Snow Gabe

Our little Oompah Loompah!

Little Drummer Boy

I'm still debating how wise it was to give Gabriel a drum for Christmas, but so far he has enjoyed only a brief spell of noise-making. I'm not sure he's found his groove yet, but perhaps when he isn't feeling so sick, we'll hear some more from our little drummer boy.

PS: As you can see from this video clip and the one from the last post, Gabriel chose to make Christmas Day a "no-pants day". (Never argue with a sick baby). I feel that his introduction of this tradition could have a transforming influence on our future Christmases and so I hereby declare Christmas Day a "No-Pants" day for the males of our household. This may help to minimize the number of unwelcome photographs (and visitors)!!!!

Happy Christmas

We had a good Christmas Day today. It had a rough start, as Gabe has been sick for a few days and he clearly isn't over it yet. The doctor suspects an ear infection, but all we see is a clingy, sad, not-so-hungry and tired little boy. Consequently, Christmas morning was more a case of Christmas "mourning". Once Gabe went down for a nap, Tasha and I were able to exchange some gifts and open those which had arrived in the mail recently.
When Gabe woke up and had some lunch, his mood improved slightly and we were able to enjoy watching him open some presents and play with his new toys. Even in the two months since his birthday, he has developed so much and was more engaged with the opening of the presents.

Later in the afternoon, we had some friends come over for dinner and we enjoyed some card games. Good times!
We wish all our family and friends a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Kitchen Planning

Our next renovation project scares me! The kitchen is a living nightmare with some terrible drywalling problems. The pictures below don't do justice to the magnitude of the problem ahead!
Even when the walls are done, there is a very noticeable slope in the floor which we need to either correct or choose to live with. Correcting could be expensive and require us to empty the kitchen for several days (or weeks...or months!)
**Deep breath**
Let's do it!

One of the "better" walls.

See the 'hump' halfway down the wall. This is 2-3 inches deep!
"Why?", you ask. If only I knew!

And finally:

How to make the worst ever kitchen sink backsplash:

1. Gouge out the lower half of the old drywall with a pick-axe before starting.
2. Use wood, which absorbs water and stains easily.
   
3. Don't use any measuring or levelling tools.
4. Trim with left-over scraps of laminate flooring.
5. Arrange to have all of your wood cut using a blunt chainsaw, by a blind monkey having a seizure.
6. Close your eyes while you perform steps 1-5

Blog Merge

For anyone who was following our house renovations on the other blog (ahousestory.blogspot.com), this blog is now de-commissioned and the old posts have been merged into this blog. Any future house-related posts will appear on this blog instead.
Exciting huh?

Gabe "Giggles" Parkin

Make sure you turn up the volume!

Santa Shuffle and Exciting News

Last Saturday we participated in the Santa shuffle at Victoria Park downtown. Can you guess from these photos who is behind that beard?

I think the glasses give it away a little...Gabe wasn't sure the whole time!

In fact Gabe was not impressed at all, the car was in the shop getting some much needed care and attention, so Gabe and I walked to the park. The walk took us about 20 minutes and the kid was wearing about five layers, hat gloves and all with a blanket just in case. He arrived in pretty good shape, had a wander round then decided it was nap time and he was far too cold and distracted to do so. Therefore I spent the next hour trying to help him settle down and sleep! Basically Gabe and I did our walk before the race even started and we did it on the way home too, but we didn't do it when everyone else did. I got a T-shirt without participating in the actual event!

"Aww grumpy munchkin"

"I saw Perron kissing Santa Claus...can't think why, he was awfully hairy looking!"

This is Major Lewis (my boss), making some sarcastic comment or joke no doubt!

"Ready Steady GO!"

"I've got lead in me boots, these kids are just over taking me...where are those pesky reindeer?"

So we won tickets to see Anne of Green Gables (we saw it Wednesday night and had an amazing time!) and a nights stay in a deluxe suite at a hotel here in London - not bad for a rough morning trudging in the snow...oh and did I mention all the money raised went to help the poor here in London?

Important Announcement!

In case anybody thinks they can leave now they've seen all the photos, I have one more thing to shout about. We just received paperwork this week saying we will be getting permanent residency! We just have to take / send our passports to the border and submit some photos whoopeee! This won't necessarily change our lives straight away but it does give us security for the future and a few more doors can be opened. We were told it could take anywhere from 9mos to 3 yrs yet we sent the paperwork at the end of May and we're good to go already, Praise the Lord!

Okay you have permission to leave comments and go now!