Xmas baking and shopping

The rest of last week went by in a bit of a blur. Wednesday we made a trip to Markville Mall to exchange Maddie's xmas dress at the Children's Place - they didn't have her size in the plaid one so we exchanged for an adorable little red dress w/ a white bow - she looks quite cute in it. We popped into Baby Gap and picked up white leotards with little red shoes painted on them - instead of wearing actual shoes. Doesn't sound that good - but honestly, I can't believe these weren't invented before.

Thursday we were back in the city - I had a doctor's appointment and then we met Rob for lunch. It was Maddie's first real restaurant meal - she was so well-behaved (as usual - honestly, she's so easy to take anywhere, I'm spoiled) - and we got all sorts of compliments from the older women at the tables next to us - how beautiful she was (of course!) and how she's so sweet (again, natch). Since we were at the Eaton Centre, we did a bit more xmas shopping there before we left - didn't get much except some cute stocking hangers from Pottery Barn - to go on our fireplace mantel.

Friday night our friends Greg and Liz came over for some socializing and drinks - didn't stay that late, but long enough to make some plans to head to the States in January to take advantage of the strong Cdn dollar and do some after xmas sale shopping at the outlets. Should be fun...

Saturday morning we were up super early to head into the city to meet my friend Tracy at the Umbra factory sale. The lineup was incredibly long - even at 9am - but luckily she had gotten there earlier and was saving us a place in line. She also gave us the CD of photos she had taken the weekend before - which were absolutely amazing. She was also sweet enough to bring Maddie a gift - the "Night Before Christmas" book - and told us how a friend of hers had a family tradition of reading that every Christmas Eve. It will be interesting to see what kind of traditions we start (and keep) now that Maddie's here...

So after buying a tonne of frames and photo albums (only $10 each!!!) at the sale, Seth and I drove Tracy home and headed back to Brooklin as my mom was scheduled to be there by 1pm. Once she arrived that afternoon we visited with her and then we all took a nap before getting ready to go out for dinner for Mom's birthday. We ended up going down to Jack Astor's - which was good food, but incredibly loud for us (god that statement makes me feel so old!). Here's a pic of Maddie in her cute H&M dress she wore for Gram's birthday dinner.

This week, Mom and I have done the Christmas baking - although even with two of us, it was still difficult to be productive with Maddie around. But we managed to make 4 types of cookies, 2 types of fudge, chocolates, turtles and 2 types of balls over the past four days - so I guess we did alright.

Today we went to the Pickering Town Centre to do some Christmas shopping and to get Maddie's picture taken with Santa. As always, she was a super-star while we were out and the pic w/ Santa is adorable.

This weekend we have a Christmas party to attend on Saturday night and hopefully will finish up our shopping on Sunday. That's the plan anyway...

S&S