Friday Night Leftovers

• I have been so behind in blogging lately but its in part due to the 3 babies that made their entrance in 10 days! It was a busy week and a half and each birth was very different, but each welcomed a beautiful, healthy baby girl! I had manily boys born this summer so it was nice to see some girls!  So, apart from actually attending the births, I had photos to edit, birth notes to type up and home visits to do. There's lots of time put in to doing stuff after the baby is born as well. My job doesn't end when the baby is born.

• I've also (as usual) taken on (perhaps too many) gifts that I am making. I love to make gifts for people that I have put lots of thought, time and effort into. I think they are so special. But without fail, at this time in December each year, I find myself rushing trying to finish everything. Last night I finished the 2 that I was most concerned about because part of the gift requires factoring in shipping time to arrive before Christmas. Now I have some smaller gifts to make, but they aren't too time consuming, I just need to sit down and do them. Then I get to wrap- one of my favorite parts!

• We're having Christmas eve with my family here this year. We'll have dinner and gifts and if it is nice, maybe go tobogganing on the hill right behind our house. In Crossfield on Christmas eve, Santa is driven around by members of the fire department and he visits each house and gives the kids a candy cane. The boys think it is great! (Until they get older and begin to wonder why Santa's not out delivering toys!). My mom and dad are staying the night and will have Christmas morning with us and after brunch, we will head to Ponoka to spend a few days with Chris' family.

• I am totally addicted to pinterest. I avoided it for quite a while after I had friends tell me about it but then one day decided to check it out. I haven't stopped since. There are so many fabulous ideas on there! I've made some recipes from there and for the most part they are winners. Its nice to get ideas from somewhere without having to sit and actually search them out. Especially if you don't know what you are looking for!

• My 30th birthday was last week. On the weekend I celebrated with friends and my sisters. We went for manicures and pedicures, lunch then shopping. The plan was to go into Calgary to go to the dueling piano bar, but we were hit with a winter storm that made the roads a bit tricky. We opted not to chance the trip and to just stay at the mall instead. We shopped more and then had supper and drinks. It was a really nice day with some of my favorite people.  My sisters also gave me a cool gift- actually, 30 gifts. They were all homemade (which as you know, I love) and many ideas from pinterest (haha). They also each wrote me a letter that had "30 things I love about my sister". I think that was my favorite part. Totally made me teary and I will treasure it. It was a very sweet idea and obviously took lots of time and thought. I have some pretty cool sisters.

• We have an Elf on the Shelf and we are loving it. I know there are some people that think its a ridiculous idea, but our family thinks it is cute and fun. I'm excited about the new tradition that we have started. The idea is that Santa sends an elf to be his helper. Once you name your elf, he has magical powers (Luca named our elf Happy). Happy watches over our family all day and then when everyone is sleeping, he flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa. Then he returns in a different spot each morning. Our boys love to seek him out- its a little treasure hunt each day.  Some people make him get into all sorts of mischeif each day and I can see how that would get old (for the parents that have to set it up each night) but so far, the boys have been excited to just find out where he is each day. I will do some more exciting and a few mischevious things, but mostly he's just hanging out in various places of our house. Here he is on the first day he arrived, riding one of my decoration reindeer on top of the piano:

•  Lastly, if you pray, please keep my cousin's 2 year old daughter Ava in your prayers. I don't have a lot of detail, but this week she was admitted to the stollery Children's Hospital with an infection that went into her bloodstream and wasn't responding to antibiotics. She was placed in isolation and they were treating her for a "superbug". Last I heard, she was going to be having surgery (last night, I think) where they would try to drain the area that the infection started (I believe. I could be wrong on this). If you don't pray, please keep them in your thoughts and send positive thoughts their way. My cousin and his wife also have a 3 year old son and are expecting another baby in the Spring. So, please send prayers and thoughts for the entire family as this is obviously a very tough time for them all.  For more information and updates, feel free to head over to my Aunt's (Ava's grandmother) blog where she is posting as she is able.