Christmas 2015

The Christmas season begins especially early here.  Since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, Christmas celebrations begin immediately following Remembrance Day (Canadian version of Veterans Day) which is mid-November.  Our holiday celebration started at the Imperial Theater with Mary Poppins.  One of the mom's planned a Mom and Daughter day for Brenna, Jenna, and Sofi.  It turned out to be an all day event since it happened on a Sunday.  The girls had Christmas Choir practice together that morning, followed by church, then lunch, and next we were off to see Mary Poppins.  The girls had a great time.  They enjoyed a taste of Perfect Punch, a Spoon Full of Sugar, and we all learned to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!  That same weekend was the Winter Wonderland Festival at Degroots.  Brenna made lots of crafts, got her face painted, took a horse-drawn carriage ride, saw a magic show, and got to pet real reindeer.  Christmas was already off to a strong start!

The final class field trip for the year was a visit to the Lambton Heritage Museum where we learned how all the different countries celebrate Christmas.  It was a very interesting exhibit.  The kids got a make Christmas crafts related to each country.  They learned about China, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Canada, The United States, Polland, The Netherlands, and lots of others.  They also got to make wax candles and enjoyed a hayride.

Another highlight to the holiday was the highly anticipated Girl's Alive Christmas Tea.  Brenna had so much fun last year that she was very excited to repeat the experience.  She picked out a new dress and we rolled her hair.  She really enjoyed the idea of getting dressed up for a "Super Fancy" dinner with porcelain tea cups and beautiful decorations.  

We attended the Sarnia Kinsmen Santa Claus Parade the first week of December.  It was a cool night with temperature just at freezing.  The Sarnia Christian School bus kicks off the parade with volunteers from our school collecting canned goods and monetary donation for the local soup kitchen.  We considered walking in the parade, but decided we would enjoy it from the street this year and possibly take part in it next year.  We enjoyed the parade and thought all the floats were very good with lots of lights.  There was a fun Minions and Snoopy float.  Since Canada doesn't really have high school football, they don't have marching bands either.  But we did have a few that crossed over from Michigan to take part in our parade.  However, the northern marching bands don't have as much swagger as we do down south!  More than an hour later we headed back to the car with cold toes and our pockets full of candy canes.

This year the Children's Choir had a special presentation for our church's Christmas service.  Brenna was the youngest of four children chosen to read the Christmas Story.  She was very excited and knew her part by heart.  She never got nervous even though the sanctuary was completely full.  She did a great job on her reading and also as a part of the Children's Choir.  We were very proud of her!  I didn't get any pictures myself, but the church shared some photo's from the service that I was glad to have. Here's the video.  Brenna is on the far left side on the back row.

Next we had our school's Christmas program.  Because our school is currently undergoing a $1.2 million dollar renovation, we couldn't put on a full scale Christmas program.   Our stage is being used as storage for the library and classrooms that have been moved around due to construction.  So instead, the school sponsored a Christmas Concert that featured the music program. Brenna loves to sing and participates in the Junior Choir.  They sang "Goliath was a Mighty Man" and "Perfect Christmas Night".  Finally, her class performed Carol of the Tubes using boomwhackers (yes, it really is a thing).

The next morning was the final school day before Christmas break.  The school held a Christmas Chapel and Breakfast.  The kids had a great time showing off some of their Christmas art work and just enjoying a day without class.  After the breakfast, everyone loaded onto the bus for a trip to the RBC Center for the Sarnia Christian School family skate.  Some of Brenna's friends stayed close and helped her with her skating.    

Sofi played us a rousing rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"

The rest of our holiday was pretty slow paced.  We stayed in Sarnia and enjoyed the time off.  There was lots of cooking.  We made our traditional chocolate and peanut butter rice krispy treats.  Also, rather than cookies, we decided to make Santa cupcakes on Christmas Eve.  They were shaped like Christmas trees, gingerbread men, and ornaments (after a failed attempt at Santa faces).

We enjoyed the Imperial Children's Christmas Party with some company (and school) friends.  It was held at the movie theater and we got see the new Peanuts Movie.  Jacob and I were also able to attend the company's Christmas Party with friends and enjoyed a night out.

Brenna looked especially pretty at our churches candlelight Christmas Eve service.  She was the kids waving her candle like she was at a Taylor Swift concert!  

Our Mississippi State Bulldogs pulled off a win in the Belk Bowl and we said goodbye to my all-time favorite Mississippi State player, Dak Prescott.  We hope we get to see him play on Sundays!

We started off the new year all white thanks to an unexpected snow fall.  The kids were thrilled and spent the day making the most of the fresh powder.

We did lots of crafts.  There was a gingerbread house and Christmas-scape building sets.  Brenna painted a portrait of our living room all decorated for Christmas.  She especially enjoyed some of her Christmas gifts.  She got a Goldie-Blox set from Mawmaw and Pawpaw.  It's an engineering activity for girls.  She got a majorette set from Aunt Keli and Uncle Tyreese that she practiced with to the Mississippi State fight song.  Plus there was lots of fun stuff from Santa like stain glass window making, paper purse craft kits, and glitter picture boards.  We didn't run out of things to do during our time off.

Even Pickles and Moose got a new cat toy to keep them entertained.

Well, that's it for our holiday.  Winter is in full swing and we're already counting down the days until spring!  2016 is off and running!