Time Flies

Before we knew it, our time in Ohio was over and it was back to snowy Montreal! We did have a few snow showers while we were in Ohio, but the ground was too warm for it to amount to anything...

Arabella played with Blix before we left. They had fun painting together!

Our luggage filled the foyer as we waited for the taxi to take us to the airport.

We had a fun time in Ohio and enjoyed spending Christmas there. The old saying that time flies when you are having fun in true...our time went by so fast. I think we all enjoyed every minute of our time there, now if only we could figure out how to slow time down!

Message from Jack

This morning when Arabella woke up and went to look for Jack she also found a surprise from him...a note on the bathroom mirror...

He found her paint (a/k/a mom's red lip gloss) and a paint brush and wrote her the special message. She was so excited!

Christmas Social Butterflies

Last weekend, we had 3 parties to attend! It is nice to be busy, but we were really busy! Friday morning we started out with our great playgroup - Arabella had fun making a really pretty Christmas ornament and doing the sit-n-spin (I remember having one and loving it when I was a kid)!

Then it was off to Laura and Allyson's for lunch before heading to Tamara and William's for a Secret Santa and Christmas Tea Party! The tea party was beautiful! And it was a nice relaxing afternoon despite a house full of kids - I guess having three, yes three, nannies on the premises to watch and keep the kids in occupied in the playroom helped with the relaxation!



The tea party was a true high tea but we added champagne. There were scones, jam, clotted cream, tea sandwiches and petit fours - delicious!

I love this beautiful chocolate centerpiece!

After our tea, it was time to exchange Secret Santa gifts which was a blast - I got an awesome cross body purse and I love it! The kids had fun hamming it up for the camera right before we left! It was great! Thanks Tamara for hosting a beautiful afternoon tea and for having your nannies decorate cupcakes and keep the kids occupied!


On Saturday, we got to celebrate with Ryan and Tanya at Ryan's 2nd Birthday party! It was a great afternoon filled with fun and food! All the kids loved the animator and the bounce houses - it wore them all out! Once again, Arabella was wiped out and had a great sleep!



Arabella helped Jay put up some Christmas lights outside. They did a great job and it makes the walk so pretty at night!


Our final party was on Sunday evening, at our house! We had some of Jay's CAT co-worker's and their families over for cocktails, appetizers and dessert. It was so delicious and we had a great time! All the kids had fun running around and playing dodge ball in the basement...not too sure how that worked since I stayed upstairs and enjoyed my wine with the other wives!
One of my new favorite wines - Cupcake Malbec - just perfect!
The raspberry trifle I made for dessert!
Arabella sneaking a piece of salami from the antipasto platter!
The beautiful table! It was another successful party! Our weekend was busy but full of Christmas cheer - we wouldn't have had it any other way!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today, Arabella and I decided that we would start some of our Christmas decorating. She was so excited to help me put up the "fake" Christmas tree in the dining room. It looks so pretty and we had a fun time decorating. I decided to go with a theme on this tree - I used the pretty deep red, deep green and brown ornaments with brown velvet ribbon and it looks so beautiful! Arabella was careful when she was unwrapping the ornaments and was so happy to be helping me.

Jack Is Back

You might remember that Jack the Elf came to our house last year during Christmas. He was in a new spot everyday and then on Christmas Eve he would go back to the North Pole to tell Santa if Arabella has been a good or bad girl. I am happy to report that he is back...at little early. Normally, I would wait until Thanksgiving, but what can I say, we live in Canada and already celebrated Thanksgiving. Besides, Christmas decorations are popping up all over the place and Arabella knows what that means - Santa is coming! I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to have Jack around, he helps out with making sure she stays on her best behavior.

She was so excited when she woke up on Saturday and Jack was at the bottom of the steps to greet her.

