A hint of christmas chaos

The Higginson Clan celebrated Christmas on Boxing Day this year. As always, it was a truly lovely, noisy, chaotic, hilarious, and wonderful gathering. And, between Great Granny and Jack, we spanned a good 4 generations and 91 years!

Evy loves her cousins SO much, and had a great time with the house-full of family. And it was really great to see Lee, Chris & the boys, who made the drive from Ottawa through freezing rain and crummy weather. We're so glad to have them back in Ontario, and I was working overtime trying to sell them on Millbrook's charms. (Yes, am still hoping they'll move here!).

I was too unorganized to take many pictures, but luckily, Alice captured quite a few:

Miss Evy sporting her new feather boa. Just the thing for an 18-month old, non?

Lee and two scampy boys look outside at the snow

Yes, this is what a table set for 16 looks like (Baby Jack didn't get his own seat... maybe next year)

Evy is delighted with her new 'Charley' toy, har har

A beautiful New Brunswick rock for my garden. Thanks Al & Jimmy!

Evy is not impressed with the friendly rat

Ben pulls out a blade because he senses Iggle Piggle sneaking up on him

Auntie Mary and Jack have a nice visit

All I want for Christmas is a big cardboard box!

Sometimes, when you're one and a half years old, all you really want for Christmas is a giant cardboard box to play in! Thanks Granny and Poppa!

Jack attack!

Evy got to meet her new little cousin Jack today, and she was pretty impressed. He's such a cute little man, and I think she thought we had bought her a new very lifelike doll to play with - she was so excited when she saw him.

And, she only tried to smother him once (with love, I'm sure) so I'd say it was a pretty good first visit!

Ben & Kristin are doing well - they were surprisingly coherent, clothed, and couth, considering they are the proud but sleep-deprived parents of a 2-week old!

Here are some photos - enjoy!

How do you do?

Hee hee, I love my new cousin!

Proud parents show off their wee man

Uncle Rob gets to meet Jack for the first time too!

Unfortunate smothering incident!

I think it's cousinly-love at first sight!

Vintage photo?

Millbrook hosted it's 2nd annual 'Christmas in the Village' night a couple of weeks ago, complete with carollers, tree lighting, horse-drawn carriage rides, and old-fashioned candy shop. It was a lovely night.

The hightlight was, of course, the pictures with Santa at the local funeral home. (Only in Millbrook does the funeral home open up its heavy doors, and invite people into the overly upholstered interior, complete with extra tassels, extra jesus paintings, and extra creepiness factor).

Evy didn't mind, and indeed liked visiting with this Santa much more than the mall Santa. The pictures were taken for free, and Rob picked it up today. Behold!:


It's hilarious because it could be straight from 1972! I don't know where they got the pictures printed, but, they are crazy vintagey looking! Now, I'm not an expert on these things, but I can only assume that all of the ghosts in the funeral home somehow affected the photo. Ha ha ha. (Or at least that's what I'll tell Evy when she's older and scared of ghosts, moo haw haw haw!).

To see another scary vintage photo, you can visit Lee's blog. Just ignore her cruel comments about eye spacing. Some people consider wide-set eyes a sign of beauty.

Happy last Friday before Xmas, everyone!

Ho Ho Ho!

Or should I say boo hoo hoo?

We were at the mall today (shudder) and, continuing the tradition I started last year, I buy the cheapest possible photo of Evy with Santa.

She was NOT impressed. Which is weird, because she couldn't wait to run up to him, but once she got there, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was the authentic (yellowing) beard? (Ok, which is creepier? A fake beard or a real one? Hard to say).

It's pretty hilarious to compare it with last year's picture! Hee hee!




And I guess I'm cruel, because I find the pictures where they are crying are much more entertaining than when they are smiling!

And as the sign at the mall said today, only 11 more days until xmas. Double shudder! Hope you're all in the 'ho ho' spirit too (or are at least into the spirits! Make mine a gin & tonic!)

