Special Exposure Wednesday~ Joey and Charley

Playing along with 5 mins for Special Needs. Joey on Christmas morning. He just loves his new chimp. He named it Charley (with some help from me) because initially he wanted to calle him, "mom" or "mead".

Christmas Fragments ~ 2009

Joey asked for a violin for Christmas and he got one. Now he's an accomplished violinist.

Alec and his new guitar pedal..yes..this picture is totally posed.

My niece Christina, my mom and my sister Linda

Damien got his Leaf jersey

Group shot minus Damien

My two oldest handsome sons

Christmas would not be complete without a visit from Joey's beloved Mead.

Mom wanted a hippopotamus for Christmas and we found her one. Yes, it's a webkinz.

Abby among her loot from Aunt Linda
Yes, I know it's not Friday. I wanted to do a fragment post anyhow, because Friday was Christmas and I was way too busy. Also if I did a full Christmas post, it would definitely go on and on and on. So here in fragments was how our Christmas went.

Christmas Eve we had a visit from my sister Mary and her boy friend Jeff and my niece and nephew. We visited awhile, then I got back to work. I still had tonnes of wrapping to do. Now Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without a visit with our neighbours. So the hubby and I headed next door. My bestie helped me finish up my wrapping while we watched, "It's a Wonderful Life" and indeed it is!

Christmas morning, the children slept til almost 8:30am. They were full of excitement. First they opened up their stockings and then we moved on to the presents. Everyone was pleased. The most surprised person, me. Gino and the kids surprised me with a new computer, a Mac ! Wow!! I hadn't a clue. I am still getting used to it, but I sure am enjoying it.

Later we went to visit my mom and then the little ones grandma and bio mom. Back home I helped Gino with dinner. Then it was time to go back and pick up my mom and brother. We stopped at the cemetery where we visit my dad each year,(he passed away Christmas morning 19 yrs ago) It was pouring, but that did not deter us. Once we got back home my sister and her family were already there. Everyone worked in the kitchen together. The house smelt great and felt wonderful. We enjoyed an amazing meal together. Later after some tasty desserts we played some games and listened to music. What a perfect day it was.

Merry Christmas To All ~ 2009

Merry Christmas from our family to all of yours. May you have a blessed day tomorrow. God bless. I added some pictures from Christmases past. Enjoy! Happy Holidays all!!

Special Exposure Wednesday and Say What Wednesday

Joey is sitting on Santa's chair. On Monday night our local play place TayKimTan's hosted a Santa visit complete with cookies and hot chocolate. Once Santa excited his comfy spot, Joey jumped on up and said, "ho ho ho, what you want for Christmas Abby?" Abby being the sweet adoring sister played along

Say What Wednesday

Playing along with Missy at Two Little Monkeys. Daddy" what are you doing Abby?"

Abby: " waiting for my mommy"

Daddy, " she's putting Joey to bed"

Abby. "I'm waiting for my mom"

Daddy,"I don't think she's coming back, she's laying with Joey and might fall asleep"

Abby, " that's funny"

........

My girl friends little girl Maddie to Santa: , " Santa did you drive your sleigh or your car? There isn't much snow out ya know". She is only 3!

..........

Mommy: " Damien did you misbehave for daddy last night?"

Damien: " no me not"

Mommy: " did you take all the stuffing out of your bear and throw it all over your bed?"

Damien: " You not dere!" ..nope I wasn't..gotta take dad's word for it

.....To see what else kids are saying check out Missy's blog @ Merry Christmas .

RANDOMS:

I finally got to meet Miss Mead's baby niece. Boy oh boy is she ever adorable. Chubby and sweet. Joey just adores her. Still, Elissa if you are reading this, waiting to meet your honey.

Stayed up way too late wrapping presents and so what if I did have two festive drinks, tis the season right?

Gino really does not like shopping. I told him I'd meet him at the toy department in Zellers, over a half hour later he calls me...from his car. I think he'd had enough.

Nick's snake is adjusting quite well to family life. Even I've grown accustomed to it. I even, gasp, pet it..ewww while Livv was holding her while watching Fringe.

I'm on an 80's movie kick. Just bought myself Foot Loose. How adorable was Kevin Bacon way back when?

Sunday Smiles~ Our princess experience

On Friday December 18th we headed to the Rogers Center for the opening of Disney on Ice, the Princesses. As a Feld Family Activator, I received tickets for my family and for a giveaway I hosted in exchange for advertising the great deals that are available. We had absolutely no problems what so ever. The traffic even co-operated. We did have one sick little girl who vomited once in the car due to a queasy tummy. Once we arrived in Toronto she felt much better. There is still time to purchase your tickets at a super price You just have to go on line at Ticketmaster and type in the coupon code MCC. The discounted shows are available Monday-Friday (excluding Friday evening) Four tickets are $44.00. Now let me tell you as someone who has seen the show, those prices cannot be beat. My girls absolutely LOVED it. You should have seen the expression on Abby's face. The skaters were very talented and the show very entertaining. I also spoke with the winners of my giveaway and she said her two girls really enjoyed the show as well.
I want to thank Kathryn Easter and Mom Central for giving me the opportunity to be a FFA and therefore to enjoy such an entertaining show.

my little Abby's attention is on those princesses

My girls during intermission, so excited.

