Merry Christmas, ice, snow and the little mermaid

 Snow, pre ice and snow storms - its been a snowy December for Toronto - not usual

 Kay Adam and Maddie - good friends and tight pals when the power went out and Adam, Ryan and Maddie spent Christmas Eve with us since they didnt have lights or electricity.

 The ice storm. 250,000 people without power. Very scary, neighbors pitched in and helped and many people spent the holidays at their cottage, a friends or hotels. Some were without power 4 days and it came back on on Christmas Day -  a true Christmas miracle. 70,000 still without power.

 Very pretty but tons of trees and power lines down.

 Christmas morning, everyone got everything they wanted. a very blessed day and family. Jimmy loaded up on performance hoodies, video games and high socks.

 Kay loaded up on science experiment kits, cooking sets, make up sets and any craft/Crayola kit that was designed to make a mess.  oi yoi yoi.

Billy owns the free world supply of legos, hot wheels and skylanders swapforce. AND a new digital watch. He keeps telling us the time and timing things.

 Pretty excited for Nerf

 The kids bought each other and us gifts at the school holiday bazaar. VERY thoughtul

 Ice skating on Christmas afternoon in the snow. which later turned into a full fledged snow storm. On top of the ice storm, we are buried and the poor folks without power cant catch a break. We were without internet, cable and phone service for 4 days and the kids were great, we watched every Christmas movie in the book!

 Kays friends were at ice skating as well

We were suppose to go to the Little Mermaid on Sunday (ice storm day) and rescheduled our tickets for Thursday (snow storm day) we took the subway downtown and had lunch pre the show. It was totally worth it. Imagine, roller skating mermaids, campy show tunes, guys in drag, villans where the audience boo's, what does the fox say, audience participation, Toronto current event jokes, (yes, many at the expense of Rob Ford) and amazing singing and dancing. TOTALLY worth it and a strong consideration as a new family tradition.

It was a great holiday. Friends looking out for each other, impromptu ice skating and cocktail parties, holiday movies, family time, thoughtful gifts, good food (South Indian for Christmas dinner - YUM!), winter weather, cuddling in front of the fire and connecting with family and friends via email, phone and facebook.

We are so blessed. Merry Christmas EVERYONE!! Big hugs and peace in 2014 

Billy turns 9 Happy Birthday Billy!

The kid was like the old pendulum when it came to a party location and theme.  Chuck & Cheeses, paint ball, swimming, bowling, hey, bowling yea lets do that I'll invite the whole class whoa slow down Bill! There is a sort of surge around here in the younger grades to have a party and invite the whole class, boys and girls, and all, we decided to squash the trend, boys only, well except Kay. He also wanted to do a survey to see what his friends wanted to do. We had to stop that as well, arent we the unsupportive parents?! :)











The local Bowl A Rama was the site of the event Saturday 2:24 to 5:00 precisely. The crew all arrived and were given shoes and then allowed to sign into the automatic score keeping device give balls and 5 pin began. Now it is a well know fact that one of the kids in Billy's class, who will go nameless, at the last bowling party went to the hospital because he took a ball to the chin. This time with 5 pin, and smaller bowling balls it was all good, whew!

There were 16 bowlers and they had a blast. Then it was into the party room food, cupcakes and some type of energy drink. The Bowl A Rama folks came to the lanes during the match and the kids got to order basically whatever they wanted and then were served in the party room feed the kids, cleaned up after them, perfect. Billy received many great gifts and had a blast. In the opinion of the author the best part was the old heavily used bowling pin that the Bowl A Rama folks tried to clean up and then had all the kids sign it and gave it to Billy, sitting on our mantle at home, just saying...

Wednesday was Bill's actual b-day and with  the family he chose Greek food, as many of you know Billy is a Gyros junkie, bonified Greek food officiando and all. Kay was called into the kitchen to make her famous brownies as that is Bills other love ....well besides Nikki.




Mom and Dad pulled a fast one over on the kids when they announced that they bought Billy more swap force figurines... isn't that awesome??. The kids looked at us like we were from Mars stating 'don't you know that he doesn't have the game station for them'? Nonsense said mom... he has a whole WII system set up downstairs, these figurines will work just fine! To their dismay they said in unison, 'there not compatable!'', what what?? Jimmy was reeled in like a dead fish, Kay was un-phased as she's not really a gamer, Billy looked like he lost Nikki and just then he opened the last present, a Swamp Force Game Station. Jimmy declared " Wow I'm really impressed you had me there, good one Mom"

Happy Birthday Billy! We love you, we are blessed everyday by you and were glad you chose us for your forever family! more to come.... cant wait to see what happens in your ninth year:)