Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Party Animal!

Last Thursday, Luca and Donovan attended the children's Christmas Party at the nursing home where Mom and Jessica work. They saw a teenage magician and Santa, of course. All the children got a goodie bag from Santa and balloon animals, etc from the magician.

Donovan was a little afraid of Santa, but loved his balloon sword! Luca didn't know what was going on, but he seemed to be enjoying watching all the action around him.

He wore his balloon hat proudly, while Donovan wasn't too thrilled.






















I am often amazed at how aware Luca is becoming of his surroundings! A few days ago, they were clearing the snow from the street in front of our house and Luca watched them out the window very intently. He even cried when they were out of sight! Here he is watching out the window...

















We have been busy preparing for Christmas. Along with the usual hustle and bustle of Christmas preparation, we are having some Ponoka High School friends and their spouses (about 16 people in total) at our house on the 23rd. Since we are all spread out and busy now, it is nice to get together when everyone is back in town for the holidays.

We are also having Christmas Eve with my family here. My mom and Jessica both work on Christmas Day (unfortunately, this is always a possibility with shift work) so Christmas Eve will be our Christmas Day with them. Grandma and Maurice will be joining us, along with Megan and Lorna McLaren. (Megan is my "other sister" and Lorna is her mom).

We will be spending Christmas Day at Pat and Joanne's with some of Chris' family. We alternate being there every year, and this is an "away" year, so we will be missing some of the kids and their families. We are usually there every year, since both mine and Chris' parents live in Ponoka, it is not so difficult to spend time with both families. (Side note- In case you didn't know, Chris proposed to me on Christmas Eve 2001 about 1/2 way between my parents' house and his- they live a few miles apart. So, Christmas Eve is extra special to us, as is "that spot".)

Then on the 29th, we will be hosting the rest of the Johnson family for appetizers and visiting.

Needless to say, this coming week will be very busy at our house. It is nice, though to host events such as this in our first home. BUT, I really wanted to get our living room painted before all of these guests came. So..........guess what we have been busy doing!? (Like it isn't a busy enough time!)

On December 2, Chris and Pat wired in some wall sconces on either side of our picture window. This allowed us to get rid of the big ceiling fan that was suspended from the exposed beams. Just removing the fan really opened up the room. We also painted the walls a camel color, and all the trim in the room a light beige. New blinds in the dining room and curtains in the living room finish off the new look. We finshed this all in about a week.

But, what is a nice new looking room without new furniture? We intended on buying a new chair, and came home with a new sectional sofa AND a chair! When we moved, we didn't have enough furniture, so we were using loaned furniture to fill the space. We have been wanting new stuff to call our own, but weren't really in a rush. We were going to do it slowly.....but we got a great deal on a display model, so now we have a whole new living room! And just in time for Christmas!

I think we have nearly lost our minds making a large purchase right before Christmas! But, it sure is nice to sit in a room that you really love and are proud of!

I will try to get some before and after pictures up soon! (You can see some of the paint in the post below, behind me and the Christmas tree).

We wish all of you reading this a very Merry Christmas filled with the love of family and friends! Those of you that we are fortunate enough to be seeing over the next few weeks, we are looking forward to it!

Love Chris, Janice and Luca

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Luca kind of reminds me of Donny in that first picture. :)

Oh, did you get the picture of Luca that was on my phone? I put it in a comment.

See ya Sunday :)