Happy New Year

PAUL: Happy New Year everyone. Wishing you and your families a healthy, peaceful and happy 2017.  As usual, I’m not really sure where 2016 went, but after reviewing my photos from the year to select those below, it's clear to me now that it was a crazy crazy busy one. Our family seemed to be unusually busy, both on a personal level but also at work.

We’ve had a relaxing holiday, although Lynne has not been feeling well with a persistent sinus infection and now more recently, together with Isabel, a cold. Hopefully she will recover quickly to usher in a healthy new year.

Hope you all have a great night and make solid resolutions, it starts afresh tomorrow. Shown below are a few selected pictures of friends and family from our various travels, trips, activities of the year.

…….and yes, Isabel has shamed me into writing this blog post…:)

A day with our friends

ISABEL: Yesterday Connor and I had some friends over. Connor had Onyx and I had Maddie. While the Boys played Nerf guns, Maddie and I played and new game I got for Christmas called Zeus On The Lose with daddy. Mommy, Maddie and I made a ginger cake similar to the one we had at Christmas. Then we got Anja to help us build a big eye amusement park. We made a zip line across our room, and hung big eyes from the fan. But then the boys saw us and told daddy. We got in trouble, and we couldn’t play in our room. We decided to build one in the basement. When we got bored of that, we played 5 ingredients, where we choose 5 ingredients and make a “dish” out of them. This time, we made a grape salad with a sliced cheese stick, crushed kale crackers, croutons, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Anja, Maddie, Daddy, and I all tried it, and all agreed it was discussing. Then, daddy made us mac-and-cheese for lunch. Then, we all watched movies, or rather the girls played Sims, until it was time for Onyx to go home. Then Anja, Maddie, and I pretended to do job interviews with each other. Finally, it was time for a dinner of Christmas leftovers (Yum!). When it was time for daddy to take Connor to swimming, it was also time for Maddie to go home. What a fun day we had with our friends!

Christmas Update

ISABEL: It’s finally Christmas! This year, my family and I had an amazing Christmas with our friends. We had a delicious Christmas lunch with ham, lamb, turkey, gravy, and many more wonderful foods. My siblings played with our friends while the adults talked. Kaisa and Kevin brought delicious sweetish sweets and Lisa and Brad brought Polish Easter bread. Anja and Mommy made ginger bread with Anna, which is actually cake-like bread. We played games such as hide-and-seek, watched the movie Yours, Mine, Ours, and told funny stories. Frida brought over some finger knitting, and made it long enough to stretch across our entire kitchen! Unfortunately, Christmas day soon came to and end, and it was time to say good-by to all of our friends. It had been a fun day, but now it was time for everyone to go to bed.