Ready To Go

Last Tuesday, we loaded up the car and headed to the airport to make our much anticipated trip to Florida for Christmas! It has been 3 years since I have spent Christmas with my mom and brother so I was very excited to get on the plane. So excited in fact, that while I was standing in line to get Arabella a muffin from Starbucks, I lost track of time and almost missed the plane. I wasn't paying attention and I heard them making boarding announcements so when I heard them page me (that was a first) and then saw Jay calling my cell phone to tell me that he and Arabella were on the plane, I knew I had better run! It was like a commercial where you see the person running and dodging people in the terminal! Good thing I have been running on the treadmill because if I was a minute later, the gate would have been closed and they would have been gone without me! But I did get Arabella her muffin!

We the had to wait for deicing in Montreal, which Arabella loved to watch and then we were off! Arabella was great on the plane, she is such an awesome traveler and before we knew it, we were in sunny and warm Jacksonville! Yippee!!

Hot Hudson Housewives

Last night, Jay and I attended a Christmas party and our friends, Carrie and Kris', house. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed great catered food and drink. We had Scottish Salmon Cakes, Shrimp Risotto, Mini Salami Sandwiches, and other yummy food! It was nice to get dressed up and go out for a night of adult only fun. Over the course of the night and after maybe a little too much wine and champagne, we named the group of ladies that Arabella and I spend a lot of time with. Even though not all of us live in Hudson, we spend enough time there, so we are now called the "Hot Hudson Housewives"! Thanks for a great evening Carrie and Kris, we are already looking forward to the next get together!

There are a few of us missing, but here are the Hot Hudson Housewives!

The yummy food, or what is left of it!

Cookie Swap

Yesterday, Arabella and I hosted our 1st Cookie Swap. The house quickly filled with my favorite group of ladies and their kids. And the light snow falling outside put us all in the holiday mood. The kids had fun running through the house and destroying (in the best way) the playroom, while the moms enjoyed the cookies and company. We had the great variety of cookies to sample and each of us with home with a dozen of each other's cookies...so now we all have a variety of cookies without having to do all the baking! Each and every one was delicious! We had a great time and hope that his can become an annual celebration with our friends. Thanks to everyone who came and took part in our Cookie Swap!
Playroom chaos!
Sophia's first pizzelle!




The cookie spread!

Christmas Cookies

One of my favorite things to do during Christmas is to make cookies. So to prepare of the Cookie Swap that Arabella and I hosted on Monday morning, I turned our kitchen into an Italian bakery for the day on Sunday! I made cranberry-pistachio biscotti, pizzelles and anise sliced cookies. The pizzelles and anise cookies are favorites from my childhood and I even use the same recipe that my great-aunts used to use for the anise cookies. I spent the whole afternoon baking and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I house smelled so good and I know that Jay and Arabella are enjoying the fruits of my labor!

Biscotti Batter
Sliced biscotti waiting to be baked a second time.
Anise cookies before baking....
Anise cookies ready to be sliced and enjoyed!
Pizzelle batter before...

Pressed perfection!
Perfect stacks of pizzelles!

O Christmas Tree

Last week we went out in search of our Christmas tree. Usually, we go to a farm and cut one down, but I was only able to find one local place where you can do that and the cost was ridiculously high (at least $60, of not more). So we saw that Home Depot carried local trees, so we went and picked one out. It was little different than the in the States - all the trees are stacked up and the netting is still on them so you have no idea what the size or shape is like until you get it home. I jocking asked Jay if he thought we could return it if it was too bog or had really bad, gaping hole in the side! We found one that was actually semi-untied so we could kind of see the shape of the tree and it looked good so we loaded it up on Jay's company car and headed home!


Once we got the tree inside and the lights up, which was a fiasco itself, Arabella had a ball decorating the tree. She was so excited to see the ornaments as we took them out of the boxes, I had the biggest smile on my face seeing her wonder and delight as she saw the ornaments and how they sparkled. Christmas is my favorite Holiday and I hope to pass that onto Arabella. She liked to put the ornaments up high and she did a great job decorating. Arabella and I had so much fun listening to Christmas music and she got to say up way past her bed time to finish decorating the tree. And it came out beautiful!