Christmas in Vancouver has been quite a slice so far - we've had a perfect balance of busy and relax, and the kids have been loving all of the activities West Vancouver has to offer (drop-in gymnastics, swimming, bouncy castles and plasma cars and gym time). Santa managed to find us, and we woke up Christmas morning to find stockings by our bedroom doors, just like when we were little (it bought my parents a bit more time in bed maybe?). I have some pretty strong memories of Christmas morning, and it all started there - creeping out to see if stockings were propped by the door, and then opening and re-opening with all of the sisters gathered in one room. Hendrik was pretty excited to receive more Pokemon cards from the big man, and before he'd even gotten to the bottom of his stocking proclaimed, "I can't WAIT for next Christmas!" We had the usual Osberg Christmas day breakfast of croissants and scrambled eggs before heading into the living room to dismantle the gifts wrapped up beneath the tree. Some of the gift highlights:
Alana: a new stuffed doggie - named "Teddy dog", a star night light projector, a glitter wand and doctor dress-up suit (adorable), new jammies and a lantern
Hendrik: a remote-control T-Rex, shoe light up thingies, mini walkie-talkies, a dino puppet, jammies, and a lantern
(We gave both of them a few books: Bedtime Math (which is a bit hit, surprisingly enough), The Utterly Amazing Human Body (super cool book) and Curious Creatures: A Mix and match book (also amazing)
Steve got new socks, some edibles (smoked salmon, beer, nuts, chocolate, etc.), a calendar, a t-shirt (pic to come) and a pair of gloves, and I was gifted some beautiful pottery, a scarf, a cookbook, and a personalized album of my childhood, made by my mom and dad. This last gift is pretty special, and I have yet to take the time to look through it from cover to cover.
Both Sarah and Claire left this morning, and it was so great to spend time with them and with my parents, especially over the holidays - we haven't been here for years and years, and I'm thankful that they were both able to come for several days. We have just three days left here, and then it's back to the mild east coast - it's actually colder here than it is in Toronto! Crazy. We had a nice walk up in the snow on Christmas day, and the kids loved it. When asked what their favourite part of Christmas was (after an incredible dinner), they both said "the muck" - from the walk. Sounds like familiar chimes from my childhood, when we'd say that the wrapping paper and the oversized boxes were the highlights of Christmas day (!!). Oh! And we went on the Stanley Park Christmas train last night - which was awesome. AND there were no incidents on the plane, and we were able to arrive in Vancouver mostly healthy; Hendrik was on the last remnants of his sickness, and somehow I managed to evade the bug. The kids have been sleeping well and my mission when we get home is to get Alana a twin bed - so she can sleep well and so I can sleep well. Even though she's 21 months younger than Hendrik, she's only 5 pounds lighter - which means she is too big for her bed (and too big for me to carry her around). She'll buy into the new bed idea, but not being carried around by mom is another story.
Merry Christmas to everyone, and Happy 2016!!
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