Because Lauras family had to leave around 4:30 to meet with their side of the family for Christmas dinner, we started the gift exchange a bit earlier this year. Mohamed, Faten and her mom joined us this year. Their first Canadian Christmas, I wonder what they thought of it all? Many gifts were showered on them, Marg has been with them for weeks, so she was sneaky and bought Fatten a piece of glassware that she had admired in a thrift store, Jenny got them school supplies as they are all keen to learn English, Mohamed received many gifts as well from the family as well as church family. Lauras family and ours both got him the SAME lego set of the ice-breaker! Pretty funny ... they received many gifts, but I didn't note all of them ... but lots of smiles and they were such a nice addition to the day!! I was pretty thankful that our family was able to be part of their first Christmas here .....it was pretty cool.
These days, my prayers often are short, consistently one of these 3 words "Thank-you", "Please" or "wow"......I was saying thank you a lot every time I looked over and saw my sister in the same room as me on this day .... I love my sister ....
Here is Chris and Faten shooting the breeze ... she is so sweet!! She is quick to act something out if we don't understand her response ....
Oh Trent .... sweetest spirit ... here he is cuddling with Maisey on the ground ... Trent had more energy tonight than he has had in years!! It became a running joke that he was going to outlast us on this night, I thought he was bluffing as he is always first one gone ... but, he is a man of his word and totally outlasted all of us! He and jenny shut the party down, pretty sure it was close to after 10!!
Dinner was a little late, and its an awful shot, but it captures a scene that I think made all our hearts burst out of our chest. We were watching Shaun the Sheep and Ellie crawled up onto Fatens lap to watch. Welcome to the family Faten ....
Just before dinner, I received the text that a woman who was selling a purse that I thought Carrie would love, had arrived down the road and was ready to meet. We were supposed to meet around 2, but there had been an accident on the Malahat, so she pulled in closer to 7 ... just before dinner! (ack!) .... so we pulled into a dark parking lot and did a little trunk shopping! This was to be a gift from mom to Carrie, as the girl was finally ready to own her first girly purse! She didn't choose the one I had initially picked out for her .... but here she is!!
