Cookie Monster!

There's a mouse in our house - no, Sam just figured out how to use a chair and steal cookies! Help yourself!!

Christmas Cheer!

This is an update for all of you wondering whatever happened to that $100 bill that Aidan found last week. The money went unclaimed for a week and the store called us to come and get it. I had previously spoken to the manager about donating the money to charity and he mentioned that they are sponsering a family for the Winnipeg Christmas Cheer Board and if we wanted we could join in with them on that. I asked him if there was any way that I could have my son be part of buying gifts with the money so that he could see where the money was going, better to understand by doing, and he agreed, and that is why the store called us to come and pick up the money. I figured that this was a great life lesson to be learned and I really wanted him to understand all of this.
I explained to Aidan, that last week we didn't have the money and we were happy and this week we didn't have the money and we were happy, so we didn't really need the money and it would be nice to do something nice for someone else. We talked about what Christmas really means and we decided that when your heart feels good, that is what Christmas is about. We talked about how Santa comes to everyone on Christmas Eve, but how he only fills stockings and that parents put presents under the tree. Some parents don't have enough money to put presents under the tree and he would feel pretty bad if he woke up Christmas morning with no presents under the tree to open. We have the opportunity to help someone have a few presents under the tree.

Here is Aidan with the $100 bill.

These are the gifts we bought for the family. The orange package is something from "Fruits and Passions", inside is shampoo, lotion, bubble bath and perfume, for the mom. The monopoly game is for the family. The family consists of a single mom with 4 children, there are 2 boys age 11, a boy age 13 and a girl age 15.

On the way home, after dropping off our gifts at the store, Aidan said, "When can we do the Cheer Board again, Mommy?" I asked him why he wanted to do it again, he said "it made my heart feel good!"

Lesson learned!

Breakfast with Santa

This is the Prairie Dog Central Train. We took the kids on an adventure today. It included the train ride and breakfast with Santa! They were so surprised when we told them where we were going today!

This is the locomotive that pulled us, it was built in 1958.Here is the caboose, complete with wreath on the back.

The family at the beginning of the trip. It is about a 50 min train ride to Warren from the station.

Santa arrives and chats with every child before we got to Warren.

We got off the train in Warren and walked about 50m to the town hall, where we had a nice, hot breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee, hot chocolate, and juice.

The kids with Santa, Sam was impressed!

The conductor with Aidan and Ben.

Our coach, #105. It was built in 1901, it is 107 years old, and entirely made of wood. It creaked and rocked, it was hard not to fall asleep on the way back. I can't imagine taking a coach like that across the country, it was a tight squeeze for the knees. My grandparents probably travelled this way when they came from England and went from Halifax to Alberta.

The volunteers are in the process of restoring this old steam engine, built in 1886. It will so neat when they are finally done and have it running. We will have to go back for a ride on that one! It looks just like the Polar Express steam engine. The boys loved it and Chris has an open invitation anytime to go back and help work on it if he wants - they are always looking for volunteer.

It was a good day!!

I Have To Brag!

OK, so there are no pictures with this one. We went to the mall tonight for the kids to see Santa and have their picture taken with the "Big Man"! When we were leaving through the bookstore, McNally's, Aidan found some money on the floor. He handed it to me and I realized it was a$100 bill!! He said to me "Hey, I found some money, we have to find who lost it!" I told him how much money it was and his eyes got really big. We found a store manager and handed the money over to him. He looked at us in surprise that we were actually turning the money over. "It's the right thing to do", I said and he grabbed hold of me and gave me a huge hug and thanked us for being so honest, he shook Aidan's hand and wished us a Merry Christmas. He told us that he would put an email out to their clients and took our name and number because he felt that if they found the person, they should call us and thank us.

Chris was putting Aidan to bed tonight and told him how proud he was about turning in the money and Aidan's reply was "it would have been wrong to keep it"! We are so proud of him!!!

Joe's Hibiscus

This is Chris' dad's hibiscus. We brought it home after he died last year. Everytime it blooms I believe that Joe is looking down on us. I even made Chris a believer of this too because there were jsut too many coincidences when it bloomed. First, it bloomed the day of Joe's funeral, it bloomed next on his birthday (Joe's), next if bloomed the day Sam was born and again the day we brought Sam home. It bloomed 3 weeks later when Sam was baptized. It bloomed at other various times whenever we seemed to need a reminder that Joe was not hear anymore but not gone from out lives. It is very comforting.

My sister Melissa has custody of the plant right now because we couldn't get it to Winnipeg without killing it or having it confiscated at the border while driving. It has actually never looked better, she is doing a great job of caring for it. She sent me this picture of it blooming. She calls me everytime it blooms to let me know that Joe is thinking of us!

Christmas Stockings

This is the stocking that started it all! My mom made this for me when I was very little. It's the best because the back is made of velour and is VERY stretchy. Santa could fit lots of stuff in it!!

Each stocking my mom made for the kids has something unique to them on it. Some we had to design ourselves, like the trains on Aidan stocking, I drew for mom.

Ben loved watching Gramma making his stocking. He asked her to put his name in green and then wanted colored dots on his, "like Mommy's". My mom designed the "mightly machines" for the little mighty machine lover. He loves this sock. He even wanted to sleep with is when it arrived in the mail this week.

Sam's sock is unique for him too, he has the rocking horse, which my dad made him a real one this summer. All the stockings have santa and snowmen on them in some way. Sam doesn't really know what to expect yet with all the decorations. We are slowly putting things out so that it is not so overwhelming for him and he can (hopefully) learn what he can and can't touch. Who knows we may not have any ornaments on the tree below 3 feet this year!!!

And this is the stocking that I made for Chris the year before we were married. I keep telling him he'll have to get one that matches the rest of ours, but he won't have it, he loves it because I made it - such a good man!!