December 12th.

Time with friends.  True friends.

It's days like this that I remember how amazing this group of people are. 

They have helped me through some awful days, months and years; and have rejoiced with me in life altering moments and events in my life.

They have provided emotional (and sometimes financial) support and have been true beacons for me in both the light and dark times in my life. 

Today, as my life is in a pretty good place, I feel as though we have finally become friends on a more equal ground. 

And so this evening, we sat and shared a meal, good conversation and laughter together.

I'd never been to the Ichiban before and I thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the experience. 

I ordered possibly the greatest drink I've ever had (yup! they even beat Godfather's!) called the Geisha Girl and it came in this fabulous keepsake cup thing.  I've decided that she will live in my purse, next to my camera, and she will accompany me on all of my travels.  I'm thinking I'll do a weekly post of where my Geisha Girl has gone (complete with pictures of course!) FUN!!!

I'm looking for a name for her...any suggestions??

As I leave you today, I share this photo - hottubbing with 4 of 5 of us ladies.  (I missed you Heather)

Like I said.

True friends.

December 11th.

12 Days of Christmas


Day 2

Your second of 12 gifts is an apron! We are going to do some baking tonight, and you are all invited to join us!

Call me later for the details.

Have a great day!

Love you!

Mum, Nicole or Auntie Nicole

Brett pretended to be the Cake Boss all evening and Khai copied him (of course).  Declan ate the leftover flour and seemed quite happy about it!

Oh, and do not adjust the colour on your monitor...they dyed the cookies green and orange. They may not look appetizing, but they tasted great!!

December 10th.

CUTE.

That's all I can say about my friend Faith's little girl Arabelle.  Seriously cute.  I could have stayed and held this baby for hours on end. 

And she's such a good baby.  She hardly cried, and let you hold her and snuggle her and oh my goodness I want another baby!

It didn't help that Faith is staying with her brother and sister in law, and they just had a little girl 3 weeks ago. That baby is cute too.

Faith lives in Edmonton...she used to live here.  I miss her...

December 9th

like I said. Sometimes the very best things happen when you go with the flow.

Tonight, we decided to make our gingerbread house. It started off well..the one we bought had an e-z tray for "e-z" building...the box had the instructions right on the back...nice step by step instructions.  Thought this would be SO easy.  Well, we opened the packages, and a few of the pieces were cracked.  No big deal. We "glued" them together with icing and proceded on to the next step.

Got the house "glued" together. Looks great right?

We continued to ice it (the kids love having decorations EVERYWHERE).  Justin put together the tree while the little ones took licks of icing, and then finally started putting on the candies...oh yeah...and Declan posed for some ADORABLE pictures...

And then this:

So Justin told everyone to grab a wall (or piece of a wall), and we had a decorating contest!

and then they sampled their masterpieces!

What a great night!

December 8th.

I sat, in my bathing suit, beside the pool today, waiting to get the little report card from swimming lessons for my kids.  I did not realize how much I wanted them to "pass" until I noticed that my heart was racing and my stomach was nervous. 

Khai was totally fearless this year in swimming.  He did everything his instructor asked him too (and a few things he didn't) and was very proud of his own hard work.  Khai has stuggled with VERY painful ear infections (he actually has tubes in his ears) and is a bit concerned about the water staying in his ears, plus he has to wear his glasses in the pool, so he's been working very hard to overcome those things, and has done SO well.

Declan is not quite sure about a few things.  He started off being very willing to try everything, and has gradually become more and more cautious.  I'm not sure what it is, but cautiousness is not always a bad thing! I just don't want him to become fearful of the water.  One thing he is doing VERY well now, that he hadn't been doing, is blowing bubbles in the water.  He's very proud of himself for that (and so are we)! Declan wears his glasses about 50% of the time in the pool...we're still working on getting him to wear them 100% of the time OUT of the pool, so we're okay with that! But still, he does such a good job.

So, the teachers handed out the cards.  Yup. They both passed.  So proud of you two!

I love you Khai!!

December 7th.

12 Days of Christmas

Day 1

Your first of 12 gifts is a set of 3 handmade journals. There is one made with Christmas paper, one made with a paper that reminded me of you, and one plain journal. You may keep them all, or decorate the plain one and give it to a friend!

Love you!

Mum, Nicole or Auntie Nicole.