Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

The Farrells

Gymnastics

Boy... is Cara-Li ever good! Her instructor believes we should consider enrolling her in a more serious program as she has the talent and the potential for competition. My baby!

Snow, Shows and Parties

View from our bathroom window. Do you think that is enough snow?!?

Remember Mrs. Frosty from our last snowfall? Well, she is now buried in snow! THAT is how much snow we got!

Cara-Li and I leaving for The Nutcracker

I forgot to mention that this past Saturday, I took Cara-Li to her first ballet, The Nutcracker... not to mention that it was my first also. It was so fabulous and so grandiose! Cara-Li was sooo enthralled in it that I do not believe she blinked once! At the end of the show, I asked her if she wanted to buy something from the concession stand. They didn't have much... book, pencil, puzzle, CD. She picked the CD. What a girl!

This past Tuesday, I hosted my first Cookie Exchange Party. What a brilliant idea this is! A bunch of women getting together exchanging cookies. You know, only women could come up with such a thought. Men would just get together, drink, push each other around and drink some more. We got together, drank, ate cookies, exchanged cookies and drank some more. Women are much more productive during their drinking! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the cookie display. It was really pretty and festive. You'd think I'd have that fancy new camera hard at work. Nope, that is NOT the case!

Last night, we took Cara-Li to see Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. I had never seen this one when it premiered 15 years ago so it was as big a treat for me as it was for Cara-Li. Gordie enjoyed it as well! I just realized that Cara-Li has seen 3 different Cirque's this year, not to mention the Shriner's Circus and the Acrobat show in Beijing. Do you think she enjoys circuses??

And today will be Cara-Li's gymnastics show. More about this tomorrow.

Annual bake off

Since I was not expected at work today, I decided that today would be my annual Christmas baking day. Well... the fact that I am hosting a cookie exchange this coming Tuesday kinda helped me in deciding this. I baked my required 11 dozen cookies for the party plus a few more just to finish up the recipe. It took the better part of the day. Actually, it was the best day for baking as we have been hit with yet another huge snowstorm... the second large one of the year. It is great when you can be inside and watch it all come down. The best would be to be up at the cottage on such a day snowbound. Those are the best! We will be up there as of Christmas day for a whole 10 days since I am not working this year and home with the girls so I am really looking forward to it very much! Well.... back to my cookies I go. I must package and label them. Perhaps another glass of wine is in order...

:(

Our Christmas tree just fell down....

Update: It is now 10:30PM and the tree is finally back up. It looks great once again minus a number of very sentimental ornaments. Some very precious ones (adoption, Disney and glass ornaments) have been glued back together. Some ended up in the garbage (Chinese Li Bien ornaments from Pier 1). I have already been on ebay trying to replace some of them. I am very discouraged this evening...

Update to the update: It is now 11:15PM. Two more ornaments JUMPED out of the tree as we lay in bed... yet another precious Chinese Li Bien ornament broken. Will this day ever end??

End of the Tunnel

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! I have been faced with several technological issues in the last week. I purchased, for myself, a compact photo printer, a new SLR digital camera (a gift to each other for Xmas) and a digital picture frame for my in-laws for Xmas. Now, this all sounds exciting, right? Nope, it is not! First, I try out the printer and my computer does not even have enough memory, a mere 500MB, to save the software for it. Problem #1. Must empty computer memory. I order to do this, I had to pull out the external hard drive I bought several months ago in anticipation of this problem and moved all my 80 movies onto this new peripheral. Now, we have lots of memory available. Good news! Back to my printer. Once, I played with it for a while and called Canon several times, it is just amazing! The quality is superb and oh, so handy! As for the new, fancypants camera... I still cannot get it to take a picture. I guess I will have to pull out the instruction manual and/or call my neighbor who is a photography teacher. And finally, the frame. These things are great. You basically download whichever photos from your computer onto a memory card and insert into frame for an instant slideshow. Problem is, it probably took me 5 hours to through all the pictures and download them onto the card. It is a huge job! I hope my in-laws enjoy it! My office now looks like an office again... no more boxes and packaging all over the floor and no more instruction manuals all over the place. Now onto the real exciting toy, the camera. But first, I must pause and go to bed.

