Christmas in Review

It was our turn to host the Christmas Eve dinner with Gord's brother and his family.  That was great as we wanted to have them over to see the new house and what a wonderful way to do it, with some holiday cheer!  As for my family, we have always had lunch on Christmas Day at my parents' house.  We decided to stir things up a little this year.  I suggested that they all came to our house instead therefore making it easier on my parents.  Lord behold... they agreed!  The only thing I didn't think of was the back to back dinners.  Yikes!  That made for some minor diasters around the house!  But it all worked out and it was quite nice. 

Here are some of my favorite photos.

Merry Christmas!

For our family to yours...

5th Annual Cookie Exchange

My all-time favorite party of the year is my Cookie Exchange party.  This year we were 8 bakers, and Gord, our waiter.  We, the ladies, provided all the sweets and Gord made sure we had lots of appetizers and drinks in hand.  We all ate, drank and exchange our goodies.  Enough cookies to get us through the holidays and to keep us in good spirits.

My contribution this year were walnut horns, a buttery croissant like stuffed with walnuts and cinnamon.  Extremely yummy!  And all packaged in cute little glass snowmen jar complete with little blue scarves!

The band of merry snowmen.

The lovely assortment of taster cookies.

The bakers with all the pre-packaged goodies!

And the Christmas parties do not end there...

This time it was with our Chinese Adoptive Association.  The girls call this Santa, the Chinese Santa  :)
A nice little Chinese buffet lunch was enjoyed by all followed by the visit from the big guy.  The kids are getting older and with very few adoptions these days, we do not have that many newcomers.  Too bad!  Loved seeing the cute little ones just home...

Babbo Natale

December brings on many different activities that is Christmas related.  The first such one is our annual Babbo Natale with our Italian Association.  The Italian Santa comes by to pay all our members' children a little visit and of course, comes bearing gifts!  But before that, the kids had to put togther a show for the parents.  Alexia starred as an angel and Cara-Li as Mother Mary!

Festa delle Castagne

Every year at this time, our Italian Association puts together a fall party where all our members get together to dine and dance.  As usual, a fun evening, but somewhat stressful as I am the lucky oe who gets to plan a lot of it.  The being said, I don't usually get to enjoy dinner nor the dancing for that matter.  But the rest of my family and guests seemed  to have fun so that's all the counts!

Halloween

What a stressful Halloween this has been!  I am still jet-lagged people!  These costumes were put together in minutes flat.  Alexia's Little Mermaid outfit was borrowed and Cara-Li's Minnie Mouse outfit was purchased.  No time to make costumes this year...  But by the end of the evening, the girls were going through their stash and every one was happy.  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Preparations

Twas the night before Halloween, and everyone was busy carving pumpkins!  Of course, if you are at our house for this task, you are entitled to a pumpkin-filled evening.  Pumpkin and apple soup and pumpkin gnocchi.  Oh yes, it was pumpkin all the way!  Thanks for your help guys!

Alexia's Cupcake Birthday Party

This year's birthday party them for Alexia's 5th birthday... a cupcake party.  And since I was not in town much prior to it, off to Loblaws we went!  I must say that this was my least elaborate attempt at party planning.  Must get back to it next year...

While waiting for all the guests to arrive, the kids jumped in the bouncy castle.  Funny.  The older kids enjoyed it as much as the little ones.

Then, Alexia, dressed up in her baking outfit, decorated her little cupcakes, one to eat right away and one to bring home.

The busy little bunch.

What else would you have as a cake at a cupcake party but a giant cupcake made by Auntie Loula!

Mommy and Daddy with the Birthday Girl.

Dinner that night was at Alpenhaus for fondue.  Yummy!