Christmas Eve is here and all of my family have arrived safe and sound. Poor Abby and Emma are in culture shock I think.
Alexandra labours under the mistaken impression that her mother is THE only person in the world who is capable of caring for her - if mom is in the room, or within eyeshot, Alex screams until mom finally takes her. She is not even happy with her father's undivided attention.
Austin, on the other 
hand is simply excited about Christmas. He hung his stocking by the fireplace tonight and left milk, cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer.Tomorrow morning should be exciting for all of us as this will be the first Christmas where Austin understands what is going on and it is Alexandra's first Christmas.Nana,
as you can see is just thrilled to have everyone home, safe and sound
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Can you believe that Christmas is only 12 Days away!!!! While I don't really celebrate Christmas (I celebrate Yule or the Winter Solstice on 21 Dec ), the rest of my family does. This is good for me because my children come home. For the first time ever, ALL of my children and grandchildren will be home on Christmas day. Until they were married, Ryan & Deb always spent Christmas Day apart - Ryan with us and Deb with her family. Since they've been married they've spent Christmas at home or with Deb's parents so this is very exciting. They do have an unterior motive - they are travelling to North Carolina (or South) on Dec 26 or 27 to attend a family celebration and, again, for the first time ever, I get to babysit my grandchildren!!!!! They will only be gone for a couple of days but, that's probably as much as I will be able to take for my first time babysitting. Hopefully I will have more opportunities in the future. So, for Christmas Day there will be 8 of us. Jamie actually returns home today after writing her final exams yesterday. Krista and Ryan's gang will be home later on Christmas Eve - both Krista and Ryan have to work on Dec 24.
As Ryan and Deb are leaving for North (South) Carolina, Graham's daughter Jeannie and her youngest, Isabella will be arriving for a couple of days. This is also a first and a very exciting one. Unfortunately, Jeannie's oldest daughter, Carissa has to work and isn't able to join us.
So, the Christmas season is a very exciting one for us this year - we intend to enjoy every minute with our children and grandchildren.
We would like to wish each and every one of you and Very Blessed Holiday season and a Prosperous New Year.
I have been working on my family tree and thought that some of you might be interested in having a peak. It can be found at:
www.downard.myheritage.com
I have been able to find the marriage licences for both of my sets of grandparents. I did try to attach them to this post, but they are too small to read.
I never realized that my dad's father's family originally came from Ireland, while his mother's family came from England (at least as far back as I've been able to trace so far).
Here are my ancestors as I have found them so far:
http://www.myheritageimages.com/M/storage/site42132681/files/ng/p2/17/ngp217_9218923b33b394dur0de17.pdf
Graham is also working on his family tree. He is much farther along than I am - makes sense since he's been working on his for about 3 years. His brother and sister have recently been sending him some old pictures. I am attaching a picture of Graham when he was a police officer with the Mississauga Police Force. He had badge # 94.(Don't laugh too hard.)
I have also joined the London Camera Club - hoping to be able to learn to take some really good pictures. I'll keep you up to date on that.
hand is simply excited about Christmas. He hung his stocking by the fireplace tonight and left milk, cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer.
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