Christmas Holidays!

We had a lot of dates in December for friends and family Christmas get togethers. Many of which took place over the break (we both had December 23rd to Jan 2nd off - except I had to go in briefly on Christmas eve)

On December 18th, we got together with Aleksy's cousin, Rob and Amanda and their kiddos. Here's Logan with his cousin Daniella - and a baby (that's not real I swear!). They made us an awesome prime rib (I'm not really sure how we scored this for supper!). We had such a good time at supper and Logan loved playing with Daniella's old toys and in the basement after supper - so much space to run around and play. He even had his nudey time and changed into jammies there! He was oe sleepy boy on the way home from Strathroy!

And after all our Dec 23-26th festivities, we had plans with Chels, War and their small tribe and Andzelika and Paul & girls. Because babies are happiest in the morning, we got together before lunch. Logan loves being surrounded by other kids! He was a sleepy boy during this visit though and had 2 naps in the time we were there. He managed to squeeze in some fun kitchen play with Serena.

We ordered in Pizza Projekt for lunch (with the awesome deep dish pizza that's like a panzerotti) and of course opened presents. Logan got spoiled with clothes! PJs and new outfits! He may not understand but Mommy and Daddy were very happy...

















Chels came up with this present for Serena and Natalia - she provided all the ingredients for homemade hot chocolate and a recipe along with some fun marshmallows and then mixed together the hot chocolate with the girls and let them each have a sample cup! So cute!

Warren said Cadence got her Mommy all the fixings for cosmopolitans. We also cashed in on Chelsea's Christmas gift. Cosmos for all the ladies!

And when Logan woke up from nap #2 he was ready for play and to bully his friends... pushing them off the trampoline. This guy's always the baby around other kids, so he needs to get used to the little ones... and not being a bully!

We were so sure the twins would be the bullies to Logan... the Webster genes. Maybe that'll hit when they start to walk...













Logan and his buds on the trampoline. Logan loves little books like the one he has in his hand here. He just carries them all around.

 The next day, the 28th was out family day - no plans: just the 3 of us! So we took Logan swimming at the Y. He was the happiest baby getting into the pool and looking at all the other kids playing. He also is a huge fan of the water that sprays into the pool. All around good times. He was in there for about half hour!

Then after swimming, like all responsible parents, we snuck our baby into the treehouse - the play centre that's not included in our swim pass. Mwahahaha.

This part was the best according to Logan - no need to go all the way up to go somewhere... he was satisfied just going up then back down on repeat.

Just a little extra energy burnt off to contribute to a nice long afternoon nap!

The next day, Thursday, was our full Christmas dinner with Sam and Zac. I mean full turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, veg, croissant rolls, cranberry sauce (made by Alyssa!), and of course my baked goodness for dessert.

I made up the stuffing in the morning and helped with some prep, but Aleksy pretty much did the rest. Someone had to entertain the guests!

And presents were had - this is Logan opening his new drill. His first inclination with the drill that fully spins is to put it directly into his mouth and drill. He's such a monster! He loves this drill - probably the cause and effect - that he pushes the button and makes it go!

And this little cutie geekster it getting so big! William scored himself some Zahara clothes from his bud Logan. We really like this new store - such cute & stylish kids clothing. This little cutie has quite the trendy wardrobe, so just a little extra for his extensive styling selection!

We had a get together on Friday the 30th too with my work friend Jenny and her husband and little Levi but I didn't get any pictures of Levi and Logan! We will soon - need to get the babies from mat leave back together!

The baked good line up of the year - I had to take 3 days off work throughout December to get these done!

brownies with crushed candy cane on top, cinnamon swirl banana bread, ginger snaps, m&m cookie bars. butterscotch marshmallow squares, PB chocolate squares, Rice Krispie PB balls, shortbread squares and the classic traditional sugar cookies!

