1st Time Skating - Wow

Rosalind on her skates in the middle of the rink - doing quite nicely

Today was the day we had decided to get out to the neighbourhood park rink and try out our skates. I had bought Rosalind and Carolina skates last year but we never did get out to use them. This year we decided to give them a go. Rosalind was beside herself with anticipation. She has been on skates only once before 2 years ago. We tried the skates on last night to make sure they still fit and this morning after breakfast off we went !! Carolina was not sure this skating thing was a great idea although she got her skates on and tried for a bit, then put her boots back on and went back onto the ice. Rosalind was in heaven. The only reason we stopped and came home when we did was because Carolina's fingers were getting cold. Back at home we had some sustaining snacks and Rosalind started her 'when can we go skating again' campaign. Soooooo, I suspect we will be back at the rink in fairly short order.

Brunch with Mike and Frances ...

Today, the 27th, was our brunch date with Uncle Mike and Aunt Frances, Cousin Uncle Nick, Cousin Aunt Melissa and Melissa's mom Alice in Toronto. The girls were very excited - Nick and Melissa are their favourite grownup cousins ( 'Actually, in real life !! ' as Carolina would say ). They are always lots of fun and willing to play lots of games with the girls. The girls didn't eat much but spent most of their time playing with the toys at Aunt Frances and Uncle Mikes !! We got to hear all about the Australian adventures Mike and Frances have had over the past year and Vancouver stories from Melissa and Nick as they settle into life on the West Coast. We got back home all tuckered out after spending hours talking, laughing and playing !! This Christmas holiday season seems to be just a super one for great company and outings !!! Thanks Aunt Frances and Uncle Mike !!!!!
Rosalind and her Uncle Mike
and the girls in their Aussie Tshirts!!!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve finally arrived and as usual at about 7pm it came with a phone call from Santa. YES, we do have incredible connections, don't we !!! Santa calls us every Christmas Eve to talk to the girls and remind them they have to be in bed and ASLEEP before his Christmas magic will work and the presents arrive and the stockings get filled. This year he told Carolina that in addition to the carrots we traditionally leave out for the reindeer, they also are very fond of apples. So Carolina had Chris find apples and cut them into 9 pieces - one for each reindeer. The girls were in bed so quickly, I was wishing for a phone call from Santa every night, or at least his cell number so I could text an urgent appeal for a call from him for those nights when they are little night owls and nothing seems to get them to settle down.

Christmas morning started around 6am with Rosalind sneaking downstairs to make absolutely sure Santa had indeed arrived. Satisfied that he had in fact left something ( on the dining room table this year so that the kittens did not get to open the stockings first ), she was content to come upstairs for snuggles and wait for her little sister to wake up.

Carolina woke up around 7 am and off we all went downstairs to find BIG presents under the tree, the kittens stockings full of kitty treats and our stockings full to overflowing. !!! We must have all been awfully good this year because clearly we had made it to the 'nice, not naughty list' . Around 11am Erik, Lisa and Jillian came over for Christmas brunch and we settled into round two of present opening !!!

Probably our best family gift was a WII. Chris got it set up in the afternoon and for the rest of the day we were all bowling, golfing and watching Rosalind play baseball and tennis. Think the WII will really be a fun thing to have .. Carolina wasn't really into it but I suspect she will be soon !! Amongst all the presents I got was the Magic Bullet set, so I had fun organizing the many pieces and reading the manual and recipes !! Started by making chicken salad and ham salad for sandwiches. Chris made smoothies with blueberries and variations of pineapple, yogourt , bananas and vanilla ice cream !!! Probably the best present for Chris was the blanket that snaps together to keep you warm and snug - can't remember the name- but we've named it the Obi Wan blanket because Chris looks like Ben Kenobi when he is wearing it. That was from Erik and Lisa and they scored as giving the top present this year - they also won last year when they gave Chris a vibrating heat pad for Chris's car !!

The cats did well too. In their stockings there was a little can of specialty dinner, Christmas bowls for each one and toys.... little kitten kongs, mice that actually squeak like real mice ( extremely disconcerting when one lives in an old house that in fact has seen real mice from time to time ) and are all filled with catnip, The cats have been in kitty heaven ever since Rosalind and Carolina 'helped' them open their stockings !!!! All in all , a great Christmas was had by all !!!!!!!!

