Palmer's World

First off, how did I order these two as groceries?

We were invited over to some friends for supper and it was a nice evening of good food, some laughs and some Christmas tunes played on the guitar.

 

Vero brought the kids over for their first skate of the year at the Vars rink.  Ezra supposedly wouldn’t have any of it and proceeded to lie on the ground crying and calling for Vero the entire time that her and Sierra were trying to skate around.  I guess we will need to ease him back into skating!

Christmas 2024 is more on track to being a normal Christmas weather-wise.  Last year there was grass!

Because of the sudden change in weather, we’ve realized that if we ever want to do any winter activities we need to do them NOW.  Case in point, sliding down the hill in our front yard!

We even brought out the mega sled to attempt the family slide down the hill again.

Success!

Christmas Day started out quite well.  The kids definitely let us sleep in past 7am.  Unfortunately (to the kids dismay), they did NOT manage to trick Santa.  They had a string across the front of fireplace with some noise making devices on it.  No one heard a thing.  Ezra also had a paper stocking up on the fireplace and he was hoping Santa would put things in it thinking it was real and they would fall to the floor.  But Santa managed to find his real stocking.

My favourite trick they played on Santa was setting up a camera to videotape him in action.  But the next morning they reviewed the dark footage and didn’t see anything at all!  We told them that Santa can only be caught on video if he wants to be caught.  That’s the magic of Santa Claus.

Here is a very sweet gift from Ezra.  He blew up a balloon and placed a marble inside it.

Here we are trying out the new nutcracker.

Some lovely Star Wars masks that Sierra got me.

Santa brought Sierra a marker maker set.  It was very fun to watch her make markers.  You fill up a tube with whatever colours you want and put in a foam insert and voila!  You have a custom marker.

This year Vero mentioned how she wanted to have fires in the fireplace again.  Typically we have a bunch of things blocking the cold air coming in.  What better day to have a fire than Christmas day?

Vero got me a cool new instrument called a Kalimba.  I was soon plucking away at some common tunes like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Sweet Child of Mine.

Fast forward to the afternoon…we are about to prepare the turkey.  Vero says “I don’t feel good.  I’m going to lie down.”  Now, this shouldn’t usually be a huge issue but a few days before Ezra had gastro an entire evening.  I emerged unscathed from the effects of gastro so I assumed everyone would be fine.

But I assumed wrong!  Vero was down and out the entire afternoon.  The photo above was taken when she emerged from her slumber and I figured I should snap a photo before she returned to bed!

Handling turkey supper on my own wasn’t the end of the world but trying to handle a turkey on my own was a bit tricky.  I had to recruit Sierra to help me put it in the turkey bag which produced squirms and her saying “Ewwwwww!” a lot!  Hahah.

But the supper came out on time and Vero sat in a chair near us while we feasted on roast beast.

Around 8PM Sierra started saying she didn’t feel good.  Oh no!  Two people down and out due to gastro.  Christmas evening was spent watching a movie in the living room and Vero and Sierra running to the bathroom every twenty minutes.  Vero was a champ helping out with Sierra during the evening but at one point she couldn’t do it anymore (understandable!) and retired to bed and I stayed with Sierra until 4am when her symptoms died down.  Quite the wild Christmas evening!

Before I end this entry I have to talk about one of the greatest gifts I received this year.  Years ago Vero worked on a tv series called Moitié Moitié.  Mike and I were extras on the show one day but we never saw our footage.  Vero managed to find a dvd set from one of the actors on the show.  The dvd set was never in stores and was made for the cast when the show was wrapped.  I was ecstatic!  I’ll compile a video of our appearances in the future but we definitely show up a few times and it’s great to see ourselves on a tv show!

Typically after a movie ends and the credits roll, the kids like to dance around.  Sometimes Sierra goes one step further and wants to attempt some wild dance routine.

Marty and Vero invited us over for some eggnog to kick off the Christmas season.  It was fun to spend a few hours in the morning with them.

I love this photo because of me laughing in the background

We had a jam packed day on the 22nd already with visiting Marty and Vero in the morning but we also had a neighbourhood party to attend to!

Unfortunately Ezra vomited before we head over.  We weren’t sure if that was a ‘one and done’ but shortly after he did it again so I stayed home with him while Sierra and Vero went and had some fun.

Ezra being sick was the kickoff to a round of gastro throughout the house for the next week.  Yeeeha!  I somehow avoided it the second round (that was for Vero and Sierra a few days later) but somehow it snuck up on me a few days after them.

Ezra and I got into a good routine of vomiting, cleaning out the bowl and watching Bluey for twenty minutes before it all started again.  About eight hours later he seemed to perk up and wanted some food.  Amazing what the body is capable of once it gets rid of whatever it wants to get rid of.

I’m going to post some photos from the party but I have zero idea of what was going on at this party.  I heard there weree games and a hot tub.

 

Véro has been teaching Ezra the violin over the past year.  The public library offers a great service to borrow instruments.  He borrowed a violin for a few months and when we realized he was interested in continuing Matante Chantal lent us an old violin that their son wasn’t using anymore.