Goodnight!

Santa Claus, Take 2

Yesterday was our annual 'Meet Santa Claus' day with the girls and Julia, of course. We always head out to Complexe Desjardins a little before noon and have lunch at Baton Rouge while Santa is also lunching. Here are the girls as they await their lunch impatiently.

By the time we returned to the 'North Pole', Santa was also back. Now, after Sunday's reaction to the big man, I did not think that this visit would be any better. But with Mommy and Cara-Li there to protect her from him, she tolerated a photo... but only one. Here it is.

We did, however, like the little stuffed bear that Santa was handing out.

While the older girls were enjoying themselves on the enormous inflatable slides and the house of mirrors, the mommies took turns browsing in the nearby shops. This is a mall afterall!

And as usual, it was ice cream and coffees and cookies for everyone before heading back home through traffic. Yuk!

All in all, a most wonderful day was had by all! See you again next year Santa Claus!

The first Snow Day of the year!

I woke up this AM to the sounds of wind blowing and what sounded like snow hitting the bedroom window. I opened one eye to see that that was exactly what was happening. A huge snowstorm! Before getting Cara-Li up for school, I tuned in to the local radio station and, lo and behold, the first school closure mentionned was Cara-Li's. Yeahhhh! Our first snow day! Of course, Gord decided that he would not go to work either and opted to work from our home office. Not so good for me... that meant I would have no access to the computer :(

Views from our front door.

His office day did not last very long. As soon as breakfast was done, Cara-Li was looking to go outside to play in the snow. Of course she did. What child wouldn't? So off they went.

A couple of hours later, this is what appeared in my backyard.

Cara-Li using her own arms while...

Daddy found some branches.

The engineers themselves!

Isn't she the cutest Mrs. Frosty you have ever seen? And a fort was created under the swing set. How clever!

Poor Alexia could not join in the fun as she has a terrible cold :(

While they were out and Alexia was napping, I actually had some time to myself. What to do? I pulled out a project that had been waiting for a while. I converted this old case into a jewellery case that now hangs nicely in my closet. I am not much for jewellery (costume or real) but perhaps that it is now nicely displayed, I may actually think about wearing it.

Oh... here comes Gord wanting to use the computer. I am off to bake some apple muffins. I have been hanging on to this recipe since the fall. I know, I know... I am one season behide. But who knew that winter would come soooo quickly!

3 months!

It is so hard to believe that our little precious Alexia has been with us for 3 months already! Time does fly... but you know what? I have a hard time remembering life before her. It just seems like she has been part of our family forever. She fits right in!

We have had a very busy weekend and I am now spent! It started off with a massive shopping spree to get 50 kiddie gifts for the Christmas party on Sunday (more about that later). This activity tired Mommy only. Everyone else was tucked into bed. Lucky them!

On Saturday, Mommy and 2 elves wrapped all the said gifts and organised them in order to help Santa out. Then it was off to a wonderful Chinese dinner in Chinatown,

followed by a fabulous Chinese show at the Chinese Cultural Center.

The girls had such a great time... Cara-Li enjoyed all the acts and could tell me which was her favorite ...

while Alexia sat there and ate Cheerios the entire time... just like at the movies!


On Sunday, we rushed off to our Adoptive Families of Quebec Christmas party where more than 100 people participated in the event. It was held at a Chinese restaurant (funny that!) where we had dimsum (yumyum!). Of course, after lunch, the children were graced with a visit with Santa who came bearing gifts! A great time was had by all... or almost!

PS: Alexia had both her morning nap and afternoon nap in the car to and from the party... Let's just say, she woke up on the wrong side of the car seat! Once inside, she had a complete meltdown which included peepee and puke all over Mommy! We are now all happily in our PJs. Oh yah... our washing machine is broken :(