McGrath Family Christmas

This weekend ( well Sunday actually ) is the McGrath family Xmas. It is a Xmas breakfast / brunch deal hosted by Uncle Terry and Aunt Judy in Ottawa...... Long drive - very very very long drive - mostly because after we left the fabulous Christmas party in Toronto, we started out immediately on our trek to Ottawa... at 9:30 at night no less. We arrived in Ottawa at 2am Saturday morning ... dazed, exhausted and cross-eyed. We had Saturday to recover - well sort of - and then Sunday morning we went to the brunch to meet up with all the rest of the McGraths and have some fabulous food and good company. As usual the girls stuck like glue to their 'big' cousins and were just enthralled to be in their company. They played happily in the basement rec room and just wore themselves out till at 2pm, when we had to pack everything up, get in the car and head back to KW. Thankfully the weather was good, the traffic was light and we got home ( after a stop for dinner at Swiss Chalet ) at 9pm . I have a feeling we are just going to coast on into Christmas from here ......zzzzzzzzzz !!!

Kids Xmas Party - WHAT A PARTY !!!

PS Everybody - I think this is the REAL Santa !!

The company Chris is currently working for had their big Childrens Christmas party last night and what a blast !!! About 800 people were supposed to be attending. The venue was Fantasy Fair in the Woodbine Mall in Toronto.


The company had the exclusive use of the indoor play park from 6:30 to 9:30 - complete with ferris wheel, merry go round, train, a climby kind of playground area and a variety of other rides designed to entertain the kids. And as the place normally can handle up to 3,000 people, we had no lineups for anything !!

The event was catered with everything from hot pasta dishes, hotdogs and hamburgers, salad, chicken nuggets, sandwiches and drinks and desserts. A completely awesome and believable Santa was talking to the kids and giving out fabulous gifts. We were there from about 6 pm until they were shutting down the place at 9:30. We could barely drag the kids out to the car - but guess what , they were asleep within minutes of being tucked into their car seats!!!

School Christmas Concert

The school concert was Thursday night after school at 5pm. Each of the classes had a special song or skit that they were practising for the performance. Carolina and Jillians' class ( the JK and SK 's) were practising Felice Navidad with hand motions . Their Spanish teacher had given them each a cd with the song on it and we played, played, played that song on the way to school it seems like for weeks. Rosalind's class did Jingle Bell Rock and again .... no cd .... but we must have sung that song in the car several hundred times !!!

The kids all wore their dress uniforms for the performance as well as Santa hats. And they were of course amazing !!! The grade tens also did a song - 12 Days of Christmas and were accompanied by one of their own on the guitar. Then Santa made an appearance with lots of stuff in his bag of goodies - including Christmas ties and socks for the parents. That Santa, where does he find the time !!!!! ( That you, Fred ?????)

Afterwords we went out for pizza to Pizza Hut to celebrate some terrific performances !!!!! Quelle night !!!

Sledding - Oh Yeah !!

Last year we hardly sledded at all...it always seemed like not good sledding snow or tooooo cold !! Sunday morning the girls were hoping to get out to go sledding but when we went outside, the snow wasn't that great fluffy stuff anymore. The weather was a bit drizzly and the snow was wet. This did not look like great sledding weather but out we went with our sleds for the first sled run of Winter 2009.

And to our absolute amazement, the sledding was terrific ( or at least terrific until, rainsoaked , we had to come home ). The wet snow packed down and turned downright icy for a fast ride down the little hill !! A thoroughly wet but great sledding experience.

Christmas Wishes 2009

Christmas wishes............. to friends and family



Well 2009 is almost done.. ... this has been a tough year for so many... Let's hope 2010 is magic ... we hope you are all healthy and happy and looking forward to a wonderful 2010 !!!

2009 certainly seems to have been a busy year for us though for the life of us, we can't quite figure out why !!! We are looking forward to 2010 and perhaps a wee vacation ??? Somewhere warm ...no, somewhere HOT !!

Rosalind is in Grade 3 and is a busy, happy and quite social 8 year old. She is very involved with her friends at school but also keeps connected with her buddies from her old school ... She loves her friends because as she says 'they have good hearts'. We are the social secretaries and chauffeurs to her play dates, sleep overs and other outings. She loves math, dancing, art and is also really enjoying Spanish and French.

Carolina is in SK and is our somewhat serious, very organized and focused 5 year old. If we need to find anything in the house, we ask Carolina !! She is loving the school experience and usually has her entire weeks homework done Monday night. At her 5th birthday this year she absolutely glowed when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and she later told us that was her most favourite part of her whole birthday. Lately she has acquired this great sense of humour and just thinks she is the funniest thing on the planet - so we now are seeing 'silly ' Carolina !!

