Welcome Christmas

Have you seen "A Christmas Story"? You know the part at the end where Ralphie is in bed on Christmas night, holding tightly to his Red Rider BB Gun and the narrator says "and all was right with the world?" I have that feeling right now - and nary a weapon in sight :) We had a wonderful day and since it's not quite over, I thought I would share the photos while I still have that lovely, glowy feeling...

Liliane and I spent Christmas Eve at home together in our pajamas. I tried to get as much done as I could, but I didn't sweat it too much. It snowed on and off all day - this was the view outside our back window:

We played around with my sparkly Santa hat:

And the Elmo scarf:

We watched a few Christmas specials on DVD and that's about it. Stéphane came home from work around 2 and I snuck out to have a quick visit with my friend Isabelle. We ordered sushi for dinner as a special Christmas Eve treat and Liliane went to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in her head. (OK, I made that up.)

This morning Liliane had breakfast as usual (bananas and oatmeal) although we had my Mom's homemade raisin bread as a very special Christmas treat. I popped a breakfast casserole in the oven and while we were waiting for that we got right to the good stuff!

Our cute little tree. It's a fake one that I agree to put up every other year so Stéphane's head doesn't explode from the messiness of a real tree. I am allowed a very real wreath on the front door from which I inhale fresh pine scent everytime I come inside so that helps.


See the little giraffe poking out of the top of her stocking?

She was completely captivated. Kinda made us regret getting her a bunch of other stuff because she sure was happy with her one toy. She got over that pretty quick though...

It didn't take her long to catch on to the stocking concept.

Or the present-opening concept either...

Her new thing is to put stuff on her head. Her father thinks it's hilarious so she's taken to doing it all the time...

Is this my colour?

Uncle Matthew and Auntie Bari sent her this wooden toy that's like a cooler version of the lawnmower that blows bubbles. It's a challenge for her to walk with it and not try and grab the swinging beads at the same time. Oh well, she loves banging it on the floor almost as much.

Cool hat from Eric and Tina who are with Tina's family in California right now. They are our dear friends so we are trying not to hate them for being warm today...

A noisy pop-up book from Grandma - the perfect combination. She was a little obsessed with it.

We got her this stroller for her baby that she got for her birthday. She's trying to get used to the idea of walking AND pushing something, but she'll get the hang of it.

Note her new shoes from Auntie Jaime.

NOT PICTURED: adorable outfits received from my Dad and my Aunt - all the right size! Thank you so much! Also, her very first Christmas present was actually a pair of PJs from her Auntie Jaime that we videotaped her opening. She's actually wearing them right now so I'll get a picture or two in the morning and hopefully put up the clip as well.

We headed out to Stéphane's sister Danielle's house this afternoon to spend the rest of the day with the family. Liliane wore her Christmas dress which was as cute as I hoped it would be on her. Right?

(Sparkly red shoes courtesy of the Baby Guru.)

Liliane got another stocking at Aunt Danielle's plus some more great clothes AND a gift certificate to get some good "just learning how to walk" shoes.

We didn't take the camera out much tonight, but here is a picture of Liliane with Mathieu who is engaged to Stéphane's niece, Mélanie. They are only 7 years apart so it's funny to say that she's our niece, but there you go. Mathieu and Mélanie are both doctors doing their residency so we don't get to see them much. Mélanie is super cute (people used to think that she and Stéphane were brother and sister) but you'll have to take my word for it since I didn't take a picture! Doh.

We got a couple of other family photos as well:

Just for fun, here is the family photo we took LAST year:

Is it me or is our baby is way smaller? Oh, hello multiple chins! Hope you had a good time hanging around my face because you're not welcome anymore. You heard me. Same for you, long hair. I have a NEW 'do now.

Phewf. We look way less tired in this photo.

Merry Christmas everybody!

For Xavier, Klausine, Lunden, Georgia and Calleigh...

A message from Liliane for her cousins with matching PJs!

Merry Christmas! We love you! xo

Santa Baby

Finally finally finally! Sorry about the lack of updates - turns out Christmas is busy... go figure.

The photo above was taken by my Father-in-law while they were babysitting last weekend. Santa with ATTITUDE.

We got this video of Liliane combining her current favourite pastimes: walking EVERYWHERE and sporting this ultra-stylish Elmo-pelt scarf. Enjoy. (No muppets were harmed in the making of this movie.)



This is how I originally started this post a good two or three weeks ago:

Kamik winter boots, size 5, good to minus 32 degrees: $40

Socks from MEC: $8

Patagonia micro-fibre long underwear ensemble: $55

MEC polar fleece tuque and mittens: $25

Keeping your baby warm and cozy when it's minus 25 degrees: PRICELESS.


It seemed ever so much wittier then. Like right after we bought all that stuff and realized that our child is way more prepared for winter than we EVER will be...

