in the snow.

dinner party at miss anna wiebe's.

anna's ghetto cork screw.

some beautiful women i love: susie & anna (or, christine learns how to adjust aperture on her camera.)

playdate with ben.

playing at omi & opa's.

the wiebes come to town.

first row: (l to r) herman, esther, heiwa, kurt, hana

second row: tamaki, tim, marlon, andrea, julie (please note the matching sweaters)

chapters christmas.

for a few years now, we have had the tradition in our family of heading to chapters a few days before christmas in lieu of exchanging gifts on christmas eve/day. everyone chooses a book and a cd, & that way, everyone gets exactly what they want, we are not stressed out, & we get lattes afterward.

mateo makes friends with thomas the tank engine.

rempel christmas.

the kitchen is where all the action happens.

julian, looking handsome.

dad, enjoying the citrus salmon

lauren & mateo play nativity

dessert.

mateo liked alex's cool hat.

going to winnipeg.

playing at pearson airport.

scenes around our place.

chanukah: festival of lights.

"Blessed are You,

Lord our God,

King of the universe,

who has kept us alive,

and has preserved us,

and enabled us to reach this time."

~ chanukah blessing

it is chanukah time now. all over the world, millions of jews light the candles for the last time today, in memory of the time when the oil lamp burned for eight days and eight nights for judah and the maccabees when they were consecrating the temple.

yesterday, we were able to experience a little bit of chanukah right here. myriam had us over for a delectable chanukah feast, complete with latkes, salmon and berliner for dessert. she lit the beautiful hannukiah she and mathieu received as a wedding gift from israel, and spoke the blessing above in hebrew. we also watched the chanukah story according to sesame street, which, though slightly obnoxious, was educational and even enjoyable for mateo.

happy chanukah!

xo.

christkindlmarkt in kitchener

for our second advent christmas activity, the three of us went to the christkindlmarkt in kitchener. we went last year, too, but m was too young to really take in and enjoy all the different sights, sounds & smells.

ready for weihnachtsmarkt

view of some of the booths from above

this year, he was able to eat brezeln, bratwurst, lebkuchen... & he loved watching demonstrations of wooden toys at one of the booths. he was also very interested in the trains, but got mad because he couldn't play with them. he didn't quite understand the whole "watching only" thing.

bratwurst & sauerkraut...mmmm

watching the trains

glühwein in my new kitchener "stiefel"

our little elf.

we found some german exchange students there, too:

(l to r) justin (not an exchange student), dani, ines, kerstin

as we were leaving, the snow was gently falling, the brass ensemble was playing christmas carols, the ice skaters were whizzing around the rink... ah, christmas, i thought. what a wonderful way to get into the spirit of things.

xo.