Christmas Gifts.





Christmas Eve kisses.



 

Happy Christmas morning faces.

 

Two of my favourite guys wrapped up in bows.



 

Happy holidays from the Lilahbility crew.

 

Rock on. 

Wordless Wednesday: Holiday Lights

Apparently, some members of the family are less easily impressed than others...

Happy last Wednesday before Christmas!

 

The Pics of Christmas Past

Whoa, Monday, how did you get here again so soon? Well you know what that means! It's once again time for Monday Listicles hosted by none other than the Listmaster herself, Stasha.  This week our instructions were a little more vague than usual - we were simply asked to provide a list of ten pictures.

So, with Christmas less than a month away (don't hate me for saying that - I haven't started my Christmas decorating/shopping/meal-planning/package-sending yet either!) I thought I would treat you to some pictures dredged up from my Christmas archives.  C'mon, it'll be fun, and it will help us all get in the Christmas spirit!

1.  Okay, so this one is cheating just a tad.  I can't guarantee this photo was taken at Christmastime.  But it's one of my favourites of me as a kid, and it was definitely winter, so humour me, okay?  That pout is pure two-year-old (I'm quite familiar with the sight of it on Lilah's face these days), so I'm going to hazard a guess that this was taken in 1981.

2.  Circa 1984.  When Cabbage Patch Kids were da bomb. Except we didn't say "da bomb" - did we even say "awesome" back then?  I don't know, I was only five.

3. Roughly 1984 or '85. Still rocking the same haircut.  No idea what is hanging around my neck in this picture, but it looks like a school project, and I look very pleased with myself.

4.  Me in a school Christmas play, circa 1988 or so.  Why didn't anyone tell me to tuck in the white t-shirt?  It's kind of ruining the whole pink vibe I've got going on.  And, because I know someone will ask, I can't tell you anything about that other kid except that I have a vague feeling his name was Jamie and he was the blue elf to my pink.

5.  Fast forward through the awkward teen years, and we arrive at this still slightly awkard Christmas picture, which must have been taken in 2000, to the best of my recollection.  Normally I am a brunette and my sister is a blonde, but we decided to switch hair colours on this particular occasion.

6.  This picture was taken two days before Christmas of 2008, when I was exactly 14 weeks pregnant with the Lilahbility.

7.  Christmas 2009 - Lilah was just shy of six months.

8.  Last Christmas, Lilah was a little less than 18 months old.  That's when it really started to get fun.

9.  Lilah's cousins sharing a moment by the Christmas tree last year.

10.  And last but not least, it just so happens that I took my favourite photo of all time on Christmas Day, 2010.  I've been getting just a little mileage out if it, as you may be able to tell from my header.

Well I don't know about you, but going through old photos sure put me in the Christmas spirit!  Now go treat yourself to an eggnog latte and head over to Stasha's to check out some other Monday Listicles.

Wordful Wednesday: A Christmas Lilahbility

It's the day after the day after the day after Christmas and the gifts have all been opened.  (Well, not all, actually - we're saving a few of Lilah's for a rainy day.  Oh, who am I kidding?  It's winter in Vancouver, they're all rainy days!  More accurately, we're saving them for a bored and grumpy day.)  The turkey has been devoured, the joy and excitement felt, the giggles shared, and the photos snapped.

 

A little Christmas morning magic

My tongue and teeth hurt from all the crap I have eaten over the past few days, and  yet, as I sit here, I am unwrapping yet another mini Toblerone bar.  Santa put too many in my stocking and I just can't stay away.  Besides, I have only a few more days to indulge before those darned New Year's Resolutions must be abided.

Another Christmas is over, and I have that feeling of satisfaction, fullness, and restlessness that comes in the wake of overindulgence, time with family, and barely-contained chaos.  It was a good one, my friends.

My Christmas spirit had been almost completely quashed by Lilah's illness during the two weeks leading up to the festivities.  I wrote about it here, but little did I know that it wasn't actually over at that point.  Two more days of vomiting and diarrhea had us driving to a drop-in medical clinic at 5pm on Tuesday.  All we got from that was a little reassurance and a requisition for a stool sample.  You'll have to get the Hubs to share that story someday - a whole new high in his parenting experience, I assure you!  But by Wednesday she was starting to seem a bit more like the Lilahbility we know and love, so we decided to proceed with our plans to head to the top of Grouse Mountain for our breakfast with Santa.  Well, this is how that turned out:

It was a little ambitious, perhaps.  No matter, the Hubs and I enjoyed our buffet breakfast, and Lilah was so exhausted by the whole experience that she dozed off during the four minute gondola ride back down to the bottom of the mountain and then fell into a deep sleep on the car ride home.  I think she'll enjoy it a lot more next year, when she is a little older and more Christmas-savvy and (knock on wood) not just getting over an epic tummy bug.

The real magic happened on Christmas day.  It was enough  to make me believe in Christmas miracles again.  Our girl, who has been under the weather and a little sad for quite some time now was happy and smiling - an absolute delight all day long.  And she ate.  Boy, did she eat!  The clinginess and whines for "mama" of the past few weeks were replaced with giggles and cute scrunchy-faced smiles.  And that was the best Christmas gift we could ever have asked for.  My new camera accoutrements, tickets to Cirque du Soleil, and bath products were really just icing on the cake.



Christmas finery provided by Grandma and Grandpa

We arrived at my in-laws' place long before the rest of the family, so there was plenty of time to bond with Grandma and Grandpa (after the requisite warm-up period, of course), admire the tree and decorations, and for Lilah to indulge in a long winter's nap before things got really chaotic: 

It's not a wild and crazy Christmas dinner unless someone takes their clothes off.
(In her defence, her three-year-old cousin did it first.)

If you were wondering how she got the belly in the last photo, this would be it.
Apparently ice cream is now a finger food.  The spoon was purely for show.

I think we are now officially in the "holiday hangover" phase.  There are a few extra Toblerone pounds on my frame.  There are brand new toys strewn across my living room that the Hubs and I have been tripping over a hundred million times a day.  There is a lop-sided gingerbread house with most of the candy decorations picked off, looking a little sad and forlorn on the kitchen counter.  All proof that things are just as they should be at this time of year.

This is the Time of Year...

This is the time of year...

When I want to scream at the traffic lights, "C'mon, change.  Change.  CHANGE!!!"

When the sappiest, cheesiest, most obvious things make me cry.

When I am constantly running behind and apologizing to myself and others for just not being able to do it all.

When I want to create holiday traditions for my little family that will last through the years; traditions that my kid(s) will look back on with fond memories when they start their own families.

When being at the mall makes me feel like this:

"Oh no, we're going to the mall?  Again???!!!"

When I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to say (with total honesty) that I genuinely like my in-laws!

When our bank account bleeds money.  Like a severed artery.  With no hope of rescue till January.

When I remind myself to take stock and count my many blessings.  The past 18 months have been one wild, amazing, bumpy, and beautiful ride.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Wordless Wednesday