December 26, 2007 Well, another Christmas has come and gone. It wasn't exactly the happiest Christmas ever because my sister-in-law's father passed away 2 days before Christmas. It made things pretty sad in my brother's household. They weren't able to join us for Christmas dinner. It was a pretty quiet time in general. Christmas Eve, John joined me for Church. He loved being upstairs in the balcony of the church. His two little friends from Best Start were also at church so they basically goofed around, but quietly. When John got home, he made his snack for Santa and checked out the little piles of reindeer food he had placed outside for all of Santa's friends. He was absolutely vibrating with excitement. Of course, he woke up really early, before 7:00. I made him wait until nearly 7 to wake up his dad and start opening presents. He was much better this year about actually reading who the presents were for before tearing off the paper. He got way spoiled and is still trying out new games and puzzles. I think his favourite toy was the i-roller coaster from his grandparents in Alberta. He gets easily frustrated with it however. We had dinner at Mom and Wilson's, but it was an early night because John was getting very tired. John has also really been enjoying skating. We went twice on the weekend. He doesn't want anything to do with the learn-to-skate devices and sometimes he wipes out pretty good! Derek was there on Sunday trying to take pictures of him falling (big meanie). Today we tried out his new boats at the Best Western Pool. That was a lot of fun as well. December 17, 2007 Four more days until Christmas holidays. Today was John's SK Christmas Concert. They did about four songs for our entertainment. John got to be the hibou (owl) in the play La mitaine dans la neige. He wasn't supposed to be the owl, but the snow. The kid who was the owl got sick and Madame knew that John knew everyone else's parts anyhow, so he filled in. He was very proud. He seemed to enjoy himself, however, looked somewhat bored near the end. They really had lots of sweet treats out afterwards, and John gorged himself. He later said in Best Start that he had a sore tummy (I wonder why?). The other night, I was listening to John talk to himself before he went to sleep. This is what I overheard: "Dear Santa, it's John. You know, Evan has been really bad this year. Maybe you should get him a barbie or a lump of coal. And you know about the orange thing in the stockings...well, Santa, I don't like oranges, but I do like orange juice. Santa don't get me any toys for Christmas...just get me the entire woodwind section of the orchestra." It was funny! I told John he shouldn't pray to Santa, and he got really embarrassed that I was listening to him, but he talks so loudly! (Mom forgot to mention that it took Dad to calm him down again) On Sunday I took John sledding at Riverview School. It really was a scenic day because the trees were all frosty white and the sky was a brilliant blue. John thought it was the best thing ever. He must have gone up and down that hill 25 times. I fell four times! That hill is really slippery after a few passes on the sled. Tomorrow is my own class concert. We are singing 3 songs and selling our crafts for World Vision. On the weekend, we will make Santa's cookies and figure out what we're going to make for Christmas dinner dessert. December 9, 2007 Happy Christmas season to all our friends and family! We're right in the spirit of the holidays. Last weekend was our town's Santa Claus parade. We were supposed to have a nice dinner with Grandma and Papa at Ristorante Pizzeria, however, they had two huge tables there and weren't even able to serve us before the parade. So...we got wine on the house and left with our bellies empty. It was freezing cold watching the parade, but this year, John wasn't scared one little bit. He was anxious to get all the candy that was being handed out! Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree as well! John was decorating before the three was even set up! He then wanted to make a collection of all the ornaments I didn't want to hang on three. He's pretty excited about Santa coming. He hopes Santa found him a puzzle of Africa. He's still on the geography thing! John's Christmas Concert is on Dec. 17. I know the song he's singing, because he keeps singing it to himself before he goes to bed. He continues to amaze me with the quantity of French he uses. Today he told me he wanted to go and buy a casse-tete, which is a jigsaw puzzle. He got a good report card, however, still needs some work on printing between the lines and keeping calm during circle. He just isn't a calm sort of kid. November 26, 2007 It’s time to do another diary! Time is just speeding by! I can’t believe that it’s going to be Christmas in just one month. John’s doing well and is busy, busy, busy. I can’t believe all the French he is learning. He talks to me quite a bit in French and is constantly asking me what words mean. His teacher, Ms. Konkle also thinks he has a photographic memory. I think so too, because he can look at something just once and remember exactly how it goes. He just got a new jigsaw puzzle of the United States and has already memorized where each state goes. He continues to be very interested in geography and maps. I just wish I could get my Grade 2’s as interested! On the weekend we went to two birthday parties. One was at the Best Western for Brooke Blackmon and the other was at the Ukrainian Hall for Roschelle Arseneault. John had a great time at both parties. The first party was a swimming party at Best Western. We have a membership again for three months. I can’t believe how John can swim now! He’s diving at the deep end now and can even dive for darts at the deep end! The second party was a bunch of inflatable toys…those things you bounce on. The kids had a great time except that John kept bumping his knee. Today John barfed all over SK. It was sort of humorous, however, he barfed all over the teacher and some of the English teacher’s stuff. He saw a kid pick his nose and eat it and just completely lost it! Poor kid. We took John to see Santa Claus a few weeks ago. John wouldn’t sit on his knee, but did tell Santa he wanted a magnetic roller coaster for Christmas. November 7, 2007 Well, the relatives are starting to complain that we haven’t updated the page in a while. Here you go Cathy! :) It’s been a busy last little while. John really enjoyed Halloween this year. He was a knight and his costume was very simple. We went to the family Halloween dance on the Friday before Halloween. Initially, he was very nervous and clingy, however, after about 30 minutes, he was running around the gym and I didn’t have a clue where he was except for the glow stick he had wrapped around his wrist. On the Sunday before Halloween, we went to the church Halloween party. He had fun again, except for the haunted house. The guy inside made John cry. I made the guy feel bad by saying “Leave my little kid alone.” On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with John’s little friend Alex. They lasted about 30 minutes and then told me they had enough candy and wanted to go to Alex’s grandma’s house. We had tea and then came home. It was a very cold and windy night! Derek and John are bonding over trains lately. Derek is making a little layout and they spent one afternoon running the trains on the track. I think John will be into trains as much as Derek. John’s also been very busy doing jigsaw puzzles. We got one at Walmart which is the whole world in 250 pieces. We’ve done it four times so far. He’s really really good at doing the continents and leaves me with the oceans and islands. At least I know where Tonga is now! He has favourite puzzle pieces and you have to separate them from the rest. Last Friday we went to our friend Clayton’s birthday party. It was a grown-up party and John was the only kid there! He was really good and liked watching the big boys play guitar hero on the T.V. He’s really learning a lot of French and tries to use words on me once in a while. When I go to see him in his classroom, he always speaks to me in French. Very cute! His teacher says he’s like a sponge and retains the new words very quickly. Top © 2007 Derek Kennedy