christmas 2010

what a lovely christmas we had! christmas eve morning was very fun having our own little family christmas. ben loved his tool set - mostly the circular saw and drill that make noise!

in the afternoon, we headed to the shulbas for the next round of christmas! ben had just woken up from a late afternoon nap - we thought it might help make present opening less overwhelming. ben's first present was a little chair (well, big for him!) so he can watch elmo's world in comfort! he was pumped!

we quickly discovered that the problem with new toys is getting them out of their boxes fast enough! they're all tied down tightly with all kinds of wire and plastic gadgets! ben had a few fits about this both christmas eve and christmas day. (can you see his face in this picture below? haha)

ben was wiped after all that over stimulation and was happy to sit with grams and pop to read his bedtime story. phew.

once he was down, we went on to our classic christmas eve dinner of cooking on stones! we took photos but they're exactly like 2009, 2008 (no post because we went to hawaii instead of posting about christmas!), and 2007! haha. we like traditions and i think we need to cook on these stones more than once a year! so fun!

christmas morning we were off to WR as soon as we got up. got there in time for cinnamon buns among other sweet breakfasty treats!

(if you're wondering what happened to judy's hair there in the middle - that's not judy. that's my mom's second cousin who is living in nanimo and wasn't headed home on ontario for christmas so he came here!)

ben went down for a nap after breakfast and we opened our stockings AND presents so that by the time ben finally woke up, no one had presents left but him! he was loving it! after present opening, we headed out to crescent beach for a walk in the cold air - we were thankful for no rain so that we could continue this semi-tradition of christmas photos at the beach!

after dinner and more playtime, ben had another story time with another grandma. life is good!

post ben-bedtime, we played games and ate lots of dessert! mmm...judy's shortbread cookies - my fav.

every year we are so spoiled by our families and this year was no exception. we love being close to home at christmas and being able to enjoy downtime with our favourite people. hope you also had a great christmases - hard to believe the new year (and the resolution list!) is just around the corner!