Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends!

 Here are a few fun pictures from our last couple of days. Hope you are keeping cozy by a fireside if possible like we did today. :) I only uploaded this many otherwise I'd be here all night. Enjoy.

Dressed up for Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpas. (My parents). Wren was so excited for "Presents! Stockings! Tweats!!"

Aunty Andrea and Uncle Cam, pumped for presents like the rest of us.

Ellie, not pumped about her beautiful cross between a toque and a bonnet. 

Family photo for 2012. 

Aunty getting a squeeze on the lips. This face is depicting true surprise at that little hand's speediness.

Christmas morning at our house with the girlies. Wren was moderately amused with her kaleidoscope for a whole 2 seconds.

Ellie was thrilled to open a box and play with it and the paper inside. She showed no regard for the new outfit within. Easily pleased I'd say.

Mom and the ladies on Christmas morning, a rare shot of us three. 

And of course, Dad and his girls too.

A sweet little picture with Great Nana and Papa Spiers. (Note: Ellie is wearing my old baby sweater that my mom just found, so cute!)

We wish you a very neon pink Christmas from the Jeske's :) Kididng, I promise Wren didn't call up Papa to see what he was going to wear that day.

Santa came to visit! Okay, not really. Uncle Jordan played a great Santa Claus and Wren was super unsure until we showed her it was Jordan. She had a very confusing few minutes trying to figure that all out, haha but thought it was funny in the end.

And then they danced!

Oh and so did we. Ellie loves dancing, truly.

Here we are, the proof of how much Ellie looks like Uncle Kyle. A nice pair right there.

After a big day, everyone needed a little rest...

Aunties.

Aunties are a breed unlike any other. 

They are typically more fun and exciting than mom or dad.

They have cooler toys, like ipads and iphones with fun games to play with.

Aunties are willing to dance in the living room to Glee Christmas music.

You are surprised every time Aunty says she is excited to babysit and means it, because you are the one  that's been around your kids constantly and needs a break, not her. And all she requires are some Glutino chocolate wafers as payment.

Aunty always has the best taste in clothes for your kids. 

Aunty is still excited to go swimming when asked even though it's part of her job and should in her own right, be sick of it now. 

Aunties enjoy receiving texts that look like this: "jglkjsphagosngnoOOOOOOOOO". 

Aunties also seem to enjoy receiving the texts from the parent that go something like this: "My kid sneezed out this huge booger bigger than her head and then accidentally sucked it back in. Sorry, prob t.m.i. I'm like so bored of being in the house all day." 

Aunties find cool stuff for your kids on Pinterest.

Aunties are willing to run an errand for you when there is no conceivable way you can make the 45 min drive to Ikea with two kids for one picture frame.

They know of all the best new and classic kids stories to tell you about.

Aunties snort out loud from laughter when you do dorky things with your kids that only the two of you would find funny. 

Aunties don't seem to mind when you are socially deprived and talk their ear off about nothing interesting for an hour straight. 

Aunties bring you Starbucks when you had a hard day and graciously share their drink with their niece when she starts sucking down half of it from the straw without asking and says "Look! We're sharing!"

As Wren would say, "I like Aunty da best." And it's true, Aunties really are da best.

This is our favourite Aunty. Okay, the only Aunty at the moment. But therefore, naturally, our favourite.

Note: There is huge overlap for what Aunty does and what grandparents also do which is equally great and keeps these parents sane. But today, it's all about Aunty :)

Cozy cuddles on a very chilly day

I finally took more pictures. My stash of photos from December is minimal. I don't know why, maybe because we haven't been doing a lot on a daily basis so I forget to take pictures of the "mundane". 

I like to bring Ellie into Wren's room when she wakes up from her mid-day nap and watch them snuggle together. I'd jump in there too except that Wren's gate thing on the side of her bed is a real hindrance.

After posting earlier today about Christmas traditions, I started to think of all these ideas. We actually did make it to Candy Cane Lane tonight, and we drove slowly through for Wren to take in all the lights.  The whole way there she was insisting that we were going to a store and to walk around. Wrong and wrong. 

Since driving through the 'Lane didn't take long, we zipped over to the General Hospital where the entire front of the place is decorated with a huge lights display. I love 3 year olds- you go somewhere spectacular and they go, "Wow! Um, 'nother lights now?" Like, yay thanks great okay now I want something else and better, haha. Honestly.

Both of the girls have their own Christmas dresses this year. Wren is wearing one of hers in these photos. The Gap has so many good ones this year, like this and this. I was also in love with this one for Ellie. I think Christmas dresses will be a tradition. Same with Christmas pajamas.

Oookay...and maybe some Christmas coloured toes...

I love these two little teeth. They are hilarious and sweet all at the same time. Ellie is a snuggly, squishy, cuddly little thing and I could squeeze her chubby body all day long. She has a new trick as well...

Remember Wren's Turtle Face?

Ellie does it now too! It's a better shot in the third photo from the top. Funny.

Fort Jeske and Christmas Traditions

What happens when I go out in the evening and the girls are home with dad?

Forts happen. How cute is Ellie's little face in there?

I'm sitting here and winding down from a morning Christmas party at Wren's play group today. There were treats, lots of kids and even Santa made a visit. It was ca-razy people. Even Santa left with not so much as a "Ho-ho-ho!" or "Merry Christmas!". He wanted outta there!

I'm hoping to get a photo from the mom that was taking the pictures of kids on his knee. I plopped Ellie in his lap and Wren happily cooperated to stand next to him...I mean he gave her a candy cane so obviously he's now her best friend. 

