Here is Arianna in the dress her Grandma gave her for Christmas.  She wore it to church on Christmas Eve.  Everyone said she looked like a little girl, not really a toddler anymore, even though she's only 19 months old.   I think she looks absolutely adorable.  The other exciting point is that she is finally letting me put clips in her hair!

I just want to take a minute to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.  We'll be going to my parents this afternoon, so I'll be gone until Tuesday.
May you all feel the peace and joy of this Christmas season, as we celebrate Christ's birth. 
And have lots of fun!!

I don't have any photos from this year, so here's one from last year.  It's not the best photo, taken before I really understood all the settings on our digital camera.
Arianna is looking at her "Baby's First Christmas" ornament which includes her photo.  She is almost 7 months old here.

It's amazing that now that I'm sitting down to blog nothing profound or interesting comes to mind.  I've been meaning to do this all week, all these great topics going through my head, but now that I'm actually sitting here, ... nothing.  I don't remember one thing I was thinking of earlier.
Unfortunately, time is ticking away and I have to melt some chocolate on the cookies I made especially at my hubby's request.
Where are my good ideas?  Hello?  Is anything in there?  Oh and they were so good!  I think I must be experiencing holiday prep overload.  I have too many things to think about to get ready for Christmas that there isn't room for anything else.
That reminds me of a professional development day my school had a few years ago.  We had this guy come in and talk about how we learn.  He had a glass on a table and a pitcher of water.  The glass represented our brain, the water represented the things we learn or think about.  He poured the water into the glass until it was completely full.  Then, using our classroom environment as an example, "here's a new Math concept.", poured more water into the glass.  Of course water poured out all over the table.  The moral of this story?  When our heads are full of "stuff" something has to give in order for anything else to be learned or remembered. 
I think that happens to me all ---the---time!!!
Okay I'd better go now.  (Hey, did you know Firefox spell check doesn't recognize the word okay?  That's crazy.)
Now I'd definitely better go.  I sound like I'm losing it.

I have been missing everyone here.  I was so very sick for the last couple of days.  Arianna woke up sick on Friday and I was sick as well.  She seemed fine for the rest of the day while I just got worse and worse.  Yesterday I was very glad it was a Saturday and Chris was home to help.  I couldn't even stand up. 

We think Arianna and I caught some sort of bug when we went to the school to hold auditions for the spring play.  Luckily for all of us, it went through Arianna's system very quickly.

I felt so bad because I was supposed to go to Peterborough to bake Christmas goodies with my mom yesterday and then in the evening we had planned to get together with friends to celebrate a birthday.  I had to cancel both plans.  And I couldn't do anything to help around the house.  It was so frustrating especially because I felt pretty good as long as I didn't stand up.

Today I was feeling much better and was able to witness a friend dedicate her baby at church and go out for lunch to celebrate.  Yay!!

Now, I'm going to watch the Survivor finale with my dear hubby.  Talk to you tomorrow!

Here are a couple photos from our trip to Winnipeg.  We were riding on a miniature train.  The second photo shows Chris with Arianna standing beside the locomotive.

I have so many things on the go right now and everything keeps spinning in my head.  I feel like it's all going to go faster and faster until my head explodes!  There are things for church, the play at school, Christmas decorating, cards, letters, baking, gifts, shopping, never mind getting the house clean.  I just vacuumed our tile floor and Arianna cried the whole time.  She has developed a fear of the vacuum, so now I can't do that either while she's awake.  Aaaaaah!

Now I'd better go and get started on one of those things burning a hole in my brain.

Here's the lowdown on how things went.  I warn you now, it's long, so I apologize for that.  It's a copy of my record for scrapbooking purposes.

Now that Arianna is napping, I can spend a little more time reflecting on our trip to Winnipeg, otherwise known as Winterpeg. We had tried to visit while the weather was warmer, but it just didn’t work out. You see, each time we have gone to Winnipeg, the weather has been bitterly cold and they have just gone through a snowstorm. Usually it warms up there just after we leave. It’s now a running joke. As soon as it gets really cold, it must mean Chris and Krista are coming for a visit. Unfortunately, it rang true again. When we left on Thursday morning, early, it was unseasonably warm in Toronto, a balmy 14C. When we landed in Winnipeg, it was –25C, -30s with the wind-chill. Yup, we really know when to visit. Thankfully it warmed up a little while we were there (by a little I mean –15C), but yesterday it was back to –33C in the wind-chill.  Brrr!! Despite the weather, we had a wonderful visit. Our flight going out was very good. Arianna enjoyed things, had a good walk around before boarding. We did pre-board, but just before general boarding was called and since the plane wasn’t very full, it didn’t take long before we were in the air. There was lots of room for Arianna to have her own seat. Yay! She found the headphones quite interesting, but didn’t leave them on for long. She even slept for just over half an hour.  My niece and nephew were still in school when we arrived and didn’t know we were coming, so it was nice to surprise them when they got home by sending Arianna out to greet them. Friday we spent the day at home, big surprise since it was so cold. The kids were home from school, too, so it was a nice day spent with them. Arianna warmed up to everyone so quickly, even giving my sister-in-law, Shirley, big smiles when she came home from errands, and asking to be picked up by Grandma. The kids had so much fun with her, especially my niece, who was always trying to interest Arianna in some cuddles. Much to her disappointment, Arianna wasn’t always keen on the idea.  On Friday evening we went to the AVR. My brother-in-law, Rob, is involved in this. They have this miniature railroad set up along with 1000s of lights. You ride this little train through all the lights. It was beautiful. I’ll post some photos when I have a chance. Arianna was not impressed when we sat her on the seat, but as soon as the train got going, she loved it. It was cold, but worth it. Although it ended up being a really late night for Arianna. Saturday I went shopping with my mother-in-law. It was nice to spend some time with her. We went to the Children’s Place. We don’t have one where we live and I love their clothes. I picked out an adorable sweater and skirt for Arianna, for a great deal, and as we’re standing in the check-out line, Mom says she will pay for it.  If I’d known that I would have picked out some more clothes!   Saturday evening, Chris, Mom and I went to a movie, the first in a long time for us. We saw the Nativity Story. It was fabulous, brought me to tears a number of times and I’m not a crier. Sunday morning we were off to church and enjoyed another day hanging out at home.  The amazing thing is that Arianna didn't cry when we left her in the nursery.  She screams at our church where things are familiar.  She was even willing to go to perfect strangers!  I think she was so used to new things that she just rolled with it.  That evening we got to see my niece perform in a Christmas concert. She did a beautiful job and Arianna was so good. She clapped every time everyone else did. It was so cute. It was another late night for Arianna; we had to talk to her all the way home to keep her awake. Monday morning we were up bright and early to go to the airport. It wasn’t as pleasant a flight as the first one. We were able to have a seat for Arianna again, but she wouldn’t go to sleep, even though she was simply exhausted. She slept for 45 minutes on the way home from the airport and then only about 15 minutes later on. She was a bear all afternoon. But a good night sleep and now hopefully a good, long nap will put her in a better mood. Overall, despite the cold, late nights and moody toddler, it was well worth the visit. We’re already talking about the next visit, this time in the summer!

I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment, lots to catch up on around the house.  I will say we had a great trip.

I'll write more when Arianna goes down for a nap.

It's so good to be home!