Christmas 2010

We had a really nice Christmas this year. Fairly quiet, good times with family, yummy food and treats and lots of wonderful family traditions.

On Christmas Eve, we held our first annual McMullin/Hughes Christmas pageant. We dressed up our two little toddlers, Hudson and Seth, as sheep (although Hudson's costume is a little more basic than Seth's - I wrapped quilt batting around him and pinned it to his shirt). Maira played the part of Mary, Shae was the angel, Connor played three roles: Joseph, a shepherd, and a wise man, and Isaiah helped Connor as a shepherd and then a wise man.

The shepherds being astonished at the angel as the sheep wander around:

The sheep decided to climb up on the angel's spot to check out the view:

We tried to get a group shot at the end but one of the sheep was pretty sad about something and the other one wanted to play with the wise man's gold:

But, Seth calmed down after a few minutes and we brought our little Santa Howie in for another group picture:

Connor hated his wise man costume, he insisted that it made him look like a girl!

Once the pageant was over, we tried to take a picture of the kids in their new Christmas pajamas - but Hudson was having none of that, we couldn't convince him to sit nicely on Shae's lap for even one second:

So, we gave up and took pictures without him:

And then when we were done, we discovered what his problem was: he wanted to sit on the chair, not on Shae's lap.

The look of a toddler who has finally communicated what he wants and has gotten his way:

So then, we called the others back and got this cute shot:

On Christmas morning, the kids all got sugar cereals in their stockings so this is them enjoying their rare treat:

But Hudson couldn't be convinced to eat cereal for breakfast even if it was coated in sugar, not when there were jellybeans to be eaten:

We had a lovely morning opening gifts from each other:

I spent the last couple weeks before Christmas frantically knitting because I decided I wanted to make "Oma Slippers" for my kids. I got the last one done on the 23rd after many late nights. They're really very quick to knit but to knit 4 pairs in 2 weeks, is really pushing it! When I was little, my Oma (my dad's German grandmother) used to knit up these same type of slippers for all her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids and I remember receiving several pairs of slippers from Oma during my childhood. She lived far away from me and so I really didn't know her at all but these slippers were something tangible she had made with her hands for me so they were something that connected us together. I hope that these slippers can be a connection between my kids and a great-great grandmother they never knew.

Over Christmas holidays, Jess and Connor had a special day out. They went to the Deep Sea Caverns at the Mall where Connor got to take pictures of the sharks with one of Jess's old cameras:

And then they went to the Telus Science Centre to see the cool new Lego exhibit. This is Connor at the space exhibit pretending to be an astronaut on Mars.

Christmas was wonderful, the holiday from school was great, we made some really nice and important memories, but I'm so glad it's all over!