We were treated to a brown Christmas. I have declared snow legally missing in this province. There is none to be had at all. On Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, we took the kids to see “Cheaper By the Dozen 2” which was a very cute movie. When we arrived home, we had our neighbors, Dan & Melinda & girls over for some hoer deuves and drinks. It was fun and the kids were excited. We got up at 7:30 on Christmas morning and an hour later it looked like a wrapping paper bomb had gone off in the living room.(ya know the story). Santa brought Tyler a “Roboraptor” for Christmas which is a dinosaur robot with a remote control with several features which allow it to walk, smell, growl, etc. Tyler’s favorite feature is the “guard” feature where the dino can be placed, say, in front of the door to your bedroom and it will “guard” the room- growl if any human comes near. Perfect for big sisters. Santa left Hunter a pink MP3 player and a note saying that the 3 in 1 bed that she asked for from American Girl would arrive after Christmas. It finally arrived yesterday. Betcha didn’t know that Canada Post delivers things for Santa after Christmas! The obsession with americangirl.com continues in this house, which is really wonderful because I am in not rush for my little girl to grow up. We are hoping to visit American Girl Place in Chicago this summer on our way home from the east coast.
On December 27, my parents arrived for a week of fun and frolic. Tyler had a hockey tournament and Hunter had a skating practice, so Grammie & Grampie were able to see them play hockey and skate. Tyler got his very first goal on Friday, December 30, and Grampie Long was there to see it. We had Grammie in the kitchen whipping up some of our favorites (well, really MY favorites) like English Trifle and toll house cookies. We did the trip to Red Lobster and the big huge mall. Mom & Dad really treated us with an amazing trip to Cowboy city.. Dad rented a limousine which picked us up at our house for a two day trip to Cowboy city where we met up with my aunt and uncle from the hat. It was so nice for Ron to NOT have to drive for a change. He could just sit back and relax. He has a very busy and demanding job, and this was such a nice break for him. He sat in the limo and had a brew. Aaaah! Life is perfect. We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown where my cousin Nick works. He got us a lovely suite of rooms to stay in. In fact, we stayed in the same suite of rooms that Matthew Perry (from “Friends”) and Ron Wood from the Rolling Stones stayed in when they visited. Nick is extremely well-liked at this hotel because we were treated like royalty during our stay. Complimentary wine & cheese delivered to our suite. Complimentary fruit baskets. Complimentary fruit smoothies at breakfast. Complimentary cookies & milk at bedtime for the kids. Things were just groovy. On New Year’s Eve, Dad scored 12 tickets to the Calgary Flames & Edmonton Oilers game at the Saddle Dome. This is one of the biggest, sold out games of the year because of the rivalry between the two Alberta towns. We took the C-train to the Saddle Dome, which is an above & below ground subway. This was my first NHL game ever. (Both the kids have gone to an Oilers game with Dad). When we got there, the crowd was *electric*. It was a sea of red Flames jerseys interspersed with pockets of Oilers jerseys here and there. My favorite sighting was a couple where the girl had on all Flames stuff and the boyfriend had on Oilers stuff and she had a sign which said “I’M WITH STUPID!”. Haha. I had a 25 year old sitting next to me during the game, and every time the Flames scored, I was christened with beer. It was great. Tyler was very upset that the Flames fans in front of us were chanting, “OILERS SUCK, OILERS SUCK!”. He wanted me to “speak” to them and tell them to “STOP SAYING THAT!”. (Yeah, sure, I will speak to them right away.) We saw Don Cherry, and it was a very, exciting close game. On the way back to the Hyatt, we were all squished in the C-train like sardines, then who should get on but the 25 year old who had christened me with beer all evening. Man, I just couldn’t get away from that bucko. ( Actually, he was rock star handsome, and I didn’t mind sitting next to him at all, he could have christened me with pepto bismo all evening). My kids didn’t go to bed until Midnight that night, which is UNHEARD of because we always stick to bedtime. Needless to say, it was very quiet in the limo on the way back. It was like the nap Olympics. A good time had by all.
Mom & Dad left us on January 3. Back to real life. The kids here don’t go back to school until Monday the 9th but Daddy was back to work this week. He had a teleconference on Wednesday morning, so the kids and I got out of town completely and went to West Ed Mall. That Mall is so huge that I think, even though we have been there about 8 times already, we have still only covered about half of the place. Tyler’s little legs can only take so much walking. We have skated on the Ice Palace there twice and we went to the Water Park at the beginning of December. There are 9 water slides, a wave pool and numerous other kiddy pools to explore. Hunter and I did the 2nd biggest water slide together & it was a blast. We laughed so hard at the end, and you know those water slides always give you the BIGGEST wedgie. So on Wednesday, we went to the Sea Life Caverns at the Mall, which we had not visited before, and we went to the Sea Lion Show. It was relatively inexpensive at $4.95 per ticket for about a 30 minute show with two sea lions named “Jazz” & “Manny”. The kids loved this and the big sea lion Manny could toss a lot of water into the spectator stands. Cool fun for kids!
Ron just left to go out to buy us a treadmill. All those “complimentaries” are catching up with us. Tyler has 2 birthday parties today and a hockey game. Hunter went with Dad to help out and here I sit in my jammies when I need to run out and buy two birthday gifts. At this rate, I might get the Xmas tree down by Valentine’s Day.
I have sent pics of our Wednesday adventure and some pics from Hunter’s Dress Rehearsal for skating on Thur. Jan.5. She skates with 2 teams. The blue dress is the for the Juvenile Team and they are skating to music from Cinderalla. And the pink and blue dress is for the Pre-Juvenile Team and they are skating to music from Shark Tale, which is actually an old tune “Car Wash”.
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