Another present!

Tonight at dinner, Holly received another Christmas present! This one came from Ivy Yee-Poh (Holly's great-aunt) and her family, David Yee-Kong, Auntie Lai, and Uncle Ho. Ivy made this adorable sweater, scarf and hat set for Holly - thank you so much! She told us it was her project when she went to Europe in the summer, so it has travelled to many countries, and back again. Holly loves it because . . . it's PINK (& has really cute heart buttons on it)!

McElf family

I finally had a moment to "elf" us again this year. They had some new dances and I chose the disco version . . . I don't think it was as good as last year's version, but fun anyway - enjoy (click on the link to see us dance)!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/KtVz1ruq6Dt8EuMovPrd

Christmas Dinner

This year was a different experience for us - with my grandmother (Poh-Poh) in hospital (since December 12th), we decided to take Christmas to her since she wasn't able to come home for it. There were 26 of us squeezed into a small conference room (probably meant for 10 people) on her ward. It was nice to have everyone together though. We had all the food there, including the turkey, and shared dinner with the nurses on duty that night. We even brought our gifts for our traditional "gift stealing" game and played in the cafeteria.

Holly and Dad:



















ALL 11 cousins (plus spouses) together - a rare occurrence with 2 cousins living in Toronto, 1 in Vermont, and 1 in Phoenix!
Back row: Derek, Steve, Paolo, Paul, Brian
Middle row: Darryl, Belinda, Lauren, Alison, Ellena, Lisa, Warren
Front row: Holly, Miranda, Kong, Poh-Poh, Christopher

A Christmas Story

Last night, we decided (upon Daddy's suggestion) that Santa would bring Holly's stocking upstairs and put it near her bed so she would see it when she woke up in the morning . . . . . well, she did! She woke up and came into our room, bringing the stocking with her. She put it on the bed beside me and started pointing at it (without saying anything). I said , "Oh, Holly, you're so lucky, Santa put some things in your stocking!" Well, she just pointed at it again, and then with tears in her eyes, ran back to her bed . . . . . yes, I realized just then that she thought that was all she was getting from Santa, and she knew that what was in there was waaayyy to small to be what she had asked for. We had to jump out of bed & take her downstairs quickly - and tell her Santa leaves the big presents under the tree because they don't fit into her stocking! Poor girl was lying in her bed, face in her pillow, crying when Paul went to pick her up . . . very sad (just disappointed, but not pouty) - we both had to try not to laugh - bad Mommy & Daddy!

Anyway it all turned out - she loved her pink car seat, diaper bag and stroller that Santa brought - it was exactly what she wanted, and she even brought one of her dolls in the car when we went for Christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Here is Holly's Santa photo for this year - I had to be in it with her as you can see, but at least we have one for 2008 (we didn't even get one for 2007!). It took about 10 minutes to convince her to get in line to talk to Santa - we'd been telling her if she didn't visit Santa and tell him what she wanted, she'd get a blue firetruck or something else for Christmas.

I love the Santa in this picture - he looks very authentic, like the one at the mall near our house (who we took pictures with in 2005 & 2006) . This Santa belongs to an association of real bearded Santas! We started talking and I said Santas are much more authentic than when I was a child... he said they have come a long way even in just the past 10 years. We'll have to decide where to visit Santa next year - Royal City Centre or Brentwood Mall?!














Mimi (Holly's friend Cassie-Anne's mom) sent us a link to create a video message from Santa for your child. It's pretty cool and the expression on Holly's face was priceless when she saw her picture in Santa'a book! This is the link to the website: http://portablenorthpole.sympatico.msn.ca/home/

And here is the video Holly received:
http://portablenorthpole.sympatico.msn.ca/watch/c8e1fad32a334df0b18d168749f923ad

Proper sledding!

After much searching, we finally found a proper sled! We went back to Queen's Park and did some more sledding - it was even more fun!



















Going down is fast - the walk back up the hill can be long for a toddler - I think we need a rope tow! Paul is wearing the black and white ski jacket on the right - towing Holly behind him, and beside them is my friend Caitlin from high school and her son, Jeremy. We saw them here when we came a couple of days ago, too!

Snow day

Today was a big snowy day. Holly got to put her snowsuit (it's one of Kayli's old outfits - she loves it because it says Princess Power on it!) and head out in the snow.



















Making snow angels in front of our house . . . . .



















The finished product:



















We decided to try sledding at Queen's Park - we went out and got a "magic carpet" - waiting until it snows to try and find a sled means calling 4 stores, visiting 3 stores, and not being able to find what you want. There were lots of people at the park - it was fun!

Shovelling snow

Holly wanted to help Daddy shovel snow - funny how kids love to do "chores" when they're little, but somehow grow out of it!

A big Christmas party!

Today was the annual PMBA Kids' Christmas Party. Last year it was at BC Place Stadium, but this year it was at the Tradex in Abbotsford. A bit of a drive for us, which we thought would be even longer because of the snow we got last night, but surprisingly, there was no snow at all on the highway and no snow to be seen when we got to Abbotsford!

Holly liked this "big red shoe".






One of the 6 or 7 bouncy castles - Holly was excited to see them and said she wanted to go on them, but when the time came, she didn't go on any of them. . . . .














. . . not even the baby one!














She did go on the bumper cars with Daddy, and decorated this gingerbread man (sitting on a frisbee plate, with a yoyo and some bubbles), so there was some fun had! And she enjoyed watching the kids' pipe band with highland dancers, and the Chinese Lion Dance Team.

Christmas Party

Today we went to a Christmas party with some of our friends. Mommy & Isabelle's mommy, Noriko co-organized it (but Noriko did all the decorating and hosting!). We had fun running around, dancing, colouring Christmas pictures and making ornaments to take home and put on our trees.

Cassie-Anne, me (Holly) and Isabelle. Also at the party were Sophie, Caleb, Mackenzie, Simon and Anna.














Hugs for all before heading home. . .

Ballet

Today was Holly's last ballet class for this session. They had an open class today so all the parents could see what their kids had learned. She loves the classes and we'll be heading back in January, along with Claire. Hopefully, Holly & Claire's friend Danielle will be able to join us, too!













Marching: