New Year's Eve - Outdoor BBQ 2011

The kids woke up late in the morning, but we had decided to leave on the 31st, just to get settled.  Before we left Ste. Sauveur, we had a outdoor BBQ to go to. :0)  The Savard family gathered at Marc's place for some good ole hotdogs on the firepit. Luckily I brought the kids their snow pants because we stayed outside for a couple of hours.  Also, it was the first break in the cold front and it wasn't -20 outside.  It was a perfect day to be outside. Olivia loved it!  As soon as she got there, she jumped out and ran to see her cousins. Then she saw the huge ice rink and the cousins playing hockey.  Of course there would be a hockey stick just her size!  hahahhaa.  She was ready to hit the ice.  Sigh, my little hockey player.

She was really getting into to it, so we decided it would be best to put on a helmet.  She was super excited - "Just like Mathieu!".

And then there was William who was bundled to the max. hahahaha.  He quickly got into the outdoor activities with this cousins.

After about 30 minutes, her hands were bright red.  She was reluctant to wear her gloves as she couldn't hold onto the hockey stick properly.

Uncle Marc took out the red sled and off we went sledding on their hillside.

Olivia quickly hopped on board and wanted to slide with her cousins. This girl had no fear.  She first started going down on her bottom with her cousins. Then she saw her older cousin Mathieu (being the daredevil) go on his tummy on this super sled.  Yup, she wanted to go down too like that.

Olivia and her cousins had a blast!  It was a perfect stop before we headed home.  Olivia and Williams' smiles and laughter made it more wonderful to see.  They got along so well with their cousins. We were sad to leave everyone, but knew that it was time to get back to reality and get William settled.  Winter has just begun, and I'm sure there will be plenty more times when we can go have some outdoor fun.

Christmas in Ste. Sauveur 2011 - Part 2

Friday, December 30th, 2011.

After a tiring night, we drove back home from Marc's (with the kids in their jammies already) and put them straight to bed.  GM (Grandmaman) had put out the turkey to cook over night so it would be all ready for the next day's festivities.  All night I could smell that yummy turkey cooking.  When we woke up in the morning it was just about ready.  GP (Grandpapa) decided to carve it at around noon, with his electric knife (which they got as a wedding gift - 40 years ago).  It definitely peaked William's interest.  :0)

Sigh. Miss Olivia (aka The TORNADE) with her morning bed head.   She was quite a sight!  We would definitely need a good afternoon nap so she would be in fine spirits when the cousins came.

After her 2 hour nap (woohoo!), we took a nice bath and put on our fancy Christmas clothes. It was time for pictures before everyone came.  Everyone knows once the party starts, the dress, hair, and face become quite the mess for our little tomboy!

Once everyone arrived, it was time to break out the champagne (the good kind!).  We all gave a nice cheer and toasted to a great year and family memories.  Once we all "ching ching", Olivia immediately yelled out that she wanted "de l"eau pitient" (sparkling water) to toast too.  What a girl!  So we gave her a cup of sparkling water and retoasted with her - making sure we "clinked" her plastic cup.

Then it was time for the presents!  We all gathered downstairs in GM's playroom and there in each corner of the room were presents!  Presents were everywhere!!!  Of course, Miss Olivia was more excited about the food placed on the free tables.  It was heaven for the kids.

The kids quickly opened up all their gifts and piled them into their corners.  They were very eager to open all the goods they got, but it was time for dinner.  Marc was able to quickly steal Willliam from Martin's lap for the good old uncle straddle.  It's always, who can stay on Marc's tummy the longest.  William didn't do that bad.  :0)  He had no idea what was going on, but he was a good sport.

The Savard men gathered around the couch, waiting for the food to be ready.  The adults in 1 dining table and the kids at the other table. Hooboy. That was going to be interesting. Olivia eating by herself with her cousins.  Needless to say, we ended up picking up her plate and getting her to sit by us so she could focus and eat. ahhahaha  Maybe next year - she's still too little.

