Post Holiday Decompression!

Welcome to 2012!!! Thanks to all my loyal followers!  I appreciate you reading and commenting on my blog through out the past year.  I hope that you are enjoying the story of our life! 

As the first blog entry of 2012, I'm going to use this time to decompress from the past few weeks of HOLIDAY MERRIMENT, and catch you all up on how the RUSSELL'S Celebrated this year. 

We both had the opportunity this year to have the week between Christmas and New years off from work.  And it was AWESOME!!!

 

Our Christmas started the week prior to Christmas when we headed down to My parents house near Airdrie to see my side of the family.  We had a really nice time visiting with my parents and my brother and his family.   It was a pretty nice uneventful weekend and we had nice time relaxing and visiting.

Craft time with Grammy... Gingerbread house construction.  This is a FOAM craft as William's allergies prevented me from buying a real Gingerbread house kit.  This kit was super fun and easy!  William loved it and did a GREAT job decorating it!

Present opening time!  Thanks to everyone who got William a gift!  They were great!  He loves playing with his new toys and especially the PLAY DOUGH!

Grandpa and Grammy with the Kids!  Cant believe all the kids are smiling!  If only my Dad's eyes weren't closed!

William and Mac, horsing around!

Airdrie Festival of Lights.  This is a PRESTON family tradition.  Every year we go together for a walk around.  Its a little disappointing this year as they haven't been able to add much to the light displays over the past few years.  Its a great family friendly activity that is all volunteer and I hope that they can continue to grow this Festival!

After a quick week at work, we prepared for Christmas with Clayton's side of the Family. 

Busy Busy!

Thanks Grammy and Grandpa... Ya he's Great... (Insert Eye Roll here).  Who doesn't Need a 7 ft Frosty on there back deck! And yes William LOVES LOVE LOVES him.

   We had Clayton's brother, one of his sisters with her husband and Clay's parents here for Christmas this year.  Christmas eve we headed out to Baba's house for dinner.  Then everyone came back to our place.

Cookies William decorated for Santa, along with a letter for Santa...  I think it said "DEAR SANTA"  and that was about it ;)

Tradition prevails!  Our Christmas Eve in front of the Tree Shot.

Christmas morning.  SANTA CAME!!! oh man did he ever!!!  It took about 12hrs for William to finish opening his gifts!  But in all fairness he was not feeling well.  He slept most of the afternoon and finally perked up in the evening and finished his gifts around 8pm.

Quick costume change first thing thanks to a leaky diaper!

SANTA DID COME!!

In the mists of the chaos

Baba, Gedo, Anna and Nadia joined us for Dinner.  Thanks to everyone who brought a dish.  Here is the dinner spread.  Not bad for my 2nd ever Christmas Dinner!

The Table... Not too fancy but not too bad either!

Don't worry Clay there is PLENTY of FOOD! 

My FAVORITE picture of Gedo EVER!  HE HE

Christmas was great.  Everyone left boxing day, and we got a whole week of NOTHING as a family!  Much of it was in front of our new 47" TV that was purchased Boxing day.

 I do have to admit its pretty nice... A huge upgrade from our 27" old style TV, Which I did manage to sell, however it took 2 of us to move it upstairs and out of the house!  MAN that thing was HEAVY!!!

New Years found our trifecta in JASPER.  We had never been before, so we mostly just looked around.  Its beautiful!  We tobogganed and went swimming at the hotel a couple times.  New Years Eve we went to a "fancy" restaurant, where Clayton chased William around and found him under a table of 6 people hiding... Thankfully most people find William Cute and are pretty understanding when his spirited personality shines through.  We were in bed by 1000pm and couldn't quite convince William it was New Years,  according to him it was too "Snowy and Cold" to be a New year.

Little Traffic detour on our way in to Jasper

This picture turned out creepy, but its the toboggan hill.

