Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow morning we leave sunny Calgary and head West for our Christmas holidays. For the first time in eight years I'm going to spend Christmas with my family! It should be a really exciting time. My grandfather will be there from Winnipeg and my cousin Megan will be flying in from Paris with her little family. Brandon will learn all the Christmas "ropes" from his big cousins Alexa and James. Maybe this year he'll figure out he's supposed to be excited about presents under the tree ;)
We'll be gone from Dec 22nd to Dec 30th. We're back just in time to celebrate New Years with our friends. I know we'll have fun but we'll be thinking about all our friends and family in faraway places.
Wherever you find yourself for the holidays this year, we wish you safe travels and lots of love and laughter.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Love The Fontaines

A Christmas-y Weekend

With Christmas right around the corner, this little Fontaine family has been busy doing all kinds of festive stuff.
On Saturday morning we drove down south to Spruce Meadows and partook in the always fabulous Shaw Kids Christmas party. This event was a huge hit with Brandon last year and I'm happy to report it was again this weekend. Being a "big" boy now, Brandon had his first pony ride! I hoisted him up on a little fat pinto named "Bam Bam" and he took two strolls around the ring. At first I wasn't sure if he would want to try but once he was up there he was all smiles (let's face it, it's in his blood!) After the ride we checked out the goats, the bunnies and the real reindeer in the petting zoo. We then headed back to the main building for lunch and wrapped up the party with some Christmas craft time.

It was such a warm day (around 6 degrees) so Jamie and I thought it would be a nice evening to check out the festive lights put on by the city in Confederation Park. Once again we bundled up our boy and took him to the park. It was such a beautiful site. The impressive lights were twinkling while Christmas carols boomed from the loud speakers. Some clever kids had brought their sleds and Jamie and I decided that was a "must do" for next year.

Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonder land. The temperature was still relatively warm but the snow was falling softly in fluffy, fat flakes. This was going to be a great day for a horse-drawn sleigh ride.  Our local golf course - Valley Ridge Golf Club - was offering free sleigh rides, cookies and hot chocolate. We showed up right at 11am and were the first ones on the sleigh. With the snow falling all around us, I snapped a photo of my happy boy enjoying the ride. The ride only lasted about 10 minutes but it was lovely and we enjoyed the cookies and hot chocolate afterwards.
With the busy-ness of work and everyday life, I finally feel like I've caught the Christmas spirit. I think my baby felt the magic too - it was all over his face this weekend :)

My Canadian Winter Baby

If you're going to live anywhere in Canada - especially anywhere east of Vancouver - you might as well learn to love the winter. For those of us in Alberta, the last eight winters have taught me the cold sets in around November and stays until least April. So this means for half the year we need to keep warm and entertain ourselves with what this lovely land has to offer.
For Brandon this entails taking 10- 15 minutes to get suited up in order to enjoy the weather outdoors. And love it he does! So far Brandon thinks the snow is great. He likes to do belly flops in the snow, catch snowflakes on his tongue and help Daddy shovel the back deck. He has great enthusiasm for all these things and has quickly learned to say "it's snowing!".
This year we hope to take him sledding (we know already he's going to love it) and maybe even on a horse-drawn sleigh ride. We've already taken him to Zoolights at the Calgary Zoo and that was a huge hit. Next year, when he's a bit bigger, we'll try him on skates and skis. In the meantime here's some pics of our little man enjoying the winter :)