Christmas holidays in pictures

So I thought the easiest way to describe our holiday experiences would be to simply comment on the pictures. Unfortunately we left our battery charger in Florida and we're too cheap to pay $80 for a new one so these are all phone pictures/videos. I wish this one wasn't so blurry because it is absolutely hillarious. Kylie fell asleep and her head always flops over like this. Chelsea grabbed on to her ponytail and was pulling. She thought it was so funny. I'm not sure Kylie did. Who knows....she slept!!

No better way to spend a holiday then to sleep in a sunbeam.

December 20th: Our little Kylie had a bit of cosmetic surgery to fix her droopy eyelid. We had to leave the house by 7:00 and didn't leave the hospital until 2:30 so it was a long day. She was such a brave girl but she said it really hurt and she will never have it done again! Poor thing. Hope the doctor is happy with the results so she doesn't have to go through it again. We had to mark her eye so the doctor got the right one:)

She slept for a really long time after coming out of recovery. It was interesting the way they did the surgery. They flipped the eyelid inside out and made the incision on the inside so all you see now is 2 little dots where the knots were tied on the outside of the lid.

The nurses gave her a Christmas bear to take home with her.

December 21: Post-op day 1, looking great.

December 22: Post-Op day 2, you can tell she is back to her ornery old self.

We have been having the most gorgeous weather so the kids have been living outside!

December 23: We celebrated my birthday a day early so that we could do Christmas on Saturday instead of Sunday. The kids got me some wonderful presents for my birthday. Excuse Chelsea. She has decided that she doesn't like diapers so we've been letting her run in her underware for quick potty trips.

I love that kids pick out what they want so they can steal it after. Haha.

December 24: Christmas came early to our house.

Kylie and Abby showing off their new pajamas. They might fit for the next 3 years as I got them kind of big. Oh well. I find Carters stuff always shrinks so maybe they will shrink in the wash.

Chelsea and Lucky - The singing, talking, ride on horse.

There's always the toys that require hours of assembly before use. Maybe we should have thought of this before we wrapped it!

And the big gift that has been in hiding for the last 3 months!

That evening we went to Japanese Village for supper with Glen and Jess, The Triska family, and cousin Devin and Shauna Daku and family. Then went to Glen and Jess's for coffee and cake. See her blog for Christmas dinner pictures and cake photos as I didn't have a camera.

This is one of those restaurants that make your meal in front of you. It was okay but very expensive so likely not a place we would go back to. We probably could have all had steak dinners for the same price.

Daku family

December 26: So in my birthday card, my wonderful amazing hubby wrote "Kananaskis booked December 27th to 30th!" YAY!!!! So on the 26th, he was so anxious to go that he said 'lets go halfway and shop a bit on Tuesday before heading out.' It was funny because we didn't tell the kids we were going to Kananaskis, just that we had a surprise for them. So we get to this hotel and they think this is the surprise. We went swimming and then shopped the next day so Steve could find some work boots and the kids could spend their Christmas money from grandpa and grandma. By the time we were done it was getting dark so we told the kids it was time to go home but we were going to take a different way. They never clued in until we got there. It was awesome.

Hotel #1. I forgot their pajamas in the other suitcase hiding in the trunk.

Kylie had just woken up when we got there but the other girls were pretty excited.

My hubby is really good at getting free stuff so when we got there, we got a room upgrade to a loft at the same price, and breakfast vouchers for free buffet all 3 mornings. That is a huge deal you see, because their breakfast buffet is $21 a person! The kids are all free except Hayley, but it can be pricey to eat there. We usually bring our own breakfast and lunch. The breakfast was amazing!! Anything you can think of they had. WE took advantage of their wonderful omlette station every day. YUM!!

The girls showing off their new hoodies and slippers from Grandpa and grandma. Can you believe they had gap sweaters on for $10.00????? They are usually $39.50. I felt like stocking up for the next 5 years!

The weather was GORGEOUS the whole time we were there. Hence the sweaters and no coat.

We have been there in every season now except for summer. Was fun to see the pond used as a skating rink now.

Craft time. We made chinese lanterns.

Even Steve got into it :)

We had such a big day that Chelsea just couldn't keep her eyes open to eat supper. Glad supper is free for kids under 6!!

Yup! That's tired when you can sleep with your nose squished against the table like that, sitting up!

The view out our window.

My girls and I. The best girls I could ever wish for. Okay so even though I absolutely LOVE this place, if I could make one small complaint, THE POOL IS FREEZING!!!! You can't do solar heated pools in the mountains folks. Abby and the Christmas tree in Mount Kidd, where we stay.

Another activity we have never done here. Sledding. The hill is narrow so you have to wait your turn since only 1 kid can go down at a time, but it wasn't too busy so that was fine.

Chelsea didn't feel the need to have a nap during down time at lunch so we had to pull her back to the room like this.

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice hot cocoa with whipped cream and chocolate bits on it, and we roasted marshmallows and dipped them in chocolate and coconut. YUM!!

After a really big day we got back to the room and Steve says "Do I have any appointments tonight?" I think this is a wierd question and assume he means "are we going and doing something tonight". So I say no and take my boots off. He hands me his phone open to his calendar and there is a pedicure booked for me!! I like to snoop on his phone but I don't usually read his calendar. I've never had one before due to my toe fungus issue (which by the way is totally clear thanks to the miracle drug sporanox). IT was WONDERFUL!!! The ladies didn't understand why I wouldn't want colored polish but anyhow...can you believe these toes were once a thick yellow nasty mess?

Gotta catch those snowflakes on your tongue.

Saying goodbye to the mountains.

This is Nakiska. The ski hill that is really close by. The lodge has this amazing deal for 256$ a night you get your room and lift tickets and ski rentals and shuttle to the hill! So next year, being that all our kids are finally old enough to ski, we are going to come back for that package. I have lots of good memories of skiing and kananaskis as a kid. At supper one night a lady came up to us and told us she had 4 girls too and how much fun it was even now that they were 33, 31, 28 and 26. So I look forward to those days too!

So that has been our WONDERFUL holiday season in a nutshell. Again, visit Jessica's blog for Christmas day update. She did a wonderful meal and the kids all seemed to get along great. It was fun. Unfortunately they all took turns with the flu. Jess on Saturday, Wyatt on Sunday, and I guess Glen a few days later? YUCK! Poor wyatt was literally GREEN! I have never seen a kid look so sick. Poor guy.

This last video is of Hayley snoring. And the doctor doesn't want to take out her tonsils??? YIKES! I had to video it so I can beg him. Even if it doesn't help her sleep, at least the rest of us can maybe get some sleep??? This was one of her worst nights, and because of it, she doesn't sleep well so she gets up and wanders around and we have to keep taking her back to bed. In the morning she doesn't remember any of it.

Okay so this has taken way too long. I am off to bed with a cup of smooth move tea. Cuz we all know how hard it is to have a good poop on holidays. Hahahaha. TMI??

Love you!

Jen