Overall, we had a great Christmas this year. The only annoying part is that we’re all sick with a cold that is in week 3 heading to week 4, and Katlyn’s croup has returned making for sleepless nights all around. Everything else is good!

Christmas Eve: We spent Christmas Eve at Jason’s house this year, where he hosted the annual Macintosh tradition for the first time. The torch was passed well, and the event is totally kid-focused now. I enjoyed the naughty letters that Santa used to give when it was all adults, but I enjoy seeing my nephew going gaga over Santa even more. Elliot had the most fun I think, he kept telling Santa how much he missed him, and how good he was, etc. When we got back to our house, Katlyn really kicked it into high gear getting ready for the big man. We put out cookies and milk, she wrote him a letter, and she left the bathroom light on in case he needed to use the loo.

Christmas Day: I woke up at 6:30am, panicked that I had forgotten to bite the cookies and drink the milk. Jodie popped up to tell me that she had taken care of it though, so I went back to bed. Stared at the ceiling for about 45 minutes until Katlyn woke up and we let her go downstairs first. She noticed right away that Santa left a present in the bathroom (it was a thank-you note with a Where’s Waldo book and some bathroom spray for Katlyn). Then she saw that there was a bike and scooter in front of the tree, and knew that Santa had been there. We cracked open all of the presents, all the Grandparents were able to be there for a bit in the morning as well to participate. We fried up some eggs for lunch, then headed off to Oakville to spend time with Tim and Steph’s family. The kids exchanged gifts, and then we sat down to a big turkey dinner

Boxing Day: Boxing day was pretty relaxing. I went for a quick run out to the stores to see if there was anything interesting on sale. I got the flyers ahead of time on redflagdeals.ca, and there wasn’t anything I wanted to line up for but it’s always fun to see what deals you can get. I wound up bringing home Call of Duty 3, which was mildly on sale, and some wrapping paper but that’s about it.

It’s been a few days, and the “best present” winners are starting to emerge.

Jodie: I got her a German game called Ticket To Ride, and we’ve been playing it nonstop. We first got turned on to the whole German games thing when we were looking for good 2-player games a few years ago. Now that our stock of 2-player games is pretty high I decided to go for something we could play with the mother-in-law and this one is a hit!

Pete: It’s not clear for me yet, but I have been sitting in front of the fireplace every day so I’d have to say that as of right now, the fireplace tools seem to be winning.  UPDATE:  How could I forget my new hard-anodized frying pan?  I’ve used it twice a day since Christmas, it’s an awesome cooking force!
Katlyn: Looks like a tie for the time being. She spends a good chunk of the day riding around the house on her new scooter. If she needs to get somewhere on the main floor, she scooters over to it. The other thing she can’t get enough of is the Hullabaloo DVD game. For anyone with young kids, I highly recommend it - lots of physical activity and fun stuff in the box.

Jaimee: This one is tough to call, but I’m biased so I’ll say that she’s been all over the Diego colouring book I got for her. It’s one of those pads that is black and white when dry, but when you go over it with the included wet brush all the colours come out. Then it dries back to black and white again. The other contender is a recorder (aka flute) that Jaimee got from Grandma and Grandpa Near.