Wednesday, December 28

And here we are, edging further into our Christmas Holi-days. And 'What' do you ask, did we do today? Well, we did alot of lounging and hanging out. Mr.Mister took on another biiiig nap in the morning. and Lil' Miss watched the 'Tangled Rapunzel Show' with Auntie B. She snuggled right in there with Auntie and I think she almost sat for the whole way through! That's amazing. But then Mr.Mister woke up and the afternoon came and it was definately time to get out of the house. It was time for Lil' Miss to put on her new skates that she got for Christmas and give them a try. So we headed up to the Ledge for some skating, some sliding, and some sight-seeing. Sight-seeing that I didn't really know existed (in the underground.....*insert ominous music here!!!! With a little Christmas jingle bells added in!!!!!*)

First thing was first. Both Lil' Miss and Mr.Mister got all bundled up (although it wasn't that cold, but it's still good to bundle up) and we headed for the little ice rink by the parliament buildings.

(Don't kid yourself....Mr.Mister isn't always THIS happy when he's trapped in the stroller. Someone must have got him on an 'off' moment....before he realized that he kind of got deserted in the stroller while everyone else was watching Lil'Miss strut her stuff on the skating rink.)
Lil'Miss got all excited when she learned she was about to try ice dance skating on real ice with her new skates!!! So skates went on, Mommy kept her boots on so she could hold Lil' Miss up, and away we went!

The first wobbly loop around the rink was just that...spaghetti like and very very wobbly. But little by little she started to get the hang and the point of what she was supposed to do. She fell, she rolled over, she got on her hands and knees, and she got back up. Of course Mommy's job was to make sure she didn't hit her head (forgot her helmut.....didn't even think about it...) AND to make it FUN!

 Lots of smiles ensued. I think she did pretty darn good. By the end of the 20 minutes or so she was getting up without help and she wanted to try skating by herself. But Mommy stayed near her to catch her head if she fell...so she used my hand as a steady prop. Which was fine with me. She kept on skating, did a little toe point here and a little swirl/toe point/ fall down there.

Then she saw Gramma pushing Mr.Mister down a slight decline on the new red saucer slider....And it was time to take the skates off because there was something else potentially more fun to do. And it was slide on the new red saucer slider, dooooown the hill.

Mr.Mister went down a couple times...

Lil'Miss went down a couple times...

 Mommy went down with Mr.Mister once....then Lil'Miss went down.....and did a bum over tea kettle crash. So ended our sliding session.

On to some sight seeing!!!!!
We made a walking trip around the parliament buildings with the hopes of seeing the millions of multitudes of lights that are strung from tree to tree to tree to tree (and on and on and on and on...) around the building. But we didn't see anything. We weren't sure when they came on exactly, so we headed underground...(there's that ominus music again...with some hark the harold angels sing thrown in for good measure..). And lo and behold we found the underground pedway that weaves in and about the parliament buildings, lined with christmas trees. Then we found an interpretive center that showed displays of nativity, mock-ups of the house of commons, and a lego model of the actual parliament buildings! Throw in a gift shop and a couple of pop machines and here's a part of the Ledge that I totally didn't know existed. And here I thought I'd only come to see the lights. I learned a few things....like....
1.) the house doesn't sit at their meetings without the 'special' mace of office (which Auntie B pointed out was originally used to bludgeon people to death....hey, a mace is a war weapon! Let's not kid ourselves!)
2.) the provincial gov't encourages a healthy lifestyle by providing information plaques about the walking loop(s) that are mapped out in this underground maze....measured by km and approx. times it takes to walk each loop
3.) gift shops occur in places you would never think
4.) people are really amazing with Lego....and there is such a thing as an unofficial lego users group...
And then at about 4:45pm the twinkle lights came on!

And as expected, they looked pretty darn spectacular. At this point, it was time to head home. Mr.Mister was protesting....loudly at once again being stuck in his stroller, and Lil'Missus mind was wandering.....to thoughts of defiance and tantrums.....definately time to hit the trail home. But a fun outing, nonetheless!