Category Archives: Holidays

2008 Christmas Gift Exchange

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This morning I used an advanced algebraic formula along with a secret combinatorial factor supplied by NASA and I figured out who should buy for who (or it is whom?). No one is buy for their spouse, and no one is buying for anyone that they have bought for since we started this.

  • Alisa buys for Julia
  • Andrea buys for Graham
  • Brianna buys for Lisa
  • Dad buys for Andrea
  • Graham buys for Dad
  • Jason buys for Mom
  • Julia buys for Nanny
  • Lisa buys for Jason
  • Mom buys for Brianna
  • Nanny buys for Alisa

Just like last year, the gift is to be approximately $50. Just to be clear (in case anyone asks), there is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50. For the record, it wasn’t until I typed up this posting that I actually paid attention to the fact that Andrea was buying for me and could use her discount. Honestly!

We will be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again. Lisa has a couple of new additions to the snacks. She’ll be contacting the various households soon with food/refreshment assignments. Nanny will provide a game again. And of course there will be singing 🙂

With regards to the take-away gift exchange game, there was some small debate as to whether it should continue, what the price should be, how it should be run, etc. One thought was that it was more fun when the gifts were cheaper. Another thought was that the game hasn’t been very fun for a while, and maybe we should do something else. After talking it over, here’s what we are going to do:

  • We’re going to do the gift exchange game one more time this year
  • The price needs to be no more than $10 including tax
  • Everyone needs to purchase something. No baking, giving away freebies that are worth a lot, etc.
  • Remember, the point of the game is buy a gift that someone would want to “steal” from someone else

The point of the rules obviously isn’t to take away from the fun. It’s to make sure we are all doing the same thing so things are fair. If the game is a dud this year, then maybe we’ll come up with something else next year.

I think that’s it. If you have any questions, email Lisa or me and we’ll get back to you…

Buckhorn in Summer 2008

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One of the highlights of the summer is going up to Buckhorn. Some of the family are lucky enough to be there for the full two weeks. We were able to be there for parts of 6 or 7 days (essentially 4 days the first weekend, 2 days the last weekend). Every year I comment how beautiful it is and how I wish I could stay longer. The weather wasn’t as nice as years past, but there was still lots to do.

The first trip up, the boys “swam”, we walked, and we relaxed. We went to the Whetung Ojibwa Art and Crafts Gallery. We also had an adventure at the Lakefield Fair. The second trip up, we went into Peterborough, went mini-putting, and excavated pieces of the Canadian shield for Lisa’s parents (thanks for your help Dad and Jason). Whether it was the first or second trip, Christine insisted on staying up late and waking up early. I guess cottage life was just too exciting for her.

I took loads of pictures. As is usually the case, you can see some of the thumbnails below, and see the rest of the thumbnails and larger versions in the Buckhorn in Summer 2008 gallery.





It seems like it is tradition now that we have a party each year. Two years ago we had a shower for Alisa. Last year we had a shower for Lisa. This year we decided to have a party on Andrew’s birthday. Lisa parents (Andrew’s Grandma and Grandpa) came up for the afternoon and we had a party in the “party room”. You can see pictures specifically from the party in the 20080727 Andrew’s Family Birthday Party in Buckhorn gallery.

Note: There are now 4,100 images in 175 categories

Christine’s 6th and 7th Months

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Christine Lisa Wing at 7 months

As they say, time flies when you’re having fun… and with Christine, time flies fast! She is so much fun. We can’t believe how happy she is. I’ve done the usual thing and posted pictures in the Christine’s 6th and 7th Months gallery. These aren’t all of them (there are 60+ pictures), but here is a selection of thumbnails:



She rarely cries, and is usually making some sort of noise (talking) and smiling. She is out of her “stunned” phase, and now often looks quite serious. She has been eating “solid” foods for a little while. I was teasing Lisa that the foods weren’t really that solid, but I guess it still counts. At her 6 month checkup, she weighed 18 lbs.

