A pre-Christmas visit to Gran & Grampa's house

Ever since I was a little girl, my mom and I would bake Christmas goodies in the days before Christmas. It means a lot to me each year that we can continue this tradition - and this year we baked piles of goodies. :)

Lily, Lukasz and I headed out to Kelowna during Tatus' last week of work and boy did Lily ever have a lot of fun in all the snow!

I, too, was itching to get outside as soon as I saw how many feet of snow they had. I guess I haven't lived with it as an adult enough to think of it as a bother. When I see the snow start to come down, I think of tobogganing and snowmen and snow angels...

Although I have to admit it's a lot more tiring to toboggan with a little one than I remember it being when we went tobogganing as a kid. I remember pulling Uncle Derek in the sled up the hill again and again and again and flying down, seeing how far we could go. It seems to me I had a lot more stamina for pulling someone on a sled than I do now! Lily and I tobogganed from the top of my parents driveway down, and then down again the second part of the driveway to the woodpile. Not too long and not too steep, but tiring! And most of all, FUN. :)

And with my trusty camera I couldn't wait to snap some shots of this tree in my parents' backyard:

And after numerous months of Lily persisting in going up and down the stairs (with help) this visit she mastered climbing up the stairs by herself without holding on to anything! Way to go! :) Not having stairs in our place, she doesn't get much practice.

On to the cookies and truffles galore!

We've been baking and decorating these gingerbread cut outs for probably over 20 years. :) They are a hit every year. This year I'm going to make a batch at home and Lily is going to help me, if she wants to.
Right now, her main job is taste-tester. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!

Chomp

Hmm...

Yum!
(Yes! We passed. :)

Now for the white chocolate cranberry bark:

Cinnamon sugar cookies:

Lukasz even got a cookie! Gran picks up these organic maple cookies just for Lily and Lukasz. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so he sat like this for a while:

I'll never tire of the view. It's so peaceful:

On to the chocolate-dipped biscotti:

And chocolate orange glazed snowflake cookies:

The positions that Lukasz sometimes sleeps in remind me so much of the way Uncle Shane napped when he was a baby.
Four days later, a sunny drive home. Get ready for more Christmas preparations, Christmas with Babcia, Dziadek, Wujek Daniel and Ciocia Natalya and then we'll be back to Gran and Grampa's on Boxing Day!