Christmas 1 -Vancouver

This year we decided to split the family celebrations into Vancouver and Winnipeg/Sioux Narrows gatherings. My mom (Nana) wasn't working Christmas this year (she's a nurse, you know) so we spent the first part of our holidays with the Mantels. It was a whirlwind adventure, from December 19th to 26th. We saw friends (Ciara, Tanya, Muniz, Sheliza, Jacquie, Jen E) and family (Nana, Papa, Uncle Todd and Dea, Heather, Bob, Gary, Andrea, John, and Baba Libby). We wish we had more time there, as each visit was just too short. It was a wonderful visit, regardless. It is visits like this that remind us of how truly blessed we are by the people in our lives!

On with the pictures:

Sophia was having a great time waiting for the plane./ Thankfully the designers of the Regina airport had the forethought to include play structures for travelling kids. Makes a difference, especially when the power in teh airport shuts down, and you have a little bit of a wait. Too bad they didn't have anything for kids while we waited to board the plane --because the power was out they couldn't use the gate, so we had to walk up. Wanna experience chaos? Try that!

Dad managed to score us some Christmas Train tickets, so the entire family trekked out to dinner at White Spot on Georgia (we certainly weren't the only family with this plan!) and then with full bellies went to the train. Dining out with Sophia gets more and more interesting... Here was our request for the waitress: "Could we have a cup of water with a lid and a straw, plus a plate of ice." She took our order without a blink of an eye, and presented Sophia with her own plate of ice to play with. It kept her entertained for a very long time. And she didn't get too wet. She also enjoyed all of our dinners!

Sophie loved the lights, and ooohh and ahhed all the way through. It was hard to get good pictures, though.
However, she was not a fan of the bigger animals at the petting zoo. She did fine with the rabbits and birds and such, but once we got into the barn she started to whine a bit. She certainly did not like it when I went to pet the pony. Strange. She might have been tired.

Just a quite mommy and baby moment after dinner with Libby and Jen. There is hilarious video of Baba sharing a Ukrainian bouncy song with Sophia, which we will post later on.


This was taken while visiting Heather and Bob...not sure that being with them would drive her to drink. More like she snatched my glass in an effort to be a big girl!


Some good old fashioned play with Emily! Em and Joey were with us at Heather's, they got to spend the day not only with their grandparents but with the Mantels as well!

An early gift from Nana. We think she might have a future as the world's cutest boxer!

The Christmas haul. The only issue that we had this vacation was that a stomach bug took up residence in the Gerhards. It started with Sophia, who, to that point, had never thrown up. It was traumatic for all of us. She was scared by what was happening to her body, and we were scared (okay, I was the most scared!)about the ramifications. I was ready to pack her into the ER after the first round of sick, but thankfully David and Mom talked me out of it. She was sick all night, fine the next day while we visited Heather and Bob, got sick once more, and the slept it off. I got sick on Christmas Eve, right after service, threw up for about four hours, slept and felt yucky all Christmas Day. David got it on the 26th, the day we flew to Winnipeg. He never got sick, thankfully, as we were on the plane. There was a moment of fear though, when the carts were on either end of the aisle, effectively blocking both bathrooms, and David had an urge to toss his cookies. Tat would have been ICKY! We all recovered though, with out giving it to anyone else!

Christmas morning was FUN! I am not sure that Sophia really "got" the whole idea, but she did enjoy her self. She unwrapped each gift very carefully, ooohing each time a piece came off and revealed the hidden goody underneath. She LOVED helping everyone with their gift. She did spend time checking out what she got though...here she is looking over the Noah's Ark that came from Uncle Todd.

One of her new fuzzy friends, Hophop, and a new book, Puff the Magic Dragon!

Scoping out the goodies!

Seemingly reading her Blog book to Uncle Todd. David and I discovered a site (Blurb) that allowed us to download the first year of Sophia's blog and get it printed into a book. Each family got a copy. Sophia loves flipping through and looking at the "baby". It is a fabulous way to keep a hard copy record of our blog, so that she will have something to show her kids later in life.

cuddles with Hophop

Hanging with Dea (Todd's girlfriend) and Uncle Todd. Sophia took a little time to warm up to them, as she plays shy with new folks now. But once she warms up there's no stopping her. She had fun with these two, especially seeing they spoiled her.

We had a great time Vancouver, and like I said earlier, it was too short a visit. But all the requiste Christmas events happened, including a chance for David and I to sneak away to catch a movie (we saw "Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" -romantic, no?)