the blur that was christmas.

there are so many things i could share about this crazy week called christmas. but i'll try to keep with the highlights:

1. we hit up a christmas eve toddler service aka birthday party for jesus. read about that here.
2. marcus got to open one gift after church: a sweet and totally not organic gingerbread train kit: it was so awesome making it together and marcus totally appreciated that i pitched the store-bought icing packs and we used our own instead. he 'tried a tiny bit' more times than i could count. it made me smile every single time.

3. we made santa cookies. we didn't bake them. we took them off their 'ready bake' tray and placed them on a cookie sheet. we have no shame. we also left santa a bottle of cab sauv. tis the season and santa wasn't driving.

4. james came over and we built marcus a mini cooper. [some assembly required? laughable. a lot of assembly required people! but we did it.]

5. santa not only came and dropped off a boatload of gifts, he also wrote marcus a letter:

6. we all got spoiled. rotten. top gifts: for marcus: a red mini cooper s, a construction set, about a million or so new dinky cars, planes, trains... for mom: amazing books, modern fam season 1, and a popcorn maker just like my grandmothers.

7. my family came over for christmas brunch. seeing my parents and laura/ty/grady was a huge highlight for me. it was the first year in 26 that i haven't been home for the holidays and it weighed pretty heavy on my heart. the encore celebration with my mom and scott totally sealed the holiday deal. [i wish we had taken a photo of that day too!]

8. marcus had a two hour sleep. thank you santa.
9. we spent the evening with the mcaloons. we had a not-so-secret santa exchange, the kids screamed and laughed and played for hours, bruce was in the bag, there were roastie potatoes and wine. it was a great way to end christmas on a high note.
10. i'll spare you the details - but this year marked a true turning point for the 3 of us as a family. one that was sad. a little scary. but also really exciting as i have so much faith and trust that all 3 of us will end up on our feet. standing. smiling. and truly happy. holidays definitely amplify emotions, and this one wasn't easy. but it was really important to james, marcus and i and i'm sure we would all agree it was an amazing christmas spent with the ones who matter most.

i totally hope your holiday rocked and was filled with non-organic treats, too much turkey, not enough exercise and a lot of love!

we are so lucky to have an awesome life filled with love and support and i'm all about paying that forward in any way we can. ps. if you're in the gta area and know of a fam that might need barely used toys/books/baby gear that is gender neutral/little boy style, please drop me a comment or contact me with any details - hugely appreciated!
-kare

it's all fun and games until somebody rips the prayer book.

our Christmas started at 4 pm on Christmas eve at a local church toddler service aka a rocking birthday party for JC himself. i am so lucky to have met deb at our Saturday morning kindergym class. well, Marcus and Liam’s kindergym class. she invited Marcus and i to the service and it was the perfect way to kick off chistmas.

it consisted of a ton of kids, a massive nativity set [shout out to liam for having the kajones to remove baby jc from the manger mid-communion. so cute.], a live band from the local high school, a totally kid-oriented message, music, and an actual huge birthday cake-complete-with-candles that the altar boy brought down the aisle as we all sang ‘happy birthday’ to the man himself. so basically, perfection.

but it didn’t go by without two wonderful little toddler boys having quite the time of it in our VIP section pew [choir pews up front.  because that is how we roll.] so i bring you: the top quotes from Christmas eve church [in no particular order]:

“boys. Please. Do not roar like dino’s during church.”

“marcus. Hands out of your pants. It’s not that kind of party and you aren’t the entertainment.”

“it’s all fun and games until somebody rips the prayer book.”

“race cars do not belong in the manger.”

“oh my. Liam just took baby jesus out of the manger.”

“i tooted lots!”

“deb is the real saviour here for bringing the extra organic squeezie for my son.”

"thank god for our iphone toddler apps."

the boys giggled, snacked, sang, ran laps of the alter [oh wait just mine], joined at least momentarily for the kid’s message, behaved-so-well-considering-they-are-afterall-toddler-boys-in-the-VIP-section, and obv looked good doing it all.

i just realized marcus is such a little pipsqueak next to liam!

deb: thanks again for including us. what an important night for marcus and i and we were lucky to be seated a] in the VIP section and b]with your awesome fam.
marcus: one day, i will explain to you WHY it is disrespectful to run laps around the altar. but for 2 1/2, you did real good kid.

liam: baby jesus totally wanted a change of scenary from his manger. way to go.

everyone else: i hope your xmas eve was filled with fam, friends + a lot of love. and maybe even a little birthday cake for the big man.

-kare