When Rosalind was 5 we got her a kitty - Frankie - a handsome orange male cat who totally knows Rosalind is his owner. He follows her everywhere and just wants to be where she is. So this year when Carolina turned 5, Chris and I talked about a kitty for Carolina. This fall, our local Humane Society had an article in the paper encouraging folks to adopt kittens or cats as they had reached new levels of abandoned kitties and cats and were full to over flowing. Soooo we decided to take Carolina there and let her pick out her own kitty.

Carolina chose the cutest little ( teeny weeniest ) multicoloured little darling who she named Mika. We later found out she was probably 4 weeks old when we adopted her but thankfully there seem to be no problems ...its been so much fun to have that teeny tiny scrap of fur zipping around the house. She has major attitude and incredible charm...just like Carolina, so..... a perfect match !!

Today we went out and got our Christmas tree.....fa la la la la .... tomorrow morning we DECORATE. Stockings are hung, letters have been written to Santa ( I am pretty sure we've all been nice, not naughty- well MOSTLY ), we've been to see the Nativity pageant at Bethany Church, snow has arrived and shovels have already had a workout , presents are in process of being wrapped......we are ready !! And to top off everything else , Rosalind lost a tooth tonight - Tooth fairy you are on notice - pickup and delivery required tonight !!

All the very very best, we wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years in 2010 !!!

Barbara and Chris, Rosalind and Carolina

P.S. If you want to keep up with life in the KW McGrath household , we have decided to give blogging a try .... take a peek !!! http://www.kwmcgraths.blogspot.com/

Tree Time !

This morning after breakfast we drove out to Grobes Nursery and got our Christmas tree. Yes, we know, almost the 11th hour and yes we thought LAST weekend we would be getting the tree .. HOWEVER such is life. Grobes has great trees so the choosing experience was pretty easy . Chris, using his 'knotting' skills learned in one of the countless classes he had at apprentice school last year ( I always KNEW those knot tying skills would come in handy ), tied it to the roof of the Tribute . And then we sloooowly drove home !!!

Nose Dive - Loose Tooth

So there we were out in the cold, taking a walk to the 'little store' ( aka corner store ) to get some treats. It was cold and snowy of course and Carolina had her arms in her coat - NOT in her sleeves ... and all of a sudden she tripped, fell and had no way of saving that extremely cute little nose. Fortunately this was on our return trip ( we had our treats and were just completing our walk around the block and were almost home). We came back in the house alarming Chris with Carolina's shrieking and yelling ( good drama girl ). He had stayed home, not understanding why anyone would want to go out on a cold and windy night. It was quickly determined that Carolina had really done quite a little number on that sweet little nose. Just in time for all the those great Christmas pictures !!!!

Not to be outdone by her younger sister, Rosalind announced tonight at dinner that she had a very loose tooth ...... attention tooth fairy !!! Rosalind is doing everything she can to help her tooth find its way to the special tooth fairy bag that goes under her pillow as soon as possible !! Hope the tooth fairy hasn't spent all her money on Christmas presents and has a special fund for teeth that she needs to collect at Christmastime............

The Weather Outside is Frightful......

When we woke up this morning the girls went wild at the sight of snow on the ground outside and the promise of more to come. The weather map in the paper is always checked first thing in the morning by Carolina but this morning the proof was on the lawn !!!


Even better it was the sticky stuff ...the ultimate packing snow. Rosalind was in her boots, mitts, coat in a flash and outside cleaning off my car and then rolling huge snowballs around the lawn in preparation for a snowman build !!! HOWEVER ...as the day went on, the snow got mushy and very very wet. The 2 snowballs shrunk a bit but are still ok so we may get that snowman put together sometime soon.

'Tis the Season for ... Parties and Pageants

This past Sunday morning up we got and off we went in our finery to Chris' work's Kids Christmas Party in Toronto. They do a breakfast party. Santa is there , naturally along with balloon people who make great things out of balloons ( that always pop in the car on the way home ), magic acts, popcorn, cotton candy and yes PRESENTS. They do an awesome job and its well organized. The girls were really into the entire event this year. Although Chris tried to convince them we should take the presents home to put under the tree, he did not prevail. Carolina got an awesome Little Ponyville with a roller coaster, merry go round and a ferris wheel. Rosalind loved it. Rosalind got a Moxie Girl makeup and hair kit. Carolina adored it. And guess what, they traded !! We came rolling home with three balloon critters per child , 2 regular balloons each , full tummies and great presents !! A wonderful morning - and the day was bright and sunny, and the roads were empty - can you ask for anything more !!!

