Christmas Dinner

We went into town to Linda and Ivan's for Christmas Dinner and opened more presents for Christmas.

Heather and Aunt Laur play tiddly-winks

Annual Tradition: Ted and Jessie get the girls matching hoodies. Awesome!

Caroline Books and Dress

Bad Kitty and Nessy stuff

A Tablet!

Christmas Morning: Under the tree

Mom and Dave were staying with us for Christmas. We opened up Christmas presents both upstairs and downstairs as there was two trees with presents under them.


Snow Sleds



Chapta for Alexi (doll)

Heather got Caroline (American Girl Doll)

Todd could not figure out why his Blackberry was not working on Christmas Eve. Hee Hee!

New Boots




 

Christmas Morning

Santa came without a hitch but he was kind of messy this year. He left his fingerprints on the fireplace doors and soot on the ember pad. I guess he was in a hurry. Even Jigs and Meeko were thought of on Christmas. Jigs got a nice green toothbrush treat that was gone in less than five minutes. Cat was disinterested completely.
A very funny story: Heather was looking through her stocking checking out her new horse grooming box and crop. The next thing we knew, she got up and ran out the front door. It took us a while but we finally realized that she ran outside to look for a horse. She came back disappointed and I had to explain that just because the Easter Bunny brought chickens does not mean that Santa brought a horse. She got over it pretty quick.

Vanessa's stocking wares



Heather's haul

Heather learning to play Tiddly-Winks



The Night Before Christmas

Great anticipation as usual the night before Christmas. The girls made stockings for their Maplelea dolls this year. We are running out of room on the railing. Good thing we didn't have stockings for the chickens.

Heather 10!

Heather turned 10 today! No more single digit birthdays for her. Where has the time gone? I made a gingerbread loghouse cake for her. It turned out okay thanks to my mom's assistance. It was nice to have family come and celebrate with her. Thank you

Nothing like family!

Thank you Auntie, Uncle, Emma and Delanie

Thanks Grandpa

Thanks Gma Tutu and Gpa Dave

Thanks Gma and Gpa G and the Kamloops Clan

Heather turned 10 today. No more single diget birthdays for her. Where has the time gone? I made a gingerbread cake for her. It turned out okay thanks to my mom's help. It was nice to have family come and celebrate with her. Thank you

Thanks Auntie Laurlie

Auntie Bev and Uncle Gerry, thank you

Merci Beaucoup Auntie Nicole, Uncle Brent, Piper and Kyenna

Thank you Clark Family

Rock Climbing with Kayak Club

Heather and Vanessa went to a rock climbing wall facility with the kayak club. They did well. Check out the videos!!!!

School Christmas Concert

This year's Christmas Concert was during the afternoon and I was unable to go because of work. Todd was able to go and video tape it. Looked like fun. I am sorry I missed it. Thank goodness for technology.

Checkout the youtube links below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nmXq8BZSQ&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICBL9QCJ_II&feature=youtu.be

Snowing

Finally another snow fall has come. It was dinner time but we let the girls play as we did not know how long the snow would last.

Merry Christmas to All our Friends and Family

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope we are finding you all happy and healthy. Every year just seems to be flying faster. Thanks to all of you who have been so timely is sending your cards and thoughts for the holidays. Ours was a little delayed this year but I hope you received them sooner rather than later.
    Our year has been the typical chaos of a family. Todd and I are both busy working in the same jobs and juggling the girls and all their activities.
    Heather is turning ten soon. She is growing into a lovely young lady who keeps busy with her schoolwork, horseback riding and highland dancing. She also started racing kayaks this year which kept the whole family busy with either volunteering or travelling to regattas.
    Vanessa is going to be seven at the beginning of the new year. I am so grateful she is growing up and maturing to the point that reasoning actually works sometimes. She has been busy taking musical theatre classes, swimming, piano lessons, horseback riding, kayaking/canoeing, and of course there is school slotted into there too.
   I thought I would share just a few highlights from 2012 in this letter but if you want to check out a bit more, you're in the right spot. Our year has been pretty consistently documented on this blog so enjoy and hopefully you get a few laughs too.
   We are slowly adjusting to country life. We have had a lot of interaction with wildlife. Jigs got to chase two deer and a coyote one weekend. Todd had to deal with a bat that decided to have a nap in our house as well as chase a bear away from the chicken coop. The girls enjoyed catching snakes, salamanders and frogs. And then of course there are the chickens! The Easter Bunny decided to deliver chickens for Easter. It has been a lot of fun raising them and we have had quite a few funny as well as sad experiences with them since the spring.
    As for travelling, Todd got to experience the trip of a lifetime. He went to Munich in September with our friend Brent to enjoy the festivities of Oktoberfest. He said that since coming back, beer is just not the same. I think he is just making an excuse to go back again. Ha Ha. While he was in Germany, Todd also visited the grave site of one of his great uncles that died fighting for Canada in WWI. He placed a couple flags and sprinkled a little Saskatchewan dirt to honour this uncle's sacrifices.
    I got to travel to Denver, Colorado for work. It is a beautiful city architecturally. I wish I could have stayed longer.
   Heather got to travel with her dance group to Disneyland for a week. It was hard to just drop her off at the airport and not go with her. She did well on her own and was well taken care of.
   We took the girls camping to Blue Lake near Boston Bar. They had a lot of fun swimming, kayaking, fishing, atving and learning to shoot a rifle.
   Heather and I also biked part of the Kettle Valley Railway near Kelowna this summer. It was amazing. 
   We also travelled to Van Island for my cousin's wedding and Heather raced her kayak at a regatta where we had extra fan support thanks to family.
  Most of our summer was spent at the local lake either on the beach or in the water. Definitely can't complain.
    We enjoyed visiting some of you that we got a chance to see and we're glad some of you could come and visit us. If we missed you this year, we hope to catch up with you in the near future.
  We wish you all the best for 2013.

Love,

Todd, Belinda, Heather, Vanessa, Jigs, Meeko and the Henwarts Clan






   

Christmas Recital

Vanessa started taking piano again in September at a local church. They had their Christmas Recital at the church. Vanessa played a Santa Medley and had a lots of cheering support. Thanks to those that came out.

Ukranian Egg Decorating Class

Heather and her friend Piper took an Ukranian Egg class to celebrate their belated and early birthdays. They had a lot of fun and made an ornament for the Christmas tree.

Tree Hunting

We didn't hack a tree down from the yard this year. A Christmas tree farm opened up down the road aways so we decided to look for one there. We needs tall but skinny and we succeeded. Its a Fraser Fir.