Being the younger child

I sometimes lament the fact that Zanna doesn't get the experiences and time that Will got when he was little.  Of course, Will was an only child for years and it was just different. Will and I did library time, playgroups, cooking classes, swimming, etc. Today the boys have gone skiing so it's been me and her this afternoon and it's been fun. We hadn't been out all day and I wanted to take advantage of our time so I thought we'd check out the local indoor play area and see what we've been missing. The place has this giant pirate ship and castle to run around, slide down, climb, you get the picture. She so fearless - she raced right in before I could even pay and disappeared in the structure but then came back for me. From then on I had to follow her through the structure and do what she did. I am exhausted. Oh, how I missed Will and having him shadow her so I could sit and "keep an eye" on things! Maybe we're not missing out on much! Although she had a fun time and it was great to be able to play with just her and enjoy her. 

She and I do go to the weekly library time and this has been so much fun to do together. She loves the songs and rhymes and books read by the librarian. Occasionally, I'll be unable to leave Will home with Wayne so I give a list of assignments to do and get him set up at a table while Zanna and I join the group. When she turns 3 we'll be able to start the Mom and tot cooking class at the grocery store. Will and I had such fun at those! And learned a valuable lesson - cooking! Even now he goes monthly for a 2hour drop off class in the evening and makes up quite the menus! I'll also start bringing her with us to swimming - she'll be old enough to participate in their preschool program if she's willing. And I know she'll love going to gymnastics with us and being in the preschool program that goes on at the same time as Will's with our homeschool group. Come to think of it, I guess she's not missing out on too much!

Picture from Christmas

My sister Bekah and husband Tom with their sock monkey.

The 2nd picture is our family and the 3rd is for Bekah since she was sick - here's Tom getting ready to ride!

Bringing in the New Year!

We had a great Christmas! The children did a wonderful job at the Christmas Eve service and said their parts perfectly!  Christmas morning was a treat - Wayne didn't need to preach because our vicar did so we had a really nice laid back morning opening up presents and having a nice breakfast together as a family. We went to church, came home and packed up. Actually, Wayne took a nap. Then we packed up and drove all night to Wisconsin to visit my family. This picture is of my sister-in-law Brenda married to my brother Reid. The sweater she's wearing is one that my brother tweaked. You can't tell in the picture but he attached lights to it so she's flashing. Too funny!
This Christmas the presents for Zanna were all about the doll. We got her an American girl doll and my parents and grandparents got the doll presents. Ha! By the end of the evening she was recognizing the American girl box! 
We were very busy in Wisconsin - here we are snowmobiling! Dad rented some for the weekend and we had a blast. We also went swimming, the guys went skiing and Mom and Dad hosted the Hanson family Christmas with most of the Aunts and Uncles and cousins. It was a treat to be able to be a part of that. 

We stayed until New Years and then drove back all day. 

My sister and her husband had also come to Mom and Dad's for Christmas all the way from the UK and it was so great to see them. Unfortunately, Bekah got sick and was holed up in her hotel room for a day and a half! 

Merry Christmas!!!

This is one of the pictures that didn't make the final cut in the Halldorson Christmas card but it's still cute! This year Will was still agreeable to wear something matching with Zanna (which I'm thrilled about) so I went with it. Aren't they cute?!!!!

A Halldorson tradition - an IKEA Christmas tree. $20 and you get a $20 coupon to spend in the New Year. What a deal!Some families go to a tree farm, freeze their buns off, God bless them, for the sake of the "experience", have some hot chocolate and cut down a tree. We pile in the car and go to IKEA and have it over and done with in 15min. I love it! After last years tree falling over fiasco we were a bit more sensitive to that problem this year. We made sure that the trunk was nice and straight. We bought a new tree stand (new and improved - Canadian made!). Bottom line - it's a piece of $40 plastic crap. Wayne still had to reinforce it with plastic ties but it seems to be holding up. We hope.

In November we took a little getaway to Syracuse (my favourite place to get my American shopping fix). I bought some presents, we ate at Olive Garden, wandered up and down the aisles of Target (gosh, I love that place). We stayed at a hotel with a pool and the kids had a blast. We got together with the Gumm family - they came to our hotel to swim and we had some pizza. Addie and Zanna got to play together - it's so sweet! I would have posted a picture of them but as a general rule I don't post pictures of other peoples kids no matter how cute they are! Anyway, it was great to get out of Dodge if only for 2 nights!

We had a lovely American Thanksgiving. We had some more of our Chinese friends over who had never had a traditional meal like this - it was great! Will presented his lapbook to the group explaining the history of the holiday and how it came about.

Now we're in the full swing of the Christmas season. We've got lots of snow (again) and my garden flag that says "Jesus is the Reason" has been buried (again). This year with Zanna just a bit older it's been great to be able to send the kids outside and they will play together making snowmen, or snowforts or whatever. They'll spend an hour playing outside and it's LOVELY!

Zanna was invited to a birthday party last weekend for a little Chinese girl that lives around the corner. I wish I would have brought my camera because soon after our arrival the girls were taken upstairs to change into dress up princess dresses that they wore for the remainder of the party. They were all adorable! Zanna was in heaven. They beaded their own necklaces, made bracelets,ate cake - she talked about it all week! The girl's mother and I had a chance to chat too and in the course of our conversation she shared with me that she is from a Chinese family line that is allowed to have as many children as they wish because they are Muslim. I had the privilege of sharing with her the good news of Jesus and that He is God. Of course, she did not understand this but never the less heard the message. Please keep this women in your prayers!

