'Twas A Month After Christmas

... and we still hadn't blogged! You'd think that life would slow down in January, or maybe we're just exhausted from all the December madness, but apparently I've been too busy to get a blog done even about Christmas holidays (and after being so good in Dec...).

Anyways, we had a very good time down in Lethbridge and Taber with family over the holidays. We spent time in Lethbridge with Matt's parents, and Jason, Michaelia and Oscar. Matt's mom and dad hosted an Olfert family get together where we got to catch up with some cousins, aunts and uncles we hadn't seen for a while (and meet brand-new Katie!). We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there too, then headed out to Taber for some more celebrating and time with Michelle's family. It was a good holiday, although Lewis managed to be sick over the 23, 24, 25th, just in time for all the celebrations (but, it seems to happen at those times. Was kind of reminiscent of Jaina's ear infection/bronchitis Christmas when she was 2...) Fortunately he got better for our stay in Taber.

Christmas Eve:
Best Present Ever! Dollhouse, handmade by Papa Olfert:
Christmas pj's in Taber:
We then headed back to Calgary to celebrate New Year's here, with Matt's parents, Jason, Michaelia, and Oscar, as well as Aunt Delores and Uncle Allen from BC. The guys went to the Flames game that night and then we had a chocolate fondue and games back at our house. New Year's Day we enjoyed a brunch together and then some shopping and relaxing. (Michaelia has some great pictures of the kids and family on New Year's Day, but I still have to get them from her...)

Oscar, Lewis and Jaina on New Year's Eve:

Now January is almost over and we're back in the swing of things. Jaina is busy with preschool and another session of gymnastics, and has just started a short 8 week "Tiny Ballerinas" class. Lewis has (finally) been practicing standing up all on his own (no furniture), so walking can't be far away now. He fell under our kitchen table yesterday (I think he was just crawling even, and slipped again) and this time gave himself somewhat of a black eye on the big wooden leg of our table. But no broken teeth this time. He is getting to be quite the climber as well, up onto the couch whenever Jaina has a cushion off, stairs if we have even a momentary lapse of forgetting to put the gate back on, or onto any toys he can. He has also sustained a few loud bumps to the head falling over and off things this month, but they don't seem to slow him down even for 5 minutes.

Fun in January: Yesterday there was finally no wind and it was quite "warm" out so we took the toboggan over to the park for some fun (which, unfortunately, deteriorated into much frustration for Jaina trying to pull the sled up the hill and get it to turn, but the fresh air and exercise were nice...).