As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be doing things differently on here. So the first Thursday of each month will be about what we've been up to as a family and individuals.
As a family we spent December doing some fun activities leading up to Christmas. We read books, watched movies, made a few things like the gingerbread house. We stayed home again for Christmas. I am officially a fan of Christmas at home! Brettley had been really sick the week of Christmas and John and I were not doing great either, so we had a very relaxed day. We opened presents, had breakfast and then pretty much did nothing for the rest of the day. We're all mostly healthy now, thankfully.
(Brettley was very sick that morning so this is the best picture I got)
Yesterday was our anniversary. The boys spent a couple of nights at my dad's, which was great. On Tuesday we went out for supper, courtesy of John's work. They gave us $100 in gift cards to Joey's. We both had good steak dinners. Yesterday we went out to St Albert, our home away from home. Checked out our favourite gaming store, as well as EB Games and grabbed a couple of things at Walmart. It was a really low key day, and we do well with that. We might do something a bit more planned out next year, since it will be our 10 year.
Over the past couple of months John had his annual performance review at work, It went so well that his supervisor said he almost felt that he needed to make up something bad just to add some variety to their meeting. And then he got a nice raise for the new year, so he is doing really great at work.
I had a big surprise on Sunday morning. I had been sick for days and was finally feeling a bit better, but my mental health was in horrible shape. At 7:30 that morning John told me to pack a bag and call my dad so that I could go to my brother's for dinner that night with the rest of my family. It was exactly what I needed and I had a great time with my dad, mum, step-dad, brother, sister-in-law, her dad and one of her brothers. I didn't tell my brother and sister-in-law that I was coming, and they loved the surprise. My brother in turn surprised me with my Christmas present from him. We had a tape of Christmas music that we listened to every year when we were younger. Years back my mum passed the tape along to me, but for quite a while now I've no longer had a cassette player, so I've missed getting to hear it. It has my favourite Christmas song on it which was an original song, so I couldn't just hear it on any other album, but you can't even get this album on iTunes. Anyway, for the past 4 years my brother has been searching for this album online. He finally found it and gave me the CD for Christmas. I cried because I was so happy, which pretty much never happens with me. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received.
Caleb has been obsessed lately with all things spies. He has made a spy club at school and made up little badges for them all to earn and membership cards for each of them. He is having so much fun with it!
Caleb and Tyrell had their concert at school. Caleb did well. You can tell he enjoys singing and music in general. Ty was hilarious to watch! He is so animated, and I kept trying not to laugh as I was recording their song so that John could see it. There still ended up being a few shaky camera spots when I couldn't hold in a chuckle. He is such a happy guy, which I love having in my life.
(Tyrell is the one in the vest)
Ty also went up a level in his reading, which is great. He loves school, and is thriving in grade 1.
Brettley has been attempting to play Minecraft lately. He loves the game, but is always digging himself into a deep pit and getting frustrated because he doesn't know how to get out. It's so cute watching him learn all of these things, though. It's helping him find more common ground with his brothers, which is really nice to see, and it makes him so happy to be able to play on the X-Box.