She has stopped spitting up (miracles will never cease!) so she doesn’t smell like rotten milk anymore. Yay!! She plays with her feet, and pretty well anything else she can get her hands on. And almost everything she can get her hands on ends up in her mouth. Speaking of hands, she has learned to clap on demand.

She really (that’s an understatement) likes to rock herself. She would go berserk in the Jolly Jumper. She moves her rocking chair across the room (even though it has no wheels). She entertained a group of school kids the other day at Andrew’s school as she rocked herself during a school play. I’d try to describe it (she basically moves forward and back very hard), but seeing is believing. She can usually stay sitting up on her own until she starts rocking and falls over.

She has her first two teeth (I call them bottom front teeth, Lisa calls them lower incisors). As has happened with Andrew and Matthew, the arrival of teeth also meant she was sick. She tries to pull herself up whenever she is down (physically, not emotionally). She can get into a crawling position but doesn’t move anywhere yet.

Lastly, she is a pretty funny girl. As I said, she smiles all the time. The other day we were driving to Lisa’s parents place (Christine’s Grandma and Grandpa) and she sneezed and then giggled like she had told a joke or something. It was very funny!

I’m back

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I got back to waterloo last Saturday. Everything went well and my luggage wasn’t lost! Overall the trip was amazing. I worked 8 to 5 every day, so we didn’t do much else. What I said in the first post is about it. We had two days off, one at the beginning and one at the end. We went to an aquarium and zoo and went sight-seeing. We broke into a fort, too. We then broke out, which was harder than breaking in. That’s about it.

Pictures from Christmas

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I have a bit of time in the evenings this week, so as we’ve been watching the Star Wars movies, I’ve been putting the galleries online. I have 3 galleries ready from Christmas:

  • 20071224 Christmas Eve Party – There are pictures from the annual Christmas Eve party at our house
  • 20071225 Christmas Day – Lisa’s parents were here for the Christmas Eve party and stayed over. These are pictures of the 3 kids and all of their presents.
  • 20071227-29 Christmas Dinner at Church – On Thursday, December 27 we had our big family dinner (after a bunch of us were sick on Boxing Day) and then on Saturday we all got together again (unfortunately without Jason). These are pictures of the gym, us eating, as well as the various group pictures we tried to take.

Christmas Gift Exchange

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The “draw” for our Christmas gift exchange was done yesterday. Here are the results:

  • Nanny buys for Lisa
  • Dad buys for Julia
  • Mom buys for Jason
  • Graham buys for Andrea
  • Lisa buys for Dad
  • Alisa buys for Graham
  • Jason buys for Nanny
  • Julia buys for Alisa
  • Andrea buys for Brianna
  • Brianna buys for Mom

The gift is to be approximately $50. Just to be clear (in case anyone asks), there is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50.

We will be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again. We’ll sing and eat, and Nanny will provide with find a game again. We’ll also continue the take-away gift exchange game on Christmas Eve. The small gift is to be $10.

Halloween 2007

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Another year, another Halloween. I guess since they are getting a little older, Andrew and Matthew were particularly excited about Halloween this year. Lisa bought a few decorations and put them up. For one of our Family Home Evening activities we made a haunted gingerbread house. Andrew got to wear his costume to school on Halloween. He was Frankenstein. Matthew was a fireman (with a dog in its pocket, as he had to tell everyone when he went trick or treating). Christine was a zebra (courtesy of Mom). Lisa stayed home to give out candy while I took the boys out and pushed Christine in the stroller. The boys both got a lot of candy, and then we headed to Hilda Street where they got some more. I’ve taken pictures from most of these things and you can see them in the Halloween 2007 gallery.

One of the things Andrew was most excited about happened a few days after Halloween. He got a new book called 13 Ghosts of Halloween. It had a “song” that was to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas. Here are the words:

13_ghost_of_halloween_cover.jpg

On the twelfth stroke of midnight
Oh, nothing frightens me!
Not twelve vampires rising
Eleven goblins giggling
Ten werewolves howling
Nine witches cackling
Eight mummies moaning
Seven spiders grinning
Five bogeymen
Four darting bats
Three black cats
Two shrunken heads
Or a vulture in a dead tree