December

December was a busy month, as it always is, but we were still able to squeeze in a late birthday dinner for me at the Japanese Restaurant, Omo. It was a really fun time with our closest friends, the food was amazing, and the chef was very entertaining! It was kind of funny how it ended up being on our anniversary, Dec.2, but Jeff was very nice to plan it all himself, so he was obviously okay with that. 

The Christmas festivities began with our elf, Dash, coming to join us on Dec.1. He brought the kids some pajamas to wear for the month! We also put up our Christmas decorations about a week before December.

Jeff's been wanting to take the kids to Ifly. In fact, he bought passes for them a year ago at our sibling Christmas party when we went. We had to use them before the end of the year so we made sure we did that one weekend. We took all the kids and Boston and I watched from the outside and took pictures. He actually really enjoyed watching and everyone had a great time! Deacon especially loved it - he did the high fly, and really wanted to go again. Bentley had a good time but didn't care to do it again. Leo was hilarious because he couldn't listen to direction very well and mostly just flailed about in the tube. It was pretty funny to watch! He still had fun though, and it was a great outing. 

Boston has come to love Elmo! His tickle me Elmo is his favorite possession, but he also loves any type of stuffy. He's just the cutest little 1 year old!

Deacon has been doing ball hockey for the past few months, and it came to an end. I was really proud of him for waking up early each Saturday to go. Some days it started at 8am, while other days it started at 9am. He was often tired, but also wouldn't miss it for the world, so was always willing to wake up and go. Jeff always took him so I didn't see much besides a couple of videos but I heard he did amazing! He started out not knowing what he was doing, and ended up being a top player. Huxley was on his team and Andrew ended up coaching them. It was so fun for Deacon to hang out with Huxley!

We took the kids to see Santa at Southcentre mall one evening and it was the best time we've ever had seeing a Santa. He was the nicest person chatting with all the kids. He guessed all the kids' grades right and was so authentic we were all in awe! He asked them what they each wanted and when Bentley said she wanted a puppy he told her puppies take a community to take care of and the paperwork would be crazy, so he can't give them away. Or something along those lines, it was the best! We got some great pictures too. Then we decorated some cookies.

We also visited the Giving Machine. It's the first year we've had one, and basically it's like a vending machine but you buy things for others in need. We let everyone pick something and it was so fun to see what they chose. Bentley picked physical activities for kids (like gymnastics); Deacon chose food and yeast for a month; Leo picked a frost bite kit; Jeff chose a sleeping bag; and I picked chickens! It's also fun because they give you a pin, candy cane, and take your picture with the items you chose, or the poster board chickens. There is always some type of entertainment near it too, like piano, singing, etc. It was really nice.

Legacy did it's Light Up The Pond event again this year and Santa was literally right outside our backyard. We looked out our window and saw him right there! We didn't walk the whole pond this time because it was a little too cold, but we visited Santa and grabbed some hot chocolate. It was also the first year that we had gemstone lights on our house, so we definitely contributed to lighting up the pond. 

I got to view Bentley's dance classes as they put on a little performance for us. It was so much fun to see! She's doing great and having a lot of fun with her friends in Acro, Jazz, and Ballet at Diversity Dance Studio. 

Bentley and Deacon had their school Christmas concert where they each performed a couple songs. It was really cute! For one of the songs Deacon was a reindeer so he had to wear brown and some antlers. He also got to hold an S for the S-A-N-T-A song, which was so cute. Bentley did sign language to Silent Night and performed another really beautiful song. It was nice and short, and a great time. Grandma and Grandpa Nielson also came to watch. We got a babysitter for Boston and Leo, which was so nice because we went to Tim Horton's afterwards and had such a good time together just the four of us. Sometimes we forget how fun Bentley and Deacon are when we're so focused on the younger ones needs, so it was a nice change! 

Leo's school Christmas event got cancelled, but he had a Christmas sweater day and a pajama stuffy day, which he loved. He also brought home the cutest gifts and crafts. 

On Christmas Sunday I usually get matching outfits for my kids to wear to church. This year it was on actual Christmas day, and we didn't end up bringing Boston to church because Cindy had him napping at her house while the rest of us went to church. Anyways, when I saw this new pop up "Merry and Bright" place with fun backgrounds to take pictures at, I thought it'd be perfect to go in our outfits for photos. This took the place of that Christmas Sunday photo for me, and was also super fun for the kids! They knew we were going to take some photos, but they didn't realized it would be at such a fun place. We all had a lot of fun with it! We did this before Christmas, but on our way to church, so we were all dressed up anyways. We were a little rushed though, as there were more backgrounds that we didn't even get to!

