Re-cap of the Christmas Holiday 2008

It seems that December flew by at such a speed that I didn't get the chance to blog about our day to day happenings.

Here's a re cap:

The boys finished school on Dec. 19th and their cousins Julianna and Matteo arrived on the 20th. The amount of snow we've received so far has been unbelievable. We've shovelled more than we'd hoped,and it still keeps coming down!

On December 23rd we had our family and some friends over to celebrate Christopher's 13th Birthday. It was a fun evening, lots of good food and fun.

Christmas Eve was spent at Mass with mom, dad, Mina, Carlo and all the kids. Christopher was an usher at the afternoon Mass. He looked so handsome all dressed up. Hes growing up so quickly, and is such a nice boy. I hope he continues to grow into the young man I know he can be. We all had dinner at mom and dad's and then went to Uncle Sal's for dessert. I kind of miss the days when we ALL got together for dinner. Times have changed since Nonno Giovanni died, and it seems that some of our extended family has become distant. Sad really as I have such fond memories from my childhood and even through to three years ago, when my cousins. aunts and uncles were so much a part of our lives. I still invite everyone over for the boys Birthdays. Sometimes everyone comes and sometimes only one of my cousins and aunt and uncles comes. Nonina is getting older and it's harder for her to get out. I love it when she's there though and it's so wonderful for the boys to have her in their lives. All this talk of families has me thinking that I've never typed out Christopher's birth story, so I will have to do that and add some photos. I'm on my laptop atm, so don't have access to his baby photos.

Christmas Day!

The boys got all sorts of new gadgets: A cell phone for Christopher, digital cameras for Christopher and Michael, a new PSP for Jacob and new ski boots for Nicholas. Lots of PS 3 and PSP gmes, DVD's. I bought Andy a new watch which he loves and he got me this fantastic lap top computer! I'm loving it! One thing we did learn though this year, is that we seem to have been caught in a situation where some of the boys feel they're hard done by compared to what some of their friends received for Christmas. It's ridiculous, and makes me crazy. Next year we may just go away for Christmas and that can be their gift!

On the 27th we spent with Mina and Carlo taking the kids to a movie and other stuff.

Dec.28-Jan 2nd:

BIG WHITE!!!

We stayed in the nicest chalet at the ski hill. It had three bedrooms, lots of space and a great view of the Monashee Mountains. They got lots of snow while we were there, but it was COLD!

Had dinner at Jen and Tim's pizza one night and then yummy ham the next. I cooked a Turkey for New Year's Eve and we completely gorged ourselves......it was delicious, but then we all felt like we needed a nap afterwards!

New Year's Day:

I cooked dinner for all of us and for Jen, Tim and their kids. We had spaghetti and meat sauce. I don't know if it's the fresh mountain air that makes all the food taste so good, but man alive this spaghetti sauce was amazing....if I don't say so myself!

I didn't ski alot....it was nice to just hang out by the fireplace in the chalet, and the day to day stuff like laundry, and dishes weren't such a chore when I could putz around in complete quiet most of the day, It was nice.

Headed back to Kelowna on the 2nd.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!