Kim captured a beautiful sunset on her way home from a church meeting a couple of Sundays ago
Nixon has been working hard at piano
I got a haircut a couple weeks ago and begged Kim to let me keep this little curl. She wasn't having it ;)
Kim had her citizenship interview and passed with flying colors (she got 100% on the questions and had no problems with her speaking and reading ;)
We were excited to welcome her home
Kim painted her a flag
Because of COVID she was able to take her oath and have her citizenship certificate issued at the same time rather than having to come back for a public ceremony. One of the few good things that have come from this pandemic.
This was a pretty complex Christmas puzzle these boys finished
Henry fell asleep in my arms while I was reading with Nixon. It didn't help that Henry wasn't feeling good.
At the kids' elementary school they always take a second picture for school pictures where the kids get to make funny faces. Then the school puts them up in the hallways.
When Kim was at the school for parent teacher conferences she found Mason's picture
Henry was really excited to get packed for our trip up to Canada
She also spotted Nixon in his classroom. Apparently there were lots of kids absent because of being sick so Nixon was sitting all by himself.
This is what Nixon's funny picture looks like. How is that even possible?
The day before we left for Canada we got a little bit of snow, just enough for Mason to make a snowman.
Leading up to our trip we had some sick kids but thought we saw some good improvement in the kids before we left (we were wrong).
When we got to Welling the kids were excited to see their grandparents and play with some new toys
We also got to play some games. The girls are playing Boggle here.
This night Mason and Nixon were at each other's throats about their sleeping arrangement. That made it all the more funny to see Mason sleeping on Nixon's butt ;)
Some more games the next day
And a wonderful American Thanksgiving in Canada
The next day the kids got to help set up the Christmas tree
This one is super cute
And Henry helped get some Christmas decorations on the fridge
After working all morning Kim and I went out to do some shopping and get some poutine for lunch
Dinner that night (homemade corn dogs) was delicious
After dinner we exchanged some Christmas gifts early
Some of the gifts were very surprising :)
Henry had the best reaction to his gift
Mason's reaction to his gifts (Lego sets) was not quite as cute but once he calmed down and we got building he was super happy
The next day there was some serious crafting going on
By this day Lyza and Nixon were feeling well enough to play outside in some new snow
Henry also got to try out his new shovel
I didn't share the runny noses, coughs, sneezes, fevers, bad sleeps, etc. Needless to say, our trip did not go exactly as planned. We decided we couldn't risk driving up to Edmonton and getting everyone sick. It was a really hard decision.
Before we left we tried to get a photo of the kids with their grandparents and the result was very fitting for the trip. It was nice to see them but we wish it would have been under different circumstances.
The big kids of course had to say goodbye to the cats
The only good thing about coming home early was that we got to decorate our house for Christmas earlier than we were expecting
These kids were so happy to set up another Christmas tree
We should keep an extra strand of lights handy to slow Mason down
Nixon our Christmas elf
The next day we decorated the tree
We have also had lots of downtime to do things like puzzles
Take care
