First Christmas in Canada...

Well, we have enjoyed our first Christmas in Canada. It's been a fun time, filled with parties for the kids (at school, seminary, and youth activities with our church), gift exchanges, making our traditional gingerbread cookies & fudge, going to see a Festival of Lights at a park on Lake Ontario, doing a couple Secret Santas for people in our ward, shopping for gifts for our kids, our families, and each other, a trip to Downtown Toronto on Christmas Eve to see some of the sights, followed by our delicious creamy vegetable chowder, family games, and reading the Christmas Story, opening presents Christmas morning, enjoying a big breakfast, a beautiful Sunday service on Christmas morning, and then relaxing, enjoying new books & clothes, and playing with new games & toys, and lots of fun family time! And an added bonus...Boxing Day here in Canada! Another national holiday the day after Christmas. So Neil has been able to have 4 days off, will go to work for 3 days, and then have 3 more days off. Nice! :) Merry Christmas to all!

Riding the GoTrain into Downtown Toronto...



The CN Tower in Downtown Toronto







View of Toronto from the 1st viewing level (there is one higher). The CN Tower is 1815 ft. high, has 181 floors, and 10 elevators.

Looking down through the glass-bottom floor!

At the very top level of the CN Tower...

Ready for Christmas Morning!

6 a.m., and ready to start opening presents! :)




The big mystery gift (from Grandma & Grandpa Both) that was squished behind the couch for the past two weeks. The kids were dying to find out what it was...

An AIR HOCKEY/PING-PONG TABLE! AWESOME!

The kids in their new jammies, waiting for our Christmas morning breakfast...

Enjoying a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, & fresh fruit...YUM!

Having fun playing air hockey...

...And Ping-Pong...

...And new Wii Games (from Grandma & Grandpa Willie and Uncle Spencer)...

...and Ninjago (Clay's favorite)...

...And the game "Mouse Trap" and HexBugs (Jonah's favorite)...

...And PJ & Tessa figuring out their new cell phones. They were SOOO Excited! We bought them pre-paid cell phones, and THEY will have to pay to refill the minutes. They both have a paper route now, and are earning their own money & they've been wanting phones, so we thought it would be a good win-win for everyone. :)

Then the day after Christmas we took the kids shopping to use some gift cards at a book store in the area. Neil & I didn't buy a whole lot for each other--some stocking stuffers & a couple small items. But then the day after Christmas (after seeing some of the "Boxing Day" sales, we decided to buy a couple new couches for the basement, since we haven't had anything down there, as well as 2 T.V. stands (since our entertainment center that we had our T.V. on before wouldn't fit in the basement or the family room where we had our other T.V.), and we also got a new T.V. There were some great bargains, and we decided to spoil ourselves with some post-Christmas gifts to each other. :)



The kids don't go back to school until January 9th. We are looking forward to having Neil's parents come visit next week, and now we have a little extra space for guests (an actual guest bedroom in the basement now, as well as the extra couches that also fold down flat into futon beds). We are going to be taking Neil's parents to Niagara Falls and the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum, in Downtown Toronto), while they are here. It will be a lot of fun, and great to have Neil home for several more days!

And this Friday & Saturday, PJ, Tessa, & I will be going to a big youth activity they have here each year, around New Years, for the older youth in our church (ages 12-18). It's called HOWL (Hamilton Overnight Winter Leadership). It's a 2-day event, kind of like Youth Conference, and since I'm now the new Young Women's President in our ward (Yes, really! SCARY!), I get to go too. It's at a big lodge, they have fun activities, a dance for the older kids Friday night, & games for the younger kids. The next day, they have some workshops & more fun activities, and then we'll head home around 3:30 p.m.

So...it's been a wonderful Christmas & we are looking forward to a great New Year! :) Thanks to all our friends for the Christmas Cards & Christmas wishes, and to all our family for the thoughtful gifts. We love you all! :)