This year's Christmas was celebrated in two places for the Skehan-Riff clan. The first location was in our new home in Ottawa. Finally settled with about 95% of the boxes unpacked, it was important for us to start our family traditions in the house. After Siobhan and I had the chance to sneak out and see the Hobbit, Siobhan put together this awesome Christmas dinner with the full works, roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots in white sauce, gravy, brussel sprouts and broccoli.
Being really energized with Christmas cheer, the boys were singing a lot of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman at the dinner table.
After our lovely dinner, the boys had a bath, opened new pajamas from Nana and Papa and made up a nice plate of cookies, milk and vegetable scraps for Santa and his hard working reindeer.
Here are Siobhan and the boys in their new pajamas reading a Christmas story before heading to bed.
A picture of the living room after Santa dropped off his bounty of gifts.
Christmas morning was really nice, the boys actually stayed in bed for a while and we didn't come downstairs until after 7am. The boys enjoyed opening their presents and took time to play with each one. It didn't feel overwhelming and we managed to keep the number of presents down. Thank you to everyone for the wonderful pressies. Once we had a chance to eat some breakfast and tidy up, we packed up the car and headed to Montreal to celebrate Christmas with my parents and brother's family.
Not too sure what my Mom thought about the turkey at first but in a nutshell, I bought enough groceries two weeks previous to get a free turkey. Not thinking, I picked up one of the biggest ones at 22lbs (big enough that it didn't fit in our freezer). My Mom took it an did a great job turning it into a fab dinner, (plus a week's worth of leftovers inlcuding turkey sandwiches, turkey rissoles, turkey soups and turkey pot pie.) Here's a picture of the old bird (Ha!) (The turkey brand name was "Granny's" too)
This was a nice trip down memory lane when we walked into their house. My Mom & Dad set up the old card table just like it was when my cousins came over for Christmas dinner when I was young. And it didn't fall down.
Boxing day adventures didn't involve any shopping. The only queueing was on the toboggan run at Centennial Hill. We raced down the hill several times in various combinations. Here's Scott with the two young-uns.
Walking up for another run.
Brendan being skillfully driven down the hill by Dustin.
Brendan and Duncan trying to avoid hitting anyone (e.g. Siobhan)
I almost missed the train on this one. The sled was a bit too small. It'll be even smaller next year when we add two more kids to the toboggan bus.
And finally, my little Tiger, all smiles and thumbs up.
1 comment:
looks fantastic. xxxx
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