Kewt Kids

I realized the other day that Christmas is near. We are away to Disneyland for a week right before Christmas and that really speeds things up. So I was thinking about a few of my favourite things about this time of year. (I appologize to my friends that read my personal family blog-this is the same post).


1) Getting a Christmas tree. Yes, we still get a real tree. As much as I hate the clean up of needles (although I have found great trees the last few years that dont lose many needles), I find the activity of finding a real tree much more rewarding. We head out to a tree farm (one of the few bonus' of living in a smaller town-we live close to tree farms), find a tree that we all agree on, cut it down, have hot chocolate, head home, let the tree dry out while we pull decorations out, eat a quick dinner and then decorate the tree. I love this day.

2) Our Advent Calender. I made an advent calender for the kids back when J-Man was just nearly two. I find little gists for the kids and tie them on and each day they take turns opening one gift. This year they will have a turn every three days. It's a lot of work but something the kids really love and look forward to. The calender always ends with special ornaments for each of them. We try to find a special ornament that represents something they were interested in that year. One year J-Man had a monster truck and one year Wild had a Pixar Cars. This year I think we are looking at Pokemon for sure.

3) New pajamas. I don't know how this started but we all get new pj's on Christmas Eve. It ends our Christmas Eve night and everyone goes to bed in their new pj's (looks good for morning pics too ;) ).

4) The Vancouver Rogers Santa Clause Parade. This is the 5th year this event is on and we only missed year 3 (I was very sad for weeks). I love this parade. They heave done a phenomenol job on this event and I think everyone should go! The parade is big scale. Police psycho motorbikes (if you are at the curb keep feet back-they go about 80kms an hour), big highschool marching bands (we recruit them mostly from the states), and great cultural floats. This year the parade is later in the year (its always been in Nov) and is on Sun, December 7th at 1pm. Arrive early (12pm at latest) if you want a sidewalk spot. Great tip-if its cold and kids are little I highly suggest you park in Pacific Center underground parking Bay end. Go upstairs to street level, cross street and go into chapters. Go upstairs to south end (windows facing west) and sit by windows. You can get Starbucks (be prepared for 30 min wait), be warm, still hear all music and grab kids books to look at if they are restless. Greatest idea ever when Wild was 1 and 2. This year the kids have said they want to be on Robson closer to the start so we are prepared to be really early and have chairs.

So these are just a few of my top favourite things about the season. Tomorrow I am pulling out some decorations and think we need way more. I love how festive the house looks when its all decorated. Oh and on Friday we counted eight house with Christmas lights already.


5)Okay one more. Driving around and looking at all the really decorated houses in the lower mainland. Love doing this. I think when we have our own house I will slowly grow into one of these crazy people that go all out.

6)Just one more (I truly love the season). The Stanley park Christmas train. We do this with great friends of ours each year. You get to see the lights and the animals and eat roasted chestnuts (gross-do not like that tradition). Buy tickets now if you want to know.