Bubble-wrap baby

This occupied Evy for a good 45 minutes yesterday! Pretty hilarious. So, if anyone asks what she needs for Christmas (the real answer being nothing - our house is already overflowing with toys and clothes) I will tell them to get her some bubble wrap!

Introducing: Baby Jack

Ben and Kristin had a beautiful baby boy tonight! Jack Bennett Higginson, born at 7:09 pm and weighing 8lb 15oz!

Here are a few photos of the new wee man!

Ben announces, "I'm a dad!" (And sisters sob!)

Little Jack shows off his muscles!

Granny Al introduces herself

Jack and daddy have a snuggle

Beautiful baby Jack (holding his hands in the patented Monty Burns pose)

I'm so happy for Ben and Kristin - she was such a rockstar during the labour and delivery. They are amazing parents already, and I can't wait to watch Jack grow into a fabulous little man!

Happy December!

I'm probably not the only person who woke up yesterday morning and was surprised that it was December! Wasn't it just summer two minutes ago? Then, I looked outside and was extra-surprised:


Snowy! A perfect introduction to December, and it was all melted by noon, so actually a perfect 'gentle' introduction. (I still can't BELIEVE it's freakin' DECEMBER!)

And, yesterday was Evy's 17-month 'birthday'. Holy crow! She's almost 1.5 years old!

As I mentioned in my previous post, she's actually growing a bit, but is still small enough to get herself into all sorts of mischief, as documented below:

"Hmm. I think I'll help mummy do laundry"

"Now to do a quick survey of the internal workings of the washing machine"

"Yes, I know I'm extremely naughty!"

Otherwise, all is well. I've resigned myself to our new reality of 'all snot - all the time'. I guess this is what happen when your kid goes to daycare. We're on our 3rd cold since September. Sigh. Poor Evy. She also go her H1N1 vaccine (finally) and has about 3 new teeth coming in, she she has NOT been a happy girl. As for me, I'm doping up on Cold FX, Oregano Oil, Vitamin C, Zinc, and every other quack and ridiculous remedy I can think of, topped off with a thick layer of Vicks. But like Lee says, maybe this will build our our immunity and we won't have another cold all winter.

So, that's the update from germ-infested Millbrook, where babies go for rides in washing machines and certain people are in denial that it's WINTER! Happy December, everyone!

Cutie pie!

Here's some more eye-candy for you Evy fans out there. We've been having a lot of fun playing lately, and (FINALLY) her little stubby legs are long enough to climb up on the couch. It requires quite a bit of effort, so once she's scaled the heights, she's gotta rest for a while:


After catching her breath, it's time for rolling and round and trying to launch herself off the couch. (I try to catch her when I can... we're working on choreographing a safer dismount!)

AND, because the wee madam has (FINALLY) grown a bit (the little almost-17-month-old-midge is now wearing some 12-month stuff!), she's fitting in to some of the clothing she received as gifts, including this very cute handknit sweater that came all the way from my former colleagues in England (thanks Grove Housers!):

Pretty cute, right?

out for a stroll

We had a few frosty mornings last week. So frosty, in fact, that the pond had a think layer of ice on it. Brrr! It was quite entertaining to watch the geese come in to land - most of them veered over to the open water in time, but some of them landed on the ice, like this poor dude.


Frosty weather also meant that we gave Evy's snowsuit a trial run. She stayed toasty warm and looked hilarious running around in it.

So, I guess we're ready for winter, at least from a wardrobe perspective!

failed photo shoot

We had a failed photo shoot on Wednesday morning. I was trying to get a picture of Evy to include in our xmas cards, however the model was not co-operating. Recently, someone has been showing Evy the magic of a digital camera (GRANNY!) and now whenever she sees the camera, she runs to see the display screen. Then, when she did finally manage to hold still, the facial expressions weren't exactly festive.

Enjoy the amusing results:

pensive and crabby

on the move

ready for a nap

scampy doodle

surly

Clickety click, barba trick!

Everyone in the Higginson family has a great love for all things Barbapapa. They were our favourite books growing up, and the cartoons was also a big hit in the Higginson household. (When I mention Barbapapa to people my age and they don't know what I'm talking about, it's always because they had cable TV and weren't subject to the strange shows aired by TVOntario! Willo the wisp? Green Forest? Dr Snuggles?).