It was after dinner when everything went downhill. I knew they would be, but I was hoping for the best. They both had enough and they were done.  Olivia was so hyper and excitable that she couldn't settle and was being quite the defiant little one. William was just done. He was tired - new people, new surroundings, new tradtions.  He was done.

We were all in the family room getting ready to watch old DVD's of the Savard family Christmas'.  We were about 10 minutes in when things started to go haywire.  Crying and screaming started to commence, and Martin and I took their cue and took them out. William was ready for bed, and Miss Olivia was going to have some quiet time downstairs on a nice yellow bench.  :0P  It's too bad we had to miss the show, but we'll watch in another time (hopefully).

Everyone came down afterwards to have dessert.  Olivia was allowed to have some dessert much to my disapproval, but heck it was Christmas.  She was on her best behaviour from then on.  I loved the little talk that Mathieu gave her while she was "sitting on the bench" - "You have to listen to your mom and dad right?" You don't want to miss out on the dessert"  He kept going on.  It was endearing, and I love Mathieu for that. He's looking out for her.  I couldn't stay mad. Sigh.

After dessert, the adults opened their presents and stockings at the table.  Then it was time to go home.  William had passed out for awhile now.  I was going to sleep with Olivia in the other room - just in case we had some disruptions during the night.  Everyone ended up sleeping really well.  The next morning, the kids were in fine spirits and ready to go.  We were ready to go to.  We were ready to go home.  It was a great Savard Christmas yet again, but we needed to be home - for William's sake and ours.  Back into routines, back into our beds, back in Ottawa.

Christmas in Ste. Sauveur 2011

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 - Disney Concert

Lola, Lolo, and Tita Melissa left the day before, in hopes to avoid the nasty snow storm that was coming our way.  When they left, we tidied up a bit and then started backing for our next big adventure.  The snow and freezing rain came early in the evening so by the time we woke up in the morning, the roads were great.  Phew, what a relief because today was a big day. Today Olivia was going to watch the Disney Princess Live show with Grandmaman and her cousins (and Tante Vivi!).  YAY!  Luckily for more of the drive down to Montreal, William slept. Olivia, however, fell asleep in the last 30 minutes of the drive.  Oh well.  She was still enjoy the show anyways. The only problem was that there was no ticket for me.  That was planned of course. Surely Olivia would be able to handle a 2 hour show without her Maman.  Ya, right.  When we arrived at the theatre, we were early.  This was good because we could prep her about the days events.  

She saw all these little girls in princess outfits and crowns walking in (our lovely girl in leggings and a sweater - no princess costume for this little lady).  Then she saw all the cool souvenirs you could get.   She was getting excited. She saw pictures of the Mickey, Donald, and the other princesses.  Grandmaman and the crew made it in, and she saw Melo and Audrey.  We were hoping that this would get her excited, but I think it brought back memories of the last time we were all together and then Maman and Papa left.  Soon the tears came, then the sobbing and screaming, and running away. Sigh, this was going to be a tricky departure.The show was going to start in 10 minutes so  thankfully the kind ticket people at the front let all of us in the lobby part (well, we pretty much had to mention Christian's name and we were good).  We all got it and we tried the departure again. No luck.  She wasn't going to go in with anyone. Finally the kind lady said I could come in and sit with Olivia.   Poor Papa and William stayed in the lobby and waited for me.  

At this point, Olivia had calmed down and we found our seats.  Very close to the front, aisle seats. It was great. Not so great for an escape. So I sat down.  Wasn't sure what to do - stay or go.  Then I thought of taking Audrey and Olivia to get some popcorn for snacks.  We got our popcorn, sat down and told Olivia to stay with Grandmaman because I was going to get some drinks for us later.  We positioned Audrey in the middle with the popcorn and the 2 adults on each side of the row.  I quickly ran up the aisle and waited in the back for some big commotion where Olivia was. The lights quickly went dark and the show started.  I waited and waited. I checked my phone.  Nothing.  I think I may have waiting about 10 minutes in when the show started and decided all was good.   I left the theatre and went to look for the boys in the lobby. Poor Papa and William were overheating.  All was good we thought. She was in very good hands - it's Grandmaman of course!  So we left and had a coffee and morning snack across the street. We had big plans of walking around Montreal that morning, but seeing that it took us this long to leave and we wanted to be in front when the show was finished, we decided to take a leisurely coffee break. It was great.  

