We arrived safe and sound, along with Korey's family on the 24th - we were thankful that the travelling weather was good with no issues.
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| Merry Christmas from the Zs - in our matching t-shirts this year rather than pajamas. |
Our time in Canada is always full of similar things - lots and lots of games, cooking, some kind of a project, a hockey game, bowling alley, and movies.
We learned the card game 7-Up this year, which is a quick, easy game that even younger kids can play - very fun! And of course the usual like Up and Down the River are always a highlight.
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| 7 Up |
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| 60 second scribble game |
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| Guess the Gibberish |
Gianna taught Addison how to crochet, so that was a fun new skill!
There was enough snow to go sledding this year, so the dads and the younger kids went out for that at Little Red sledding hill.
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| Addison's sled appears to be continuing on without her in this picture as she gets dumped off! |
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| The worst part of sledding is walking back up the hill! |
The game that is the highlight of the week for the kids is the Candy game - thanks to genius Auntie Lorie!
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| Everyone gathers around to watch the kids roll the dice, hoping against hope for their favorite candy and trying to hide it when another kid gets to "steal" from someone else! |
As the older kids are all aging out to college now, we just did gifts for the younger ones - Nikolas got laser tag guns which they enjoyed.
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| The old Charlies Angels pose! |
There wasn't a huge project this year, but there was a lot of wood that needed to be split so Addison was having a hay day outside with the splitter. She is always up for being active!
Most of the gang went in to watch the Prince Albert Raiders play hockey - sans Amy, Addison and Grandma - we preferred to stay at home and watch one of our sappy Christmas movies! This year Rachel and Amy enjoyed some downtime watching good old Hallmark movies that allowed us a little R&R too!
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| So sweet, Addison is holding her Gram-Zs hand as we watch a movie. |
Zachary has been struggling with daily headaches since June, so Uncle Korey brought his massage table up to see whether he could work on his facial bones and see if any relief could be had. As an aside, we eventually were able to get him on some monthly shots (emgality) that have dramatically reduced his headaches from daily to about 6 times a month now - that is HUGE improvement!
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| Me next please! 😀 |
One food item that has been hard for Addison to get now that she is celiac is perogies - but cousin Emily crafted a brilliant gluten free recipe and they were delicious - Addison could not have been happier! Emily and Addison made them one day as well so that she would know how to do it at home.
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| Gianna, Emily and Addison baking perogies. |
And speaking of baking - there was banana bread and LOTS of chocolate chip cookies as we tried to perfect a gluten free recipe - we didn't reach nirvana, but it was fun to make an attempt anyway!
And other than that, there was time for chatting, joking around, relaxing, reading and whatever one's heart desired. Great times!
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| a fork tunnel |
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| Zach looks so happy in this picture! |
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| Kaylie is dearly beloved after coming to Florida for two summers! |
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| All the cousins |
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| In good spirited fun, Addison was trying to mirror Papa-Z as he took a little snooze on the couch! |
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| Speaking of snoozing on the couch - Zach enjoys some snuggle time with his father sleeping away! |
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| These two are the goofy ones of the group! |
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| Have you ever seen a block of cream cheese this big!?! |
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| Matching blanket and pajama pants -- and some nice bonding time with Mom and Son. |
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| Two peas in a pod these two! |
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| philosophizing on life |
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| The core family did get a lot of time to just sit together and visit which was really nice! |
