Christmas Festivities

Some highlights from a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve cookie decorating and supper with our dear friends Jen and Naoto.

We woke up to find Santa had built Sam a race car track.  Silly Santa forgot batteries so it was a little slow to play with...

Santa left some footprints!!!!  Can't even believe it.  While making breakfast Sam called out to me and said "Those prints aren't snow, they are sugar!"  Should have guessed my guy would taste test!!!  Little did Sam know that the snow in the North Pole is sweeter than here.
We drove down to Rimbey Christmas day and all my siblings were there with all their kiddos!  It was a busy crazy house but so wonderful to have Sam off playing with his cousins and some time to catch up with my family.

Boxing Day morning we helped Grandpa feed the kitties and we brought them their Christmas present.    Mommy loves those farm cats!

Then out to Granny and Big Bob's for our Boxing Day tradition.  It was so nice to see all my cousins, watch the newest generation play together and spend some time laughing through a wacky gift exchange!

Sweet Sequoia... I spent a good chunk of time winning this little sweet pea over.  I tea partied until she realized I wouldn't give up and just decided to join me!  Love her!

This was a little magic wand moment when the crew opened Auntie Brie's super cool gift!

Littlest love, baby Nixon, experiencing his first CRAZY Boxing Day on the farm.  Such a little sweetheart.

Another tradition with my family since I was a kid is that we go bowling Boxing Day evening in Ponoka.  The little guys all had their own lane.  I call this the "Gorilla".

'This is the "Kickin' It"

And lastly the "Floor Smash".

On the 27th we had Christmas with the Connolleys.  Firstly Roxy got her gift from Sam.

We are so lucky to have the BEST EVER tobogganing hill.  Grandpa fell off the back and speedy Kaili took off without him.

Super cool and super fast sled!

We bought Sam a snowboard for Christmas.  Shaun got a little tow rope with it so the first day Shaun pulled him back and forth without his feet in bindings.  Here is Sam getting his first Daddy lesson!

Coolest boarders on the hill!

Lorraine cooked the most beautiful Christmas dinner.  My tummy was so full that I was uncomfortable even in my stretchy pants!!

Two best buddies.  Kaili is the sweetest cousin to Sam... she is patient and fun and willing to spend hours listening to Sam chat about everything.  

My Momma and Auntie Bobbie.  Some of my family came out to the Connolley's on Dec 28th for some sledding and homemade chili.  It was a little cold, but hiking up and down the hill kept us warm.

Sam's first ever run down the hill all strapped in and super confident.  It was AMAZING!

My snowboarder.  I can just picture years of father and son fun on the hill snowboarding!

Love

This could be one of my favourite Christmas' to date.  So thankful for all the holidays brought my family... love, laughter, gifts, time, food and happiness.

California Dreamin'

We decided to dart out of the country for a few days together as a family.  Sometimes the holidays can be crazy busy and it's so important to me that we get some special family time for just us.  After school on the last day before break, we headed to the airport destined for Santa Monica.  Little did we know we had planned to travel on the busiest travel day of the year... eeeek!  Luckily our over planning left us with lots of time and a stress free flight!

LAX getting the bags!  It's not the scary crazy airport I had conjured up in my head.

Day one: started with an awesome breakfast at Jinky's, a walk through the farmer's market and a stop in the promenade. We found this hilarious little set up, took some photos and then realized we had perfect timing to catch a Santa photo in California!  $30 later BAM Santa pic and back on our way!

No one panic, Sam has not shrunk.  This is a VERY large xmas ball.

Across the street from our awesome hotel was the Santa Monica Pier.  We headed down to check it out and the next thing we knew, Sam ended up covered in parrots.  He obviously hated every moment of it!

My little Forrest!

On the ferris wheel out on the pier looking over the ocean... pretty cool!

Love this little love!

Sam really wanted to play a carnival game.  We found whack a mole and you had to have 3 players to play but there was always a winner.  We thought it would be perfect because no matter what, Sammy would win a stuffy.  Perfect, right?  Wrong.  As soon as we paid we were surrounded by other adults wanted to get in on it.  The bell rang and Shaun went into Super Dad mode, whacking more moles than I ever could have imaged...

Seems a little silly, but I thought it was so awesome.  Does Sam need ANOTHER stuffy - no, does winning whack-a-mole really matter - no, does Shaun beating the heck out of a carnival game to ensure that Sam thinks he won matter - sure does!  My hero.

Best guys chillin on the board walk.

This was another awesome event... Sam was rocketed into the air for 5 minutes or so on this trampoline thing.  He thought it was the coolest EVER.

The original Muscle Beach. Pretty cool.  And weird.  But cool.

Some Muscle Beach play!

Supper at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  Yum!

Day two: started with an early morning EXPENSIVE taxi ride to Universal Studios with intention to meet the Grinch!

Thought this guy was a statue, so Sammy climbed up on the bench beside him.  Next thing we knew he had shuffled over and put his arm around Sam.  Pretty awesome!

We found the path leading to the Grinch...

Turned out the Grinch was looking for us too!  We waited only 30 seconds to get our turn to chat and meet this guy!  Later in the day the line was upwards of an hour long!

Couldn't miss out on posing with the Grinch and Max.  Highlight for sure!

Here we are enroute to the moment I thought Shaun was going to puke all over me on a 3D ride.  Everyone survived, puke free.  Phewf!

Found a craft station, a Who found Sam.  Sam was so focused he didn't even have time to chat with this guy... the kid loves to craft, what can I say!

BIG HUG

There is something I love so much about this pic... just makes my heart happy.

MINIONS!!!!!

Best guys!

Another highlight was meeting Donkey.  Sam walked up and Donkey asked him his name, but thought Sam said 'Ham'.  He then said "I never met a kid named after a meat before!"  It was soooo funny and even funnier to hear Sam tell the story.  When we turned around to get our picture, Donkey said "Say cheese, Ham!"  Hehe.  Wonderful little memory!

The navigator!

Found Megatron... turns out that guy is a jerk.  And huge and a little scary.

There was a whole Sam and Spongebob performance... we were trying to get Sam to turn around for a photo and when Sam finally did turn around, this happen...

... Spongebob turned around too!  So funny!

Tourist pic!

Night time view from our hotel room.

Day three: started with a LONG (and frustrating though we won't talk about it) walk to breakfast, a disappointing trip to Nike where Shaun couldn't even bribe the girl to sell me the perfect pair of shoes because they were floor model and then a ride on this ancient Merry-go-round.  Here my guys are trying not to get motion sick.

Yep... I ended up on the bunny-horse.

Beach boy

We added another long walk to our day by heading down the beach probably 3 km to Venice Beach.  It is a very out there, wild, stinky little experience.  You could spend a day people watching and trying to see everything that was going on.  We sat on the grass to watch a break dance performance.

Spinning on their heads

Diving over guys!

Best looking dudes on the beach!

Connolleys in Cali

Shaun climbing an extremely tall rope (you can see Sam standing at the bottom).  Oy!

Perfect last night sunset.

Tea with my boys - my favourite place to be! 

One last night time swim in the outdoor pool.  Big hit for Shaun and Sam.  Nearly an hour of swimming each night and we always had the place all to ourselves.  We were those crazy Canadians!

Mom prefers the hot tub!

A little Venice beach art to hang on our tree.

Sam, Shaun, sunshine, sand... perfect escape.  And we returned home on Christmas Eve just in time for Santa.