When I was in France last year, I bought Evy a few sleepers including this one, which is possibly the cutest one ever. She wore it for the first time last night and I giggled watching her run around before bed:

I tried to find a YouTube video but could only find the french version. It's still worth watching, just for nostalgia's sake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax8nJqh2P2o&feature=related

A lazy weekend

We had a pretty lazy Sunday today (or at least SOME of us did... Rob and Evy both had 2.5 hour naps this morning while I cleaned the basement - good timezzz, I know). And my reward? Finding a whole bunch of mouse crap. Bless their fuzzy hearts. Once I was done my re-organizing, I left them a 'special' and 'nutritious' treat with a magical ingredient called 'warfarin'. I hope they like it!

In less macabre news, yesterday was busy busy! I shopped 'til I dropped at the St Lukes Xmas Bazaar (great knitted treasures for babies and grown-ups who happen to love knitted stuff). After enjoying my festive tea there, I headed over to work, where the Auxiliary was hosting a bazaar. While not quite as fancy as the St Lukes Bazaar, I did have the enviable opportunity to feed an old man his ice cream. I was there selling raffle tickets, and I'm not sure how I ended up feeding the infirm, but after 10 months of slopping food into Evy's mouth, I was a pro. Hey, at least I didn't have to change any depends... small mercies, ya' know?

Of course, after a full weekend of shopping, slopping, and poisoning small animals, I realized that I don't have any new photos to share, so you'll have to be happy with these ones from last weekend:

Madam 'E' the dog walker shows Kizzy who's boss

C'mon puppy, whether you want to or not!

And, as part of me M2M Campaign to convince Lee & Chris to move to Millbrook, here are a few more photos of our fabulous village.

Ladybugs on a cedar tree in the conservation area
(Ok, I know Ladybugs are not exclusive to Millbrook, but ours are BETTER and are definitely worth moving to Millbrook for).

And just another beautiful day on ye olde' pond

I hope everyone had a good weekend - Happy '40 days 'til Christmas' Day!

Swarm of geese

A gaggle of hundreds of canada geese landed on the pond this morning and I took a few movies and pictures because it was so cool. People complain about geese, but I actually like that they pass through on their way south. I picture them waving bye to their polar bear friends way up north, and then starting the long journey with a pit stop in Millbrook. Honk honk!

This amount of air traffic and noise lasted about five minutes! Millbrook rush hour!

Click here for Goose Movie 1

Click here for Goose Movie 2

Catchin' up

I finally took these pics, taken on Hallowe'en, off the camera this morning, so here are a few belated shots for your enjoyment.

As part of my campaign to get Lee and Chris to move to Millbrook (the M2M Campaign as I call it) I've been taking pictures of the village looking lovely. Here are a few from our backyard:

Autumnal sky and spooky clouds

The old School (now Library and Family Centre)

And, an example of the fine homes in the vicinity!

We also went a visitin' on Hallowe'en and stopped at Great Granny's house to show off the little poodle:

Granny, in turn, showed off her gorgeous ornamental cabbages at the front of her house. Evy was loving them:

"Hey, these cabbages are bigger than me!"

"Yes, momma, I'll sit here and be cute for 1 second only"

"Now Evy, you can't eat them!"

All is well here. Rob's gone on a 'mannymoon' (the man-honeymoon) with his friends Greg and Dennis and gets back late Tuesday night, so I'm flying solo for a few days.

And little Madam and I have been fighting off what I have dubbed the 'swine cold'. It's got all of the torment of the swine flu, but without the aches and fever. Evy has developed a cough, and thanks to all of the hysterical media coverage, I'm now going in to her room at night to make sure she's still darn' well breathing. Honestly, it's the FLU! That said, I've made the decision that we will go and get vaccinated. The flu season goes on for many more months, and I'm not prepared to worry myself to death every time she gets a snotty nose.

It's a gorgeous sunny day here, so we're going outside to enjoy it! Happy November, everyone!