Ben singing Silent Night:
“Silent Night!
Holy Night!
Round the garden,
All is bright!”
Seth singing Silent Night:
“Silent Night!
Holy Night!
All is calm,
All is bright!
Round young virget,
mother and child…”
I could listen to these kids sing all day.
The coffee cozies I’ve been sewing have been flying off the shelf. Sort of. Well, I’ve sold almost 40 of them. That’s flying to me.
Neil asked for one and they that ask shall receive.
I made him a special one as part of his Christmas present. 
Seth had drawn this darling (I know, darling is so 1917 but I can’t think of another word to describe it better. Sometimes you just need a little early 1900s in your vocabulary) picture of our family. It was just so sweet. He had written everyone’s names all by himself (I told him the letters but I didn’t write them down or anything) and then he drew a little picture of everyone. It was just the right size for a coffee cozy. I traced the picture and transferred it to some fabric using a heat transfer pencil.
Then I embroidered over the transfer using some black thread. Now Seth’s work of art is an extra-special coffee cozy. I’m sure Neil will smile every time he takes a sip of his Tim Horton’s coffee while using his new coffee cozy so his hand doesn’t get burned.
Christmas is already over. So sad.
We had a great Christmas even though we were all sick. Neil had the worst of it on Christmas day. He barely dragged himself to the couch while the kids opened presents and then after we got to Portage he slept for almost 5 hours.
Our first Christmas gift was that the kids slept in! Well, Oliver was up at his usual 6:30 but Seth didn’t wander out of bed until 7 and we actually had to wake Ben up at 7:15. Yes, that is a sleep in here.
Because Seth was up a few minutes earlier he had already spied the Dragon Egg that Santa had brought him sitting on top of his stocking. It was opened and assembled before Ben woke up. I tried to take a picture of the boys by the Christmas tree but Ben was so upset that Seth’s dragon egg was out of the packaging and his was not, he just would not smile. In fact he was on the verge of tears.
I tried again and it only got worse. Check out that pout.
But also, how cute is Oliver in that picture?
Anyway, Christmas was a hit. Not only did Santa bring Seth and Ben dragon eggs but Uncle Josh and Aunty Jaclyn got them a whole dragon castle. Seth was very excited. 
Those dragons kept them very busy ALL day!
The annual Christmas jammies were made by Grammy.
So cute.
We ate lots of food.
Especially Oliver.
And we played lots.
Can’t wait till next Christmas!
Life lately has been full of Christmas parties,
multitasking,
cute babies saying “da da” over and over again,
and lovely family naps.
Today Seth is sick with a fever and a cough. We are taking it easy this morning and then we are heading to the airport to pick up the wonderful Aunty Rachel.
Only 3 sleeps until Christmas! How can that be?
We were downstairs this morning when the kids announced they were going to go upstairs and jump on my bed. I told them they could not jump on my bed but that they were welcome to jump on their own beds. They promptly ran upstairs.
I scooped Oliver up and we headed upstairs. I noticed that the kids were not in their own room but that they were in my room. And the door was shut. The door is not normally shut.
I opened the door to find this:
My those boys are quick.
No, my four year old son does not normally wear Old Spice deodorant.
Ben had to get in on the action too.
I put the deodorant away and sent them to their room to get dressed.
I heard Seth talking to himself on his way there,
“Now I smell like a man!”
Yes you do Seth. That was a lot of deodorant.
Oliver was being a bit fussy the other day. Nothing was keeping him happy for too long. Neil was getting a bit frustrated and so he picked Oliver up and put him in the laundry basket.
And, weirdly, Oliver was happy there for a really long time!
In other Oliver news, he is getting all over the place now. He goes from sitting to crawling position by himself and pulls himself around- he is getting pretty fast now. He is also trying to pull himself up to stand. He can’t do it yet but he sure loves it if you help him out!
He also started doing this silly face where he tilts his chin down, kind of like a nod. So funny. 
And Oliver got his first tooth on Friday! I’m sure the 2nd one won’t be too far behind.
Oliver was in his first Christmas concert on Sunday. I didn’t get any pictures because there were about 87 other kids up there too, but he did a great job, just being happy and looking around.
Five sleeps till Christmas Oliver!!
Some babies came over to play on Friday. I work/worked with their moms.
Jack is 3 months old, Naomi is 5 months old, and Oliver is 7 months old.
We tried to get a picture of them sitting together.
First Naomi got a bit grabby. Jack was just chillin’.
Then Oliver got a bit grabby. (These two might be trouble). Jack was still just chillin’.
I think this is the best shot we got:
Most of them were Oliver trying to crawl away.
Anyway, very cute. Why is Oliver so ginormous all of a sudden? I was thinking he was still so small and baby-ish but apparently I was wrong.
It was fun ladies- let’s do it again sometime!
We always make sugar cookies at Christmas. ALWAYS.
The boys helped me cut them out and I was planning to let them help me decorate them later. I haven’t gotten around to it yet though.
They did a good job on the cutting though.
And they did a fantastic job of sneaking the scraps when I wasn’t looking. Especially Ben.
DELICIOUS.
Today we went to see the man in the red suit.
And no one cried!
Seth and Ben actually even TALKED to Santa (imagine!!).
I call it a success.
