Tag Archives: family

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

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Christmas has always been my favourite holiday.  I mean, how could it not be?  Some jolly old guy breaks into your home in the middle of the night, brings you presents, and then eats your food!  Who could possibly not love Christmas?

In all serious-ness though, Christmas is my favourite time of the year – period.  It’s a time spent with your family – all the {crazy} cousins, aunts and uncles included.  At my house, one of my parents is usually working – their jobs don’t exactly stop at Christmas.  After we have our little Christmas with my Nanny and Enno, we typically head up to my Grandma’s for a Christmas lunch.

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This year, we had not one, but TWO parents home for Christmas!  It was a Christmas miracle!  We got to wake up at a decent time, didn’t have to worry about being quiet for the rest of the day so we didn’t wake one of them up… it was marvellous.  We also didn’t go to Grandma’s for a Christmas lunch, but we had our own meal at our house with Nanny, Enno, and Michael – oh, and of course Willow.

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Now that my siblings and I are practically grown ups (I don’t care how old I am, I am not ready to be an adult.  So there.) we get less presents than we did when we were younger.  My parents tell us every year not to expect much for Christmas, and every year they seem to just tell us that to trick us.  Because, every year, it seems to me like we have plenty of presents.  My parents somehow manage to get us the things we want/need, as well as other gifts – enough that I honestly don’t really notice a drop in the amount of presents.

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Pictured above: not me.

As I was saying, we are lucky enough to have parents who always manage to make sure we are happy, and who spend more money than they really should on us for Christmas.  I’m not telling you what to do mom, I appreciate it and everything, I’m just sayin’.

Christmas is a time to appreciate what you have and who you’re with – especially if you spend the rest of the year taking it for granted.

Tell your family you love them.  Don’t wait for next Christmas to roll around.

Family Time

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My family has been going on camping trips for pretty much as long as I can remember. We started out in the typical fashion; we would set up our tent, roll out our sleeping bags and revel in the rustic-ness of tent camping. After a run in with a certain masked rodent, my mom decided that if we ever wanted to go camping again, it had to be in a slightly less-penetrable way. So, we upgraded to a tag-along trailer. This did the trick until we actually towed it to Niagara Falls, after which my dad decided he never wanted to go through that kind of stress again. Next came the fifth-wheel. We are now on our third fifth-wheel, but the concept of camping hasn’t changed much.

Now to go camping, we pack our belonging into our “wheel-estate” and make our way to any campground that will fit us.

We have used our trailer at Disney World, Mount Rushmore, the Calgary Stampede, Prince Edward Island, Billings Montana (the very first KOA ever), Washington D.C, Niagara Falls (a much less stressful trip this time around), Cedar Point, Manitoulin Island etc. etc..

The point is, we take our trailer practically everywhere we travel. This time we took a trip a little closer to home – McRae Provincial Park, just outside Orillia, Ontario.

The funny thing about camping with my family is that we always fight when we’re confined in our 38′ trailer in the rain, but I love going camping with them anyway.

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My parents friends can’t believe that my siblings and I would ever want to go on a trip with our parents – we are teenagers after all.

Besides the fact that going with our parents is the only way we’d ever get anywhere (sorry parents), I actually enjoy our time together as a family. 

It really puts in perspective just how little families interact with each other nowadays. We’re all plugged into our phones 24/7, talking to people miles away from us instead of the people right in front of us.

Admittedly, I’m writing this on my phone while my mom and sister work on a puzzle right in front of me. But it’s for the blog, that’s different right? 

The moral of the story, dear readers, is go and talk to your parents, sit with your siblings – have an actual conversation, enjoy some quality time. You never know when you might have the chance again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a puzzle to finish.

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