Jasper Lodge... So nice!!! And I would totally recommend Jasper if you have to take your dog.  Very pet Friendly!  As you can See Tessa got to chill out inside the Lodge in front of the Christmas tree.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

All dressed up and No where to go.   Slightly disappointing but that didn't stop us from donning our good clothes. :)

Well that was our last few weeks.  We have removed all the decorations from the house and they are all safely packed away for another year.  William has asked everyday for the past 1.5 weeks where Frosty is... remember my Halloween hell?  Well now its FROSTY hell!  I'm trying to explain to him that it will be next year when all the decorations come out again, but the concept of time is tricky for an almost 3 year old.

 Time to pack up!

****Its been a little over a week since the Christmas stuff was taken down.  I have not yet put out the "regular" house decor stuff that I usually have out through out the year.  I love this time of year, because my house is so bare.  But I love the contrast after having the clutter-y glow of Christmas stuff up for a month!  I think I will start putting stuff back up this week.  Do you enjoy the bare look your house has after Christmas?****

New Years Bonaza!

I know its a couple weeks late, but we left shortly after New Years for our trip to California so I never got to post about our New Years Celebration.

So this will be a Photo blog about how the Russell's rang in the NEW YEAR!


Since Clay worked until 730pm on New Years Eve, William and I started early!  I think that we were celebrating with Ireland at this point.

 SIDENOTE- We started this NEW YEARS EVE 2009, We have a list of when random countries ring in the NEW YEAR.  Normally we would do a shot every hour to commemorate the New year with that Country.  It can get kinda messy by the time its midnight, but this year with Clay gone, William and I opted out of the customary shot and just celebrated with spirit instead!   Until around 5pm when I got the alcohol organized...

Brazil!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Oh and for those who are thinking that I'm an awful mother for feeding my son shots of alcohol, Its ONLY Apple and Cranberry juice!

All dressed up with NO where to go!  One of my New years REALIZTATION... Fancy clothes can be worn at home too!

The Black Skittle,  Invented my ME! I was eating skittles at the time. (Green Sour Puss, Cranberry, Blue martini mix?  maybe... don't really remember, I just kept adding stuff).

Clays home... and practicing his FAKE smile.

Special snack!  Yes that is my good china that my almost 2 year old is using... New Years Realization- Fine China...Why have it if you don't use it?  Who am I waiting for the Queen?  She keeps cancelling anyway!

The crown is from some very disappointing Holiday Crackers... Note to self, don't cheap out on Holiday crackers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Our one and only Family Picture by our Christmas tree this year!

So as you can see we kept it close to home!  But it was Fun and memorable.  thanks to all our friends and family that made 2010 wonderful!  and A belated TOAST to you all for a HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2011!  May our paths meet at one point this Year!

THIS WEEKS CANT TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE:
He loves Daddy's Shoes!

HAPPY NEW YEARS

Once again the holiday season is coming to a close.  Christmas has whipped by and it is now New Years Eve.  One of my Favorite nights of the year!  This year we have opted for a quiet family night in.  The hustle and bustle of the holiday season has zapped our energy (or was it the awful sickness that descended on us over Christmas?  or may be the fact that I worked all Christmas weekend which put a bit of a damper on things)-  Its most likely a combination of all these things.  But I digress...
New Years eve is here!  A time that I love because it means NEW BEGINNINGS, FRESH STARTS, and a moment to remember the great and not so great of 2010!

Lets only do the GREAT- (as one of my New Years Resolutions this year is to focus on the POSITIVE)
- We survived 1 full year in Whitecourt.
- We have both been successful at our jobs and have been able to learn new things.
- William has grown... A LOT... and has given us tonnes of wonderful moments (Top of the list for Clay I'm sure was 2 nights ago, when Clay said to William, "I love you buddy." and William said "Love you Dada". Tears)
-We were able to cross off travelling with William on a plane before he's TWO from my Bucket List.
-We were able to see all our family at some time this year.
-We finished our basement development.
- We participated in the Fallen 4 --5km fun run and didn't die!
AND SO MUCH MORE!

As usual I have a full list of Resolutions for 2011.  We as a family have came up with a Family MOTTO for 2011 (an Idea from my friend Robyn Beazley's ezine and blog http://myemail.constantcontact.com/3-Tips--Video---New-Motto----Living-an-Amazing-Life-ezine.html?soid=1102662752445&aid=Atktro8xmjM)

So DRUM ROLL PLEASE...  The Russell Family's 2011 Family Motto is....