My prince charming. He loved the show, but I must say he really favoured Mickey and Minnie who do make an appearance.

Friday Fragments ~ A little bit of this and a little bit of that

As the holidays approach I am beginning to feel more and more stressed out. Not a good feeling. Down in the dumps, grinchish , irritable. But no more my friends. Time to defrag and feel better. This week was crazy, it just flew by. Monday Joey gave his most favourite worker of all an early Christmas gift..umm if you can call it that. A lovely black eye. Poor Elissa, poor Joey, who felt terrible and was quite upset and cried and was very remorseful

Tuesday I hosted a lovely cookie exchange luncheon. Not only did we get a variety of delicious cookies, we got to spend the afternoon with good friends. Good friends who like to poke fun at my festive Christmas sweater. Ahhh but I took it all in stride. After all what's Christmas without a cheesy sweater and friends who joke around.

Marg and I sporting our festive sweaters.

How good does that little lunch look?

Thursday I went to Damien's school to see his class do their little Christmas show. Adorable, that's what it was. Damien didn't even forget his line. The narrator said," and Damien put on the gingerbread house a, Damien's line, "yummy candy" It was so adorable. Afterwards we went back to the class to enjoy some cookies and juice.

Randoms: Stuff you hear only at our house. Abby: "mom, I found Joey's chew toy in the cupboard. Me: "ok give it to Joey" Abby, " I did , ewww he's chewing on it" And no Joey is not a dog. He likes his sensory toys. Only at our house do kids argue who is going to get me the bag to dispose of Joey's poopy diaper. Teenagers like to stay up late and make noise with guitar hero however they do not like it when their toddler siblings are loud in the morning and make noise with the Wiggles guitar.

Shopping is almost done and I'm feeling festive again. Tonight we are off to start the holidays with a trip to Toronto to see the Disney Princesses on Ice.

Feeling Melancholy~ rambling

Guess it's just that time of year. So much to do. So little time. Budgeting woes, family stuff, school stuff and on and on. Don't get me wrong, I know I am blessed. Blessed because I do have what I have or rather what we all have. If I could shake this feeling I would. If I never had to struggle with feeling down, I'd jump at the chance. Right now my biggest struggle of course is Joey. God love him. I love him! Two weeks of unscheduled time is coming up. I'm going to try to keep things structured, but really who likes to live like that all of the time? We have to. If we don't Joey falls apart, the little ones will fall apart and if mommy falls apart...well you can imagine it's not a good thing. I hate having to rely on workers. I hate looking forward to the time away from Joey. I feel guilty. Not worthy. Not appreciative. I adore my son's workers. Especially the one. We all know the one. The one who does enjoy working with Joe. The one who rarely calls in sick. The one who listens to me vent about everything. Not just Joey stuff. The one who probably thinks I'm a nut bar. A crazed person, but still she comes back. I hate that I need these workers so much. I hate that I just can't do it all myself. That Joey needs the one on one and I can't provide it because I decided to take in two little babies , toddlers really 2 yrs ago. This has affected Joey so much. Both good and bad ways. I mean, he has to share me. He also loves these guys. These little ones. They are our family. Joey loves to show off his brother and sister. He is always thinking of them, buying things, taking out library books for them. But what if we'd said no. When a worker couldn't make it, when a worker was sick, had plans, I would always be able to handle it. No other little ones. I could do whatever Joey needed, wanted. I chose to or rather I choose to do what I do. So how guilty do I feel when i whine like this. With no one to talk to. I know what they'll say or what they think. " You wanted this" " You asked for this". Yes. I. Did. That's why I feel like a failure when I realize how much I rely on my workers on his workers rather. They get paid well to work with Joey and one of them does an excellent job. But a job it is. I don't' want him to be a job to anyone anymore. I want him cured. Cured of whatever is wrong or not right with him. Whatever makes him freak out. Whatever makes him be a perpetual toddler in a 9yr old's body. Whatever makes him so violent when he doesn't get his own way. So angry he bit me . So angry he blackened his worker's eye because he didn't want to leave his Y program and head butted her with the back of his head when she attempted to restrain him. The fact that he has to be restrained. The fact that I am NOT ALLOWED to restrain him . The fact that even if I was allowed, I have never been trained for proper restraints but only in P. MAB. Truth is there is no cure. He is who he is. I love him unconditionally. However I could really do without the tantrums and I'm sure he could as well. They exhaust him. So feeling melancholy? So am I.

Say What Wednesday~ A Leaf fan in the making.

Playing along with Missy @ Two Little Monkeys. Damien has been really interested in hockey lately. It's his and daddy's special time at night when the Leafs play. Now even at 4 , little D is taking after his dad.
I was decorating the house and Damien was helping me. However the hockey game started.
Me: Damien hand me that little Santa there please (I'm up on top of the sofa trying to reach the window sill)
Damien: "No mommy, me watching hockey now"..oh OK..Gino Jr.
Damien to me: " Mommy, maybe the Weafs( aka the Leafs )will win tonight"..ha ha..wishful thinking boy..just like a true Leaf fan
I just can't wait til world cup time, I think Gino will have Damien converted to an Italy fan in no time.