Jones Family Christmas

Mackay Christmas

Poor Faithy had a seizure on the 23rd. After not getting any better, a trip to the hospital on christmas day and a few sleepless nights, determined she had an ear infection. Oh the fun times. Got out of the hospital in time to get to the mackay family christmas for meal time

More Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning

More Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2009

Decked out in the new PJ's.
Faithy's been sick but feeling a little better tonight. Still not run it's course. Last night, she spiked a fever and had a seizure around 11pm. It was horrible watching her not breath. Isaac has had 4 himself so we are somewhat familiar with this and we had hoped that he was our only child that it would affect... i guess not. So for the 2nd year in a row, we ended up not being able to go to church and we stayed home

and had our traditional christmas eve supper... Mmmmm.... Bacon and eggs

2009 Christmas Letter

Christmas 2009

I’m thankful for many things this Christmas season and one of those things is my ability to have selective memory. When I look back at Christmases over the years, the fun times tend to make their way to the top and we forget the stressful pull-your-hair-out, I’m gonna call 911, kinda Christmas memories. As we were decorating the tree last night… well as Tanya was decorating and I was watching a riveting Danny Devito classic, she reminded me of what we were discussing last year as we, I mean, she decorated the tree. A coalition government between the NDP, Liberals, & Bloq was about to form and we’d have Prime Minister Dion. Tears would have been shed… probably more so than I shed during the Trudeau Administration. Thankfully, things change in a year.

On Saturday we went for our annual family pilgrimage to just outside Oshawa to get our Christmas tree. I’m sure the kids will have fond memories of our annual tradition when they get older and by the time next year rolls around, so will I. The day began with an early rise and trip to the church for a Christmas practice for the kids play. After an attempted skating practice with the diva, a hockey game, and a stop to pick up some things, we headed out. Our picturesque family photo op of us taking down the perfect tree was mixed with impatient screaming children, a 4 year old with inconsolable sobs because we threw out her stale 4 hour old French fries, a 1 year old that wouldn’t eat or ride in a wagon and it culminated in our 6 year old running off and lying face down in a far off field distressed that we didn’t select his tree to cut down. “Why does mommy always get her way” Better get used to it Kiddo. Good times, oh yes, good times… Once cooler heads prevailed, Isaac suggested that his punishment for his behavior should be that he is not allowed to go get the tree next year… perhaps I will join him next year in his penalty.

Reflecting on the past year, it continues to be busy. We have been in the midst of a building project for Mackay Insurance and move into our new digs this Friday, thus the reason for me getting my cards out early. We continue to be involved with our home group and several activities at the church, chaplaincy with Hockey Ministries & the Belleville Bulls, Radio Program for the local College Station, and various Kids sports activities.

Tanya has given her notice to her work and is staying home full time. We are thankful that we can do this, although some days, thanks isn’t the first word that comes to mind! Tanya amazes me with how much she does and her care and dedication to our kids and patience with them… well, patience, most days.

Isaac is now 6 and in Grade 1. The realization of going to school everyday was a painstaking process for the boy but he seems to have adjusted well. He is a ‘by the rules’ kinda guy and drives me just nuts some times with his technical prowess. We recently went on a trip to Toronto by train. We made a stop in Cobourg and still had an hour to go but the boy refused to take off his toque, mitts, jacket and backpack. Try as I might to convince him we had an hour before we got off, he refused as he did not want to miss getting off the train. He was prepared. Yeah, he’s not a fly by the seat of your pants kinda guy. He has a tender heart, a passion for competition and a memory like an owl.

Eva is now 4 and started JK. There are too many stories to share about our little Diva. Whether it’s consistently wearing her shoes on the wrong feet because she likes it that way, to changing her name to Ava because she likes it that way, or when she signs her name Eva, she does so with 8 or 10 lines on the E as opposed to the traditional 3 lines because, of course, she likes it that way. She is excessively clutzy which never ceases to amaze me. Sitting on a chair alone, somehow she can fall off in style and I hear echo’s from the floor, “I’m Ok” Oh, I just love my special Diva.

Faith is your typical third child. Poor kid gets ignored. Last year for our Christmas picture, we literally were almost all ready to go and we realized, oh wait, we haven’t dressed Faith yet. She is just an itty bitty thing and we hope she will be in a front facing car seat by her 3rd birthday. She loves watching her siblings and is extremely content and other than being a picky eater, she is an easy baby. Her cousin who is a few months older than her, we just found out, can say 42 words in English and 49 words in Spanish. Faithy’s vocabulary consists of one word, “Hi ya” which coincidently is the same thing in Spanish too… woohoo!

As the year draws to a close, and as you do your part to combat a faltering economy with excessive spending and out of control credit card bills, I hope this letter finds you well and that you and your family have a blessed Christmas Season and that we all are thankful for family, the memorable moments and the moments we’d rather forget, as well as thanks for the Gift of our Savior at Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Isaac's Hockey Pic

Happy Birthday Mom

Christmas Chronicles

Kids did a christmas musical at church this weekend, twice. Their first time they've attempted this and I was impressed they stayed on stage the whole time and really did their best. Made me proud.

Isaac the newsboy

Both kids were also sheep. Eva tucked herself in the back so no one would see her. That's our diva

Christmas Chapel

For the 4th time, we had the entire Belleville Bulls over for our annual Christmas Chapel. Everyone was there except for Phil Grubauer and Shawn Lalonde who are away with World Jrs. Great time together with the guys.

Isaac beating up Bjorn Krupp in table top hockey. Pretty sure Bjron let him win.

Andy Bathgate trying to get Faith to smile... didn't have much success

22 Guys crammed into the living room makes for... a rather odd smell:) Appears that I've caught Malcolm Subban off guard with this pic.

The Torch

Day 46 of the Torch Relay across our great country and the torch ran through Belleville. Isaac (not so much Eva) and I have been following the torch online and watching it and checking out where it is each day. I promised them that I would take them to see the torch live and in person. It's one of those things that you only get to see once in your life. When it came through in 1987, i was sick or in school or couldn't remember. Anyway, I as we stood in front of Greenley's bookstore downtown, one of the memories of my school days from Harmony was my dad pulling me out of school, taking me down twice to Greenley's bookstore to meet first Ken Dryden and then Don Cherry. I was pretty young but those memories still stick with me. Anyway, I hope that I have done the same with my kids. I ripped home from work, picked them up from school and went downtown to sit and wait for the flame

It was pretty neat experience as the anticipation built for the coming runner. Above is Beverly Thompson, who co-hosts Canada AM (gee, wonder how her name got pulled and mine didn't:)