Smooth sledding...

It would appear that they don't call them "crazy carpets" anymore. Now they're "wacky carpets." Surely political correctness gone far too far. I guess that suggests that the crazy people's advocates have more lobbying clout than the wackos do. Anyway, it was a sunny morning and we had holiday energy to burn, so it was finally time to try out the mental mats that Santa gave us.

Christmas with Emmanuelle and Oscar

A little video encapsulating Christmas 2007. Don't forget to press pause on the music player at the bottom of the page.

Letter from Sandy Claws

Emmanuelle wrote her first ever letter to Santa while we were on vacation in Quebec city. Santa is so smart (and Emma is such a good little girl) that he knew right away that she was on vacation and made sure to send the reply to her home address. Fortunately, our letter to the fat man was answered by good little elves at Canada Post, not the lump-of-coalsters who wrote a few foul letters this year.

4th annual Nancy Dancer Christmas-o-rama

Ok, I've uploaded 20 or so photos of Nancy dancer's wonderful Christmas extravaganza. The formula is getting better every year (and simpler, with less kitchen time and more chatting time for Nancy). This was the year of the rat (the rug rat). The pyjamas came out after about 20 minutes, shortly followed by the opening of presents left by Santa for delivery by Nancy. Sometimes, for particularly good kids, Santa has to make a couple of trips...

Our hostess with the mostess.

A little thank you hug.
Oscar's first ever Christmas present!

Watching Madagascar.

Comptines et frimousses

I don't quite get it, but anyway the photos are nice, and it sure looks like they had a lot of fun.

Christmas Tree Decorating

We got our very first Christmas tree this year. Time to decorate! Since we don't have decades'-worth of Christmas tree decorations, we decided to kick it old school and make our own.

Q: What's Papa making?
R: Noise.

"Better move your fingers if you don't want 'em Christmas-tree shaped."
I told you: No flash photography 'til I've had my coffee!
Oscar couldn't wait for the cookies.

Worth the wait!
This one was "extra".Better keep an eye on your cookie...

...there be thieves in these parts.Back to work.

Finally time for a break.

And then time to admire the finished product.

Oscar's about done with crying.

And he's moved on to gibberish.

Q - bec

We took our winter holiday this weekend. Somehow, no matter how we plan it, it's always cold and windy in Quebec city. (Except in Summer, when it rains.) Anyhoo, it wasn't actually that cold, just cold enough for us to maximize our hotel time, meaning that on Saturday night we all went to bed at 8:30 PM and slept about 11 hours. Which was pretty much what the doctor ordered.

The roof-top pool. A Kyoto-busta fo' sho'.

Annick and Emmanuelle and some steam.

There's the culprit!

Ok, I blog it, you log it: Oscar's new tooth is officially in. Let's jot it down as coming in on November 28th, 2007. (Age: 7 months, 1 week. About 3 months later than his sister got her first tooth, if memory serves.)

But what's wrong?

What's wrong, little Asha? Why so glum, chum?

Poor Oscar, and poor us... Oscar started with a cold last week, which has developed into a nasty cough, tonsilitis, and an ear ache. As if that wasn't enough, we think his first tooth is coming in. Woe is he. And woe is we.

Trick or treatise

I don't have another photo of Emmanuelle because it was getting dark and we were eager to get out on our candy run. I've lived in Montreal for nearly 10 years now, and I always believed that Hallowe'en wasn't taken seriously in the city. Now I know that there are just different rules here. In Regina, you can pretty much ring at any door, so generally we would sweep through an entire neighbourhood, only skipping houses that our brothers in arms had reconned and found to be empty (or members of the dread apple corps). In three hours it was easy to fill as many pillow cases with candy, as long as Jason Holmes wasn't on the prowl. (Other kids worried about razors in apples or poisoned candy. We worried about Jason Holmes. He was the neighbourhood meanie reputed to have hospitalized a much older kid when he was only 12 years old. True story: my brother John and I were accosted by this very hooligan one Hallowe'en on Truesdale drive. John's spidey senses had been tingling, and on his advice I had already wrapped my pillow case around my hands. Jason gave it a yank or two, but quickly moved on to lower-hanging fruit. John and I decided to call it a night.)
Back to Hallowe'en in Montreal: It turns out that lots of people do give out candy here after all. Maybe I just hadn't noticed because I've never had a ground floor apartment . The rule is simple. If there's a light on and even a hint of decoration, they're giving candy. In fact, most of the neighbours on the two streets we visited were sitting out on their porches chatting with one another. It looked like a block party. In fact, one woman even crossed from the other side of the street to give us candy because no one was coming to her side.
So this was the first year of trick or treating for Emmanuelle (and I suppose you can count Oscar, since he came along and even collected his share of candy, as people just can't resist feeding the penguins.) At first Emma didn't want to put her costume on, but she didn't put up much of a fuss. We got to the first house and she held out her little bucket, which a nice woman half filled with candy. And then everything clicked. By the end of two blocks she wouldn't let us carry her bucket, cried when we emptied the excess, and didn't want to go home. She was brazenly stepping up on porches and declaring "c'est a mon tour maintenant" (it's my turn now), or, imitating her mom, "c'est l'Hallowe'en, on veut des bonbons" (it's Halloween; we want candy). Fortunately she only picked up the last phrase as we were on our way home.
Sadly for Emma, the Hallowe'en fairy has already visited and absconded with about half of her candy. Don't feel too bad for her though: what's left is more than enough to keep a pack of dentists in Mercedeses for a good while...

C'est l'Hallowe'en!

Eh oui, les amis, c'est l'Hallowe'en. And are we ever happy we have a couple of little ones that we can dress up to score candy for us. I mean, with whom we can share the joy of trick or treating. Since we couldn't hold our collective horses, we decided to have a pre-Hallow fest for the little weeners. In addition to providing a reasonable excuse to eat gummy worms, all the guests meant that I was able to finish off that jar of pickled eyeballs I opened a couple of weeks ago.

I call it the "Unpleasant Surprise". The picture doesn't render it justice, but the top of the martini is opaque, and it's only after the first few sips that you see that your drink is staring back at you.

Hugo "enjoying" a martini.

Lotus Bleu.

Emmanimal

Raphanimal?

Victor as a fireman. Note that Victor's fireman routine is not at all like Oscar's fireman routine.

Lucas wants some Pop-Tarts

Leila's sugar buzz was wearing off, while Maeve was trying desperately to restock.

Even Mao dressed up.

Pumpkins galore!

Did I ever tell you the one about the Eskimo voyeur, Tom Tukaluk?

Jack-O'-Lantern meets Hedgehog-O'-Appetizers
It's a spider, alright? That's right. A spider.

Mmm, food colouring. Delicious, nutritious food colouring!