Getting ready for Christmas

I know it's just a few days before Christmas, but we're only now getting ready for Christmas (fear not the gifts are long purchased). Here we see Suzanne hard at work.

Mathieu is in the Christmas spirit.

Ghosts

I dreamt of ghosts last night. It was at my mom's place, in the summer time. We were a group of us mingling in front of the stables near the house, when some people came out of the open stable doors. They were a bit different, walking among us as if they were part of us. Nobody really noticed but at one point I saw a man who was watering bushes with a hose that was not connected to anything. So I silently told the living about them.

I still remember the feeling of awe I was in, how beautiful everything was. For some reason it was quite touching. Us, the living, were amazed, happy. These feelings are strong as I write this.

I remember us leading them back to the stables, gently, like you help an older person to something.

Ski and Knowlton

Today we went to ski at Bromont. It rained from the time we got in the car to the moment we got to the mountain. Troupers that we were we still did three runs.

But you can only get so much rain before getting tired of it. We went to have lunch with mom. We had a good time but the food was subpar to what we paid so, never again at that restaurant.

The drive back was a tad tiring for the kids.

We ended the day with a nice fire in the fireplace.

Karate Belt Passing

Today Mathieu and Sabrina both climbed a level in karate. Sabrina went from being a blue-yello stripped to a yellow belt, and Mathieu went from being an orange to a blue belt (now in the same mid-category as his sister). Real cool.

Practicing moves

Sabrina doing her katas

Sabrina is now a yellow belt

Mathieu is now a blue belt

Ski, Finally

I was woken up by Sabrina who dumped her Playmobil Advent Calendar on my stomach, all excited because it is the 1st of December. Today is also exciting for us for we are going skiing.

We left late and arrived at 10:00pm, partly because we weren't ready since it was our first ski day of the 2012-2013 season, partly because we were just being relaxed. As I stopped my car in the parking it reached a milestone...

We met Pascal and Ben who had been skiing for an hour (I can't believe they started skiing before us). Here's a nice father and son moment...

Here we are getting ready to go up.

I feel like a fish who's been put back in the aquarium... So good. There was global happiness throughout the family this afternoon.

We were spent, but so happy. I was in bed by 8:00pm.

Swim Eval, Great Wines

This Friday was evaluation day at the swimming course. The kids hopefully did well. Here you can see Sabrina converse with Ben, and Mathieu having a conversation with Kate.

Here are two wines I absolutely like for their taste. A bit pricey, the Cab is $40 and the Pinot $60, but their taste is just out of this world...

Three 3-cheers ceremonies, three 3-cheers; Art

Sabrina just got her third 3-cheers in as many ceremonies. At the end of the month, the entire school is reunited in the gym and one or two students of each class is presented with a reward called 3-cheers in front of everyone for special accomplishments. Sabrina just got her third three cheers. Very proud.

First it was French, then English, now it's math. Way to go love. We're so proud of you.

The kids have become very artistic these days. Here is Sabrina's work...

Mathieu is into zombies...

And here's a two-mast radio control great ship...

Nice Sunday Dinner

Max came to have dinner with us tonight. It was really nice to have the family complete again. When we got into the house, Mathieu yelled his name and went to give him the biggest hug. Really nice.

Sabrina started reading "The Hobbit" tonight. She's really liking the book. She started giggling at one point, when the dwarves come to visit Bilbo, uninvited. It is a really cool book.

Quelle belle journée; Joe Dassin

Nous avons meme eu la chance de prendre une bonne marche. Voici quelques photos.

Fait intéressant: Nous écoutons présentement Joe Dassin au souper. Saviez vous que Joe Dassin était Juif américain, né a New York?

Kids... 90% Love, 10% War

Look what Mathieu did to his sister...

Paper Planes; Play date

Mathieu is into making his own paper airplanes, complete with drawings. When Suzanne asked, he told her he had initiated it himself and had not learned it in kindergarten or in daycare (they go to daycare for an hour on Thursdays and Fridays, at their request). Real cool.

Long time friends came to play over today to give the grand parents a small break. These kids have known each other ever since they were born and the chemistry between them is just beautiful. It's really great to have them over.

Fun Saturday with a tint of grey...

My 27" iMac I've had since December 2009 had a recall because of a hard drive failure possibility and I brought it to the Apple store for repair. Say what you may about Apple, the fact that they send me an email to tell me they need to change the drive on my three year old Mac (for free). I will miss my machine for the next few days though.

Today was a slow day, a perfect one for us to play board games. Suzanne and Sabrina played Mystery Mansion while I played Battleship with Mathieu while I cooked supper. We had a great time.

Sabrina and Suzanne are rediscovering some very old board games.

Clean House

It's so pleasant when the house is clean... I like to work with my portable on the counter and when we're all here it's hard to be zen. But during the day when the kids are out school and Sue's out work...

Halloween; 3 Cheers; School Pictures

At the kid's school, at the end of each month all the kids are reunited to celebrate the students who achieved really well during the month. Usually, one or two students are chosen for each class. This month Sabrina was chosen for her English course.

Also we finally got Mathieu's school pictures samples... Kindergarten! wow!

The highlight of the day was of Hallowe'en, of course. Sabrina went out as a which, and Mathieu as Spiderman. The amount of candy that was collected was huge. Consider also that since I was out walking with the kids, no one was at the door giving our candies so we only gave about 50% of our own stuff.

OSM

I had the opportunity to go to the OSM to see "Beethoven habite a l'étage" with Sabrina's class. It was simply amazing. We used to go out so often before we had kids and I think we forgot to appreciate it at the time. The feeling of awe I got when we entered the concert hall was really cool. Here are a few pictures.

The bus ride was good, with teachers I like as well as the usual parents. A real good field trip.

It's so rare that I'm on pictures I put them in when I can.