Merry Christmas!

This year we celebrated Christmas, as we do most years by gathering at my parent's home on Christmas Eve. There is always a lot of eating to be done and this year was no exception!

We all woke up fairly early Christmas morning to start opening all the gifts. This year Avery and Truman were both quite spoiled and in turn it took us a few hours to open up all the gifts. In between gift opening sessions we all enjoyed a lovely breakfast as we needed to keep up our strength. Avery seemed to enjoy his first Christmas and I am sure next year will be even more exciting.

Truman must have been a very good boy this year because Santa brought him exactly what he asked for....an apple! He was very excited to open his gift from Santa and has been letting us know since that Santa brought him an apple. I wonder if we will get off as easily next year?

On Boxing Day we headed over to Wanda and David's and enjoyed a yummy dinner, and had the most delicious cheesecake (baked by Tina of course). I wanted a second piece but refrained from giving in to my sweet tooth! Truman and Avery were both angels. Our little man who never eats meat, ended up eating two pieces of veal schnitzel! He also asked for ice cream (as he is now accustomed to having it at grandma's house).

We took Truman skating for the first time on Saturday evening and to our surprise he had a great time. It did take us however, almost a full half hour to convince him to put on his skates, but once we did it was hard to get off the ice. Jake, Rebecca, and Ryan also joined us, and Jake is a natural on skates. He was amazing to watch and I am sure next year we will see him with a hockey stick in his hand. His Jake Starkman the next Wayne Gretzky?

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday season. I am looking forward to spending the next week with Truman and Jerry.

Birthday Bashes

This weekend we celebrated Jerry's 35th Birthday! Happy Birthday Jerry!

We started the weekend with a family dinner to one of our favourite pizza places. After dinner, in the bitter cold, we purchased our Christmas tree. Truman had a great time running around trying to find the perfect one. Jerry and I decided that this year we would decorate the tree while Truman was asleep. The next morning I brought Truman down to see the tree, he said "it's big and beautiful" and with hands on his hips he said "Who built this? I like this!".

On Saturday night, we headed out in the winter storm to have dinner with my parents, Pat, Avery and Tina to celebrate both Jerry and Tina's birthday. My dear sister turns 30 on Thursday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINA!!! It took poor Pat, Tina and Avery an hour and a half to get to the restaurant. By the time they arrived, Truman was ready to leave, but not before he shared some french fires with his favourite cousin Avery.

Sunday afternoon we went to Jerry's work party to have a second visit with Santa. Truman was very excited running around the building and seeing so many people. Eventually he found some smarties in the cookie making room which put him over the edge. This was one of his first experiences with chocolate...and he kept telling me for the rest of the day how much he liked it! Needless to say, we had a short visit at the party and missed seeing Santa. My dear son had too much fun spinning around and pretending to fall on the floor. I decided it was time for Truman to get home and have a nap. Besides, I was completely worn after chasing him for a few hours.

Monday night Truman and I went to Tina, Pat and Avery's house to celebrate Tina's birthday. We were joined by aunt Misty who loved playing with little Avery. Truman gave Avery about a hundred kisses, and Avery didn't seem to mind at all.