This year was the year where we would spend Christmas Day with Tammy's side of the family. We drove out to Olds for Church on Christmas morning and then we headed back to Tammy's parents house in Carstairs for the big breakfast and the big gift exchange. It's getting crazy having everyone on her side together in the same house these days. I think there were 18 people, one cat, and one fetus gathered around the tree that day if my math is right. We spent the rest of the day there hanging out and playing games. Aaron and I had our traditional Christmas Chess game (which I won) and everyone joined in for some Mad Gab. It was a lot of fun and of course Emma was showered with gifts from her Grandparents and her cousins. We had our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day when everyone went over to Kristie and Iain's for turkey and some figgy pudding. If the family continues to grow like it has, we may have to rent the Ranchlands Community Center for Christmas 2007. I have connections there.
After festivities with the Olsens came to a close we still had some presents left at home that Emma had yet to open. We opened one a day and by the end of the week I think she really got the hang of it and started to understand what was going on. She loves all her new toys, especially the cheapest ones, ironically. That week we also got invited over to Luke and Jenny Smith's place for a party since Derek and Rachelle were in town. It was good to see everyone and find out who looks the best and who is the most successful. On Thursday night we invited my family over for a bit and then we all went out to Boston Pizza for a warm meal and some hockey. The food went down and the Flames won so it was a good night. I had the week off of work and Tammy didn't have to watch Madison so we spent our days cleaning house. Even though it was "work" I still felt it was a very relaxing holiday compared to the mad schedules we've been keeping lately.
The day of New Years Eve was spent having Christmas with the Bourne side of the family. My parents hosted and we spent the day merrily playing cards, 8 person Star Wars on Xbox, and watching the hockey game. Our traditional gift exchange involves drawing names from a hat but this year we changed it up a bit. This year everyone bought a gift that started with the letter "C" for "Christmas" and then we took turns opening them and stealing them from each other until everyone got something they wanted. It was fun but I don't think it caught on as a continuing tradition. Tammy got a Betta fish complete with an aquarium and I got the Nonesuch Dickens Christmas Books. Come to think of it I don't know how the fish had anything to do with the letter "C", but oh well, Tammy loves it and she named it Chester so what are you going to do? Most people were pretty tired at the end of the day so the new year rang in pretty tamely. I cant remember everything we did but I do remember not getting home until 4am for some reason. After changing Emma twice and finally getting her back down to sleep we finally hit the hay around 5am. We had a full session of Church the next day but only Tammy ended up going for the last 2 hours to teach her Sunbeams class while I stayed home with Emma. After Church we went back over to my parents house and had our 2nd Christmas feast. Then we hung out the rest of the day playing more games and just chilling like the Bournes do. By and large it was a fantastic holiday.
