At the Morins: 2007

Man, it's hard to believe that Christmas is done & over with for another year. All that lead up, all those children anxiously waiting, all the preparations, decorations, invitations.....then poof, just like that it's all done :) To think that this 'could' be Noah's last year believing in Santa has really made me appreciate the magic of it all this year, even MORE than usual.

Our Christmas festivities were plentiful, to say the least. It all began on Sunday, Dec 23 and only finished on Thursday, Dec 27. It's all great fun, WAY too much food was consumed by all and I have to admit that it has also been very tiring. It was nice today just to have a 'normal' day on Friday and then a full day date day today with Jacques alone!

Sun Dec 23 @ Mike & Brenda's:

We began our festivities at Mike & Brenda's as Brenda was going to be out of town for Christmas with her mom. Had a few drinks, a great meal, lost quickly at poker and enjoyed some great company. Thank you Mike & Brenda for hosting such a great evening.

Christmas Eve's @ our place:

Had some great fun....enjoyed some regular traditions (the present game) and started a new one (Christmas crackers). I (as usual) prepared WAY too much food but it was well received by all. In the photo below, we all sported our new crowns from the Christmas crackers (some more fashionable than others - thanks Saundra for being such a great sport and Lise, I'm gonna have to have a talk with you!!!)

Having fun playing the present game. It all started out as the hot potato game (where you wrap gifts in multiple layers of wrap, pass the 'hot potato' around to music and when the music stops, he who has the gift unwraps a layer. if there is a gift in that layer, this person gets to keep the gift) the first year. 2 reasons I stopped this game was 1. because I could not see the enjoyment had by people while I manned the music and 2. the wrapping became a huge chore - so I stopped it. This was the year the 'present game' (as named by Noah) was born. How to play: you deal an entire deck of cards to all the participants and the dealer calls from another deck. All the presents (I usually buy about 2 per person) are wrapped only once and placed in a central location. When I call your card, you choose a gift. When all the gifts are gone from the central location and your card is called and you get to STEEL a gift from another person (this is where it gets interesting and FUN)!!!

It's really become a FUN family tradition, in fact, this year EVERY time company would come over Noah would whisper to me "Mom are we going to play the present game?"!!! I believe this happened because last year I prepared 4 'present games'. YUP - it was a blast we got to play it 4 times as we hosted 3 Christmas parties in the month of December, PLUS we played the present game in Ontario with my. I guess Noah assumed that every time company came over (like last year), we would play the present game :)

A very proud moment came when I watched Noah offering Unlce Luc one of his two presents (because Unlce Luc didn't even have one gift). Noah told him that 'no one should be without a present so have one of mine'! Man, this little boy makes me proud! So once Luc received his gift, we realized that Denise & his present was a WILD combination - handcuffs & hand sanitizer! Ridem' cowboy, giddy-up you love birds!!!

The evening got away with us and it was time to prepare for bed. When Noah got to his room - look what he found! Just like every Christmas Eve, the Pyjama Elf had left a new pair of pj's on his bed - but this year he also left a note!

Noah prepared some egg nog and a glass of milk (because there wasn't enough egg nog), 1 cup cake, 1 cookie and 8 carrots (one for each reindeer). We had some difficulties organizing all the carrots without them falling! He also wrote Santa a letter that said: Thanks Santa for Christmas, plus he left him 2 of the little toys he won at the present game but informed him that if he didn't want them, he could leave them!!!

The boys (of course) spent most of the evening playing air hockey, Guitar Hero & ping pong in the basement!

Christmas Day @ home then Luc & Denise's for supper:

4:00 AM - Noah was in our room
Noah: "can I get up yet"!
Mommy: "Ummmm....no dear, go back to bed we told you that your clock had to say at least '6' on the first number"
Noah: "I thought you said it could say 3"
Mommy: "Ummmm...no dear, I said your NOT getting up at like 3 or something"
Noah: "Oh" and off he went
4:15 AM - Noah, back in our room
Noah: "I have a really bad headache, can I get up yet"
Mommy: "Ummmmm....no dear"
Daddy: "why don't you come in bed with us"
Noah: "okay"
4:30 AM - Noah, rocking holding his head from a bad headache, so I go to get him some Tylenol
4:45 AM - Mommy: "okay, let's do stockings"
5:00 AM - in living room ready to open gifts

ARRRRGGGG - what you do for your kids!!! We slowly make our way to our coffee & tea while Noah lied peacefully on the couch - not really acting like himself and pretty quite.

