New Year's Eve, 2010

Hard to believe another year has passed by already!

It's become a bit of a tradition for us to head into 'town' (not sure I'll ever get used of calling St. John's 'town') and spend New Year's Eve at a local hotel. We've spent the last couple of years at one particular hotel and were always happy with it, but this time....not so much.

I guess we were a bit later booking this year and had to take a 'suite'. The suite was disappointing (very small compared to other hotel suites we've stayed in). Also, the room was short on pillows and towels .... not even enough for us to each have one. Tyler ended up using the couch cushion as his pillow and the towels...well....we won't go there. The front desk said they were out of both. Hmmm....

Then, a sign on the front desk indicated they participated in a local savings program (of which we are a part). However, when we tried to show our card...we were informed they accept it every day except NYE. Hmmm...that's not what the sign said. We've always recommended this hotel, but not so sure we will anymore.

Despite that...we had a fantastic New Year's Eve. The kids and Larry enjoyed the pool for the afternoon (I was feeling a bit crashed from our busy week, so I opted to stay in the room and rest). Later in the evening, friends of ours dropped by the hotel room for a bit. We ended up back at their house though, where there were lots of games (pool, ping pong, video games, darts, chess etc.). There was lots to eat and no shortage of noise lol.

At midnight....there was the usual countdown ..... complete with noise horns (which all the kids seemed to know how to use!)

Oh my....

After the count down, we headed outside to see if there were any fireworks. They continued on with the noise horns and the noise.

Oh my.....

We saw a few local fireworks but eventually headed back inside...where the kids wanted to continue on with the games (and the music and the noise horns lol).

The 'old people' though decided after one more game of pool, it was time to wind the party down. We took one of the party goers home...and it was no problem getting him there....but getting out was another story. Now, these people didn't live too far from the hotel....but somehow we ended up downtown St. John's .... George Street and Water Street of all places....on New Year's Eve!!! not where we wanted to be. Larry claims we must have taken a wrong turn....but I maintain he just wanted to be able to say he was downtown on NYE (*wink*) lol.

Eventually, we found our way back to the hotel.

A few pics...none of the adults made it into the pics (well...except for Larry...but as you'll see...he was acting like one of the kids lol)









Happy New Year!!!

Christmas, 2010

Christmas Eve -- Our family tradition is to have a special dinner, followed by a family sing-song and each opening one present before the kids hit the hay. I used to be the one playing the piano for everyone to sing, but since the kids can now play the piano...they do the honours.

Jake taking his turn




Brittney



Here we go....get ready to sing...




Oh no...look at Dad....is he for real? ask the teenagers...(just as a fyi....Larry loves to shake things up a bit by acting goofy...it makes the teenagers unsure what to say ;)




Oh c'mon Dad.....you're not going to act that way all night...are you? Tyler trying to remain cool





Come on, Brittney...SING!!!

Oh Dad....Puleeezze!!

Tyler still trying to remain cool




O.K..fine.......I can sing by myself...




Ahh...two thumbs up....we finally got him to stop singing.

Tyler can now safely crack a bit of a smile





Not so fast.....I can pose just like all those stars do...see?

Oh mom....can you make him stop?

Even Tyler can no longer remain cool...




Brittney's turn at the piano...




Warming up for round two.

Jake is certain he can not only handle his Dad's goofiness....but outdo him...




Oh no....they've gone to the piano....I'm stayin' here




Having the words is much better...means Larry doesn't have to make up his own...





O.K...Tyler is here...not sure for how long




Tyler is almost certain these people cannot be related to him




Is there any question in anyone's mind where Jake gets it from???




Jake opening his one gift on Christmas eve. Only a gift card...he picked the wrong one to open





Jake had trouble sleeping, so he slept with us. I told him if he got up early, he was to take a picture of the clock, so I'd know what time he got up. When I woke up at 5:50....he was not with us. He was however, on the couch with the tv and the Christmas tree lights on. He showed me the picture....here it is....that *IS* 1:02 a.m. (I think he dozed a bit on the couch though)





Self-portrait at 1:02 in the morning. Does everyone look this wide awake at 1:02 a.m.? I'm fairly certain I don't




It's about 7:00 a.m. Tyler is still not sure about being up at this time...




Oh well....might as well join him...





Brothers chillin on Christmas Day...









Another tradition in our family...the candy table.



Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Twice the fun on New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve with family friends. We have many interspersed connections to this family....we're both 'Mainlanders' from Ontario, all of us growing up in fairly close proximity to each other. The town they are from was named after a distant relative of mine and her parents now live in the same town as my Dad and step-mom .... (practically across the street from each other). How cool is that? We didn't know them before coming to Newfoundland and only met up with them while visiting churches upon our arrival here. It's such a small world!

