Oh tis the season to over indulge

Oh Christmas, the time of year when we eat way too much and dread jumping on the scale after new year to face the music. We had a extra special treat last night and went for the all you can eat buffet at the local chinese place. Ugh, I was in agony on the way back to the house last night from the overstuffing that took place. Oh well it's a good thing that the season only comes once a year that's for sure.

let it snow!

This year it seems as though there is never any snow, usually we get a little by now but everytime it has snowed it has rained or warmed up right after and melted away. We are away on a mini vacation for new years and it snowed today. I was thinking ahead and packed the kids snow suits and sleds and they were excited to break those out today. We all had a great time out in the snow sleding, shoveling and just generally horseing around. What a great day, now it's evening and the snow has turned to rain so I'm guessing the snow will be gone or iced up in the morning but we made the most of it today for sure.

Christmas gifts

This year for Christmas my wife bought me a new cell phone, we were sick of our contract phones and we wanted to go with a pay as you go phone finally after washing my phone in the washer and the phone company not wanting to repair or replace it unless I extended my contract for another 2 years we got the last laugh on them when we dropped our service. I surprised my wife by also getting her a new phone so we were able to both get away from the evil contract company and be on our own.

A trip to the movies

On boxing day this year we were looking for something to do as a family outing and we decided to take in a movie at the local cinema. Our choice of the day was the new release of Alvin and the chipmunks, I was sceptical of what the movie would be like, if it would interest the kids etc. I was completely surprised as this movie was a laugh fest from the opening moments to the final credits, it truly interested everyone of us from me and my wife down through the kids 11, 7, 5, and 3. I worked for all of us and was probably one of the best movie's we have ever gone to as a family.

The family enjoyment

Well as a family we were really good this year as for a family gift we got a Nintendo Wii, WOW. I had no idea how much fun this thing would be, for me getting into my thirties the thrill of video games had faded out a long time ago but let me tell you this machine is absolutely incredible. The games feel like you are really doing them, baseball, boxing, golf, bowling and the best of all Dance Dance Revolution. This game has been a hit with everyone and we were even able to get the grandparents to play. I remember being a kid there was no hope to having Mom or Dad play a video game with me but with the interactive fun of the Wii they couldn't help themselves, what a fun time.

Christmas with the kids

Well this was our first year spent at our home instead of travelling, usually we will pack up everything and head out Christmas eve or rush through Christmas morning to make it in time for breakfast or lunch. This year we enjoyed a nice quite Christmas eve at home with a nice little supper and a movie to wind down before bed. We got up Christmas morning and were able to leisurly go through our morning with no real agenda but to just spend time together. We really enjoyed the day and got to spend time together as a family which we usually don't have time to do with work, school and activities. I really enjoyed our time together as a family and I believe everyone else did to. It was a little hard being 5 hours from family now but I think we had a really great family bonding time.

Bathroom renovation

Here is another fun reno project we recently completed, we bought a new bathroom vanity for our bathroom for $89 and the wall paper was

$3.00 and the flooring was given to us from my mother in law. Total cost to this room renovation about 120.00 after we bought some new pipe parts for the sink. I think we did a great job and I'm really happy with the end results.

Christmas story books!

I came accross a great site yesterday called www.northpole.com for the kids, we found a really cool feature on the site where you can actually create 1 of 3 Christmas stories personalized with your childs name and personal information like favorite activities, foods, friends etc and then print the story out on your computer. The kids found this was really cool and I had to create 1 for each of them. It was a fun project for the morning that's for sure with glue, and stapler in hand we each got the job done. Surprising enough one would think this would be an expensive venture but you know what all it cost is your paper, your ink, your glue, your staples and a little time ...all in all I would say it was well worth it.

Only 2 days Left?

Can you believe it? Only 2 days left until Christmas really not even that as I type this it is the evening of the 23rd and the kids are starting to get ready for bed so really once they are gone off it is 1 more sleep left. We are almost all done getting ready for the big day but I still have to load the kids mp3 players they are getting from their nana with some of their favorite songs. That should be interesting, I read the instruction manual and it didn't seem to bad but until it's actually done I guess we don't know. Wish me luck...Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Well I said we were going shopping this morning to finish up our Christmas shopping...mission completed...it took all day instead of just the morning but we are done. It is terrible we all leave our shopping to the last minute isn't it. The stores we were in today had every checkout open and lined right up. At least we didn't run into any grinches which I thought we would everyone was very polite as they bumped into you, stole your parking space in the lot or ran over you with their shopping cart. I heard lot's of excuse me and I'm sorry instead of the expected hummph, sighs etc. It was very pleasant, I'm glad at this point the town hasn't lost it's Christmas cheer...let's hope it stays that way knocking on my desk right now!