Christmas fun

now that the holiday is over, i finally have the time to write! we had a great time celebrating Christmas with friends and family. here are some highlights.

on Christmas eve, we attended the Christmas service at our church for families. there were lots of carols for the kids to sing and the nativity story acted out by some of the older children. Skye loved it. she sang really loud all the songs she knew and eagerly watched the older children up at the front. after the service, we went to a friend's house for an early dinner.

Christmas day, Skye woke up before Claire and came downstairs. we had told her she couldn't open any gifts until Claire was awake. that was a little hard for her! well, Claire knew something was afoot because she crawled out of the room super fast once she woke up and was in a hurry to get downstairs! the girls had a great time opening gifts and were quite wound up for breakfast.



after a hearty meal, we bundled up and headed out for some sledding. and because the days had been warm and then suddenly gotten cold again, the ground was really icy and fun for flying down the slopes. even Claire had some fun on the sled.



in the afternoon, while Claire napped, i took Skye ice-skating. well, technically not really ice-skating. we had bought her some "bob-skates" for Christmas. they are skates with double blades for young kids. she had a great time. i think i'm going to have to get some ice skates myself as the girls get older!



after an active day, we returned home and spent time reading the books Skye and Claire got for Christmas. Snowy and Chinook and Sunny. both books come with music CDs and activities for kids to do. Snowy and Chinook inspired us to make some hot chocolate. Sunny inspired Skye to make a guitar. when she was finished with her guitar, Skye decided she needed a strap for it like Lisa Loeb (we have been listening alot to Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell's "Catch the Moon" CD lately and even watched the music video for some of their songs and in all of them, Lisa Loeb carries her guitar on a strap). here is Skye with Phil, having "band practice." she put on her sunglasses to look like Lisa Loeb. :)

Temperamental weather

we've had some bizarre weather for the past few days. it got warmer, but was cloudy and we had lots of fog during the day. it looked eerie, but since it was warm, we could go out a play. so that's what we did. here are some shots of Skye and Claire out and about with some of the neighbourhood kids.

here Skye and our friend Josie made a snow man (with the help of Josie's dad, Rob)


here's Claire sporting some new snow boots. i had to go out and get some - she was walking outside in her soft leather shoes and they got sopping wet and her feet were frigid! she is very eager to walk around outside, but still holds on tightly to my hands.



Skye having a great time sledding in our neighbour's backyard.


Skye and Nathaniel (who lives next door) by their "snow volcano".


after the two warm days, we got some coldness today. temperatures dropped to the teens. there were gusty winds that brought snow flurries. so we had to cancel our dinner with Phil's family since they were driving up from Illinois. we rescheduled our dinner to Wednesday, Boxing Day.

Ballet recital

today was Skye's end-of-semester ballet recital. the class had read the "Nutcracker" story and was to dance the part of Clara. we also got to see all the various ballet positions and steps the girls had learned. here are some shots and movies of our morning. Skye had a great time dancing for us all!

here is Skye with all the girls in her class. they are all dressed up as Clara from "The Nutcracker"


Skye with her teachers, Miss Amy and Miss Melissa


Skye as a cancan dancer!


here are two movies out of the numerous movies we made of the recital. enjoy!


Cancan dance from slkim on Vimeo.


Nutcracker (sort of) from slkim on Vimeo.

Fun in the snow

here are some shots of the snow! and do check out the new movie.





we finally managed to get both girls out for some sledding and that was alot of fun. Skye loves it now - last year, she was still getting used to the snow spraying in her face. Claire is curious about the snow, but still hates the wind and the cold. she enjoyed the sledding for a few minutes and then got too cold for it. i do feel badly that Claire is unable to walk around outside. when Skye was Claire's age, we were in North Carolina and we were out all the time to practice our walking. Claire has to make do with her walker in the house. she's like a little tornado with it though. she flies around, bashing walls and furniture, running over toys, books, whatever is on the floor and in her way!

Winter Days

every time i back out of our garage, i feel like i am playing luge. my car bounces off the snow walls if i don't steer super straight. it's almost impossible to see if there are pedestrians or cars coming down the street - that's how high the snow has piled up.

so, we're spending lots of time inside. here's a shot of Skye with her finished gingerbread house! we had lots of fun baking it and putting it together.

Kim family's Top Ten Christmas songs

10. Deck the halls
9. O Little town of Bethlehem
8. Hark the herald
7. Away in a manger
6. Silent night
5. Jingle Bells
4. We wish you a merry Christmas
3. Go tell it on the mountain
2. Joy to the world

and number 1 is....



Jackson Five's Santa Clause is coming to town! we tried many other renditions, but they all failed to elicit the excitement and booty shaking as this one does...

Snow, snow, and more snow

did i say i loved the snow? there is now so much snow here that snow piles are turning into snow mountains. the sidewalks are lined with snow walls. i kid you not. and we are expecting more snow this weekend. wow.

fortunately, our heater is working and we have a warm home. we are happily busy indoors with Christmas activities. Skye and i are planning to make our first gingerbread house this weekend. we'll post a picture when we're done! :)

Claire got up off the floor and stood up all by herself yesterday and looked mighty proud! now, all she needs to do is get those feet moving...

here's the latest shot of Claire in her kindermusik class!

First Sunday of Advent

we didn't make an advent wreath as we've done in the past - this year, i decided to just have candles - does that still make it legitimate? i hope so! in the past, Skye enjoyed celebrating Advent because it gave her the opportunity to learn all the words of the Christmas carols. then when we went to church for Christmas eve, she'd be able to sing along with everyone else. today, she asked what "hope" meant because we were talking about hope. Phil explained it's like wishing for something. Skye wishes for things all the time. i told her it's like Christmas day - you're waiting and waiting for it to come quickly, you know it's coming, but you have to wait for it to arrive.

it's sort of daunting to think about a day when all our hopes and dreams and longings are fulfilled. so much of our life is made up of hopes and dreams and waiting. it's hard to imagine what it would be like to not wait and not long for anything anymore. but how wonderful that day will be!

Claire is busy learning to communicate with us. these days she points to things with her finger and says something that resembles "this" (th-ssssss). i think it's because we respond to her usually with "do you want this?" she's very careful around the Christmas tree. i expected her to pull off all the ornaments in her reach, but they remain mostly on the tree.

Snowed in

today, we had our first snowfall of the season! and it came down in abundance. it snowed all day long. it was really beautiful. we could hear the constant "shrrrrr"-ing sound of the snow falling. the first snowfall is always breathtaking. of course, by january, we'll be over it, but for now, we are enjoying the beautiful white world.

we spent the day doing some Christmas stuff - we painted Christmas wrapping paper (please see the video on side bar). we also trimmed our tree. then we went out to play a bit in the snow. we made snow angels, shovelled our driveway, and went sledding down our neighbour's backyard. Claire wasn't crazy about the snow, but Skye loved it. and after romping in the snow, we came back in for some hot chocolate.

these are what i enjoy most about Christmas. yes, the gifts and all that are wonderful, but i love watching Skye listening intently to the CD player so that she can learn all the words of the Christmas carols. i love trimming the tree. and i love the quiet and peace the snow brings. yes, it's temporary and doesn't last too long, but still, at least we are given a taste of beauty.