Old Fashioned Family Christmas

 We awoke in the morning surrounded by family and lots of presents.  The stockings were too heavy to hang anywhere (PS this doesn't bode well for our luggage situation returning to Winnipeg ...)  

 "Santa" always remembers to leave us some frozen treats in honour of our Kiwi Christmas in 2012 and our family that celebrates every year in New Zealand amid the southern hemisphere December sunshine and beach weather! 

 Boys were excited to find an NHL jersey and Harry Potter Trivia game.

 

Some brotherly love displayed after they opened presents from each other (candy of course!)

 
 Grandma came to enjoy the morning with her little girls, Kenna Marie and Penelope Renee along with the big boys.  

There's always a sticker-decorated box from Nana & Poppa that mysterious arrives under the tree each Christmas from "Somewhere in the South Pacific"! 

 Some wooly socks and thermal gear to keep mom and dad wear in Winterpeg and good ol' All-Blacks gear for the boys ....

 and burger rings, eskimos and pineapple lumps!  I'm sure I've posted about these delicacies on the blog elsewhere, but I'm not especially clever enough tonight to link up my old posts ... (aim for Nov. 2012- June 2013)

 

There was a flurry of excitement when the boys discovered their Nintendo 3DS and games.  It had been on the top of the list but last to discover under the tree!  What followed amounted to our peace and quiet for the morning.  :-)  

 

Our annual tradition is a delicious Christmas morning brunch at Mom and Dad Humphreys.  This is my sister Laura's "favourite meal of the year" (she's not in the photo because she was next to me getting her own photo; we may need to be more coordinated next time!)

 Cousins:  Xavier, Kenna, Jackson and Penny! 

 Here's Laura and her family, Paul, Julie and Nan.

 Dave, Dad and my little brother with a very bushy beard, Mike.

Boxing day was a repeat of Christmas Dinner at the Roessner's house (my aunt and uncle) with plenty of food and lots of games!  (This was a good thing because somehow I forgot to take pictures of actual Christmas dinner ... perhaps I was mesmerized by their newly renovated spa bathroom!)  Crokinole and Chinese Checkers were new for our boys and they loved the challenge of learning a new game.  Thank you so much for your hospitality!

 We were blessed to have the Puddicombe family join in the celebrations as part of their Niagara Christmas this year with Peter and Becky.

Next Christmas tradition accomplished - hot tub.  I'm sure when we were new parents and the boys were small we decided that they couldn't go in until they were 16 ... apparently we caved at the half way point.  :-)  

 Ah, LEGO, how we parents adore you for that whole 2 hours that the boys are peacefully occupied developing their visual-spation skills, building and following directions.  It's practically home-schooling.  Xavier's teacher had sent him a nice fat bundle of work to complete over the holidays so we did end up home-schooling about half and hour a day this week.  We encouraged (forced) Jackson to practice his cursive writing and typing skills .... argh, no photos, that part was a tad unpleasant. 

Last few photos on this totally selfish, family saturated, no scenery in sight, blogpost are of my darling nieces.  Hardest part of training college is being away from them. 

PS.  New Year's Eve.  It happened.  We rocked it.  Home party at Mike and Laura's.  Kids gone wild.  Toy room trashed.  Watched the movie "Pan".  Surprise bags every hour on the hour and sparklers in the centre of the circle at 11pm with kids screaming wildly.   Most everyone made it until midnight ... then zzzzzzz. 

 (In case you need a reference, this is the bearded duo Mike and Pastor Jason.  I feel as though they may have done this before at Camp Selkirk? )

** Many apologies if we didn't get to visit you during our time in Niagara.  We squeezed in as much as we could, but we plan to be back in St. Catharines during the last two weeks of August. Contact us and we'll pencil you in early!  **