At around 12:30pm, we crossed the street to the theatre and waited for the girls to exit.  There was Olivia holding Grandmaman's hand with puffy eyes and whimpering looking for us. Ugh...she hated the show. Everyone had miserable time. NOT AT ALL!  What a relief to hear that she was super thrilled to see Mickey and all the characters. She couldn't stop talking about it! (Actually, i'm writing this blog 5 days after the show and she annoyingly still talks about it).  They told us she loved the show.  Grandmaman treated them to a juice that was in a special $12 cup (incroyable!), and we decided to meet for lunch outside the city.  

By the time we got to Ste.Hubert, Olivia was still talking about the show.  While we waited for our food, feeling more comfortable with her cousins, she was running around with them.  A successful day all in all. We knew she would love it.  We didn't though understand the impact it has made in her life. She keeps talking about it.  What a great mememorable thing to share with her Grandmaman and cousins (and Tante Vivi)  :0)  

We came home from lunch with both kids passed out in the back. We stopped for some McCafe coffee and ran some errands while they slept.  We got to Grandpapa's house and the kids were able to play with  their cousins again which was great. Olivia wanted to follow Nico everywhere.  Audrey was being the motherly cousin - taking care of everyone.  Melo was running and following her cousins.  It was fun.  That night, Cathrine brought sushi and we all had a quite night. 

Then it was time for the kids to get to bed.  We took out the playpen (which has been used at all). We all decided to sleep at the same time. We put William in the playpen and the 3 of us in the bed.  We all went down with no fuss, no screaming, no tantrums.  Hmmm...too good to be true.  

Thursday, December 29th, 2011.

Olivia woke up that morning still talking about Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Good grief.  It was a gorgeous day, but a cold one. They kids still had a bad cold. Olivia had a hacking attack in the middle of the night and William didn't sleep through the night either. We decided to take it easy for the day. The kids didn't mind. They loved playing with "Grandmaman's toys" in the basement.  So they played for most of the morning, we had lunch then we had a nap.  When we woke up, it was time to go to Marc and Cathrine's house for dinner. This was going to lots of fun!  Olivia kept asking about Mathieu during the day.

When we arrived, Mathieu met us at the door and Olivia jumped into his arms.  Olivia had no problems going downstairs with Mathieu to check out his room and stuff.  She loves her cousins.  Upstairs, William was a bit anxious about the new place, but quickly came around when he saw all the open space he could crawl and try to walk in. It was a perfect place for him to move.

For dinner that night, we had Cat's famous cheese fondue and some delicious roastbeef.  We ate and ate. Actually stuffed ourselves.  They kids were great. Not a lot of meltdowns.  :0)  When we saw the kids starting to lose it, we decided it was time to go.  We dressed them up in their pjs and drove back to the grandparents house.  They were overtired and so were we. hahahhaa. Tomorrow was going to be the BIG Christmas dinner. We had to get our sleep. 

Funny Moments

Olivia got a cool t-shirt from Tita Melissa it reads "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" with the pictures on it (Dr. Seuss).  During the day, Martin took Olivia to the fish store to pick out some fish for her aquarium. When she arrived, the immediately took off her jacket and went to a fish tank and plastered herself against the glass and  said "Look!  They're the same!" with a huge smile on her face.

Santa Claus Came to Town

There was some crying and pouting on the eve of Santa's arrival, but seeing that mostly everyone was on their good behaviour he decided to come and drop off some gifts.  He also brought along Jack Frost who spread some white snow for a perfect Christmas day.