Christmas

Christmas started somewhat early this year with a trip to Science World on the first weekend of December. BC Hydro always has a Children's Christmas Party for BC Hydro staff with kids 12 and under. They book Science world for the first two hours of the morning before it opens to the public and you get refreshments and free run of the place. You can then stay for the rest of the day if you wish. For the first time we managed to get at least one of the kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Carter was not very interested though. He didn't even want to look at him. I guess it's too real when he's right in front of you.

I don't think Christmas is Wilson's favourite time of year. The kids always torment him by putting hats on him and we always forget, and wrap his present and place it under the tree. He knows it's something good but he can't get to it. He's especially not fond of the saxophone playing Santa.

Once the holidays rolled around we become the Christmas hub for both my family and Kerry's. Barb and Reg came down a few days before hand and we have Christmas #1. The kids get to open one present on Christmas eve but then they have to wait until Christmas morning. Unfortunately Callie figured this meant 4:45a. Kerry managed to keep her quite till about 6:00 but it was still a very early morning. Carter's favourite gift was his seat pet. He saw the commercial and had to have one. He would quote the commercial and tell us that "Then he wouldn't have to ask 'Are we there yet?'"

Callie's favourite gifts were definitely all of her lego. One of the sets she got was over 1200 pieces. She still managed to have it done by the end of the day on Christmas day. The lego that they have designed for girls is called Lego Friends and she got Heart Lake High and Hear Lake Stables as well as a house boat. As you build the set it allows for a lot of imagination however she tends to keep everything in it's original configuration and doesn't take it apart so it's more about building the city. I had to make her a table just to hold it.

A continued Christmas tradition is for Santa to buy the kids pajamas. Kerry... I mean Santa.... has done it since Callie and Carter were born and the last couple of years he's been getting it for Kristen and Ryan as well. This year they looked like Christmas prison convicts and each had a different Christmas character on the front. We finally managed to get a picture with all of them together, even Ryan who is notoriously difficult to keep in pictures.

We finished Christmas and New Years with Mom and Dad coming down for Christmas #2. I think this year we opened presents the evening they came rather than waiting for Christmas morning. That's more in line with what our family used to do anyways so it felt like the right thing to do.

We also had Christmas Dinner, Two Fondus and a mini new years party at our house. A very busy holiday. It almost seemed like a vacation to go back to work.