We are looking forward to Christmas in Wisconsin (or rather, the day after Christmas as we'll be driving on Christmas!). Lord-willing, my family will be all together - so exciting! Merry Christmas!!!!

Trick or Treat

Good golly - what a picture this is! In case you can't tell by looking, Will is Indian Jones, Zanna is some sort of fairy with wings (she called herself a butterfly) and my dear husband is a monk. I never thought in a million years he'd dress up. We bought it because it was so cheap and thought maybe he could use it for Reformation or something. Well, ten years and he still surprised me! Ha! They look great anyway and they had a great time.

To fill in the rest of the month of October (now that we're halfway through November), we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving that is because in this house we celebrate both. Now to be honest, I usually think of Canadian Thanksgiving as the "trial run" to the real Thanksgiving. I do appreciate it being in October when the fall colors are at their peak and often the weather is nice enough to take a walk after our big meal. But growing up with a November Thanksgiving with the Pilgrim thing and the official kickoff to the Christmas season, it's been difficult. Until last year. This is the second year now that I've gone all out for Cn. Thanksgiving and the Am. one has been in the way - let's get on with Christmas already. Perhaps I'm becoming Canadianized (is that a word?). So this year we had turkey and all the trimmings and invited some of our CHinese friends over for a traditional North American feast. I had hoped it was something they hadn't experienced before and I was pleased to find out for the most part that this was the case. Our friend Rebecca said that their Chinese friends had done a Chinese version of one - can you imagine what that would be like? Maybe our version of Chinese food - a poor comparison! Well anyway, they "gobbled" everything up and the big hit was the green bean casserole. Too funny!!

I still find it difficult when Am Thanksgiving rolls around - I want to celebrate it and I know my family is celebrating it and I want it to be a big deal. I turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, take the day off of school, etc and make the big meal. But it's weird when no one else is making a big deal of it too. I don't want my kids to miss out on this tradition. I want them to "get it". So this year we're preparing a bit ahead of time for it and will do a unit study on it next week. Will's reading the Magic tree house book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" and will do a book report on it.

I went and did something crazy this month just to keep things interesting, I suppose. I got Invisaligns for my teeth. This is the alternative to braces. I've always been annoyed with my crooked teeth and now I'm out to fix it. So I've got these clear inserts over my teeth I change weekly and the idea is no one can tell. However, I can't eat or drink anything other than water with them in and I've got to keep them in for 22hours a day. This leaves me a precious 2 hours each day to stuff myself! Actually, I'm drinking way more water than I usually do and if I'm really lucky I'll loose a few pounds and have straight teeth. What a deal!

October update

We've had another busy month! We went with some other homeschoolers to the butterfly exhibit at a local university and the kids had a blast. It wasn't as awesome as the one we went to in Rochester but this was lovely too.

The butterfly shown with Will really took a liking to him and sat on his hand for quite some time. People were going up to Will like he was a display and taking his picture with the butterfly.

Of course October includes a trip to the pumpkin patch. We picked out our pumpkins as well as took a hay ride through the pumpkin patch. I'm ashamed to admit we ran out of time for a fall nature walk on one of the lovely trails around our community. It just never happened - not that we weren't doing other things but it's disappointing anyway. It has been a beautiful fall - that is until it snowed 6 cm the other day. Yes, that's right. It's like it never left. Actually, it's warmed up since then and the snow's practically gone now. The paper claimed it's a "false winter". Whatever.

In other news, Will participated in his first Karate tournament and won a pretty cool 3rd place trophy. He had a good time and Zanna and I cheered him on!

The kids and I did manage to make leaf cookies this year. I cut out the shapes and the kids have a blast decorating them with sprinkles and stuff. They were yummy too!!

I've tried this month to tap into my creative juices and did a few fun things - I took a mixed media art class at a local art store and made 2 wall decorations for Christmas I'm looking forward to putting up. I've also done another "year in the life" scrapbook workshop - 2 nights, layouts per month done for me, tools, stamps, ink, etc provided and I leave with a scrapbook I just need to journal and put in a picture. Pretty slick, looks great, documents memories through the year. Works for me!!

I will have to do the Halloween update in the next one - I'm running out of time now.

Fall Fun!!

I think this is precious - she set this all up herself. A tea party with her dollies!!! Too cute!
Last Spring, Will started karate. He took the summer off due to our busy schedule but he resumed in September and recently earned his yellow belt! It was very exciting!!
Apple picking!! One of my favorite fall things to do! Speaking of fall, I love fall. Not just "I really enjoy this season" but I may just be obsessed. Like other times of the year, I decorate my house for fall. But as I hauled up 6 boxes of fall decorations from the basement this year, I realize I may have an issue. I can't even walk into Michaels this time of year because I don't need any more fall things but I just can't resist. I love the colors so much - they are so relaxing to me. And the smells - cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc put me into a heavenly blissful state of mind. I love apples, pumpkins and scarecrows. If I could keep mums alive I would love them too. I love my fall dishes and the acorn shaped salt and pepper shaker. I know - I have a problem!! I love Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving (can you have too much turkey? I don't think so), I love celebrating Reformation and all things German. I still detest Halloween but I do like (not love) jackolanterns (pumpkin faces). I love nature walks - the fond memories of my family's growing up and the new memories my family now makes. I love taking the extra time to thank Jesus for all our many blessings and recognizing everything comes from Him!!Happy Fall!!