Christmas may be officially over, but the fun continues for the St.Jean-Mourali's. We kicked off the holiday season with a day in Montreal visiting Mehdi's family, then arrived in Alberta Christmas Eve where we've been making merry non-stop. I'm too tired from all the fun (and aching from an afternoon curling yesterday) to get into details, but let's just say there's nothing like home for the holidays.

Anissa with big cousin Matayla.


How did Santa know she wanted Dora pyjamas?


Serious playdough-ing with cousin Corbin.


Putting on a show with her new piano.


Best wishes, everyone, from our family to yours!

My version of yesterday:

After a morning hanging out at home, mostly spent playing what Anissa calls "satawant" (and the rest of us call "restaurant"), we headed out into the cold wintry world to meet Mehdi for lunch on campus at a real satawant. After parting ways with Papa, we perused the UNH bookstore for Christmas gifts, made a trip to the drug store then did the grocery shopping. Once home we did puzzles, made pink playdough snowmen and Anissa drew on her easel. I squeezed in some cleaning. Anissa helped me make pea soup, we read some books. Laundry got done, and Anissa watched an epsiode of Barney. We had some laughs, as always, and in general the day flew by.

Anissa's version, as reported to Papa at the end of the day:

"After we ate lunch with you at a satawant, we came home and waited for you to come back."

Some random things I'd like to remember about Anissa:

1. Her love of the game I Spy, and her insistence that we only make our guesses in French. When it's her turn, though, to spy something, she doesn't just say what colour the object is. She launches into a full description, something like: "I spy something that is a brown oval and has a pink nose and yellow tail and has a purple circle on his head. And he rides a red sled." We have to guess everything around us (in French) until she blurts, "It's NOTHING!"

2. Her desire to help, in her own way. Whenever something is broken or doesn't work (i.e. the VCR), she exclaims, "Don't worry, Mama, I'll fix it. With my hammer!"

3. How much she loves our family. She asks for family hugs, and asks to sing the Family Song from Barney, all of us holding hands, at every meal. (In our family, happy as can be. I'm so glad that you belong to our family.)

4. Her feelings towards Santa. When we first explained who he was about a month ago, she instantly decided she didn't like him (Maybe she was suspicious of an old guy who gives gifts to kids. Which is not such a bad thing). Whenever she told me she wanted something she saw in a store and I told her she could ask Santa to bring it for Christmas, she got very annoyed and told me that she would NOT ask Santa, she would only ask ME. (Maybe she's a realist and just doesn't buy into the whole thing). About a week ago, though, she had a complete change of heart. We bought her a stocking to hang and explained that this was where Santa would put her presents. Her immediate reaction was, "I like Santa now."

4. Her reaction when she saw a marshmallow, and I told her it was food: "Oh. I thought it was a little toilet paper."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...




We were hit with a mega snowstorm last Friday, so Anissa finally got to truly experience what she doesn't remember from last year - jumping in snowbanks, making snow angels, just general flopping about on the ground. And she got to test out the sled we gave her as an early Christmas present. It's a huge hit! Too bad she's come down with a nasty cold that has left us a little housebound. Thankfully, though, she's come up with an alternative that 's keeping her entertained: pulling her stuffed animals around the house in the new toboggan.

We made another trip to Montreal last weekend, this time for a very meaningful occasion: Mehdi's graduation. Aunty Rafika was visiting from Tunisia, making it all the more special. Mehdi had the honour of delivering the valedictorian speech, during which Anissa announced (rather loudly) that she needed to go to the potty. There was no way I was missing his speech, so I gave her permission, just this once, to go in her diaper. Then, for the rest of the speech, she begged me to take her to the bathroom to change her. Anyway, from what I heard of the speech, Papa did a great job. At the end, the entire auditorium could hear Anissa cheering, "Yay, Papa! My papa is on TV!" (the big screens above the stage). We ran down the stairs from the balcony to meet Papa at the end of the ceremony, dirty diaper temporarily forgotten, and Anissa smothered him with congratulatory kisses.

I've been trying not to develop a complex over the fact that my birthday is fast approaching, tacking another year onto an already too-high digit, but so far I've managed not to panic. That is, until a little chat I had with Anissa today. During snack time, we were discussing the gift we were going to make Papa for Christmas, and I told her homemade gifts were always the best. For my birthday, for example, I would love it if she drew me a picture. I told her my birthday was coming soon (you know, in case Papa might need someone to remind him), then asked how old she thought I was turning. Of course, she thought I would be "two", beacuse that's how old the whole world is. When I informed her that I was in fact turning 34, her response threw me off guard:

"Oh. That'll be terrible!"
First of all, I've never heard her use that word. Second, since when does a 2-year-old think a birthday, with cake and balloons and all that fun stuff, is a bad thing?

And here I was trying to stay so positive...