Christmas in Montreal

The Highlights of Christmas in Montreal--

1. The anticipation of Christmas morning. There is nothing like children waking up early and not being able to get back to sleep.

2. Listening to the children as they waited at the top of the stairs to make their grand entrance on Christmas morning. This is a Jarvis Family tradition. No one is allowed to go down stairs until everyone is awake. So much fun to watch the kid's anticipation and excitement.

3. Spending the weekend with Eric's brother David and his family.

4. Watching the kids try to figure out what Santa had brought them. Santa left a ping-pong paddle in each of the kids stockings. The paddle was still inside its packaging and had no obvious label on it. Each one of the kids examined the paddle and couldn't quite figure out what it was. Finally Catie asked me, "What is this?" I asked her to look carefully at the shape of the item inside the packaging. She said, "it looks like a paddle, a ping-pong paddle" Suddenly her eyes lit up and she screamed, "I know what Santa brought!" The three kids tore down the basement stairs to find a new ping-pong table in the basement. They were delighted.

5. Christmas Dinner with family and friends, although I have to say it wasn't quite the same without Mary, Leo and the Ottawa gang. Hopefully we will see them before New Years.