Toronto

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebration. Mike and I were blessed to be able to spend time with both of our families, and our extended families.  Our Christmas celebration kicked off with a trip to Canada for the Christmas party on my mom's side.  We were able to go a day early and decided it would be fun to go downtown Toronto (Mike had never been!).  We convinced my Grandma to join us, so my parents, brother, Grandma, and Mike and I enjoyed a fabulous day downtown. 

We took the GO Train from Whitby to Toronto.  From there we decided to walk around a bit.  We went to the CN tower (below) as well as a stadium.

Walking around caused us to work up an appetite so we had to find a place to go for lunch.  We all voted to try something new, so we went to an Arab restaurant.  It was absolutely delicious!  We got a fabulous deal (sandwich and salad for like $5.99!)





I started with a tabouli salad.  I'd never had tabouli before and I was impressed. 

The star of the show was the Shawarma I ordered.  It was out of this world delicious!

Mike also had a salad...tomatoes with cabbage and tabouli.

After lunch, we continued our tour.  We ventured over to the city center and saw this beautiful Christmas tree.  We had to have our picture taken of course!

The next stop was the Eaton center.  I wanted to go to Lululemon and H&M since we don't have those stores close to us.  It was fun to be part of all the excitement in the mall.

Our last event of the day was a subway ride.  We had no destination, just wanted the experience.  Of course it just happened to be the busy part of the day, but that just added to the fun.

We had a ton of fun in Toronto.  I have pictures of our family party to share later--don't want to go into picture overload!

Family Fun

Our weekend in Canada was pretty much a non-stop family reunion. We arrived Friday evening just in time for dinner. After eating, we had our Jack-and-Jill shower (see previous post). By time everyone left, it was bed time!

Saturday morning, I got up early to make breakfast...cinnamon rolls! After eating we had a little bit of time to get ready before the whole family came over for morning coffee and cake. We were celebrating my Grandparent's 55th Anniversary. They like to celebrate all day long! Around 11 everyone was there and we started serving cake. We visited again until about 1:30 and then we headed to Aunt Anita's house to relax by the pool.

It was an absolutely perfect day to spend in the sun and in the pool. It was so much fun to have everyone together!

After spending the afternoon at the pool, we headed back to Grandma's house for a family picture and dinner. Grandpa was feeling well enough to join us for the picture and dinner, so that was a huge blessing! I don't have a picture of the whole family on my camera, but when I get it, I'll be sure to share! We had Chinese food catered from a popular local restaurant, and we enjoyed dining outside.

I hadn't seen my cousin Jason in nearly 5 years (since my Grandparent's 50th), and he was able to make it with his family. It was so good to see him and meet his two beautiful children! Above is his 2-1/2 year old, Chase. He is such a sweet boy. I just can't get over how much he looks like his daddy did when he was younger! And below is his gorgeous baby girl, Alaura. She turned 1 on Sunday so we had a birthday cake for her Saturday afternoon. Alaura took to Mike and I very well and she was so fun to play with and cuddle.

She was absolutely enamored with Mike. Every time she would look at him, her eyes would light up and she would get an enormous smile. We just had to get a picture of her looking at him.

Mike couldn't help but fall in love with her as well...who wouldn't love such a sweet baby?

We had a wonderful weekend with everyone, it went by way too quickly, but a lot of fun was had and lots of memories were made!

Christmas in Canada (Part 2)

As promised, here is installment #2 of our Canada trip. So we'll pick up where we left off the other day...after Mike and I visited the Lake, we stopped at the store for a few things.

Mike picked up a bouquet of flowers for Grandma, Mom, and I. He said he had to spoil the ladies for all their hard work in the kitchen :) He gave Grandma the red ones, Mom the white ones and the pretty yellow ones were for me!

In the afternoon, the rest of the family came. We did the gift exchange for the youngest kids first. There are only 3 of them under the age of 18 now. This picture is the youngest, Braden, opening his gifts...he was so excited!

Bradley and Tyler are only a few months apart. They were both excited about their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

The adults do a $10 gift exchange. This was our pile of gifts! Mom got a neat circular serving tray, I got a relaxation water fountain and Mike got a digital picture ornament.

After gifts, we all went downstairs for dinner. And after dinner we sing some Christmas carols.

Mike and I wanted a picture with Grandma and Grandpa so we quick took this on Sunday after church. We left for home soon afterwards. It was a short trip, but we had a great time!

Christmas in Canada

The weekend before Christmas Mike and I, and my parents, drove up to Canada for Mom's family Christmas party. I took a lot of pictures, and I think I will share them in 2 parts. Today, I will share pictures of things that we saw, and later I will show you pictures of the party. It was especially neat because Mike has never been to Canada, so he got to experience everything for the very first time!

We arrived at my Grandparent's house Friday evening and spent the night visiting and making perparations for Saturday. Saturday morning, Mike and I went out sightseeing for a while. We drove out to the Lake (about 5 minutes drive my my Grandparent's house). It was super cold so we didn't stay for long.

This is a zoomed in picture taken to the left of where Mike is standing in the previous picture. The tall tower in the background is the CN Tower. The Tower is in Toronto, about 45 minutes from Whitby, but on a clear day (like the day this picture was taken), it can be seen from Whitby.

When we drove home on Sunday, I took some pictures of downtown Toronto. The building on the far right of the above picture is the CN Tower.

The view overlooking downtown Toronto.

We always enjoy looking for the airplanes landing and taking off from the Toronto airport. This plane was about to land as we drove by.

Stay tuned for more pictures...coming soon!

Christmas '07

Wow! All that preparation and just like that Christmas is over and done for another year! Crazy isn't it? But it's worth it! Think of how long they prepared for Christ's birth, thousands of years...makes what we do seem so insignificant.

We made it home from Canada safely this afternoon. I drove home from the border which was nice because it gave me something to do :) We had a very good trip. Tomorrow harsh reality is going to hit when my alarm goes off at 4:10 to get up for work!!! Oh well....

Here's a few highlights from the trip...



We spent the day Saturday downtown Toronto. We got lunch at a Thai restaurant...delicious!










3 Generations. Mom, Me, and Grandma









My cousin Bradley aka Rudolph! :) I see him only once a year, but he really hit off with me and always wanted to be by me.








Grandma and Grandpa got a cell phone!








My cousins BethAnn and Nicole relaxing after dinner.






Also...thanks for all the input on what to get for the gift exchange! I bought a handheld Deal or No Deal. The gift I received is a stovetop expresso maker. But then my uncle felt bad for me because I don't drink coffee, so he gave me a bag of candy to go along with it :) I also got the movie Remember the Titans (one of my favorites!) from my grandparents.