Friday December 24th

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We were pleasantly surprised to have Lucas do his Olympics closer to 7 than 5 today which was an added bonus. After doing some computer work, I made my way upstairs for some breakfast and typing. The boys were up and at em and had a busy day yesterday filled with breakfast, swimming, shopping, swimming and visiting with Great Aunt Ronnie/Roger and playing cards.

Kids slept in til a whopping 7am and we let them play a little Wii to occupy their time as it was another heavily overcast and windy start to the day. Krista, Melissa and Toni went off and did some last minute shopping with Lucas while Darren and the other kids hung out in the pool for a couple hours. After some lunch, Darren took off with Nicholas Roger Ronnie and Toni to do some grocery shopping and pick up an adaptor for Nicholas’ Nintendo. They weren’t charging even though we were using an adaptor we had brought from Canada, but with the change from 110v to 240v, they were being fussy. We found the right attachments and Nicholas was ecstatic to say the least.  We stopped at the grocery store and got a few goodies and headed home to start cooking for Christmas day. Ronnie put a turkey and a ham in the oven as Toni was under the weather and needed some rest.

After 630, we headed about 20 blocks away to a house party at friends of Melissa and Devin’s parents place.  Upon arrival, we discovered a piano in their back room and I was so ecstatic to play some Christmas carols as they are few and far between here. The piano was unique; I had never seen one before, with giant pump pedals where the normal 3 pedals would be. It was a player piano – where a roll of sheet music with holes in it would be wound around and with the pedals moving, play a multitude of notes engulfing the whole house in song. Nicholas and Jacob were completely enamoured by the whole event and we played around 10 songs before they were bored which is near a world record I believe!

Once we took a break, we grabbed a few nibbles in the front drive and wandered around a bit. We were in a neighbourhood with a unique theme on Christmas Eve. All the houses for 10 blocks would put paper lunch bags partially filled with sand and a tea light around their property and light them once it was dark outside.

It made the neighbourhood look a runway at the airport, complete with the already bright and twinkling Christmas lights on people’s homes made for an amazing sight. People congregated on lawns and garage pads eating and visiting and occasionally going for a stroll to see what everyone else’s property looked like.  It was still +20 out at 830 pm and a wonderful experience walking with the boys around the neighbourhood wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

We headed for home after 9 – got the kids showered and to bed as Santa would be arriving soon. After a flurry of wrapping last minute gifts and such, the parents dragged themselves into bed before midnight, eagerly anticipating sleep and preparation for the amazing day that would await them in the morn…….