Christmas 2016

Our first Christmas dinner was on Friday the 23rd at my Moms. It was a bit trickier than expected because I ended up working late unexpectedly and didn't get home until about 6pm, which meant we didn't make it there until about 6:30pm! This is pretty late especially for the goober. We had supper of chili, buns, salad, ham, mashed potatoes and creamed corn (i know... a random mish mash of delicious) almost right after we arrived which worked well since it as past our usual supper time!

 After supper, we headed downstairs for present time. It was this kind of present opening time - my wine + a banana martini. Just a typical Christmas at my Moms! Banana Martinis in full force and you cant say no when theyre being made even if you have a glass of wine on the go...

These were the excited ones for presents! This is the best pocyure I got of them... Logan was squirmy. But he was so cute this night backing up to sit in his cousin Rachel's lap! He was such a happy boy this night opening his presents with his Aunt Steph and loved being around his cousin as always. He was just missing his other cousin who didn't make it this year!

Logan was spoiled as always by his Auntie and Grandma and Grandpa Paul. He got some trendy new outfits, a leapfrog educational toy that sings, and teaches letters, and a car ramp with cars! He also got a new toy boat with elmo squirt toy from his uncle Trevor. Logan is such a lucky, loved little guy.

After presents, we had some dessert... and it was such good selection... all my usual goodies, plus cheesecake, haystacks and shortbread. Logan here loving the haystacks with Daddy.

This guy would not fall alseep because of all the fun happening around him! He stayed awake until we left just after 10pm. Such a late night for this guy. But we did bring some Christmas jammies so he was already to be transferred straight from car seat to bed.

So sleepy. Mid-transfer: snoozing soundly while waiting for the bottle to warm up. He was in bed shortly after.









Christmas Eve
I tried to finish up my work from home on the Saturday but I couldn't get into my work network so I had to go in for about an hour on Christmas eve :( but after that, we prepared to head over to Aleksy's parents place where we had a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner in the evening with Aleksy's immediate family and Uncle and Babcia.

Before supper, we had some present opening! Logan started to catch on to the opening of the presents and helped a bit this year to tear apart the paper! He didn't really get the concept that there was something awesome inside for him!

Logan's first Budweiser box from his auntie Alyssa. Filled with good stuff... a huge stuffed elephant, a stuffed football and they also got him a personalized piggy bank too.

Logan and his Daddy matching for Christmas eve!

For super, following sharing the bread, we had 12 dishes.. both Polish traditions. Salmon was the main along with perogies, meatless cabbage rolls, and lots of other good stuff.

And we got home at a decent hour Christmas eve so Logan could get his pictures with the egg nog and cookies. This is a step up from last year's sad, glossy eyed, crying pictures! But he was still really tired all Christmas eve from the night before.

Egg nog and our traditional Christmas cookies all ready for Santa!

And the night before Christmas obviously needed to be read to Logan on Christmas eve!

Christmas morning!! This is right when Logan came downstairs in the morning. He saw the presents under the tree (this year, we had NONE under the tree otherwise because someone would have opened them in a heartbeat!) and touched the big present then immediately grabbed the bi yellow inflatable ball you can see here in the corner. He was excited...about the ball that he's had for several months. 

Logan opened all his stocking stuffers first. He got some new snack cups, rubber duckies galore, flash cards, a book and some other odd items. He helped to pull them out one at a time!

And we slowly opened the presens over the next hour or so.. a good break between the stocking items and presents (not that there was a huge amount). Santa brought Logan a play kitchen this year - complete with pots and pans, plates, cups, forks ad spoons. And here is the second part - the plastic food. This is definitely a Logan favourite in the house now! Oddly enough its the plastic wieners he likes best... I don't know if he's even ever had hot dogs before...

Our Christmas card this year!

Christmas Day breakfast! Homemade oat pancakes (which the Logster likes too!) with a bit of fruit, jam, maple syrup and some beer... because it's Christmas.

After stockings, presents, breakfast and getting ready, we were all ready to head to Aleksys parents in the early afternoon (supper was at 2 so we planned to get there around 12). First, pictures of my goober and me all ready for Christmas supper.