We decided awhile ago we'd spend the night in St. John's. We selected a hotel (Super 8...we stayed there last New Years's Eve), with a pool, a huge water slide and hot tub. We booked early and asked for adjoining rooms on the top floor with a view overlooking the ocean/city. We wanted to have a great view of the fireworks display put on by the city at midnight.

We hung out in the room, eating junk food as well as some healthy food (and I know there are lots of chip bags in the following pics....but we also had a fruit tray and a vegetable tray....we really did!)

We hung out by the pool.

We swam.

We enjoyed the hot tub.

Some of us enjoyed the water slide (and some of us chose not to go down..betcha can't guess who that was lol).

We hung out some more in the room....the kids played various games (video games and hide 'n seek...who would have thought that could be played in a hotel room?....but they did it) while the adults took a breather.

We had pizza for supper (larry's fave!).

We swam some more and enjoyed the hot tub.

We played Pictionary ..... girls against the guys and I won't mention the girls WON WON WON...even though there was one more of them *and* even after we gave them a huge head start by letting them win the first few rounds (well...ok....we didn't really let them win those first few rounds...but it makes for a better story ;))

And at midnight.....we were not disappointed by the fireworks. Not only did we see the city's display, but many other private homes were setting off their own. It was so beautiful to watch all of them at the same time....the whole sky over St. John's seemed to be lit with various displays of fireworks. We had a great view *and* we were warm watching from the comfort of our room.

And...in the morning, we enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast mmmmm!

Pictures from our evening (click pics to enlarge)


The group....
(from left to right...Larry, Tyler, James, Paul, Jake, Jennifer, Rebecca, Brittney)




Jake, Tyler and James checking out a video game




Brittney, Rebecca, Tyler...strategizing for Hide 'N Seek...



James and Jake



Rebecca, Tyler and Brittney....getting ready to go out for supper




Rebecca and Brittney



O.K...Enough pictures already, Mom...enough!!



The guys...Tyler, James, Jake and Paul




James, Jake and Paul






HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Christmas Day

Our Christmas was quiet ..... but enjoyable.

6:00 a.m. found Jake in our bedroom, standing beside our bed looking down at me. When I awoke with a start, he announced he just could not wait any longer. He went on to say, he'd been awake since 5:00 a.m. but had stayed in his room....except for a trip to the bathroom where he stopped to check out the presents (only one problem, he does not go by the living room on the way to the bathroom. Guess he must have taken the long way there ;) ). He then gave me a count of how many presents there were for each person.

Did I mention this was at 6:00 a.m.? I could barely recall my own name, let alone process everything he was telling me.

Some pictures of our Christmas.

Christmas Eve. We didn't have any cookies, so Santa and his reindeer had to settle for bananas.



On Christmas morning, we did our usual of opening the stockings first, followed by me preparing the turkey and putting it in the oven. After that was done we had breakfast...our usual Christmas morning fare...muffins and fruit. Notice the clock on the wall....it was in fact 6:40 a.m.



The pictures tell the whole story....only one of us was wide awake.




Tyler getting ready to open presents. Jake has already started. As evident by the window in the background...it was still really dark.




Tyler is starting to open his gifts, Jake is half way through his. Stuffed animals given to him by his friend, Ben.



Tyler has started, Jake is just about finished.



Brittney was pleased...a guitar book to go along with her new guitar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is the Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. I am not sure of our plans as of yet, but we will either have a turkey dinner here, or perhaps go out for lunch after church on Sunday. We tried to buy a turkey today....but the smallest they had was 30 lbs....quite a bit for 5 people.

I have a lot of difficulty with all of the major holidays....they are a huge family time but our extended families have always had other plans....which leaves us on our own. I find it difficult to get through the day, while all of our friends around us are getting together with their families. It really magnifies the fact we are not. I feel bad for my children too as they will not have the memories of family holidays. When I think back to my childhood Christmases....they were the best....getting together with family, hanging out and just spending the day together. We've spent quite a few years alone now and one would think it would get easier....but I'm finding it gets more difficult each year. This is why I am verbalizing this here....in hopes it will help me better deal with it. Through my homeopath and a friend who is training to become a homeopath....I am learning emotions and feelings *are* very important....they cannot be dismissed and discarded. They must be dealt with and those that are suppressed.....in the end do us a lot more harm than good. We should not feel bad or guilty about the way we feel. It's what makes us....us. Just because it would not bother someone else, does not mean we should deny it bothers us. We are all different and we really are the sum of everything that happens to us.

Sorry if this sounds like a downer post...I didn't mean for it to be that way. I really wanted to wish all those who are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, A Happy Thanksgiving!