12 Day of Christmas - Day 7 - Gingerbread House

We had a master decorator in the kitchen today!!! 

One for the house... 

One for ME!

All done!  There's probably just as much candy in AK's tummy as there is on the house! 

After a good decorating session, we all headed out to Rum Point for some fun and sun!

I was so lucky to catch AK's name in the sand right before the waves came and erased it...  such a proud moment for this mama!

Silly faces in the hammock...

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Sweetness...  chatting with my fiance!

Relaxing times in the hammock

Joy!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6 - A Christmas Story

Puppy in a bag!

Mad Hatter!!!

Happy Family :)

Yesterday's 12 Days of Christmas involved a gift for AK of a Christmas book.  She unwrapped it and said "Aw man, I don't need no more books!!!!".  I read the book to her, replacing the main character Madeline's name with Annabelle, and she loved it...   guess I was able to save the day!

I don't think I mentioned it yet but we have some company this week - my dear friend Nancy and her friend Alex.  We've been having a ton of fun with them.  Nancy was so generous as to bring a Christmas gift for AK...  a Barbie "Hug N' Heal" Pet Doctor toy!  AK has a new puppy now named Lila who she can "doctor" when the puppy is sick.  Great gift and AK loves it!

As Richard and I had our office Christmas party, we packed AK up and took her over to Babbs for a sleepover.  Before we left though, we took the opportunity to get a family photo.  It's always nice to take advantage of a photo op when we're dressed up! 

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5 - Santa photo!!!

Looking good!!!

Santa looks a little too happy... 

Are we done yet???

AK and I headed down to Camana Bay to see Santa last week.  As we stood in line, I tried to convince her that she should go sit on Santa's lap by herself this year...  no such luck as you can see above.  She wouldn't even sit on the big guy's lap, instead, she wanted me to sit on Santa's lap and she was quite comfortable on my lap.  Silly girl! 

Surprise flowers!!!

Aren't they lovely???

Clients of mine were so pleased with a report that I wrote for them (the writing of said report was SO BORING, I thought I'd never get it done!) that they tried to send me flowers about a month ago to thank me.  When some time went by with not a peep from me, the risk consultant checked in with me and discovered that I had never received them.  Lucky for me, the client tried again :)

I love the Christmas-y feel of them, and I LOVE how good they smell!!! 

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4 - Giving is Receiving!

As part of our Christmas season, I like to try to get AK interested in giving to those less fortunate than us.  I stopped in at the Discovery Center at Camana Bay and got a child's name off of the Giving Tree.  We were given a 1yo girl to buy for.  I did most of the shopping on my own, but I did take AK last night to the book store to pick out a Christmas book for this wee one, and she did help me wrap the other gifts I'd bought.  We dropped the whole lot of it off at the Discovery Center last night. 

I think AK somewhat missed the point this year, she seemed to understand it a bit more last year, which I found surprising.  Perhaps it's because I didn't do all of the shopping with her, plus we didn't spend as much time talking about it as we did last year.  Nonetheless, I'm happy that we did this together. 

We were able to do a bit of shopping at Camana Bay afterwards and there was a big Christmas Market going on as well which we checked out.  I didn't buy much - just one small soap for AK's stocking but we did see a friend of mine holding a bake sale.  She had delicious coconut squares and she gave AK a broken gingerbread cookie...  after I chatted with her for a few minutes, I turned around to find the cookie gone...  AK just about inhaled it!

Quite frustrating considering AK has hardly touched her lunches for school this week :( I know she must be eating enough as she's got plenty of energy and her, shall we say, "output" is just fine.  I just hate to unpack her lunch and find most of it untouched.  I realize that kids go through phases with eating and I just have to stick this one out...  shame there won't be many treats for AK if she just won't eat her healthy food!

Next Christmas post will be about Santa photos!!! 

Special Ballet Class!!!

Last weekend was a special time at ballet - parents were invited to watch the class!  The teacher has had the viewing windows covered to keep the students from being distracted - which I completely understand - however, it keeps us parents in the dark as to the kids' progress!  Seeing this class was truly the highlight of my weekend...  AK was SO happy to be showing off for me and the other parents.  I couldn't stop smiling and I was so proud to see her dance her heart out! 

Beautiful dancer

Dancing in a circle

Taking a break - look at that yawn!

Tip tap!  I think AK looks SO grown up in her tap shoes. 

I got a bit of video as well - check it out here.  This makes me really excited for her spring recital, which is still months away!  I'm curious to know if my family sees a lot of me as a little girl in AK in these photos?  I know I catch a lot of glimpses of what I think I looked like :)

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3 - WEE Care Christmas Concert - Pocketful of Starlight

AK's Christmas concert was last night.  AK was blessed with the part of a "Wise Man's Associate" and she sat on the stage for most of the concert to play her part.  She did a great job and really enjoyed flipping her cape over her head :S silly girl...

I took a bit of video last night - check out AK performing with her class here.  Unfortunately I was at a bit of a bad angle so I don't have a great view of AK but you can see how much she enjoyed being on the stage!  She was so excited for the concert - she kept talking about it for the days leading up to it.

We skipped out of the after-party and headed out for ice cream with the Babbs, our usual post-WEE Care concert tradition!  AK really enjoyed some cotton candy ice cream.