He began to open his gift from Santa (which in fact is a series of gifts that ended in a scavenger hunt to find his main gift - a Nintendo DS). When he first opened the big box, it contained many little wrapped gifts with a note from Santa that told him to open them in number order - there are 10 in total. All of the little gifts were accessories to the DS. Gift #9 was his Pokemon Pearl game. The first few he opened, he really had NO idea what the gift was - by the time he got to the stylus pens for the game, he got up looked at the other gifts and clued in to what it was! His excitement grew through gift #9, but then he knew for sure what it was. Gift #10 was a note, advising him to go to the front hall closet, where he found another note to go to the oven, where he found another note to go to Mommy & Daddy's closet - where the the last wrapped gift was! He came back to the living room, opened it and was really excited that Santa brought him his DS.

A few minutes later, he was quite as he moved his arm up to cover his mouth and this is where the fun began. PUKE began to SPEW out the sides of his mouth as he pressed his arm harder into his mouth....as he ran across the living room in attempts to hit the garbage pail - but by the time he got there - there was no puke left. Poor little man :( I rubbed his back and told him that we should clean him off and he should go back to bed for a little. He begged us to clean him off and get a new pyjama shirt so he could finish opening his presents! But he asked if he could have a bucket just in case! We gave him some gravol and we continued to open the presents with a puke bucket beside him. Every few minutes, he would turn and put his head over the can thinking he had to get sick....but did not again so we continue to open our gifts. FOR THE LOVE of CHRISTMAS - what a child won't endure!!

After opening all of our gifts....Jacques & Noah went downstairs to watch a new season (a gift from Mommy) of Little House on the Prairie (a father/son tradition going back to when Jacques & his dad would watch the show) and both fell asleep for another 2 hours! It was a DIFFERENT morning and I certainly didn't snap too many photos :( but at least everyone got rested and felt better!

We went over to Luc & Denise's later in the day where they put on a FABULOUS meal - thanks so much!

I managed to snap some more photos that I had taken Christmas morning. Notice Luc (top right) - he had just stolen my money with the card in his hand so he just had to rub it in. Also notice Jacques (bottom middle) professing that being drunk is simply a state of mind, ha!

After supper, we played yet another present game! Notice Denice (top right) - that spatula got nick-named the 'spankfest' and was the most wanted gift of all! I unleashed Jacques (in is 'drunken state of mind') with the camera for the present game and them some more - big mistake (notice the next group of photos)....

Yes...he decided (in his drunken state of mind) to get pictures of everyone wishing him a 'F-U to all and to all a goodnight'....okay, you may think this is RUDE! But you SO had to be there. We were ALL pissing our pants laughing - it was SO funny!

This year we all got spoiled, as usual. Noah received his Nintendo DS, his Bakugan play set, FLOAM, arts & crafts supplies, DS games....and more. Noah also received a bunch of CASH...which he is frantically saving to put towards his WII game system. Jacques got a DVR/DVD player, wireless earphones, another season of Little House & Seinfeld, Little House Christmas special, barbecue utensils, pictures for work....and more. And me....man, I must have been really good this year. I got a watch, jewelry box, label maker, Panini grill, slippers, my Webkinz FROG & an angel calendar from Noah, a double head messager and my BIGGEST surprise was a gift certificate for my new 18-200mm lens & filter set for my camera - YIPPY! And of course our family gift was TWISTER from Santa and our air hockey table from Mom & John - THANK YOU!!!

Can we say SPOILED? Not only do we feel spoiled from our gifts, but also to 1. have our health and 2. have these 12 days together have been the greatest gift of all this year!

To start....Friday night (a week ago now - before Christmas), Noah was the goalie for hockey. Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties getting him dressed (without Daddy here)...luckily the other dad's on the team are really helpful and got us all set up! Noah was thrilled about being goalie....a true passion for him! He seems to be more interested in the amounts of goals he saved versus the amount of goals he scores this year! Can we say - CHA-CHING!!!

Then - Saturday (before Christmas) was a very LONG day. We went shopping to get our Christmas present from Mom & John - EARLY! Yippy! We decided to buy a family present - an AIR HOCKEY table! After the purchase of our FIRST table, loading the van, driving home alone to get the car to go back and get the boys, driving home again, unloading the box, taking it to the basement, starting to assemble - we realized the hockey table was cracked. SO - we brought it back up to the van, loaded it, got a sitter for Noah, took it back and bought another one....and did all the same thing again! We finally got it put together and sat back to have some fun. By morning, Noah was complaining of a sore arm each time we played!!! Too much air hockey, I guess! WILD fun though!