EMNS Middle School Sign Language Club Holiday Concert Performance

Kennedy with her Sign Language Club, performing "Mary's Boy Child"...you'll notice she's the one to give a big bow, wave to the crowd and make a 'heart hand' to them. No shyness here...;)

For those of you not on facebook, here is the link to the youtube video:
http://youtu.be/6xlp2NO52R0

Enjoy!

Empty Stocking Fund 2011

Here is a video of Kennedy singing with her choir on TV this past weekend - they sang, "Somewhere in My Memory" (from Home Alone). This telethon has run each year for the past 75 years in Saint John to raise money to help families give their kids a xmas when they might otherwise not have one. I was also on the telethon with choirs when I was her age - glad she is continuing the tradition. This is a video her dad took while we were there live. She's the first one on the bottom row on the right... Enjoy!
PS - it does zoom in after a bit so you can actually see her better!

The Holiday Season

To everyone reading this blog, no matter what you celebrate, I hope it was healthy, restful, relaxing and joyful. We had everyone here except for Taylor, who was with her mom in Nova Scotia but is thankfully coming to Moncton later this week so we will see her next weekend.

In other news, I am due to fly out tomorrow morning to Orlando for some meetings but from the look of the impending Nor'easter heading this way and having already received word from Air Canada to expect delays and cancellations, I'm not sure what will happen tomorrow. I'm only scheduled to be there until Thursday morning so a 1-2 delay will render the trip useless. I'm pretty sure they don't refund for situations like this either. On the bright side, my sister and her hubby and my niece Kendra are traveling home right now and should be here before the big bomb hits! Please be safe if you are traveling today or tomorrow - it's better to stay home and miss something and be safe!

The best gift of all was having all three of my babies under the same roof and the special times spent together to celebrate family. That's what the holidays are all about to me.
My babies & I on Dec. 24th


Brother Scott, Kyle, nephew Stephen, Ryan and Dad posing for a festive photo on Dec. 24th.


Kyle and I on Dec. 25th at mom's house for dinner

Kennedy Directing Her School Sign Language Club Signing Rudolph

Today was the holiday show at Kennedy's school. Each Monday, she and her interpreter run a noon hour sign language club. They had been practicing the song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and performed it today. It's a great video but since Kennedy is directing, we mostly just see the back of her! They did a fabulous show and I'm so proud of all of them. Way to go!

Aftermath...

That's right. Aftermath. The Fat Man comes and leaves this house in a hurricane and it's up to "SUPERMOM" to put it all back together, clean it up, and find places for it all. It's all okay though, it was worth it to see the faces of my family light up with glee at their surprises. Graeme got the biggest surprise of all - his parents bought him a brand new 2007 Chevy Cobalt! It was quite a shock to everyone, most of all him! I couldn't be happier for him, he is the BEST and deserves it. He is a wonderful husband, father, and son. I could not be happier unless I'd bought it myself for him.

Kennedy had a wonderful day filled with High School Musical and Hannah Montana - she was thrilled right down to the core. The boys were a bit more subdued but what do you expect of an 18 and 16 year old that early in the morning??? We enjoyed a beautiful dinner (if I do say so myself...) - I actually searched out and prepared several "Martha Stewart" recipes for the stuffing, a side dish, and the turkey - all were delish! It was a very special present for all of us to have Kennedy join us and dine with us at the table for our holiday meal together.

So now it's back to the cleaning, re-organizing, etc. I hope everyone who reads this blog had a very merry whatever-it-is-you-celebrate and some wonderful, peaceful, healthy, restful time with family & friends.

Yay for Hannah Montana movies!


Yay for new cars!

Shortbread Cookies

I spent the day doing a lot of holiday baking - when Kennedy came home afterschool, she wanted to play outside in the snow for awhile. When she came in, she noticed the rolled out dough and shortbread cookies cooling on wire racks. She asked if she could have one and proceeded to gobble TWO down (with a bit of frosting on them). The next question was, "can I have that frosting in a bowl, mama?" - that's my girl, complete with sweet tooth! It was pretty special seeing her eat her very first holiday cookies! She was very concerned about which ones we should leave out for Santa. I told her we would save him a couple of the big ones. She is so excited and things are a lot of fun around here right about now.

December Pictures

Kennedy sang in the Holiday Musical at her school today. It was called "Once on a Housetop" - a great multi-cultural, multi-traditional celebration. Her song was part of the "Santa" portion of the show; he was stuck in the chimney. The song was "A Big Red Fella" - the video is getting transferred onto DVD so I can get it up online. In the meantime, here she is singing:


And here she is, post-show, posing in front of the tree:




And the other day, shoveling snow with Dad (we are doing that a LOT lately - lots of snow already!):

Letter to Santa 2007

This was an independent effort on the part of Ms. Kennedy. I was proud that she thanked him for last year's gift and asked about the "artic" and Mrs. Claus.
I'm guessing Santa will be able to find couple Hannah Montana movies for her.

22 More Sleeps!

The Holiday Madness has begun! Kennedy woke up Saturday morning bouncing off the walls to open her advent calendar. There's nothing like brightly coloured Santa & Reindeer waving in your face and the whiff of cheap chocolate to lull you not-so-gingerly out of your slumber. Seriously, though - the holidays are just too much fun when you are dealing with the energy dynamo that is my Kennedy. We put the decorations up this past Saturday & Sunday and though it's no winter wonderland by any means, Kennedy loves it all. She was just about busting with excitement as each of the large plastic totes were brought down from the attic by Daddy. It really is all about reliving things through your children's eyes. It's a lot of fun, even when I'm not 100% in the mood, with the impending doom of six cumulative exams hanging over my head.

This morning, another usual December tradition started...when Kennedy comes upstairs around 6:30am, ALL of the lights must be turned on: the little tree by the front door, the ceramic "North Pole" that sits on the coffee table, all of the little village houses on the mantle and even the candy canes and star in the big picture window. They stay on until Miss K is on her bus off to school. I don't know anyone who loves it all more than Kennedy, which always serves to get me in the mood, too.