Actually, right after I took the picture of the mittens and tuque, our trusty little Cybershot slipped out of my hand and landed, lens out, on my sock foot. This terrible fall (of two feet at the most) has so destroyed our camera, it will cost me more to fix it than to simply buy a new one. Guess who will be shopping for a new Cybershot after Christmas?! Maybe I can get a pink one this time :)

We got Liliane an advent calendar that is made up of 24 tiny books that can be hung on the tree once they have been read each day. It's really adorable and since it's re-usable, I'm hoping it will be a nice tradition that we've started. You know those beloved Christmas decorations that we remember from our childhood?

Once we read the book of the day, she knows to go into the bedroom to hang it on the little tree. It's crazy cute actually.

Gratuitous photo of having fun on Papa's shoulders...

My Dad came back for another quick visit last week. His suitcase was filled with presents for Liliane which are now taking up all the space under our tree. But we're not bitter. I would like to have a photo to show you of the tree, but please people, it's only December 23rd. The paparazzi comes out tomorrow.

Anyway, Liliane got a belated birthday gift from my Auntie Jean in B.C. and we took a few photos to show her that it fits!

It's almost midnight now and luckily I'm off tomorrow, (until the 2nd! Yay!) however my Christmas Eve TO DO list is pretty long... Liliane's presents are wrapped but Stéphane's are not. Got a couple of things to cook plus I have to make sure that our sushi place will be open late enough so we can order dinner from there. Plus we cleverly did an email Christmas card again this year although I still haven't sent it out. Unless you already got it in which case, you can thank my husband for that...

Hope visions of sugarplums are dancing in your heads everyone! As a still-rookie Maman I'm learning to enjoy a simpler, scaled down version of Christmas. So what if there a few items not crossed off the list? No big deal. It's still Christmas, it's still a wonderful time of the year, you can make it as important as you want. Or not. As for me, I am reflecting on 2008 and counting my blessings.

In case I don't get a post up for another three weeks, I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Parade!

Montréal has a big fancy Christmas parade every year in November and while it seems like it would be a fun family outing, it was a little too cold for us that day. Luckily, there is a much smaller (but still cool) Santa Claus parade in our neighbourhood that happened last weekend when it wasn't minus 15. Always a bonus when you're hanging around outside with a 1-year old.

The parade started with horses, natch:

Followed by the official Christmas pooper-scooper!

Then we had all the usual suspects...

These guys are running in the provincial election we're about to have out here. Can I vote Obama?

Politics. Meh.

(Note her new to us Burberry snowsuit that Manon passed along. Nice, right?)

Liliane was into the sled dogs:

And these folk dancers:

And this guy:

Oh my goodness! It's Toupie and Binou! Our - I mean - Liliane's favourite cartoon characters!

I was trying to show enthusiasm for her sake. I mean, it's all about the kids, right?

There was even something special for the nerds:

Check out my festive red light sabre!

Nerd-in-training?

Look! It's Santa's accountant!  Her name is Scroogia McCrankypants.  She doesn't show up much in Santa's entourage...

And the big man himself...

Auto family portrait:

And that was the parade! Lots of fun, no frostbite, everyone was happy.

Otherwise, we're swinging into Christmas gear with lists and baking and parties and the whole thing. Stéphane's work party is tomorrow night already and he's excited and nervous about screening his project for everyone that he's been working on. I think it's going to go over BRILLIANTLY and he'll stagger in at 4AM full of compliments and all around good cheer. And relief. And red wine.

On Sunday I got to hang out with my pal Deb who drove in for the day from Ottawa. We went to the mall to do some very relaxed Christmas shopping (a bizarre but completely enjoyable sensation! Try it this season!) and some very much needed girltalk/catching up. I also put up our new solar powered Christmas lights on the front balcony on Sunday which seem to work about half of the time so far. I'll get the good old fashioned electric ones up on the back balcony this weekend.

Our new cleaner came today! She is not only sweet but it turns out that she does a great job. She even folded our toilet paper into a fancy point! I can already tell that my naive plan of having her come once a month will be scrapped. I booked her to come two more times before Christmas. Did I mention that she will clean my oven?!! 

My plan was to now get the Christmas decorations up but it's already 10:30 and here I am typing away so I guess they will wait until tomorrow. Or the weekend. 

Liliane is walking around more and more these days and looking less and less like Frankenstein when she does it. She says Papa more and more and seems to be a little less crazy about me in that she doesn't freak out when I leave the room, etc.  Phewf.

Will do my best to keep up over the next month or so. I should have my other baby back from the shop soon (my Canon Rebel camera) so I'll breathe easier once she's all fixed up and ready to go for the non-stop photo op that is Christmas... Also Stéphane's birthday is coming up! If anyone feels like babysitting, please drop me a line!