I'm realizing just now that the name of our blog is the Cahoons 52, meaning that I had wanted to do a post each week for the 52 weeks in the year, and with the year being over I'm at post 23.... less than half! How sad. That just means we were having too much fun this past year that we didn't have time to write it all down (or at least that's what I'll tell myself so I don't feel too bad about it!)
On to Charlie's First Christmas!
I wanted it to be more exciting than it was, but it's hard with a 3 month old - they have no idea what's going on! Andrew didn't want to take Charlie to go see Santa and get a picture because it's a rip off (and I agree it is ridiculously expensive - but I'm kinda sad we didn't do it!) and he also didn't want Charlie to get any presents which I vetoed because I am a gifts person! Charlie didn't really get a stocking either... just one of my socks with a bottle in it.... WOW this first Christmas is sounding really lame!!! We did actually do some fun things, like go to the live nativity out in Spruce Grove and then drive down Candy Cane Lane. That's one of our only long-standing traditions that absolutely happens every year.
The most exciting part about Christmas was getting to talk to Mary (a.k.a Sister Burtenshaw) on FaceTime! It was good to see her/talk to her and find out how she is doing (which is well!) So to recap Christmas Day - we had a delicious breakfast of Eggo Waffles (because they're so easy and delicious!) bacon and eggs. Then we got to talk to Mary for about an hour and a half, then we opened presents! I thought it was going to be all sad because we weren't going to be getting much since we 're moving in a week to Australia, and we couldn't give much because we are very poor, but it was actually really good! And sometimes funny - like Amy wrapping random things from her room so that there would be more presents under the tree - we're ridiculous like that!
We had the missionaries over for dinner, along with my moms sister JoAnne (because her husband had to work that day and they had done their family Christmas a few days before) So with 5 extra people our house was busy! It was good though and the dinner was DELICIOUS! After the dinner we headed over to Andrews sister Janets house to visit and have birthday cake (for Jesus' birthday!)
It was also Charlies 3 month mark on Christmas day! He's grown up so much and is getting quite chubby!
Boxing day we headed out to Tofield to get pulled around on the pond behind the quad. It was such a gorgeous day for it and even Charlie had a turn! After that we headed over to the other dome (Andrews brothers house) to make sushi and other asian dishes - it was delicious!
The next few days were a blur - we headed down to Cardston on Sunday Dec. 29 (Andrew and I's fourth wedding anniversary ) to visit Andrews grandmother and see Waterton one last time before we head over to Australia. It just so happened that my Grandpas twin brother, Uncle Dick, passed away on Christmas Eve and the funeral was the day after we got there, so that was nice we got to attend that while we were down there as well. It was super windy in Waterton (as usual!) but we did get to drive up Amy and her friend up to the Cameron Lake trailhead for cross country skiing (we couldn't go with Charlie) but I enjoyed the drive up there and also driving around the town. I was also super excited to get our first family pictures at Cameron Falls!
We got home on New Years Eve, just in time to make lots of delicious food (our tradition is everyone picks a treat/snack for the evening - my pick this year was hot spinach and artichoke dip, but my favourite was Andrews pick - smoked salmon, asparagus and cream cheese crepes with hollandaise sauce - SO GOOD!) and play games! Charlie even managed to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year and we gave him a tiny taste of sparkling apple juice! (I think he loved it!)
New years day we went bowling and made a fondue! We had a cheddar cheese fondue and also a citrus broth fondue with bread, celery, apples, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, prawns, chicken, steak and potatoes - it was delicious!!! We also made 3 delicious dips to go with the dippers (lemon pepper, green goddess, and dill) and played a bunch of games - so fun! The next day was spent getting things done to go to Australia, it seems like there are always a million little things to do for it. We also had our chocolate fondue because we were too full after the main fondue on New Years Day to do it then and also played some more games (well just QWIRKLE - it's the best game ever)
Yesterday (Jan. 3rd) was spent running errands and returning things from Christmas, followed by Andrew and I finally having the chance to celebrate our 4th anniversary! We went to Famoso for dinner, then went and walked around Walmart while we waited for our movie to start. We saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - it was a good movie! Quite funny/interesting and he went to Iceland which made it awesome! I have wanted to go to Iceland to the past few years, and starting in March (I think it's March) Icelandair is going to start direct flights from Edmonton to Iceland - PERFECT just in time for me to have moved halfway around the world to Australia! DARN. Hopefully they will still have them when we move back in 4-6 years.... After the movie we went and got hot chocolate from Tims and I told Andrew that the best present he could ever get me in the future would be to secretly plan and arrange everything for a trip for the two of us and have it be a complete surprise - I was thinking of Iceland when I said it... hint hint!
