Updates

Just a quick summary of our November/December stuff:) 

We stayed home for Thanksgiving Day this year. First time in four years:). It was fun and relaxing and simple. The boys went to school both Thursday and Friday and Katya just hung out with us. We had dinner at the Sawtry Village Hall with about 40 other friends. It was fun:). Then on Friday we went to Cambridge in the evening to go ice skating. Here is our crew on skates...on a melting ice in the middle of Cambridge:). Robert is NOT the penguin. He is taking the picture.

By the end of the night it was raining! We wanted to show the kids the haunted cafe in central Cambridge and get some hot chocolate, but the place closed at 16:30. What a shame...We had to get hot chocolate from Starbucks instead. 

The kids have been playing board games a lot. This is Alex and Mark playing Risk with their own rules, early in the morning so that they don't wake us up. 

Speaking of sleep, it has been amazing to sleep in on everyone's days off. Even if Alex still wakes up at 6:30-6:45 and Mark wakes up around 7:30, they manage to be super quiet getting breakfast and reading or playing till we wake up. Several times, Robert and I slept till 9 am this Christmas break!!! Sounds lazy..but we all know it's just a couple of days a year. I didn't even mention Katya just now. She simply doesn't wake up unless I wake her up:)) And then she stays up late, till midnight sometime. She just reads, writes, organizes her room, who knows? She is such a night owl...

One more thing about Katya--she got her braces off! Again. Last November she got them off right before the movie started filming and then she had to get them on again. Finally, she got her teeth all straight. I just need to find a good picture of her soon. 

She also recently auditioned and got the part of Alice in Alice in Wonderland play that the school will put on this March. She has a lot of lines to memorize, but she will be perfect! We are all very excited for her.

Alex took his Grade 3 exam in piano and passed it with distinguish remarks. The funny part is that he got the same score exactly as Katya did when she took that exam. Not to downplay this achievement, but seriously, if only Alex took piano more seriously and practiced longer each day, he'd be on Grade 4 or 5 by now. But at least he still likes the piano.

And that's pretty much it for now. Gotta run to pick up the kids from school.

Lyana.