Our Christmas Eve is starting to have a routine. We ordered in some pizza. Since I am sensitive to food smells, we went with Pizza Hut. Since I get sick with a lot of food, I had a vegetable tray. After the pizza and the carrots were consumed, we had some Sex in a Pan before we exchanged gifts.
Mark
Of course the stockings from Santa Claus came out first. In Mark’s stocking:
- Zest Body wash
- Razor blades
- Shaving soap
- New socks
- Assorted chocolates
- Adidas Ice Dive
- Cologne sample collection. A bunch of trendy colognes.
- Some pencil crayons, drafting pencils and some markers.
Wendy and I gave Mark a new Nikon AF-S 85mm NIKKOR F/1.8G lens which he wants to shoot BRIT with. Since he will be taking a load of photos, I gave him a new Seagate 1TB external hard drive to back up everything to.
We also set him up with a new Samsung Galaxy A5 with Fido. He has been with Virgin Mobile for years but now that he is going to a contract and data, he gets 10 times the data than he will with Virgin at a lower price. Virgin is great with talk and text but lousy with data. More on that later. We also gave him one of those external batteries so if he needs to charge his battery on the go, he can.
Oliver gave him a new case for his phone and pair of new Monster in ear headphones.
Hutch gave him a photography magazine and a bottle of wine to help him edit his photos with.
Santa Claus gave him a laptop computer. It was my old netbook and it has a known battery issue. So we had OTV fix the battery and we gave it to Mark with a new laptop bag. It will be great for travelling with.
Finally we got him a silk screen print of a Sheepdogs poster and a CFCR shirt while at the same time supporting community radio.
Oliver
In his stocking, it was full of
- Star Wars spaceships from Hot Wheels.
- Axe Body Spray
- Deodorant
- Socks
- Assorted chocolates
Wendy and I gave Oliver a slot car racing game. It’s in use right now.
Mark gave Oliver a baseball glove while Marley gave him a baseball. We we in SportChek at the end of the season and they had some gorgeous gloves on sale. He may not be able to toss a curveball yet but he looks like he can.
Santa Claus gave Oliver two Pentax Q lenses for his Pentax Q10. The lenses aren’t great. Pentax calls them toy lenses for a reason but Oliver was thrilled to have a lens like Mark. Not only one of them but two of them, a wide angle and a short telephoto lens.
Oliver is the same age as Mark was when we gave him his first cell phone. Mark had this really cheap contract with Virgin for talk and text that was like pay as you go but cheaper. We went to Costco and got Oliver an Acer Liquid Zest cell phone. It’s unlocked and only $100. We got a new SIM card (and phone number) from Virgin and activated it tonight. Either way we kept Oliver with Virgin Mobility. So he gets talking and texting and can access online when at home on our Wi-Fi. This also means we can get rid of our home phone in the new year. I had sync’d up his Google Contacts so he can text and call family effortlessly before we gave him the phone.
Mark gave him a case for his phone, a portable charger, and some Skullcandy Ink’d headphones for his phone.
I have warned the family that their unlimited texting plans may not be enough.
Hutch gave Oliver a MASSIVE 1000 piece Star Wars puzzle. Not only did Hutch gave him a puzzle, Santa Claus did as well.
Their grandpa sent them out some money which they pooled and bought a PS4. Oliver also used his remaining money and bought himself a 1329 piece Lego Millennium Falcon. Punch it Chewie!
Wendy
In Wendy’s stocking, there was:
- Body wash
- skin care products
- Some hair bands
- Some assorted perfumes
- Lots of chocolates
- Toothbrush and toothpaste.
I gave Wendy a Google Home device. So now she can talk to the phone like Picard talked to the U.S.S. Enterrprise. No word yet if it makes tea. Also no photon torpedoes. We may be out gunned.
Mark got Wendy some Monster N-Tune headphones.
Oliver got her some perfume. She wears Swiss Army a lot but we decided to switch it up a bit and gave her some Giorgio Beverly Hills perfume.
Marley and Hutch gave her two photography magazines and a bottle of wine to edit photos to.
Me
Wendy gave me a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. Reality is that I have a lot of hospital hours ahead. Some headphones will be nice. I have some Bose and Sennheisers but I have always wanted some Beats by Apple (or No Longer by Dre Beats). 
I got some Under Armour sunglasses from Mark which are totally from the early 90s or Major League Baseball.
Oliver gave me a U of S baseball hat and shirt and some Swiss Army Classic Cologne and a University of Saskatchewan hat.
On Christmas Day we went to the Reimers and had a nice time with them and Alyson before heading home so I could get some sleep. The exciting news for me is that I was able to eat.
