Celebrations

This time of year is filled with one celebration after another, so much so that I can barely keep up with uploading pictures after each one and updating this space!  We have had so many wonderful occasions and memories since the beginning of this month so without further ado, here's the 'Coles Notes' version of our fun times!

Suncadia

The first weekend of December I spent away in Washington state with my precious Dunbar Momma friends on our annual getaway together.  We spent an entire day shopping at the outlets and Target and Trader Joe's on our way down and then enjoyed having some desperately needed down time together.

My friend Liz is turning forty this month so we took the time away as an opportunity to treat her (and ourselves!) to a day at the spa and had a beautiful 40th birthday celebration dinner on Saturday evening.

This weekend away has become a beloved tradition and such precious time together!

Hanukkah

We are well into our Hanukkah celebrations around here, tonight is the third night.  Sydney and I were asked by her class and the Kindergarten class downstairs to give a little Hanukkah presentation so we took the opportunity to make a batch of latkes for the girls to try and made some beautiful takeaway bags for each of them with a dreidel, gelt and homemade Hanukkah chocolates.  Sydney and I had lots of fun putting the treats together for her friends.

We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah at Zach's house, had a beautiful dinner and visit with everyone and so enjoyed the celebration!

Sydney is lighting the candles all by herself after the shammash has been lit this year and says the blessing without missing a beat, it's pretty awesome!  She has gotten some great gifts so far both from Mom and Dad and friends and family.  We feel so blessed!

Gifts

And speaking of blessed we have a steady stream of beautiful gifts coming into our home these days from friends and colleagues alike.  Paul brought home a beautiful Edible Arrangement the other day, we had such fun eating all of that delicious fruit!

My friend Sarah and I had a gift exchange for ourselves and our girls last week, Sydney was thrilled to get some Frozen panties, hairclips and headbands.

Sydney's friends Weston and Gwendolyn got her a very special set of Disney princess slippers for Hanukkah, Syd was quite thrilled with them!

 

Happy Birthday Julia

We were so happy to celebrate with Sydney's best buddy Julia as she welcomed in her 5th year.  She had a beautiful party with all things pink and purple.  The kids got to make homemade snow globes and Elsa even made an appearance.  It was such a lovely time!

Celebration of Community


Sydney's school had their annual Celebration of Community this week at the beautiful Chan Centre at UBC.  While the Kindergarteners don't do a performance at the event, Sydney and I decided to go and watch all of the kids perform.  It was a wonderful time, we enjoyed ourselves so much!

Party with Bare Fit Moms


I love that five years after I had my baby some of the closest friends in our lives are the Moms that I met at my prenatal fitness class.  Yesterday night Sydney and I went to Saskia and Myrtle's house along with Sarah and Emma, Andrea, Aaro and Hattan, Tracy and Alexis and Rachel and Declan to have a little Christmas celebration.

Saskia served dinner and made homemade gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate, it was fantastic.

We left with so many beautiful gifts from our friends.  Andrea gave us the cutest little grinch tree plant along with a lovely letter 's' ornament made in Nepal for Syd.

Tracy gave Sydney some really cool pencil crayons and the yummiest granola and jam from Sweet Obsession.

Saskia gave Sydney a package of Shrinky Dinks and a lovely package of chocolates.

It's feeling festive around here!  Happy Holidays!