Creative Scraps: Christmas has come and gone!

Right now, we are in the middle of a huge snow storm! It's already caused massive havoc south of the border. We opted to come home last night instead of waiting until today - good thing.

We had a wonderful Christmas - and, I have the pictures to prove it. Bern and I decided not to get each other Christmas presents this year - that is, nothing under the tree. Bern sold his camera equipment so I told him he needed to get himself a decent laptop - honestly, his laptop was horrible! So, so slow!! Anyway, that's what he decided to do. After we picked it out, he said I might as well have the new one and he would use my old one. YAHOO!! Then, while we were in the Source (used to be Radio Shack) the manager approached us offering free cellphones if we signed me up for the $20/month service Bern is already on. I've been paying $100 every year for a pay-as-you-go cellphone which I hardly use (for fear of using up my minutes). So, we had to make the decision to spend another $100 now or get me a super-duper cellphone, with all the bells and whistles on it. Hey, it's Christmas! Anyway, I LOVE my new phone, a Galaxy II Ace...not a Christmas present, you understand. Then, we were looking through the flyers that came with the newspaper and what do we see but a KitchenAid stand mixer (that we've both always wanted) for a very good price. It makes awesome shortbread and divinity, by the way! It didn't go under the tree either. A few weeks before Christmas Bern bought himself a new rifle and scope, so I got him a gun repair kit. I'd also ordered him a book from Amazon - the biography of Neil Young, which somehow appeared on his night stand. He called down from the bedroom, "Is this another un-Christmas present?" We had fun!

Here are a few pictures of Christmas around our house.

Beautiful flower arrangement from Mom!

We went to Oakville and picked up James and Stephanie on Christmas Eve. We were hoping they'd go to church with us, but, alas! Bern and I went and when we got back home, we popped some munchies into the oven and snacked for supper. We started watching Duck Dynasty and had some good laughs (the kids had never seen it)!

You can tell James has arrived by all the electronics everywhere!

Bern decided to go up to bed around 11:00 so I asked him to help me carry down some packages to put under the tree. That sent James scurrying to bed - he said he didn't want to see anything under the tree until morning! It's tradition!!! So, Stephanie and I stayed up until 12:30 and watched more of the Duck Dynasty marathon! It's hilarious!! We got time to get to know each other a little better during commercials. She's so sweet - and she seemed to really enjoy herself!!!

Christmas morning, after presents, we talked to Brent and Tammy over Skype! So much fun. We had a few technical difficulties, but James figured everything out for us.

James and Stephanie gave us a mini-holiday at a resort in northern Ontario to use in either the winter or summer. It would only be for a couple of days, but we're really looking forward to it - the place is amazing! It's called Blue Mountain - take a look... www.bluemountain.ca

After baking a pumpkin pie, we packed everything up and went back to James' apartment. Since Stephanie's been there, the place looks amazing! It has the feel of a real home.

We stayed there until it was time to go to Jan's. We stopped in at Fran & Mike's for a coffee first, tho. Jan made a spectacular dinner and was visibly overwhelmed as she looked down the table at us all sitting there. She was so pleased that we were all there. We were very happy to oblige! We really had such a good time. After dinner, we had our Secret Santa exchange of gifts which was great fun. Then, after stuffing ourselves with dessert, we played a game of Cranium which illicited gales of laughter, helping with the digestive process!!!! Here are some pictures of our wonderful day.