Tag: Winter

dee’s 40th birthday!

On January 28th I turned 40! WOW! It seems like yesterday I was in high school or living it up at University at the age of 17.

I don’t normally do a lot on my birthday. My close friends all live in different cities and we are kept pretty busy with family life. Claire & Rhys really enjoy celebrating with us so I decided to have a stay-cation in a swanky local hotel. Jimmy made all the arrangements while I just enjoyed everything 🙂

Two of my girlfriends had flowers sent to me which was an amazing way to start my birthday celebrations- thanks Faye & Anna! Jimmy and the kids bought me some gorgeous new artwork that I had been coveting for quite sometime by a local artist- Michelle Heslop. We stayed at the Ocean Pointe Hotel with a room that had an amazing view of the inner harbour. We ate, we swam and we had loads of fun. Jimmy even brought along some of my favorite ice cream- tiger! The next day we met my parents at Spinnakers for brunch which was wonderful and to end…we had delicious allergy friendly cake from my favorite bakery- Patisserie Danielle.

If this is 40 then I am totally okay 🙂

 

Christmas 2017- part 4 (post-Christmas)

Christmas break was so fun and busy this year. We went for our annual boxing day breakwater walk- it was so cold! We made it to Butchart Gardens for the annual Christmas light display. We went to a hockey game for our friends sons birthday party which was great but too loud for Nana & Papa 😉 Nana, Claire & I joined Auntie Debbie for a Nutcracker performance which was a good time.

 

Breakwater:

 

Butchart Gardens:

 

Royals Hockey Game:

 

Nutcracker:

Christmas 2017- part 3 (Christmas Day)

We had a very early start on Christmas morning! Rhys wakes up early every day and this morning was before 5am! ugh. It was so dark out but with some coffee and the kids excitement we all woke up and had fun un-wrapping gifts and playing with the kids.

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It snowed overnight so once the day got started and we had more daylight we ventured outside for some playtime! and of course snowman building & sledding.

 

 

Another one of our annual traditions is having Auntie Debbie over for a Christmas day brunch. We eat, exchange gifts, chat, drink warm drinks and watch a movie- fun times!

 

  

Christmas 2017- part 1 (pre-Christmas)

My parents arrived in Victoria November 28th to stay with us for several months while my Dad underwent cancer treatment at the BC Cancer Agency. My Dad did not start treatment until January so we had a few months to settle in, get healthy and spend some time together. Christmas was fun having Nana & Papa in town for. We did SO many activities!

To start the season off the kids wrote letters to Santa and we decorated and trimmed out Christmas tree. My Mom loves Christmas and had fun helping us decorate our home.

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Christmas 2016

Christmas was very fun this year! We stayed in Victoria and had my Mom spent the holidays with us. My Dad joined us after Christmas.

We visited the museum, did a fun art project at 4Cats, had a great early Christmas morning, had our annual brunch with Debbie on Christmas day, walk on the break water, and Butchart Gardens annual Christmas light visit. I love our holiday traditions and spending time with family.

 

Pre-Christmas Museum visit:

4Cats art class:

Christmas day:

Break-water walk with Nana & Papa:

 

Butchart Gardens:

Snow day!

The house we live in has a giant front & back yard. There is a slope along the side of the house that runs from the back to the front. One morning in December we woke up to snow! It does not snow very often in Victoria so when we saw that it was frozen and cold we knew it would be an epic day to sled.

Our van was iced in the driveway so we couldn’t get out anyway to take the kids to school. So….I booked a day off and the kids took a snow day! Sadly, Jimmy can’t take days off work since he is on-call with the school district.

At 6am we bundled up and headed outdoors to sled. The day was great…lots of sledding, building snowmen and making snow angels. We took regular trips inside for hot cocoa and to warm up. Claire & Rhys both said “best school day ever”!

 

Jumping for joy- no school!

Somehow Rhys had Claire pull him up the hill each time!

Videos- click to open:

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