I had my last week of school before Christmas Break! I am so excited for Christmas!
He said
For the first time in – possibly ever – I entered this weekend before Christmas completely done shopping for Danielle. Emelia is super excited about the gift we found for Danielle. From the second I suggested the idea I thought might be a good, Emelia was all over it – super excited about. Which was a good recovery from Danielle’s birthday present this year, that Emelia wasn’t as involved with which she was justifiably upset about not being part of. As the last of the stuff we got her shipped this week, I realized this is probably the most organized I’ve ever been at Christmas—I blame Danielle.
Thursday evening we had the GW Elites Christmas Party for all the gymnastics girls and their families. Emelia loves this evening especially. Ildi, the owner of the gym always gets all of the girls a nice gift and then the kids get to show off some of their moves to all the parents. Add in a potluck of food and sweets and some free play time in the gym and you have the perfect recipe for these gymnasts who work so hard all year. Emelia had a blast and was happy to come home a GW Elites tuque amongst other gifts from her coach and Secret Santa.
This weekend I luckily had Saturday off which was a real, nice surprise. It started out wonderfully with a sleep in. Emelia is at the age where she can get up, get her own breakfast and entertain herself in the morning. What happened because of that was the first time since before Emelia was born that both Danielle & I slept until 11am in the morning! And not because of a hangover. Both Danielle & I woke around 8am and the house was quiet. As I lied there thinking I wasn’t going to be able to fall back to sleep, the next thing I knew, Danielle was saying, “John, it’s 11am!” It didn’t matter what else happened that day it was already a huge success!
With Danielle having some errands to run., Emelia and I used the opportunity to get all of her presents wrapped and under the tree. We even had time to wrap a couple for Poppa and Grandma that we helped them out with. About the time we were wrapped, wrapping Danielle was making her way home. After we had some dinner, armed with a list a friend posted in Facebook, we were off to tour the city’s best holiday light displays. We spent a little over a couple of hours touring the city and even managed in a stop to visit Poppa & Grandma. It was the perfect end to a perfect day!
Today and tomorrow I am at work. Today was busy and a lot of fun, and I expect tomorrow to be a lot of the same. After I am done work tomorrow, I will be off for three straight days! And one of those for a change this year, will be Boxing Day! It will be pure bliss getting three straight days with Family – and most importantly Danielle & Emelia! I am so looking forward to this Holiday season!
She said
Happy to say that with all my shopping done before Christmas for everyone I was able to move to onto Emelia’s birthday present to this week. This we will have to discuss in our next post because we are giving it to her early this year and its a very big surprise! And we’re super excited!
This week was all about getting ready for the big day next week. The whole week was about celebrating Christmas. Every day this week at school there was a different Christmas clothing theme, each day building to the end of the week when Emelia was covered head to toe in Christmas clothes. Emelia. As always there was so much excitement around the holidays and Emelia is in full excitement mode.
By Thursday between Emelia and the daycare kids we were in full Christmas excitement overload. Thursday was one day that Emelia had been looking forward to for weeks if not months. The annual GW Elites Christmas party. Every year the owners of the gym throw a big party for the competitive team. The girls have full run of the gym, lots of fun food brought by the parents potluck style, they exchange gifts with the coaches, secret santa and get a special gift for Ildi the owner. Once that is all done they usually have a choreographed dance/gymnastics routine to show off to the parents.
This year they did it a bit different, they had a series of stations where the girls could each show off the latest tricks that they had mastered. Emelia really impressed us, she did front tucks, back tucks, and a full line with a triple back handspring. I was totally blown away. What she has achieved this year over last year is absolutely unrecognizable. We are now on an almost 2 week break while Emelia does some home exercises and trains as best she can before she is back at the gym in the new year prepping for her first competition in January.
Friday was my last day of work until the new year and I am beyond glad I took this extended time off. The little ones have all been fighting a terrible hack/cold and it keeps hitting my family as a result. I hope that this week apart and lots of down time will get us all back on the mend. Emelia is happy also to have her home and her family to herself for the break.
Yesterday was my last day to get last minute things done for Christmas. Mainly getting the weeks worth of groceries done, get stocked up on things from the pharmacy and last minute things for Emelia’s birthday present. Otherwise I have everything done, I bought and wrapped up last week. So all we are doing now is waiting for the big day. I am beyond excited for next Tuesday. I cannot wait to see John’s face when he opens the present from Emelia and I. It was a lot of work in the making but with every moment to see his reaction.
Last night we did one more tradition to really get us in the Christmas spirit. The tour of the city for the amazing home Christmas displays. There are some absolutely amazing displays. One for sure takes the cake with the entire yard and driveway and roof literally covered with decorations. Emelia loved them all and it certainly added to the Christmas excitement.
Today John had to work so I decided to do something special with Emelia as one last pre-Christmas treat. We went and got our nails done, Emelia her finger nails and me my toes. It was a great way to start the day and even better was how we spent our afternoon. Emelia has fallen in love with a show on Netflix called Nailed It. It’s a cooking show that has amateur bakers take on some insane professional cakes. The results are hilarious disasters. So we decided to do a modified version with her two best friends. Anna, Grace and Emelia baked cupcakes today and set three challenges to decorate them by round. The girls had an incredible time and it was a fun filled afternoon.
Now we are ending the weekend before Christmas trying to get everyone healthy for the big day. The countdown is on and excitement is building! Only 2 more sleeps.