That's Kate's little stocking. She got some Christmas treats too.

We got to Aleksy's parents place! We started by opening presents when we got there... new PJs and outfits for Logan and of course cars! Such a spoiled, loved little guy!

Logan actually had a nap on Christmas morning, but the day seemed to poop him out and he had a short lived nap just around the time we were ahving supper. It was nice to give us an opportunity to eat without focusing on Logan throwing food o the floor or being a whiney boy... meal times (especially supper) have their challenges with Mr. Logan.

And this is the deliciousness of Christmas day supper - all the staples of turkey supper plus some polish staples too - bigos and pititchky (definitely not spelling those right|).

We headed home before Logan's bedtime so he could have a good night sleep in his bed - around 730/8pm. It was my day to drive so no fancy drinks for me.. just dinner wine!

And boxing day, we visited my Dad's side of the family Grandparents, Dad, aunt and uncle. Double celebration because that's my Grandmas birthday too! Logan loves his new Paw Patrol table and chairs from Grandpa. He is obsessed and goes straight to his playroom to sit on his little chair every time we go upstairs. Its a drawing/reading station!

Pre-Christmas Festivities

The weeks leading up to Christmas holidays were a shit show. And I really don't like swear words in the blog, but this is necessary. Work was crazy busy and full of crisis, and free time was spent preparing for Christmas with baking, shopping, events, and other preparations like daycare gifts for Logan's friends. Although I like Christmas festivities, i'm happy that January has less expectations.

We look forward to Rachel's school Christmas concert every year. This year, it was a bit later in the year on December 15th AND I thought it was the day before and drove all the way across the city the day before to see that the school was completely dark! That's where my brain was. But I made it! Aleksy and Logan stayed home because of Logan's bedtime... Rachel was so cute and was the only girl in her class who chose not to wear a dress!

This deliciousness here is Christmas stollen bread. We had it for the first time last year made by family friends, Tommy and Vina Wang. This is difficult to stay in the house for more than 2 days. I think that's all it lasted this year. Its sweet bread with dried fruit.

This year, Logan got to enjoy some too. He is particular about bread, and doesn't usually eat much, but not the Christmas stollen.. He loved it and ate tons!

Even though it made my days so extra busy and late, I took 3 days off in December so I could get my Christmas baking done and on the last day off, I made these hot chocolate reindeer as Christmas gifts for Logan's daycare friends! Pinterest for the win once again.

And on Tuesday Dec 20th, Big Sisters had their Christmas party. The last couple years, it was held at the Windermere manor with a buffet of caesar salad, pasta and hot chocolate and ice cream sundaes. It was pretty awesome and included craft activities on the tables and a dance.

This year, they took us on a school bus for a tour of Christmas lights. It was actually really cool... there's 2 houses near the east end library that have a radio station that is synced with their light show. Crazy! We were even provided with hot chocolate, candy canes, popcorn and a granola bar as snacks for the bus ride. We randomly picked up Santa and his elves at Argyle mall parking lot and brought them back to the library where we had pizza hut pizza, pasta, and salad. The there was cake and ice cream for dessert and presents for the kiddos. Pretty awesome! The amount of food they provided was amazing... thye thought of everything!

They had pictures with Santa and this "photobooth" set up too.

Snowy weekends at the C House

This past weekend was probably the most relaxing weekend we will have in December. Weekends fill up quickly with plans in December and this weekend, we had Friday supper with the sister and her new guy, Jon then Saturday we had plans with our neighbours. Sunday, the big event was Logan's Santa pic at the mall!

Other exciting events of the weekend... snow! Logan is still hesistant with the icy stuff, but still played outside for a bit on Sunday before Santa.

And some sledding happened. Same sled as Family day when he hated the sled ride, but this time he was interested and smiling! Win!

At the mall... all fancied up for Santa. This guy got so much attention for his cuteness in the mall. Could have been the bow tie, the uggs.... the ladies love Logan. And Logan loves the light-up reindeer...

