My Christmas

I don't think I really blogged about my Christmas holidays so here it is. We travelled to Grimshaw on the Tuesday before Christmas, following my parents on their way back from Las Vegas. That was a mistake LOL They took 16A instead of highway 16, causing us an extra hour of driving, my dad's speed fluxuated ridiculously (90km/hr to 120km/hr) for no reason other than he was sleepy and their pitstop at Taco Bell inWhitecourt caused Dexter to watch up and he didn't sleep again for the rest of the trip. That being said, Dexter was fairly well behaved the whole way there with the help of Tyler & the VHS player we have in the van.

Once there, we had a ton of plans for the whole time. Thursday night was my friend christmas get together with Melody, Vanessa, etc. We played a ton of board games and Dexter stayed home with my parents. We took advantage of this by staying up until 5:30am! Bad idea considering we still had to get up with Dex in the morning.  Oh well, we had lots of fun and it was probably worth it.

Friday night, Christmas Eve, we went to my Uncle's (my mom's brother's) for supper, a Chinese gift exchange and 3 poker games. Dexter got spoiled by my Uncle and that was the night that he opened his first present all on his own...two days before he had to idea what to do with a present. That night, he managed to open one without us even noticing as we ohhed & awwed over another gift. LOL Pretty funny. Poker was great too, I came in 2nd in all three games :-)

Christmas morning we were at my Mom's and I had Dexter dressed in a cute elf pj set from Walmart. I felt so spoiled that morning. I knew all my gifts from Tyler as we just went to Walmart and picked out a bunch of DVDs to complete our sets, and although I had given my mom & brother my wish list, it was still exciting as I didn't know what if anything I would be getting. Some of the stand outs:

-Tassimo 1 Cup Drink Brewer: reasonably priced at $100, its the one on the market with the "bar code reader". So far I have tried Cappachinno, Latte & Hot Chocolate which were okay, and Chai Latte & Earl Grey tea which are great. I recently got regular coffee & though I haven't had one yet, my mother-in-law drank three this morning so they must be satisfactory.  It's a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to them coming out with more specialty drinks for it. Starbucks has three plain coffee types you can get, but I'm hoping they'll do caramel machiatto or something fancy like that.

-Purology Shampoo & Conditioner: I swear by this brand of salon shampoo & conditioner and my mom got me the latest version.  The jury is still out if its the right "formula" for my hair, but it definitely makes it smell pretty!

-Morrocan Oil: another hair product. My mom's been using it recently and says it helps to keep her hair soft & non-greasy, allowing her to wait longer between hair washings. I'm waiting for the dust to settle on my shampoo/conditioner transition before I test drive it too much.

-the Office, calendar: a must for me, a great Office fan.

-knit slippers from Grandma J.

-"little" things: good cookie sheets, a 4 cup glass measuring cup, and a potato masher. All on my wish list & much appreciated.

I feel like a total douche because I can't think of what else I got that was awesome. Obviously I got way too much to appreciate it fully.  Some of Dexter's fun gifts:

-Toy Story 3 mini car/bike thing. I don't know what you call them, but the things they can straddle and ride

that have wheels.

-a LARGE blanket with his own face on it.

-a "rocking horse" turtle, that is a learning toy. He goes crazy on it.

-a "Little People" farm. It's staying at my parents place.

-Cookie Monster remote control.

-a monkey toque.

-one of those recordable books where you can record your voice reading the story. My parents got it for them, however they still have it cuz they procrastinated the recording part.

-a little leather chair. we just got it today but it's awesome.

-money for his RESP.  He also got clothes of course, some books, and my Grandma is knitting him a monkey. Excited to see that.

Anyway back to the holidays, we went to my Grandma J's house for Christmas supper (my dad's mom). It was so amazing. We had: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts, fresh buns, stuffed mushrooms, cabbage rolls, perogies, cauliflower with cheese sauce...YUM. We spent the night just socializing, which was okay.

Boxing day, my mom had two of her good friends and their husbands come over: Cathie & Wally, Sandra & Brad. Leftovers for supper, visiting, and some games.

On my "off" days, Wednesday & Monday, we went to visit my old high school friends Robin (with her two boys Kagen, 2 1/2 & Quinten 2 days younger than Dexter), and Allison (with her two kids Sophie, 2 1/2, Callum, new baby boy about 2 months). It was fun for me & Dexter cuz he got to play with some kids around his age. However, I feel that he is too rough sometimes, experimenting with hitting, grabbing cheeks into his fists (very painful) and pulling hair. Everytime we say no, and take him away from the situation but the damage is already done - and I don't want to be the mom of a kid like that. Any help??

The Tuesday after Christmas we headed back home. Then for New Year's we spent the weekend at Mary's for our Christmas with them. Kim, Kira & Tehya joined us, Mary, Tyrone & Dean (mary's boyfriend) joined us for some of the weekend. We had a Chinese gift exchange as well, played games and socialized. On the Sunday, Kim, Mary & I went to Goodwill and did some shopping. I found a slow cooker (to replace mine that had just broke that week), some books and the Nightmare Before Christmas on VHS. I thought I did pretty good.

Well that was my holidays in a nutshell.  Very fun, but also very exhausting. I'm glad we're done until next year...