night for our 11th anniversary

September - Henry turns 6

October - Walter turns 5 just two days later

November - my turn for a big birthday (and Felix turns 3!)

December - lots of Christmas events for boys to dress up in a plaid bowties 

having a second photographer

Having my parents here for December was so nice in many ways ... but one totally selfish reason for me was that I could use my Dad as a second photographer! (You may have caught on that I like to take pictures and document the everyday.) So yes, I completely manhandled my family into that sleigh at Butchart Gardens so that ---> I <--- could actually be in an all-family photo ... thanks for taking that, Dad ... and thanks everyone for smiling! Dad took lots of great photos of downtown Victoria all lit up and of Walter out on his Date Day with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Teddy. And kudos to my Mum for actually using her phone to take photos as well ... I'll show more of the other boys in my next iPhone photo recap. So with this, Christmas photos are done and New Years is soon upon us. My annual scrapbooking weekend up at Joy's house up-Island is only a few weeks away and I'm excited to finally have time to get this very full month of December photos printed and into books. And I've got plans for that gorgeous shot of our bright and sparkling Parliament Buildings. Photo credits to my second photographer.

christmas

Christmas this year was, again, very busy. I started to decorate the house the day after Felix's birthday and it was a full month of constant Christmas since. Christmas cards, baking for my ladies group, baking for school, baking for church, getting the tree (a full day affair!), decorating the house, organizing gifts and needing a few more, teachers' gifts, class parties and school concerts, Kindergarten field trips, helping in Sunday School, dinner up in Duncan with Sam's parents and mine, food shopping, gingerbread cookies, a night of wrapping presents and Love Actually, nightly Advent Bible readings, new Christmas jammies and through it all one hardworking Dad, one tired, list-checking Mum and three very excited boys! A big difference this Christmas was that my parents were in town for the whole month of December, staying at a long term stay hotel near Beacon Hill Park and the Inner Harbour. So they were able to come to all the concerts and plays and give Sam and I some nights out for dinner and a movie and also our first term teacher conferences. A special idea that my parents had was to plan a Date Day with each boy alone and so in turn Henry, then Felix and then Walter had their day with Grandma and Grandpa. My brother Eton came over as well for this past week so Walter's special day included Uncle Teddy as well, which he loved. I have yet to see all of Dad's pictures from their date days as well as our visit out to the lights at Butchart Gardens but I'm sure that will be a post in itself. I decided this year to have our big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve so that I wasn't a slave to the kitchen once the gifts were opened ... and that was probably the best decision I could have made. So nice not to wake up on Christmas morning and have that looming over me. We were full from dinner and then the boys were overflowing with excitement as stockings were hung and cookies were placed carefully by the tree. Oh, to be a child again at Christmas! I miss that bubble of suspense and anticipation now that I am instead the creator of Christmas, the one to create the magic for the boys. Sam knew I was feeling pretty down about that this year and so on Christmas morning he told me that Santa had left a stocking for me too ... and there hanging from the door was indeed mine. Stuffed full, imagine that. The living room was soon full with remote control cars, castle blocks, robotic fish swimming in a makeshift fishbowl, Dusty, Cabbie and the smokejumpers, Star Wars Lego sets, lots of gorgeous books, and perhaps most used of all ... a basketball hoop to hook over the door. Really, the best thing we could have in here ... I'm so glad we got that. So Christmas is done for another year ... and though I am itching to clean up every bit of this t-o-d-a-y and get back to a bit of normalcy ... it's fun to sit and go back through all my photos from this past month to realize it was a good Christmas indeed.

keeping watch over their flocks at night

two peppermints, one candy cane and an orange cat (the christmas jammies edition)

oh christmas tree, how lovely are your branches

a little bit of here and there (part 8)