And then we all slept

The three of us, Clare especially, have had a fairly busy holiday. And it’s not over yet. Not for us, not really. By the time we hit the end of January, we’ll have had 4 Christmases, a New Year’s Eve party, two birthday celebrations (at least), and hopefully a great big party when my brother comes home.

We started in December – the weekend of the 12th, driving to St. Catharines to drop off all of the Christmas gifts there. We had a dinner with all of my aunts and cousins because one of my Mum’s cousins was in town for the holidays, that weekend only. We exchanged gifts with my dad over brunch. We celebrated with Ron’s family - again because it was the only time everyone could be in town. That was Christmas number one. There was a lot of food and a lot of family and it was lively and great. It’s just a bit sad that more of the Huckla’s from Ottawa couldn’t have been there.

On December 16th we flew to Vancouver, where we spent 3 days with Cynthia. We visited Jenny, Terry, Ronan, and Julia. We visited Kim and Brian, Zak and Sam (August wasn’t there). And then we went to Victoria. We had a great time in BC!! Clare was a fantastic flyer and was mesmerized by all of the planes and helicopters we could see at the airports. In Victoria, she was happy to see her MaMa and YeYe but that week she averaged about 1 to 2 timeouts a day. There was a lot of food and lots of shopping and spending time with the family we hardly ever get to see. We saw the Hangover (at home) and Sherlock Holmes in the theatre. We celebrated Future Shop Day (also known as Boxing Day). That was Christmas number 2 and it was also great.

On December 28th, we all flew back home. We arrived at our place at 1 am on Tuesday December 29th. That day, I went to work and Clare got delivered to her Nana and Poppa. Clare stayed there on her own for 3 days! Rob and I took advantage of those days to eat dinner out, see Avatar 3D, and celebrate the heralding in of 2010.

On Friday January 1, we joined Clare in St. Catharines and celebrated Christmas number 3. This time it was with my Mum. We opened gifts on Friday morning (me still in my jammies, since I hadn’t bothered to change for the drive back) ate a big breakfast and then went to Ev’s for dinner that night. All the aunties and uncles were there. No cousins though. And only one brother. The long weekend was great. More food. More family. More shopping. And I got to visit with some friends too. Nana is always available to hang out with Clare, so Rob and I went with Eve to see Up in the Air. Christmas number three was also great.

We drove back to Toronto last night – arriving home around 6 or so. I opened up some of the gifts Clare had received that required assembly or had too many parts. In particular, was the new stroller for her ‘baby’. Clare was keen to have me put it together so she watched every step and even helped when she could. She pushed her baby around for a bit and then it was time for bath and bed. She slept pretty well and didn’t give us too hard a time about having to sleep in her own bed, in her own room (she’d been sharing a bed with us the entire vacation).

She woke up around 6 and came into our bed for her regular morning snuggle. Except that we all were so drowsy and so comfy that everyone fell back to sleep. And there we all stayed until we were almost late for work.