Two Christmases!!!

It's too late for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, so I'll just say hey! We had a very busy December as Shane was, and still is, working 2 jobs and Christmas concerts and end-of-year parties kept me busy. The first "stirrings" of that wiggle worm in my tummy happened just before we left for Toronto, so it was very cool that my family could feel the baby moving when we were there. Also right before we left was a mini-reunion with a bunch of girls from high school who were home for Christmas. From the left are Kristin (San Francisco), Aphra (New Zealand), Marie, myself, Jenni (Van), Evita (Van) , Erin and Katie. It was really nice to see each other but, of course, time went too quickly. Hopefully it won't be years again before we can all get together again.On Christmas Eve morning we flew to Toronto where a wonderful surprise was waiting for us. My sister, Tammy, drove from Winnipeg with her husband, Greg, and four kids (Rachel, Curits, Brianne and Stephanie) and made me jump, scream and cry. I think someone took a picture, but I really don't remember. What a Christmas present! If only there was snow... but no. We didn't get any snow in Toronto our whole trip apart from a tease on Christmas night and 2 cm at my grandparents' house in Pontypool. The kids did their best to make Frosty by starting at the other side of the house and they barely had enough to do it!

As always, we played tonnes of card games, mainly Euchre, with immediate and extended family for hours on end sometimes. The best partner is my cousin Steve in Orangeville, so it was nice to play with him and beat everybody! (Don't mention it to Shane. He's still bitter.)
We also had a Van Dam family get together that was like a reunion for us out-of-towners. I got my dad's cousins figured out by the end of the night, but don't ask me who's who now. Man, can my family cook, though! Mmmm...cabbage rolls.

Here are some family pics that we took in the kitchen after we cancelled the photographer. Are we cheap, or what?

"SHAKE 'N' BAKE!!!" (it's the year of movie references...don't ask)

Doesn't Dad look like happy with his sons? "Too bad my brothers have a combined IQ of 48."

Yes, we're cute, and we're waiting for Jason to make our group a group of 5, too!

My loving, silly, generous, quirky family. "We are really, really ridiculously good-looking." If you haven't seen Zoolander, don't ask.

And finally, the reason I called this one Two Christmases...our ultrasound. We had our appointment on Monday January 8th and I saw my baby for the first time. He has his mommy's big head, but he's still beautiful. He did a somersault, kicked me a few times and had the hiccups while we were watching him which means that he is happy and healthy. Good news! He's stretching his arms above his head in the first picture and getting ready to punch me in the second one. Sorry they are so blurry, but we didn't get them on disk and you aren't supposed to scan them. Anyways, this is his blog debut and we couldn't be happier! While, ta ta for now!