January

It's hard to believe that January is almost over, and Christmas is already a distant memory. Sorry about the lack of posts lately, but Maddy and I have been very busy and to top things off the interent has not been working at home.

We've been keeping ourselves busy with Mom and Baby fitness classes held by the Fit4Two people. It's a really good workout and a great way to meet other new moms. Maddy has been pretty good too. Sometimes she falls asleep and other times she just hangs out and looks at all the other babies on the "baby island". We've also joined a class called Mother Goose. We go every Friday to learn more songs and rhymes. It's great because many of the mothers from the Thursday parent group meetings are also in the class. I'm really beginning to meet more mothers from our community. It's nice to have some adult conversation during the day (even though we're still talking about poos and diapers). So the only day we don't have somewhere to go is Tuesday. I'm usually more than happy to just stay home on those days.

Since I haven't been able to post lately I'll just do a blitz of the things we've done in January.

• We celebrated Chris' birthday with him. A yummy Indian dinner (I think, or hope that Maddy likes the curry too).
• A group of us went to try curling last weekend. It's way harder than it looks on TV. I think I pulled a few muscles I didn't even know I had, but it was really fun. Cold, but fun.
• A big happy 4th birthday to Frances. We hope you had a great 'doggy' party. It was fun to meet some of your friends.
• Our friend Travis celebrated his last birthday before the diapers and late nights starts. Happy birthday Travis.
• The most exciting part of January is that we are going to Hawaii to get away from this dreary weather. We can't wait!

Sorry I don't have time to post pictures of all these events, but I really wanted to show this video clip. I think it's the first time Maddy giggled. She hasn't done it since and believe me, I've sung that song over and over trying to get the same reaction! Oh well, I'm glad I got it on video.

The Blommesteins Christmas

On Christmas eve we packed up the car with our new snow tires and roof top ski box and headed home to Revelstoke. The drive there was great. We only had to stop twice to feed Maddy and the roads were good. There was much more snow this year than the last couple of years and I was so glad we got our new tires.

That night we celebrated Christmas with the Blommestein clan. Again it was so fun giving our ‘surprisa’ gifts along with the Christmas present. Dad made Josh a Mr. Ho’s muscle stimulator that really works and I got a Josh-in-a-box for the times when Maddy is too much to handle. It’s always so much fun to see what we each come up with for the surprisa.

It was great to be home again and we definitely had a white Christmas. I’d never seen so much snow in Revelstoke and I’m told that there used to be a whole lot more. It was nice to go for a walk in the white stuff without getting soaking wet like the ‘snow’ in Vancouver.

On the 27th Chris and Monique came for a stop over on their way to Edmonton. Josh, Chris and Monique even got to try out the new ski hill on Mount Mackenzie. It had only opened on the 22nd and the town was a buzz about the new highspeed gondola and the new runs. The ski hill has the most vertical drop in North America. Apparently there are only black diamond runs coming down from the very top and most people say that they are more challenging than other black diamond runs on other hills.

On our last night mom and dad arrange for a special blessing ceremony for Maddy. Everyone who came, helped to welcome Maddy and give her special wishes for her life. It was really touching and special.

Stay tuned for the picture here.

Before we knew it, our week in Revelstoke had come to an end. It was snowing the morning we left and the hill leading to the tunnel between Merritt and Hope was especially scary. People were slipping and sliding everywhere. We finally made it home and it was great to be back. What a great Christmas, we can’t wait until next year to do it all over again!

The Lee-Youngs Christmas

This year was really special not only because of the many additions to our family, but Josh and I actually got to have Christmas with my brother Calvin and his wife Krystina. It seems we are often out of town when Calvin and Krystina are home, so it was great to see you Babs!!

We all trekked over to mom and dads house for a full day of hanging out, eating and presents. For dinner we had turkey but with a Chinese spin. Hons cooks a full turkey kinda like the roast duck style and I have to say it was soooo good. Really flavourful. Then for the rest if you’re going to Hons for the big bird, you may as well get the side dishes too!! So we even had sweet and sour pork and fried rice. I think we may have started a new tradition here. Christmas dinner without breaking a sweat, I like it!!

Dinner at The Shaughnessy Restaurant

Every year a group of us get together for a Christmas dinner out as well as a gift exchange. This year we went to the Shaughnessy restaurant in the Van Dusen Gardens. What a beautiful place to celebrate the season. We had a great view of the lights in the garden. The place was busy with people visiting the festival of lights and the restaurant. This was our first time taking Maddy to a ‘fancy’ restaurant and she did a great job. Well, she slept most of the time, but that was exactly what we were hoping for. I think that next year will be a totally different story! Thanks for a great evening you guys.