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

The Banner I made with our Family motto- Has our goals written around the motto



The Motto on our Family planning wall in our bedroom, Also on this wall is a picture of my happy place and our dream house.


(monumental I know! lol!  but it is very meaningful for Clayton and I and sums up the majority of our life, family and personal goals we have made this New Years.)


To sum up our Holiday Season...

Christmas was good to this family.  Santa spoiled us, along with the rest of the family.  THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING!!! William was a joy (NO SARCASM HERE!) he loved all his gifts and has been actually pretty good this past week! 

Christmas Eve (minus me because I'm at work)

Present opening is a tough sport!

This is Christmas eve, William making sure that Santa's cookies are tasty enough.

My Kids! ;)

Christmas also allowed us to finish a few projects that we were wanting to get done before 2011.  This includes Williams BIG BOY ROOM!  Although we have a few things to get still (sheets etc) it is finished and he loves it.  I have yet to try to transfer him to the big boy bed, a task I'm going to attempt after the New year, and closer to his 2nd birthday.  But it is so nice!

Loves the big boy bed!

The New room, Just books and a bed!

The whirlwind that was the holiday's this year allowed us to keep our up coming trip to Disneyland out of our minds.  But that is only one short week away now!  So this week we will be trying to get Christmas decorations taken down, the house in order and everything packed so we can JET off to California for 8 glorious days of relaxation (hopefully) but FUN for sure!

Hope all of you Have a SAFE, FUN and PRODUCTIVE 2011!  If you are the type of person that makes New Years resolutions I challenge you to KEEP THEM THIS YEAR! LOL! and If you are not the type of person to make New Years Resolution I challenge you to take this weekend and lovingly look back on 2010's trials and tribulations and find JOY in your Life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



This Week's You CANT TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE!
We found William "brushing his teeth" in the middle of opening gifts Christmas Day.



Snow Pretty!

I'm a born and raised Alberta Girl, thus the changes in weather that are so common here do not usually phase me.  I grew up for 26 years dealing with Calgary area (southern Alberta) weather conditions.  And I'm sure I don't have to explain how volatile, annoying and sporadic they are.  It snows at least once in the summer, the temperature can fluctuate 10-20 degrees either way in a day, and the wind has two speeds 'gail wind' or 'breeze'. And If you don't like this then wait 10minutes!   I am well versed in dealing with Calgary winter.  Snow, Chinook, wind, cold. 

I always knew Northern Alberta's weather was cold and white, so I figured it would be 2X worse then what I was use too.  So when we decide to move up to Whitecourt last fall, I had a slight panic attack and made sure that I had a good snow suit for William (SIDE NOTE- this 'panic attack' included me looking for weeks for something I deemed cute and extremely warm). 

So i was all geared up for nasty Northern Alberta Weather.  I however have been pleasantly surprised!  Its cold, yes... Its white, yep... but its BEAUTIFUL!  There is minor fluctuations in temperature... No nasty wind (I can probably count on one hand how many times Ive noticed Wind this year).  And when it snows the entire town does NOT shut down!  I can get to work, I can go shopping, I can still go out and not worry that I may perish on the side of the road, or sit in traffic for hours and hours!

There may be other down sides to living in Northern Alberta which I will not get in to at this time but the Weather is not one of them.  Maybe Im still naive, I was told last year that they didn't get the snow they usually get, I think we have more this year already. There was a few -30 to -40 days.  And yes, August weather kinda sucked (it Rained... I mean really rained not blowing, nasty snow like rain... REAL RAIN!)  But I'm not going to complain.  Its all perspective.

I have lived through many white Christmases,  lots of Brown ones too.  This year its a White one.  And oh my is it awesome! 

Prior to shoveling

He struggled to get over to see this Reindeer, But he made it!

Snow angels, Snow balls and Fun!

This Weeks You Cant Turn Your Back for a Moment Proof:

William did this as I was trying to wrap gifts.