We really prepared for some tears this year... Logan has recently gone through a phase of playing strange but I think daycare has helped him with this so we got no tears. And really not much of a reaction at all. Just staring at the camera where they were jingling the bells.
Other 1 year old pictures looking like Santa is terrorizing them are way more fun!!

The difference of a year... this little guy could hardly hold his head up last year and was slightly blobbish... as much as a not so chubby baby can be blobbish. But this year, He's a handsome toddler! And Santa is not quite as Santa-ish as he once was at Masonville.

Birthdays and Christmas Spirit

Our past few weekends included Scarlett's 3rd birthday, a weekend away in Kincardine, some mall meet ups, and Al's birthday party (aka Aleksy and Katherine were baby free and forgot how much hangovers suck).

Scarlett had her 3rd birthday party at Little Gym on Nov 20th. Logan had the best time climbing all over everything and participated in some of the organized activity (but mostly was his own boss and found his own way around). The staff were so good at including him too int he activities even though his attention span is hardly a second!

Just one small mishap with one of these red rails and Logans noggin. Just another goose egg to add to those he;s already had!

After some serious playtime in the gym part, we headed into the party room for some pizza and cake. Ariel was there. Logan was terrified. This balloon Ariel was way scarier than the 1 that came out for his 1st birthday!

Logan's little friend Indie wasn't so scared - shes just a few months younger than the Logster.

After Scar opened her present, she said thanks and gave hugs to everyone - Logan was getting grumpy because it was late and he has too much exposure to scary Ariel, but Scarlett was a sweetie to him anyways!

And the very next weekend, we headed up to Kincardine to visit Sam, Zac, Scarlett and little William. Best hosts ever - supper, appetizers, breakfast, and a crazy assortment of drinks for the weekend.
And fun activities with the children - boxes for adult and child fun!

This guy was so pooped by the time we were ready to put him to bed - it was hardly past his bedtime. it was just a long day of play and a crappy afternoon car nap. We plopped him on the bed for his sleep sac and he was basically snoozing already.

Not that he snoozed that night - this guy who usually sleeps the whole night without a peep from 8pm - 6:30/7am was up multiple times - like 5 or something. And he kept that for the next night too. I'm so used to peaceful sleep so I died at work on Monday. But he's now back to normal (thank goodness).

And the 3 kiddos the next day! After eggs and bacon and some playing in the serious playroom downstairs, we headed back to London during nap time and Logan slept the whole way home (because he didn't sleep at night!).

Logan really likes his boots - there's no bad time to wear them really. Christmas tree, boot lovin baby.

This weekend, we met up with my niece Emma and brother Mike for some shopping at the Disney store and some lunch. It's been too long since these two got together and  I'm so glad he got to see her again! Emma is not little anymore -this girl is 9 in a couple weeks!

Logan got some awesome new Mickey Christmas jammies and a playmat and cars from his Uncle Mike and Emma picked out a Moana nightie for her birthday. A successful Disney store trip then some lunch afterward. Uncle Mike treated Logan to his favourites - meat and cheese. It's little weird ordering a mr. sub sub with no bread but that's Logan's style!

And later that day, we dropped the goober off at his Nana and Dziadek's and it was time to party for Al's birthday! We went to the Palasad for 7pm and we didn't even finish up our bottle of champagne before the taxi got to our place to share with Chels and Warren.

I think this was the first time I did a shot in like a couple years.

This chocolate cake came out around 10:30 - it was a shared party with Al and his friend Malcolm.

When 30 creeps up on you and you're certain you're still in your 20s and can handle 1 single shot of tequila... but you can't.

Selfies with the bestie!

And this was the community drink - it was basically a fish bowl of a drink that tasted like juice. But to add the the awesomeness, the straws had sour keys hung from them. We all tried to finish it together but that didn't quite work out.

It was a fun baby free night out, but the next day I realized that I really can't manage much more than 3 glasses of wine in a night. The next day was a slow moving day!