Happy ho, ho, ho to you!

We arrived safely in Scotland last week...from Toronto we were able to take a direct flight into Glasgow. Our flight landed early, our bags all arrived safely...so far this Christmas has been smooth sailing!
Christmas 2011

Anna has quickly adjusted to the time difference and is enjoying being with everyone at Comrie House....here she is with her new BFF Charlie. Anna and Charlie have spent many nights chasing each other! She can often be heard saying, "Charlie!? Where aarrrrrreeee you!?"

Anna finally got to open her presents (yes there were even a few wrapped in purple paper!). Here's Anna in her new purple dress complete with purple butterfly wings! And of course no outfit is complete without a crown!

 

The other major highlight for Anna came on Christmas Day when she got to take her first pony ride! Anna's Aunt Ruth took her for a ride on Seamus. Anna has seen horses before but has never seen anyone riding one yet when she saw Seamus she kept pointing to him and saying "On! Sit! Please!???" She couldn't wait to get on that horse!

 Anna with her Aunt Adele, dogs Skip and Charlie after her pony ride.

Happy Holidays to all! Enjoy every moment with the ones you love!

Cookies!

  A friend of mine recently posed this question on her blog,"What's in your Christmas pantry?" ...and the answer is Christmas cookies!! I've been looking foward to the day that Anna and I could decorate cookies together and inspired by her enthusiasm after decorating gingerbread men at school we made classic christmas sugar cookies. I knew it would be really messy but it was also really really fun!

First Anna carefully added her M&M ornaments...



 And then enthusiasically added the sprinkles!

 Cookie Monster!

Dear Santa,

  A couple of weeks ago Alastair's work hosted a children's Christmas party at his office. It was Anna's first time meeting with the big man in red and you can see by the expression on her face that she wasn't too sure about Santa Claus!

 Anna wanted to be as far away as possible from Santa....

 Not even a game of peek a boo could convince her to sit on Santa's lap! Though Santa did suggest Alastair sit on his lap while holding Anna! Strange but true!

After all her Santa fun, Anna went straight to work at her Daddy's desk proving what a big help she could be at the office...answering phones... 

 Typing memos, sending emails.....

 And ready to head out to any construction sites!

 At school Anna wrote her first letter to Santa! She's very excited about Christmas....she talks about Santa, Christmas lights, sings Jingle Bells. Everyday I ask her where she's going for Christmas and she answers Scotland! Anna also talks about presents and whenever I ask her what she wants for Christmas I always get the same answer...the conversation usually goes like this -

Mommy: "Anna what do you want for Christmas?"

Anna: "Presents!"

Mommy: "What kind of present do you want?"

Anna: "A purple present!!"

Not sure what a purple present is but I think I'm going to have to at least find some purple wrapping paper!

On our last blog post I wrote about how Anna is just growing and changing before our eyes....we're now entering into the funny things my kid says phase. My favorite new story is on our way to the holiday party we were stopped at a light waiting to turn. In the backseat Anna was pointing out the window and saying "Daddy! Daddy!" She does this all the time...but this time I looked at what she was pointing at and burst out laughing - it was a man walking down the street in a kilt! Seriously what are the odds of that!? So laughing out loud I tried to explain to Anna that just because a man is in a kilt it doesn't mean it's her Daddy!

An American Thanksgiving

This past weekend we celebrated our first American Thanksgiving in Canada. Canada actually celebrates Thanksgiving too but that was 6 weeks ago in the middle of October! It seemed strange to eat turkey before Halloween so we stuck to tradition and had ours last Thursday. It was a bit of a challenge finding a turkey and all the trimmings but I was able to get some things on clearance! My Mom, sister, and Ryan also came out to help us celebrate and Anna enjoyed every minute of their visit!

Anna quickly bonded with my Mom...she was constantly calling for her Ama!

 Happy smiles while eating her turkey dinner!

 Christmas also came early for Anna with special presents from her Auntie Lyn and Ryan. Auntie Lyn gave her a princess kitchen which Anna happily cooks eggs and washes her hands. And Ryan gave her a tent house. Both were a BIG hit!

 Anna kept bringing us over one at a time to sit inside her house!

Anna also put in a blanket and pillow so she could sleep! When she did that Alastair's eyes lit up with visions of future camping trips!

We also got our first dusting of snow today! As I write this the sun is out and the snow is melting but I have a feeling that won't always happen.....

Other Anna highlights this month:

Vocabulary: Wow has Anna ever turned into a little chatterbox! We're constantly amazed at some of her words...while driving one day she pointed at a stop sign and said octagon! Today she called it a stop sign! Another favorite are firefighters which she learned about in school. She loves learning new words. When Anna likes something she's eating she'll say yummy so in an attempt to broaden her vocabulary I asked her if it was delicious. That led to my new favorite word of hers -yummylicious!

Activity: Why walk when you can run? Anna loves to run. My sister loves to go running and I think Anna must know this because all weekend she would grab my sister's hand and say "Auntie run!"

Someday my prince will come

Anna loves her Cinderella dress and as much as I love glitter I can only deal with so much glitter on the floor, the sofa and everywhere in the house. But since it was Halloween it was time to make Anna's dreams come true and let her dress up as Cinderella. The only question was...where is the perfect crown for my princess dress?

Boo! This headband was full of Halloween fun but not quite the crown Anna was looking for....

 Off to look for my crown....

Anna put this one on and said King! But it still wasn't the perfect princess crown....

This one looks pretty good...

 Yes! This is the perfect crown for my Cinderella dress!

Whenever we read a Disney Princess book Anna will name every princess but my favorite is everytime you point at Prince Charming and ask who it is she will say "Dada!". Once I showed her a picture of Prince William and Princess Kate...she said Kate was a princess and Pince William was Dada! Here is Anna with her Prince Charming!

L.A. Baby

The temperatures are falling in Toronto so we made an escape to sunny Southern California over the weekend. While there we helped celebrate Anna's future cousin due in February with a Halloween baby shower...and we got to enjoy wearing short sleeves, flip flops, blue skies and 70 degree weather!

 Anna got to enjoy spending time with her Auntie Lyn...super Mommy to be!

 Much to Anna's delight a couple of pirates even came to the party! 

Anna also made a new friend...My friend Joanna's little boy Joey!

And no trip to Santa Monica would be complete without a trip to the beach! I kept asking Anna if she wanted to go to the beach....and until the moment we went she kept asking for the beach...okay so maybe it didn't always sound like the word beach but a not so nice word instead....! But once there she loved every minute of it!

 When we left the beach I picked Anna up and she put her arms around me tight for a hug and gave me a big kiss...her way of saying, "Thank you for taking me to the beach!"