You know how I detest Costco for it's psycho-busyness...well I kind of hate playgroup for the same reason (Eep! Did I just say that out loud?) and I've only been taking Wren for, well, Wren. Not me. I'm so excited for her to start preschool and I'm so much more excited to not go to playgroup anymore- it's like my New Years resolution. ha!

We are finished attending our Christmas parties and Kenton is SO ready to have some time off over the holidays. I think the girls are going to be thrilled to have him home so much, Wren gets very tired of seeing my face every minute of the day. 

We hope to go to Candy Cane Lane tonight...in the car. I know, I know you're supposed to walk it, but it's like -30C out so I'm not getting out of my car if I can help it. I was going to take the girls to get Santa mall photos until he came today to playgroup so I said screw waiting in a mall line up and having my kids melt down, we technically already saw him. 

I've been reading a lot of blogs talking about Christmas traditions. At first I couldn't think of any I had growing up, and then I realized that we totally did- we would go to the Christmas Eve church service, come home and eat (or was it the other way around?) and then go downstairs and open presents....on Christmas EVE. All the other kids had to wait until Christmas Day, as far as I understood at the time. My sister and I also loved watching a Muppet Christmas Carol on the archaic technology of VHS. It was hilarious and a great version of the story. Then Christmas morning we would get to open our stockings and then go to a relatives house and spend the day with family. 

So I've been thinking of what family traditions we should have with our own girls. We are just on the cusp of instilling some, as the girls are still small enough they don't really care. I'm sure Wren would just say "Eat candy canes!" and be done. 

Her first tradition is a chocolate advent calendar. For obvious reasons, she has loved this. Also, listening to the latest Glee Christmas album while dancing in the living room and drinking egg nog with dad.

Here is a total side note on egg nog for you.  I had a conversation with Wren about her favourite part of Christmas to which she said "Jingle bells" are her favourite part. Then she said, "What's Daddy's favowit part of Cwismass?"

I said, "Hmm, I don't know. Well, Daddy reeeally likes egg nog. It's like a sweet, milk kind of drink." She thought about that for a second and then looked at me and said, "No. Daddy likes coffee and beards."

"Beers you mean?"

"No. BearDs."

There you have it folks. 

Any thoughts on some other good traditions? 

Here are a couple I liked:

Angel Chimes from A Cup of Jo

Gift Giving Traditions from Designmom

An almost Christmas time ramble.

Christmas presents that I ordered online weeks ago are starting to arrive at my door and I can't help thinking how much I love online shopping.
We have purposely avoided the malls and I think I am slightly more sane for it this year.

When I look outside and it's white and frosty everywhere, it feels so Christmasy. But since the snow came so much earlier this year, I find I'm already more worn out from the daily grind of getting two kids dressed and hauling them around clumsily everywhere. My dreams of trying to get outside to play most days have been fading because it's usually too cold or it doesn't work with the alternating nap times or whatever. Sometimes the effort is barely worth it.
It seems impossible to figure out how to keep a stationary baby happy and easily transported in snow with a stroller or carrier and a toddler happy who still needs you to help her do everything like sled down a little hill across the street. And if Wren decides she doesn't want to come inside, it usually ends with two screaming babes.
I know this time of year is supposed to be like a "break", it's called the "Holidays", but sometimes it feels like anything but that. I totally get why some people choose to go away (like on a hot vacation) or go see a movie Christmas day. The presents, baking, crafting, and everything else can be too much!

In our families, on each side we draw names. I'm thankful Kenton isn't the kind of person to expect me to do his gift buying for him. He actually doesn't want me to...but because of blogging I seem to always find some killer ideas for him anyway. This year I drew one of my brother-in-laws names on his side. I have decided that therefore there must be a small, funny element to the gift. If you also feel this is necessary in your gift giving, run to the Tin Box right now. I fully embarrassed myself laughing at the ridiculous things you can buy there.

In efforts to save my sanity and Wren's (seeing as we were talking about being indoors a lot), I signed her up for preschool. We are all very excited for this. The preschool came on recommendation from two moms I know who raved about it. It's affordable, it's twice a week, it's with 3 year olds and the teachers are amazing. We went for a visit last week and I think I was more excited than Wren...well maybe not quite. I have gotten sick of relying on playgroup (where last week a kid barfed all over the place) for her play time with kids, and the chaos that usually ensues. I feel like the timing is perfect, and I'm so happy she can start in the new year. I'm nearly certain it will also work out well even when I go back to work in the spring. All in all, it seems like a win-win situation for us.

As I write this all out, Wren is having "quiet time" in her room while Ellie naps. I'm lucky enough that one of Ellie's naps falls in the middle of the day when Wren's does. But Wren has been very very slowly transitioning out of naps but luckily she will stay in her room and read books and play quietly. I tell her I'm cleaning or something else totally not fun sounding. She did get into the diaper cream one day and it was all over her hands. She looked at me and said, "Gorgeous!!". Mmm, not quite! But her favourite thing to do at night time is to open her blind and stare out her window at all the houses around. She especially likes to keep tabs on Kenton if he's out working in the shop and she can see him in the garage windows.

Well, this was a rambling of sorts because I had to play catch up. We have been busy going to Christmas parties (and taking days to recover), and just getting ready for Christmas like everyone else. I even forgot to post about Ellie turning 8 months old, though nothing has really changed...like she still doesn't roll, crawl or like to do anything but sit and jump in the jolly jumper. I haven't even taken a single new picture! Okay that's a lie...I have one. And it's absurd but it will probably give you a good laugh so here you go...