week 24 - bike helmet

24 weeks along, and baby Kiwi is about a foot long... the length of my bike helmet. I am fully aware that this is a more losery-type pregnancy shot, but it would be even dorkier to try to look awesome whilst posing with a bike helmet, no? I felt that two thumbs up and the expression were necessary in keeping with the dorky quality. :) You may at least notice the awesome shirt, however. "Professional Watermelon Smuggler" is what it says, and that is indeed a watermelon nicely covering the expanse of my belly. We can thank my brother for THAT little gem!

Christmas Christmas Christmas! What a busy, delightful, family-focused time of pure awesomeness!

The festive fun began on Christmas Eve at the G house where we all congregated for our traditional ginger bread house making extravaganza. An affair that is both intense AND humorous apparently...

 The finished products!

Ty will attest to the deliciousness...

Next up... family pictures! Womenfolk...

 Menfolk...

Sisterfolk...

Family act-like-you're-having-a-totally-awesome-time-then-ACTUALLY-have-a-totally-awesome-time shot...

Normal family shot (well, as normal as we CAN be)...

Our true colours...

Next up (as per tradition) was a candle-lit church service, Christmas caroling, and finally.... prezzies!

The wee gaffers went first so they could head to bed and the partner/poem fun could ensue. The boys were spoiled- especially by Auntie Shareen. Check out these extremely wicked car track mats that Shareen sewed for them... they're geographically accurate (for the most part) and even include some very important people and landmarks in the boys' lives PLUS parking spots for the cars. Made with lots of love by their very own "Auntie Freen"... how special! Fraser also happens to be wearing his dino PJs from Auntie Freen in this picture...

Now for the ADULTS! As I've explained in the past, our family draws names for Christmas, and writes poems to accompany their (secret) partner gift. I believe this tradition began with my Dad's family, and we carried it on. Well, I had my mama's name, and Lowell had Carlynne's name. Lowell's poem for Carlynne- which read much like a beat poetry NOVEL- led her to believe that he got her EVERYTHING on her list. And the size of the gift was also rather misleading...

Turns out he just got one thing from her list, but it was still a real hit!

I got my Mom an assortment of randoms from her list, as well as some homemade additions. Anyone watch Ellen? I MOST SURELY DO! I got the following ideas from her (well, from Bethenny Frankel who was on her show) :

A tray painted with chalkboard paint so items on the tray can be labeled (perfect for my hostess extraordinaire of a mother)...

And personalized family coasters! If I were to do the coasters again, I'd use all black and white photos as I think they're classier, but still... fun!

Dan had Lowell's name and his poetry skills are extremely entertaining....

 Lowell was pretty psyched about his lulu running pants...

Marc had my name, and true to form... his poem rocked. He can whip up enviably hilarious Dr. Seuss-esque poems in minutes, and I felt so privileged to be on the receiving end of it! He got me  some of my favourite things- money for Starbucks and my new favourite vintagey local store (Splurge & Co), boot socks (HELLO AWESOMENESS) and the wicked awesome watermelon smuggler shirt I'm donning in this week's maternity shot. SO FUN!

Everyone else's poems and gifts were also of the best quality and many laughs were had by all.

We were also spoiled with some unexpected gifts- such as earrings from Carlynne and Dan (for all the gals). They bought them from my super talented cousin, Jared, who makes them. They're extremely beautiful. These are mine...

Check him out. jewellerybyjared.com!

The following days included cross-country skiing, game-playing, movie-watching, hot-tubbing, doggies, babies, COFFEE DRINKING, and plenty of laughter.

Shar, Car & I had a few rousing renditions of Japanese Speed... a classic that we used to spend many hours playing with our Japanese students (as the language barrier did not limit the fun)...

We played the "plate game" which our friend, Mandy, had introduced to us. Very entertaining.

And this, ladies and gentleman, was the winning plate by the one and only Kylie. You can see the beautiful Christmas scene right?

Okay. Now for the most classic of classic G family fun... The Sheet Game!! It was originally dubbed 'The Greatest Game in Canada" (I believe) but Carlynne's med school mates modified the game a bit, and now it's "The Sheet Game". For starters, everyone writes down 5-10 nouns and puts them all in a bowl. Divide into 2 teams (we typically do boys vs girls) and play the following rounds alternating teams (1 minute per turn) with the bowl of words:

Round 1: describe the noun using any word except what's on the paper.

Here my Mom saw the word "Caravaggio" who is apparently a famous artist, but only Carlynne knew that. My Mom burst into uncontrollable giggles because she could think of no other way to describe this mystery word than "car" and "vagina". There's something you must understand about my Mom... when she gets the giggles, SHE GETS THE GIGGLES! It's completely uncontrollable and debilitating. It also makes the rest of us shake/cry with laughter which is an EXTREMELY enjoyable time for all. My Dad poked his head in to see what word was giving my Mom the giggles, and my shaking laughter certainly decreased the quality of the photo!

Round 2: describe the noun using only two words.
Round 3: Straight up charades.

Round 4: Charades under a sheet. SO. MUCH. FUN!

The "after" look when intensely acting under a sheet...

Skiing, doggies, babies...

And we mustn't forget an updated twin preggo shot. Carlynne is nearly 17 weeks here, and I'm almost 24 weeks!

I was totally going to continue on and include the T family Christmas, but this is PLENTY long, soooo... to be continued!