I think I can say now the holiday season is over! The tree is down and put away, the food is eaten and Darren goes back to work tommorrow. The girls and I still have another week off but it's is full of things like dentist appointments...we are hoping to go up to Big White and have a day of skating and fun...also maybe one more day of snowmobiling before the kids go back to school!

Christmas is usually more stressful than I like (as you can tell from my previous posts) but once Christmas arrived it was very good to us. Here's the highlights...Christmas eve. over to Darren's sister Jen's for a little celebrating and gift giving. Then over to Steph and Kims for some visiting and eating. The girls fit in some games and a hot tub and it was very nice to see Kim's family. Christmas morning Roberta (aka. Ma Bear) came over to open gifts with us and share some breakfast - we felt very spoiled to have her with us! She made the girls camp ponchos that they love! Christmas dinner was here at our house with my parents joining us. It wouldn't be Christmas dinner without "La Buche de Noel" however there were no table cloth fires this year...next year we'll need to plan some entertainment being that the "Buche fires" now seem to be resolved. Boxing day started early with Mickala Makenna and myself heading of to Orchard Park to beat the crowds...we made it in to the mall and out in 45 minutes - it was good when we got there but there was a huge line up to leave the mall when we left at 10 am. Darren and the girls went snowmobiling one day without me as I went to a friends mom's funeral...Friday nt Al, Tracy and the kids came into Kelowna shared some Martini's with us and helped us laugh over a fondue that kept comming up with challenging situations...it was the first time I had fondued with our kids...next time I think I would get them to eat first then the adults...but it was a fun night! Saturday we were off to McCoulloch for more sleding 6 sleds and 16 of Darren's family. My highlights of that day were how much fun Mickala and Makenna had snowmobiling and playing with their cousins, Aunts, Uncles and of course Grandma. Grandma even got towed on the Gt Racer behind the snowmobile...I hope her bruises heal quickly :)

The hard part of the holidays was having my sister in law, Kim be admitted to the hospital...she is expecting in the middle of Feb but is having preclampsia...she thought she might get out New Years Eve for a night at home but the doctors changed their minds and decided they wanted to continue to monitor her...She is doing well considering how much it sucks to be in the hospital...

New Years Eve we went for a walk with the girls...caught a movie...out for dinner...popped by the hospital so Kim could kick Mickala and my butt at Harry Potter Scene It then over to Jen and Jim's for some more food and some "Wii" (way to much fun!)...we were home by 11pm - let the girls stay up till midnight then all fell asleep quickly!

So that's all folks...hope you all stayed awake for the play by play! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well! Happy New Year to you all!

I'll post some Christmas pictures
(Picture comments: Top to bottom - Cody in the powder
- "Ma Bear" and one of her grandkids wiping out on the GT racer
- "Ma Bear" recovering after the wipe out
-Darren and "Ma Bear" Christmas morning
- Girls with Blankets I made them - Christmas morning
- Girls with gifts they gave each other
- Mickala as "Little Red Riding HOOD" that Ma Bear made her...I'll need to post a few more seperatly...