Christmas 2007

Well, another Christmas come and gone. Although, Ian gets his PS3 tomorrow! Anyway, I may be the only one who cares about that, so off we go...

Katherine loves the tree. If she ever notices that it's unplugged she points to it and asks "On?" so we will turn on the lights. Then she pinches a light and says "Hot!".


As seems to have become tradition, we get dishcloths from at least one set of parents (these are welcome, by the way). Katherine has her own idea for them, however.


As is triumphantly on display here, we had spaghetti for dinner on Monday night...and it went over well.


I like these shots of my girls playing piano together. Katherine's free-form jazz piano is coming along nicely, I assure you.


As is tradition for the last workday before Christmas, the kids come to work, too. Katherine seemed to enjoy experiencing how Daddy spends much of his days while she's having fun with Dodi. (Dad's note: The novelty wears off quick, kid.)


OK, so Christmas is now here in this little storyline. Here's Katherine with one of her favorite new toys...her Doodle Pro. She loves to draw and color, although has yet to absolve herself of the temptation to nibble on her crayons, etc.


Here's a couple of shots of Katherine and her new bowling game. Apparently we have some work to do with the technical aspects of the game, but that never stopped her from having fun with it!


She likes to wear sunglasses, this particular pair taken from a book designed as "Grandma's Purse".


It was obvious long before Santa came around that Katherine needed her own little baby to mother. Her new addition seems to enjoy all of the same things Katherine enjoys herself; here reading a book.


Milo has clearly had enough of the commotion...


Also obvious to Santa (besides that he TOTALLY freaks out Katherine) is that she needs a drawing/coloring station. Rest assured she will be churning out countless priceless works from this very location for a long time to come...


One last shot of Katherine dancing up a storm after Christmas dinner. Singing and dancing are among her favorite things as well...the singing is not as prevalent right now, but is progressing all of the time.

We certainly had a merry Christmas and enjoyed spending it with our (almost) adoptive family here in Ottawa. We did however, miss our friends and family "back home" terribly...something only emphasized by the holiday season.

FYI: What a difference a year makes, eh?

Snow Day

So this Sunday we had more snow in one day than I think Laura and I have experienced since arriving here in Ottawa in 2001.

Ready to go out and play?


Here's the before shot on our way out to play (and shovel)...good times.


Taking a break from our work.

December, so far...

December, so far, has not been a lot of fun in some ways. Katherine seems to be the only one that, until the last few days at least, has not been sick pretty much since the beginning of the month.

Anyway, while we're behind on getting life organized for the holidays around here, we have been working on a few things around here, including smiling for the camera. I think I have pretty much got it down, and Katherine is doing well, too.

We were going to use this year's picture with Santa to show off a little, but unfortunately our plan was not to be as Katherine was not-so-much fond of the big red stranger that knows her name this year...as clearly indicated by the shrieks of terror that Bayshore mall now knows all too well!

Here's the results of Plan B, once we got home.


...long ways from a year ago, huh?



She now loves smiling for the camera, laughing out loud every time the flash goes off.







We're spending the holidays at home here in Ottawa; looking forward to playing in all of the snow generally enjoying our time together.

We'll be thinking of family and friends "back home" out West, and enjoying those in closer proximity.

...and you can be assured there will be plenty more pictures...