Santa at Grandpa and Grandma’s

On December 15th my side of the family gathered together for a family evening and chance for Grandpa and Grandma to spoil the grandkids with lots of presents.

First we enjoyed a Gourmetten dinner.  It has been many, many years since I have done Gourmetten and the kids had never even heard of such a thing before. 

We let the kids enjoy giving a try first.

Then the adults got a chance to sit down together while the kids enjoyed a movie of Frosty the Snowman.

Present time

Matthew and Aiden comparing that they got similar presents.

Matthew got a new hockey helmet that actually has a face mask, which he will need next winter when he starts playing school Saturday morning hockey.

The girls had taken note of the fact that there were only a few presents under the tree for them, so they were handing out presents to the other kids and skipping their turns (we usually do it from youngest to oldest) until I suggested that maybe they should open those big presents instead of waiting until the end.  Much to their delight inside the big present (locking filing cabinets so they can keep their private things stored away from each other) were many smaller presents … needless to say we ended up waiting for them at the end as they had some catching up to do on their unwrapping.

Matthew overheard me on the phone talking to my mom one day and our Santa evening and so he picked up on the fact that Santa was coming to Grandma’s.  We decided it was probably time to let him in on the secret that Grandpa and Grandma would be the Santa.  We also explain where his other gifts came from a couple weeks earlier.  He still talks about Santa and has a hard time comprehending that he’s not real, but yet he does now understand that his presents came from mom and dad, sisters and grandparents, aunts and uncles.

And here is miniature James aka Noah.  Mark and Val’s son Noah is around 18 months old here and if you took the red highlights out his hair he’d be a pretty close resemblance to James.  Those cheeks and that grin is definitely James.  There are often pictures of Noah that I have to take a second look as at first glance I see James.