On the 23rd, we did our kids gift exchange at Kellie's house, as is tradition! She cooked a pot of soup and chili, made buns, and I brought a salad. Instead of skating this year, though, we paired it with the giving machine with the grandparents. Cindy really wanted to take them there and even bought them each shirts to wear, so we went a second time! Afterwards, we hung out at Scott and Kellie's house eating and doing our gift exchange. We all had an absolute blast and the kids loved opening up a present early to play with!

The kids had a half day of school on the 23rd, so we decided to throw an Elf party in the afternoon. We invited 18 kids and they all showed up, making a full house of 21 kids! I asked Ryley to come help me because I also had Boston and Leo to take care of, so that was a great help. We started with eating pizza, and fruit & veggies too. Everyone brought a little wrapped gift with them so then we did our gift exchange. We played a fun game where you duel with someone while I shout out things for them to do like "touch your head," "spin around," etc. Then when I yell "gift!" whoever grabs the gift first opens it. We did that until everyone ended up with a gift and all the kids seemed to really like that activity! Afterwards we turned on some music for a dance party and played some fun games. We did four corners, where you have 4 colors, one at each corner. When the music stops, Ryley would yell our a color, and if you were standing on that color you were out. I had 3 prizes, so we played it 3 times. We did a few more little games and then decided to put on the movie Elf. We had popcorn, puppy chow, chex mix, and some goodies that were brought over. We also had some snowflakes crafts that Ryley helped some kids make, as well as a cup flinging game. It was a full, crazy house, but I think we all had fun for the most part!!

Christmas Eve was another great day. My parents came over to do our gift exchange early in the day, and brought my grandpa with them. We had a great time exchanging gifts and loved everything we got!

That evening we had dinner at my parents house. It was smaller than normal because Tamara's family went to Mexico and Jocelyn's family didn't come to Canada this year. It was just us, my parents, and Jordan and Melanie. We brought over a couple of appetizers - spinach and artichoke dip and brussels and dip. We ate ham, funeral potatoes, and appetizers. We also had dessert which was a mixture of things my mom made. We had a talent show that consisted of all the kids playing piano, Ryley playing her french horn, and my dad doing many talents like stand up comedy, magic, and the guitar while Bentley did her sign language to Silent Night. We acted out the nativity of course, and even I had to fill in and be a wise man. Boston made a very cute wise man too. Then Santa (Jordan) came and brought the kids all their pajamas. They put them on for their traditional pyramid photo which didn't turn out all that well! Anyways, it was a great night, and we went home excited for Santa to come. We put out some milk and cookies, sprinkled some reindeer food on the lawn, and the kids went to bed. 

On Christmas Day, the kids slept in until 8:30 (as usual, they never wake up super early), and were so excited to see if Santa came and open presents! There was a name tag by each Santa gift, but for Bentley it was just her name. She didn't realize she had to open up the paper to read that her gift was in the basement, and was disappointed for a bit. She went over to open her stocking and I could tell she was hiding her feelings inside - she thought she was on the naughty list! All was better when she realized the note said to go to the basement where she found her gymnastics bar and beam! Deacon got 2 big nerf guns that he'd been wanting. Leo got a big dinosaur that eats things, and Boston got a cute little stuffed puppy, and a car ramp. Our family also got a hover board to share! The stockings are always the kid's favorite things to open, so they opened those, and then we gave our gifts to them and each other. We were all very happy with what we got and gave, and it was a blast! Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Ady's house to open gifts with them and all the other Ady's. We had a great time exchanging gifts, and then ate breakfast together. After that, our family (except Boston) went to church for 1 hour of music. It was fabulous! Then we hung out, I went back to our house to make a salad, and we all ate turkey dinner together. It was a really great day!

In the week after Christmas we did a lot of relaxing and lazing around, but the weather got so beautiful we had to get outside too. We went tobogganing behind our house one day, took a trip to the Science Centre where we saw "Goodnight Moon," which was really cute. On boxing day the whole Ady clan hung out at the church for 4 hours playing on new toys (the kids brought the hover board), and eating leftovers. Dakota babysat while Jeff and I went shopping at the mall one day, which was so fun. Bentley and I got pedicures, Deacon went to the pokemon store with Jeff. We played lots of board games and watched lots of movies. On New Years Eve we drank bubbly and made treats to watch our family movies (which didn't work and so we watched them the next day and put on America's Got Talent instead). It was a really good year for us I'd say...Happy New Year!