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!