Waiting for our guests to arrive Saturday night

Merry Christmas Eve friends and family! The shopping is done, the gifts are wrapped, the cookies are baked, the groceries are done, the advent calender is full of pompoms, the Christmas bread bought, and the kids are EXCITED.

Our annual holiday party on Saturday was another success. Spending time with friends; warmed by cider, egg nog, rum, and of course the holiday spirit made for one beautiful night. Clara and Chloe were able to catch up a bit after seeing each other so rarely during the past few months.

The girls catching up

Leo and Max were inseparable especially singing backup during the RockBand exposition at the end of the evening. Marc and I were free to chat and catch up with friends, our kids are really growing up!

Rock Stars in the making

Auntie Dorothy extended her visit by an extra day and as a result we put her to work. She helped me accomplish some last minute baking and helped get the apartment in shape for our 50 odd guests. I realized how handy an extra adult is around here on Saturday afternoon.

Tonight we are off to celebrate Christmas Eve and Jim and Jayne's new kitchen with a meal of Tourtiere and Gratin Dauphinois (scalloped potatoes). Sounds yum huh? Then, Clara and Leo will go so bed in their new green striped pajamas and tomorrow morning we'll open our stockings, eat Portuguese fruit bread, snack on clementines and mango, and open the gifts under the tree at a leisurely pace. We'll likely stay home in our pajamas unless the mood strikes us to out for a walk or to do some sledding.

While playing around at JibJab.com the other day, I let Leo watch a video about farting elves. I should have known better. Being that his favorite words usually refer to bodily functions of the digestive system, Leo really liked the cartoon. He watched it several times and has referred to the farting elves kind of obsessively since.

Yesterday we ran into Catherine from the Carrefour. She was dressed as a lutin (yes, an elf), I turned to Leo and said "look Catherine is an elf today!" He looked at me with a complete serious expression and said "no, elves have green butts." His definition of elf is obviously set in stone because this morning Marc asked Clara a rhetorical question: "did an elf put toys in your slippers?" Leo piped up "No, I don't have a green butt!"

Check this out - the kids can't watch it enough! We're deep in the holiday spirit right now, the countdown is on :)

Guess who went to school on the first snow day of the year? Yup, Clara and I trudged through the snow to find an empty school building yesterday morning. It turned out to be a great day and I'm sure if we'd known school was closed we'd have been sluggish all morning and wouldn't have done half the things we did.

I wasn't sure if the Carrefour would be open since most garderies and all the schools in Montreal were closed because of the all-day snowstorm but we decided to take the sled and make our way up there anyway. I'm glad we did. There were several other old siblings in Leo's class and the energy was really great with so many kids excited about the snow. We decorated gingerbread men and promptly ate them, sang, danced, and ran around like fools in the gym. Instead of going straight home we went across the street to the new restaurant for lunch with two other families. We took over the old bank vault and continued the party over sandwiches and soup. Clara rekindled an old friendship with Mathilde from her preschool class last year. The difference was, this year Clara talked! The two big girls giggled maniacally while Leo wrote his name over and over on the blackboard wall (this restaurant really is an excellent place to eat with kids).

Gingerbread cookies right before they were devoured.

I love how Leo writes his name, I didn't even teach him, he just picked up a pencil a few weeks ago and wrote the letters ELO. Now he generally puts them in the right order but his Es usually have at least 4 horizontal lines... I love it and will get a picture of it some time. Of course that would require that my camera to stay turned ON when I want to use it... I'm having issues with it right now.

Back to our snow day. After lunch we headed back home in the sled - it is much easier pulling two kids downhill on Saint Denis than up hill. When we got home we shoveled the front steps and played in the snowbanks until we were too wet to stay outside. All hell pretty much broke loose while trying to get everyone out of their wet snowsuits, boots, hats, and mitts. Five and three year olds don't have much patience when the are DONE being cold and wet. I diffused the situation with the offer of a Christmas movie, the first one of the season. The Santa Clause kept them away from each others throats long enough for me to figure out dinner so when it was done Clara did some colouring (what is new) and Leo instructed me on how to colour a page for him :)
The day was pretty much done then. We (I) ate dinner and then it was into pajamas and stories on the couch. Leo fell asleep on my shoulder listening to Holly Clause. I don't remember the last time he did something like that! Clara fell asleep pretty quickly as well once she was all tucked in and her back had been well tickled.

So, now that Clara, Leo and I have experienced a "snow day" I think we'll be looking forward to the next one. And if Environment Canada has any clue what they are talking about, we'll be in for a few more days like yesterday this year.

This was taken today. Still snowing but school was opened.