2014 Christmas Gift Exchange

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The drawing of the names has been done, and the results are below. I’ve done the draw so that no one is buying for someone that they’ve had in the last few years.

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

Note: Please look it over and let me know if there are any mistakes. We don’t want people buying for each other as part of the gift exchange. We also don’t want spouses buying for each other as part of the gift exchange.

Here are some guidelines:

  • The amount this year will be the same as last year… $60. There is no rule about spending exactly $60 to the penny (or nickel if you are paying cash) and no rule about whether it is $60 including tax or $60 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $60.

The Christmas Eve party will either be at 77 or 69. We’ll send around another email later with the details of where it will be and who is bringing what.

2013 Christmas Gift Exchange

2013_Christmas_Gift_Exchange

The drawing of the names has been done, and the results are below. I’ve done the draw so that no one is buying for someone that they’ve had in the last 5 years.

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

Note: Please look it over and let me know if there are any mistakes. We don’t want people buying for each other as part of the gift exchange. We also don’t want spouses buying for each other as part of the gift exchange.

Here are some guidelines:

  • The amount this year will be the same as last year… $60. There is no rule about spending exactly $60 to the penny (or nickel if you are paying cash), and no rule about whether it is $60 including tax or $60 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $60.
  • It would be good if people could provide a list (more than just a couple of items) to the person who is buying for them. That way the person receiving will be getting something they want, but if the list is long enough, they won’t know which it is.

I assume we’ll be hosting the Christmas Eve party and Christmas Day dinner. We’ll send around another email later with the details of who is bringing what.

Christine dancing to Acapella by Karmin

Christine has been anxious to have something posted to YouTube. She thought the boys’ LEGO videos were neat, but she isn’t quite up to making her own. The other day she was dancing to Acapella, a new song by Karmin (which song Christine absolutely loves), and I told her I’d record it. Here she is, in all her dancing glory 🙂

Andrew’s LEGO Spider-man stop motion video

Matthew got the LEGO Batman DVD for his birthday, and one of the extra features was about some stop motion videos using LEGO figures. This inspired Andrew to make his own. For Andrew’s birthday he got a LEGO set from 2002 from the first Spider-Man movie called First Chase. This is when Uncle Ben is killed and Spider-Man is wearing his home-made costume with the balaclava mask. Andrew recreated the scene using 426 photos. I put them together and we found the theme song to the old cartoon to have as background music. We hope you enjoy it.

The master bedroom is (almost) complete

We have been slowly working on the house. Things aren’t moving as quickly as we’d like, but we’re happy with the end results. We are essentially done. There are just a couple of touch-ups to do.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the master bedroom showing the progress:

The hardest part of all of this was getting the wallpaper off the wall. We are pretty sure it was original.

The water damage wasn’t fresh. I patched some of it up and then we put some decent primer on it and it looks fine.

We were amazed at how great the floor looked. It looks like the carpet was put down almost as soon as the floor was finished.

Lisa did a great job painting the walls and trim

Today we put up the curtains and a couple of decorations.

We rearranged our room. We originally didn’t want the bed in front of the window, but it worked better with the dressers this way

Our room isn’t huge, but it is the biggest master bedroom we’ve had yet

Christine has bones :-)

Most of you probably know that Christine still wets the bed at night. She wears a pull-up, and she doesn’t just “leak”… the pull-up is so full when she drops it in the garbage can it makes a loud thump. Things that we’d read online said that a huge percentage of kids will be dry overnight by the time they are 5 (if not beforehand), and if not, to check with your doctor. So we took Christine to see our family doctor, who referred her to a pediatrician. The pediatrician wanted a “voiding cystourethrogram” done. This essentially an x-ray of a bladder as it fills up and when it is emptied. You can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiding_cystourethrogram

We took her to the hospital a couple of weeks ago to have it done. She did NOT like the catheter. She kept saying that she wanted the pin out.

They filled her bladder, and then told he she could pee. She cried and cried. She was lying on the cold x-ray table and just wouldn’t pee. They tried for several minutes to convince her it was ok, and then ulitmately the radiologist said she could go to the bathroom. She was much happier after that.

They didn’t find anything wrong, which is a good thing. I guess some day she’ll start waking up to go to the bathroom. Until then, we just have to keep buying pull-ups.

We got a copy of the CD full of x-rays, and Christine was thrilled to see her insides 🙂

Christine's X-ray

2012 Christmas Gift Exchange

I’m later than normal getting this out, but there is still 6 weeks until Christmas, so there is still lots of time.

The drawing of the names has been done, and the results are below. Most people are buying for people they haven’t bought for before. Three people are buying for people they bought for before, with the most recent being 3 years ago.

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

Note: Please look it over and let me know if there are any mistakes. We don’t want people buying for each other as part of the gift exchange. We also don’t want spouses buying for each other as part of the gift exchange.

Here are some guidelines:

  • Five of us talked about it, and we decided to up the limit to $60. We’ve had it at $50 for the 10 years we’ve been doing it, and it’s time to increase it.  There is no rule about spending exactly $60 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $60 including tax or $60 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $60.
  • Try not to get a gift card for the person (or give cash, or equivalent) unless that is what they specifically ask for
  • It would be good if people could provide a list (more than just a couple of items) to the person who is buying for them. That way the person receiving will be getting something they want, but if the list is long enough, they won’t know which it is.

We’ll be hosting the Christmas Eve party and Christmas Day dinner. We’ll send around another email later with the details of who is bringing what.

In case anyone is wondering, we are definitely getting in the Christmas spirit. It looks like we’ll be putting up our Christmas trees (we have 2) on Nov 19 as part of Family Home Evening.

Lastly, this is the kids favourite song/video at Christmas:

World famous product reviewer Alisa W

Last night Lisa was looking through the flyers we received. Walmart usually has a grocery flyer and a regular flyer. This week they also had a special one with toys in it.

Lisa opened the cover and on page 3 was a comment from someone about the Barbie Camper. It was by Alisa W. Lisa asked me if it was Alisa, and we guessed that it was, but weren’t sure.

Lisa flipped the page, and on page 4 was a review by that same Alisa W about a Furby Cool or Furby Hot.

I checked with the real Alisa W this morning, and it is indeed her. That’s both funny and cool at the same time!

Halloween 2012

Well, Halloween has come and gone. We ended up with a lot of rain (remnants of Sandy), but it was barely “spitting” out while we were trick or treating. The kids each got a huge bag full of stuff… enough to last them for a couple of days anyway 🙂

Below are some pictures of the St Catharines kids and the pumpkins we carved. Then I’ve also included the various pictures from the other kids as well.