I realize that this is a very boring post, it will be my last post on here though because I'm going to start a new blog for our time in Australia! Check it out (in a few days): thecahoonsinoz@blogspot.ca
The most exciting part about Christmas was getting to talk to Mary (a.k.a Sister Burtenshaw) on FaceTime! It was good to see her/talk to her and find out how she is doing (which is well!) So to recap Christmas Day - we had a delicious breakfast of Eggo Waffles (because they're so easy and delicious!) bacon and eggs. Then we got to talk to Mary for about an hour and a half, then we opened presents! I thought it was going to be all sad because we weren't going to be getting much since we 're moving in a week to Australia, and we couldn't give much because we are very poor, but it was actually really good! And sometimes funny - like Amy wrapping random things from her room so that there would be more presents under the tree - we're ridiculous like that!
We had the missionaries over for dinner, along with my moms sister JoAnne (because her husband had to work that day and they had done their family Christmas a few days before) So with 5 extra people our house was busy! It was good though and the dinner was DELICIOUS! After the dinner we headed over to Andrews sister Janets house to visit and have birthday cake (for Jesus' birthday!)
It was also Charlies 3 month mark on Christmas day! He's grown up so much and is getting quite chubby!
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| He's getting so old! |
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| Fun in the country |
The next few days were a blur - we headed down to Cardston on Sunday Dec. 29 (Andrew and I's fourth wedding anniversary ) to visit Andrews grandmother and see Waterton one last time before we head over to Australia. It just so happened that my Grandpas twin brother, Uncle Dick, passed away on Christmas Eve and the funeral was the day after we got there, so that was nice we got to attend that while we were down there as well. It was super windy in Waterton (as usual!) but we did get to drive up Amy and her friend up to the Cameron Lake trailhead for cross country skiing (we couldn't go with Charlie) but I enjoyed the drive up there and also driving around the town. I was also super excited to get our first family pictures at Cameron Falls!
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| Cameron Falls, Waterton |
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| Love this boy! |
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| Andrew with his Grandmother - she is 94 and has 107 great-grandchildren! |
New years day we went bowling and made a fondue! We had a cheddar cheese fondue and also a citrus broth fondue with bread, celery, apples, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, prawns, chicken, steak and potatoes - it was delicious!!! We also made 3 delicious dips to go with the dippers (lemon pepper, green goddess, and dill) and played a bunch of games - so fun! The next day was spent getting things done to go to Australia, it seems like there are always a million little things to do for it. We also had our chocolate fondue because we were too full after the main fondue on New Years Day to do it then and also played some more games (well just QWIRKLE - it's the best game ever)
Yesterday (Jan. 3rd) was spent running errands and returning things from Christmas, followed by Andrew and I finally having the chance to celebrate our 4th anniversary! We went to Famoso for dinner, then went and walked around Walmart while we waited for our movie to start. We saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - it was a good movie! Quite funny/interesting and he went to Iceland which made it awesome! I have wanted to go to Iceland to the past few years, and starting in March (I think it's March) Icelandair is going to start direct flights from Edmonton to Iceland - PERFECT just in time for me to have moved halfway around the world to Australia! DARN. Hopefully they will still have them when we move back in 4-6 years.... After the movie we went and got hot chocolate from Tims and I told Andrew that the best present he could ever get me in the future would be to secretly plan and arrange everything for a trip for the two of us and have it be a complete surprise - I was thinking of Iceland when I said it... hint hint!
I realize that this is a very boring post, it will be my last post on here though because I'm going to start a new blog for our time in Australia! Check it out (in a few days): thecahoonsinoz@blogspot.ca
