North Van Christmas Festivities

We are back from North Vancouver and a wonderfully marvelous festive holly jolly time was had by all! :-)

Max and I flew over on Thursday evening. We were greeted by my waaaay cute and smiling honey who was very glad to see us. He had been in Ontario for the first part of the week and Vancouver for the last part so it was nice to be all together again.

Friday Keith was working at the jobsite. Max and I shopped and did errands in the morning. After lunch, we stopped by Michelle, Erica and Kate's house and had a great afternoon with them. I always look forward to my chats and visits with Michelle...they are few and far between these days. Then at 4:00 Max had Jack's birthday party to go to at Mickey McDougall Rec Centre. Jack is one of his best friends from preschool and the fact that we were able to be there for it AND that it was at the Mickey McDougall Rec Centre...well - let's just say that my little boy was on cloud nine. When Max and Jack first saw each other it was so cute. They ran full-tilt towards each other, laughing and smiling. Then stopped very awkwardly right in front of each other. And didn't know what to do for a split second. Then they both took off, running for the cars that were available to drive around on. No hugs for them anymore. You could tell they wanted to, but then didn't want to. We all chuckled about it. Oh... they grow up way too fast, don't they? After the party, I had an appointment at Spa Utopia and Keith and Max went back to the hotel and hung out. It was a nice and quiet evening once I got back there.

Saturday we went shopping. Keith needed new dress shoes and deliberately didn't bring his old ones along, so that was the first thing we had to get for him. Then we went to Park Royal and hit the shops there. Max found Santa and wanted to visit him on the spot. He had a really nice little visit with him...asking Santa things like "how do you visit all the boys and girls on one night?" Santa apparently had a great answer for him that Keith overheard. I was too busy paying for the photo "cha-ching" that I missed it. He also asked the "elf helper" where she lives. She told him "the North Pole". As we walked away, Max excitedly told me that she was a real live elf who lives at the North Pole. He's at such a fun age right now! He was thrilled too because he got a reindeer antler hat to wear, a decorated gingerbread cookie and a coupon for an orange julius drink. Mmmmm! We all enjoyed that last one.
Keith bought my Christmas present while we were at the mall. I was instructed not to look at all. But funny thing....the bag kept "beeping/ringing" as we were driving around. Ha! Ha! Yeah...I totally know what it is. :-) That afternoon Max had another birthday party to attend - this one was for his friend Dina and was held at Go Banana's...his other most favourite birthday party spot. What a busy afternoon! Let's just say....to hear a group of shrieking little 6 year old girls every time a Hannah Montana gift was opened...well....it was quite entertaining. The boys in the group did not "get it." They just sat there looking bored. LOL! Saturday night we had the NAC Christmas Party at the Moustache Cafe. It was a really nice party and so good to see everyone again. Max went to his first "Official Sleepover" at Jack's house. Those two little boys were SO EXCITED because it was a first sleepover for both of them. We picked him up at 9:00 on Sunday morning and walked into the house to find them playing "tickle monster". Tickling each other like crazy. Oh my. They weren't sick of each other and had a great time. Apparently we arrived too early because they both weren't ready for it to be over with.

Sunday after we picked up Max we went to church at The Bridge - our church that we attended when we lived there. It was nice to worship in a familiar setting again. Then we had to get Keith to the airport. Very last minute on Friday he found out that he needed to travel to Dawson Creek for a meeting on Monday morning. Unfortunately we didn't realize the Santa Claus parade was going on downtown - until we were caught up in the traffic snarl. It was a bit tense as we were worried about Keith missing his flight. We did make it and Max and I took a different route home from the airport. Originally, we had planned to go to the Bright Nights at Stanley Park that night. Max and I still carried on with the plans (we missed having Keith with us though) and went on the train ride and enjoyed all the bright lights. They went with a Hawaiian Island theme this year so we saw fun displays of Santa surfing and his vacation house while listening to Mele Kalikimaka. Anything that is warm and sunny and has to do with Hawaii appeals to me! We did pick up our tickets early on our way to the airport so at least Keith and Max got to check out some of the displays together in the daylight. After the train ride, we swung by the Capilano Suspension Bridge and checked out the Canyon Lights - it was beautiful! They had a music group singing, a table where kids could make an ornament and decorate cookies, all the beautiful lights and a little treasure hunt/contest to find out how many bears were hiding around the canyon. (The winner receives a ginormous teddy bear - wish us luck!)

Monday we had breakfast at Max's favourite restaurant "The Pantry" which is located at The Holiday Inn. He loves their breakfasts. Particularly the "Berry Waffle with Whipped Cream". We share it and still can't finish it. All the waitresses in there know us by now so it's a fun time. Afterwards, we hit Old Navy, Whole Foods and a few more shops. Lunchtime found us at our friends Ailish, Nuala and Daira's house. Nuala and Max are best friends from preschool and as those things sometimes go, Ailish and I have hit it off together. We spent the first part of the afternoon with them before heading over to the dentist's office. Max did awesome. He went in all by himself while I waited in the reception area/waiting room. When he came back out with the hygenist he was literally bouncing off the walls because they told him that his bottom two teeth are (ever so slightly) wiggly. He was cheering so loudly and excitedly he had EVERYONE in the office laughing at his enthusiasm. This is a big deal for him. It seems EVERYONE in his kindergarten class has been loosing teeth left, right and centre. Except for him. He's been almost in tears about it. So when they told him the good news he was over the moon. He was instructed to eat lots of apples, carrots and celery. (Meanwhile, the hygenist told me it's going to be a while...they are still in there pretty solid. Not that the little man has to know that.) Following the good news dentist report, we stopped by Michelle, Erica and Kate's for one more little visit. Their house was so Christmasy with decorations - love it! Then Max and I headed off to the airport. We got our baggage checked in, called Keith on his cell and he had just landed there (his flight from Fort St. John/Dawson Creek). Within 5 minutes, we had found each other and went out for a nice dinner at Milestones while we all waited for our flight back to Kelowna together. Oh yeah, can't forget how we got trapped by a couple who was travelling back home to Kelowna. They had been at a "convention" in Anaheim and were very pumped and excited about their new business opportunity that was going to take the world by storm. In fact they are both phasing out of their jobs to go into this full-time. Oh the joys of pyramid/multi-level marketing. It was rather nice when our flight was called and we could pre-board early with the Maxter. Don't always do that anymore, but this time totally took advantage. LOL! Oh and what was it they were selling? ACL or ACN or something like that. To do with phones or something. So there you go - breaking news - you're going to hear about this and it's going to be all the rage so get into it now while it's "new" and no one else is in it...you know the drill. LOL!

So that was our weekend. Lots of fun. A few unexpected things - like Keith having to travel in the middle of it, but such is life and it all worked out fine even if we did miss him a bunch.

And now we are home. And you won't believe it. Well, you probably will. Max has come down with a cold. Today. Yesterday he was at school and fine. But somehow got sick last night. So today has been at home. Hoping we can get him better in record time. Cause we have an extra-special visitor arriving tomorrow night to stay with us a few days. :-) So it's imperative that we get him better NOW! I tried to get him to have a nap today. No go. After 1.5 hours of him rolling around in his bed, trying to convince me that he had a big sleep (I wasn't buying it) I let him get up. Early to bed tonight mister!