HAPPY NEW YEAR

I want to wish you all a very happy new year. Hope your year is great.
We will probably be having a bunch of teenagers at our house for the night, so I am stocking up on snacks. We've got some fireworks to set off too. Hope the kids enjoy them, I also hope nobody gets hurt!
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WAITING FOR THE BALL TO DROP

O.K. Here is my latest confession: I really hate New Year's Eve. I think it stems from the fact that on most nights I am dropping asleep by 9:30 and on this particular night I am not allowed to even think about sleeping until at least 12:01. At 8:30 in the evening I am seriously starting to contemplate ringing in the new year with my fellow Canadians in Ontario. I work my way across the country hoping that the family will give in to me and just let me go to bed, but to no avail. So, now here we are at close to 11:30 and I am still awake, just counting down the minutes.I remember when we were kids Dad would go outside and wait for the New Year, then he would come in with a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread. I believe they were to symbolize prosperity or something. Anyways, once Dad was successfully back in the house the real celebration would begin. I don't remember what time we went to bed back then, but I was probably more excited about it than I am now.So, that sums up my yearly New Year's Eve adventures. Tomorrow we will be cooking a Greek dinner which everyone is looking forward to. I started preparing today by making baklava. Of course we had to sample it and it is very yummy. So, Happy New Year!
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LOOKING OFFICIAL

Brian just got his official ambulance crew gear. Normally he doesn't like to wear uniforms, but he will make an exception in this case. He wants to look official when they are picking patients up at their houses. Looking good, Brian! (Sorry about the glare from the reflective strips.)


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ANOTHER BUSY DAY

I guess we have officially finished lazing around for the holidays. Today was very busy. Brian decided to install our dishwasher today. He had to remove the original cabinets, then we prepared the dishwasher. It wasn't too hard to convert if from portable to an installed unit. However, the installation kit that we bought from the appliance store did not come with an adaptor for the water hose. Since we live in such an isolated place, this means that I will have to order one over the phone and wait for snail mail to deliver it to us. This shouldn't take more than a week or two. Then I thought since we are working in the area we might as well install the new kitchen faucet. As always nothing goes as simple as one would hope, but we have it installed and I love it. I have always wanted one with the spout that pulls out. Hopefully it will intrigue the kids enough that they won't complain about doing dishes for the next couple weeks.
On another note - the kids love their new ski-doo. We, the experts (lol), have given them all driving lessons and are satisfied that they know and will follow the safety rules we have laid out for them. Naomi and Josh are both naturally cautious. Hannah, on the other hand, is slightly kamikaze and needed an extra lesson or two. She drove Brian around today and was a wonderful driver. I still suffer from some parental anxiety when they head out on the ski-doo, but hopefully that will pass.
After all the excitement on Christmas day, Oscar has spent the time since recovering. He doesn't move far from his bed - usually only as far as the couch!
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WOW! WHAT A CHRISTMAS!!!

Where do I start????? Last night Brian and I thought we would be very smart. We decided to take the kids stockings and fill them, but not put them in their rooms until about 3:00 am when they would be sure to be asleep. However, not everything goes as planned. Brian woke up around 1:30 and so we decided that we may as well just put them out now, the kids seemed to be sleeping. So, we snuck into their room with the stockings and decided to put them on Naomi's dresser so that Oscar wouldn't get into them. As soon as we went into the room Oscar bounded out of bed. He saw us putting out stockings and remembered that this was something he could open. So, thinking all was well, I went to the kitchen for a drink and on the way back to bed I heard whispering coming from the kids room. I just laughed, what else could I do? Then I went to bed. About 5 minutes later I could hear Oscar walking down the hall - click, click, click. Knowing that this was definitely not Santa on the rooftop, I listened carefully. I could hear him walk into the living room and stop. Knowing his penchant for opening presents I went to investigate. There he was opening a present. Again I just laughed and taped the present back up. Interestingly he never bothered with the presents under the tree until he saw the stockings. I really don't know what he planned to do with Hannah's new underwear! Then joy of joys I brought him to bed with me so that I could keep an eye on him. All night I could hear the kids whispering. I don't think they even got a wink of sleep. In the morning the kids came to our room to see what we had in our stockings. Of course Oscar came too and was excited beyond belief. He was trying to grab things out of Brian's stocking and was bounding around the bed. We finally had to bring him his own present to open. This is one of those things you have to see to believe. When we finally made our way out to the tree we gave Oscar his stocking first and he just started tearing presents apart. Then he grabbed the paper while I was opening a gift and was ripping it off. He definitely provided a lot of extra excitement. We opened up our presents and everyone was very happy with their gifts - and everything fit! However, we had 3 boxes that we were saving for last. Before they could open them we had to have breakfast. As I said to them, once you open the last 3 boxes all sanity will leave you, so we need to eat now. Then they were able to open the last 3 gifts. They were helmets to go with the new ski-doo we bought them. It is 2004, brand new, Arctic Cat - we got a great deal on it. You should have heard the squeals of delight. They were so excited. Here they are all ready to go:

Brian and I worked very hard to keep this a secret. We bought it in Whitehorse and had it delivered to a friends house. Then on Christmas Eve day we went over and hooked up the sled and made sure everything was ready to go. Around 4:30, just when it was getting dark, Brian walked over and picked it up. I stayed and watched t.v. with the kids, making sure there was lots of noise in the house. Brian pulled up right outside the living room window and kids never heard a thing. We kept worrying they would look out the window and see it, but they never did. I think we definitely deserve the parents of the year award for this.
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