Later that day, after dinner, we headed out to Bethany Evangelical Church for their annual outdoor Nativity pageant complete with live animals. They have a camel, horses, a donkey, sheep, and chickens. They do three shows a night for three nights. The little plays just run for 20 minutes and are incredibly popular. People arrive for one show as the previous show is ending !!! This year was their 14th year. They do the plays in their parking lot and have sets for Rome, Bethleham, the stable and the fields where the shepherds watched their flocks by night. The cast of charactors is quite extensive - Roman soldiers on horseback, foot soldiers, townsfolk ( Bethleham ), a great many shepherds, the requisite three kings,Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus as well as an entire heavenly host of course. It was a rather cold night but by the time you are huddled in with the masses of people, you do stay quite warm... the downside was that I could take pictures as people were arriving but once it got crowded there was no room to even get my camera out of my pocket !! Then afterwards we walked home - or mostly home, Chris picked us up when we were almost there . A great day all in all !!!

Thinking Back .......

Carolina pulled out her Life Story Album the other day and was looking at the pictures and talking about 'her' story.

She asked me to read to her the announcement we had sent out on our return home from China and I couldn't do it without crying ... these two darling girls have been an absolute gift, a blessing in our lives.

Anyone who has been a birth parent knows that particular experience. Adopting a child from China is very much a similar experience .... You are exhausted ( from labour, from a 12 hour flight to the other side of the world ) , you have little time to adjust to the actual experience ( labour starts when it starts you mostly don't get to decide, babies are delivered to the hotel whenever it is they get there and usually very shortly after you arrive in their birth province so you are totally jet lagged ), and none of the little bundles come with manuals, so you are essentially on your own .

The highs , the lows, the doubts , the incredible happiness, all are part of both experiences. The wait - 9 months for birth parents , anywhere from that to several years or more for red thread parents seems to last forever. The joyeous hopefullness, the wanting so much to become a family, to welcome that child into your life, to want to do the best for them, wanting to protect them forever is all so much a part of both experiences !!!

However families are created, whatever experience we go through to form that very special relationship and bond, families are forever and we are so very blessed to have those people in our lives!!

Advent Calendars cont'd

No problem getting anyone out of bed these days . Every morning there is a race downstairs to open that days Advent calendar door. Today's surprise was a little ring for a Pet Shoppe critter. The girls are keeping the prizes in little containers with their initials on them as our littlest kitten Mika is a crazy hunter and 'finds' anything little that is left anywhere within her reach .

December 1 - Advent Calendar , Christmas decorations !!

And so it begins..

OK - yesterday was December 1. This year I decided enough of the advent calendars with the chocolate stuff that isn't really chocolate but wax. This year I got the girls Pet Shoppe Advent Calendars. I know I know, NOTHING to do with Christmas really except as buildup to the big day and a chance to talk about what Christmas truly does mean.

The excitement when I pulled out these unexpected calendars was high - I made the girls wait till Monday to even take off the plastic covering on the boxes. Then yesterday - day 1 - we got to see the first little Pet Shoppe surprise behind door no. 1. Today door no. 2 had a cute little knit hat for whatever Pet Shoppe creature emerges at some point this month.

Today the Christmas stuff' all came out of hiding in the basement and the Santa Claus collection and all the door hangy things and wreaths and candles were all set up throughout the house. I even managed to get one of our trees in the front yard covered in lights ( though the vote when Chris and the girls got home was that I needed to put on another string - so obviously NOT covered enough in lights ... guess thats tomorrow's job ).

Carolina of course had her own ideas on where the Christmas decorations should really go so there was some reshuffling of decorations and some changes in Santa collection placements.

This weekend we will get the tree and have our big tree decorating festivities. This will be a busy weekend for us. Friday night we have the Christmas pageant to attend at Bethany Church - they do such an awesome job every year and have live animals ( for real life - as Carolina would say ). Saturday morning I have a Christmas event with our clients at the office and Rosalind has her riding lesson in the afternoon. Sunday we have Chris's office Christmas party first thing in the morning in Toronto ( they do a really nice breakfast event ) and in the afternoon I have an open house to hold for one of my listings.

Yes, so it begins ...somehow in December the pace increases and the time decreases and the month is an absolute race to Christmas !! But it also seems there is time to stop and reflect and enjoy the wonder the kids always have with the first snowfall, the trip to see Santa, getting together with the cousins, and getting out the toboggans and shovels for the first time. I love the chance/ excuse to watch the old Christmas movies - Holiday Inn, Miracle on 34th St, Its A Wonderful Life, The Bishops Wife, A Christmas Story, White Christmas, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story !!!!! S'wonderful !!