holiday to-do list

things that i wanted to accomplish during this 2-week break from routine life (may not be the right word when you see what i did... but stuff i wanted to do nonetheless)

* do the christmas shopping with rob for the first time ever
* chillout with a good book for hours at a time
* watch seasons 1 & 2 of pushing daisies - loved it!
* take the children toboganning, and more than once to boot
* make and freeze ALOT of turkey pot pie (this one hit the list very last minute when we saw fresh turkeys for 99¢ per pound - wow)
* catch up with my favorite serial killer: dexter
* hit bobby o'briens with the family for another free-for-all of yummy greasy food
* see my dear friend malcolm after a too-long absence
* take the neighbor's children to the movies as a big Thank-You for being reliable carrier substitutes
* help bosco with his Chile project
* get fierce out in the woods to try his new MEC cookstove - worked awesome
* get all the kids to play canasta with us - even fierce
* watch seasons 2 & 3 & 4 of nip/tuck (and thank god i didn't purchase them off kijiji; i forgot how gross - the upclose surgery, the feral sex, the general premise that cosmetic surgery is mainstream - it really was. i ended up watching the first 5 minutes to get the storyline, 2 segments of 3-5 min in the middle, and then the last 5 minutes to get the broad strokes)
* catch up with my blog posts

masterpiece

fierce uses bosco as his canvas

2010: the best 9 of 29

yes, i love to read.  i belong to 3 book clubs.  when i joined FB in april i figured i should use it for something of value, so i started recording my thoughts after a book. 
i've never kept track before but it seems to be in vogue on many blogs so here's my (partial, i only started recording mid april) 2010 list:

too close to the falls
the road
shadow spinner
blood letting and other miraculous cures
when you reach me
oprah: a biography
rich dad poor dad (n/f)
sarah's key
beatrice & virgil
can you hear the nighbird call?
the sweetness at the bottom of the pie
three cups of tea
158 pound marriage
the cellist of sarajevo
my stroke of insight
smart but scattered (n/f)
flipped
lighting thief
love is the higher law
the tail of emily windsnap
this is where i leave you
feed
the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian
the bishop's man
bee season
little brother
good to a fault
dante's war
room

the ones in bold were my top 9 of 2010

boxing day at di's

picture perfect family :)

just some of the great-grandchildren...

pepper takes the camera

these are unedited / uncropped photos that pepper took while at diane's. it's interesting to 'see' how she sees...




i especially like these spontaneous portraits that she took - rob and i look particularly relaxed, and i'd like to think these are the faces we usually turn towards our children

christmas morning

happy children:





not sure what they are looking at, but they're sure excited



fierce made leg warmers for pepper:


bosco's choice for fierce... looks like he knows him well :)

the loot

bosco has all the fixins' for his first pet: a hamster


pepper couldn't more pleased with her netbook


fierce is ready to start making films

christmas dinner

it's christmas at nanny's
although these pictures seem to show otherwise, fierce really did have a fun time playing with auntie allie:


a beautiful (and rare - she never lets you take one!) photo of auntie marilyn
her dress was stunning





pepper made auntie allie a necklace that went perfectly with her dress!


pepper made tim and aj a christmas bulb that contained their whole family done up in plasticine - being sure to make aj's figurine pregnant (and yes i forgot to take a photo!)

my beautiful, slender sisters match wonderfully. did they plan this?

and then -
something went horribly wrong.
the kids caught some sort of religious fervor and put on a dramatic recreation of the christmas story. it was my fault. i ordered them to put on a show for the adults like me and my cousins used to do. WE showcased our fine disco dancing (shoutout to colleen!), exhibited tandem gun play, and sang like we had talent.
but our children - children of hindu and unitarian and (alright,) catholic parents - pulled out the bible and read chapter and verse of the nativity.





man, it was boring


finally we got down to the real spirit of christmas:
playing board / card games as aggressively as possible.


melanie & allison team up again:
not sure if two heads are better than one, but we sure did enjoy their L - O - N - G debates over which answer to go with.
only to get it WRONG


 
i wish i could paste the audio that went with this one. my brother is like a fine wine; he gets better with age.