Christmas in Etobicoke...

This past week has been full of eating chocolate, rushing around doing last minute errands, eating chocolate, visiting friends, eating chocolate and visiting family! :) All that combined with my laziness means it's been over a week since I last blogged. Let's hope I can remember everything that happened!

Last Friday night, Teta Linda took Marvin, Maja, Bakica & I to Black Creek Pioneer village for "Christmas by Lamplight". You may remember that Teta treated us to this last year too. Just to show you how much Maja has grown since her last visit there, here's a picture of what she looked like then...
My how much difference one year makes! Here's a group shot of us this year...

The night was great! The weather wasn't too cold and Maja was interested in most of the houses we stopped in, although she wasn't one for sitting still for very long (why would that night be any different from any other day or night?!?). Thanks for a wonderful evening Teta!

Then on Saturday, we unfortunately got some bad news that my uncle Ron (Grandma's youngest brother) suffered a stroke that morning. After being rushed to the hospital, thanks to warm hearted actions of an unknown off-duty police officer, Ron is doing ok. The family has been to the hospital everyday to visit him and his spirits seem to be good. It could have been much worse. That police officer was Ron's guardian angel watching out for him that morning. Please keep Ron in your thoughts and prayers.

On Sunday, Maja's friend Emily came over with her parents, Doug & Anna, for a nice pre-Christmas get together. Gifts were exchanged, catching up was done and laughing was heard. It was a really nice visit. Although I had a good time throughout the evening I think my favourite part was watching Maja & Emily play together. Just before everyone was changed and put into their pjs (you should see the pjs Doug wears!), Maja & Emily were really having a great time together. They were running around playing peek-a-boo and laughing their little heads off. That's what Christmas is all about... listening to children play. Love it!!! Here's a shot of Maja & Emily sitting around Emily's Magna-Doodle together in their new matching sweaters (how cute are they?!?)...

Then on Monday night, Marvin, Maja & I headed over to Bakica's house where we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with Teta & Bakica. As you can tell by the photo below, Maja was just thrilled with the puppets that Teta gave her for Christmas (six in total, but the Pig (now called "ah-poe" by Maja because Teta made him eat Maja's apple and it's stuck...) is definitely Maja's favourite)...
And similar to last year, Maja got to sit on Bakica's lap for dinner (thanks for feeding her and then eating your dinner cold Bakica). Here's a shot of Baka & Maja using a green bean as a Christmas Cracker...
And a close up of little Maja hamming it up for me...
And that brings us to Christmas morning. Here's a nice shot of Marvin bringing Maja downstairs to check out what Santa had left for everyone...

Apparently, in addition to Santa making a stop at our house the little mad princess also made a stop! :) Here's a shot of Maja modelling the ever-so-cute Princess outfit our friends V&G gave her (not a great shot of Maja but at least you can see the outfit ok)...
After Maja's morning nap, Bakica stopped by to watch Maja open her gifts. Maja was very excited about the Mega Bloks wagon and Raptors bear complete with sunglasses (among other many other gifts) that Bakica gave her. Especially since Bakica was willing to drag Maja around in it...
Then in the afternoon, it was off to Sandra & Mike's place for Christmas dinner. It was definitely a full house as almost all of my side of the family was there (Sandra, Mike, Will, Graham, Peter, Anna, Grandma, Grandpa, Marvin, Maja & me). Maja had just as much fun playing with her cousins (or at least watching them run around loaded with Christmas excitement) as she did with her new toys! Here's a cute shot of Maja & Anna hanging out by the fridge together...
Then Boxing Day was just a day for hanging out (and assembling various new toys of Maja's). Here's a shot of Maja and Raptors bear hanging out reading and talking on the phone yesterday sitting at her new table and chairs...

And that pretty much brings all of you up to date on what we've been up to! Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas too and has exciting plans for New Years!