Another Great Christmas Party

Last night Vicki, Julie and I did our Christmas 2011 party, along with four-legged friends Cooper, Finley and (in theory, anyway) Lucy. The evening started off shortly after 6:00 when our visitors arrived, after which Julie, Cooper and I headed out for an hour long walk through our neighbourhood in an absolutely gorgeous snowfall. We both commented on just what a lovely scene we were being treated to, and how much better it was than what Christmas day itself had gotten. Then it was back to our house to towel Cooper off and sit down for a spaghetti dinner that Vicki had prepared for us.
Following dinner and our traditional chocolate cookie and whip cream dessert, it was time to open some presents! As you can see for yourself, both of my female companions were primed and ready for the gift exchange, and probably didn't even appreciate having to pause long enough to allow me to snap this shot!

Cooper had two presents, one from each of Vicki and I, and both had been carefully prepared in SuperCooper's favourite wrapping material: newsprint! He loves ripping that stuff to bits, and he proceeded to do that while the rest of us looked on in amusement. He got a new squeaky toy - which Julie, for some strange reason, decided to leave at our place so that it would be here for him when he comes for visits! - and a hard rubber chew toy which he spent much of the rest of the evening pulling pieces off of.

Finley, who has always loved Lucy's toy that features a fake mouse inside a circular frame that can be whirled around by a curious paw, got a similar setup from us. Cooper of course tried to play with it before Finley could even get close to it, but eventually that got sorted out and the animals were both happy and distracted. So much so, in fact, that neither of them was biting when Vicki tried to get their attention!

Then it was the humans' turn, and we had about 20 gifts between us to get through. I'd put little clues to each of Julie's gifts on cards taped to the bags, and that prompted all of us to take a little bit of time with each parcel trying to guess what it was before opening it. Julie didn't come close to figuring out this item from Vicki: a 'cinnamon tin' that you can store foods in if you want them to taste like cinnamon (or something like that... they tried to explain it but I wasn't really getting it). Once she saw what it was and sniffed it, though, she seemed to love it!

I got a big smile out of my favourite chiropractor when she saw that I'd bought her a Key Finder, just the sort of thing that's perfect for the woman who occasionally (often) misplaces (loses) her keys. She was quite impressed by the device, and we even tested it out moments later by having me hide her keys somewhere in the house... and she found them in seconds flat! This electronic gadget should completely revolutionize her life, I'd say!

Many more thoughtful and impressive gifts came out of all those sundry packages before we were done, but I should probably do another blog post later in the week summarizing all that Vicki and I were lucky enough to receive this year. Tammy did her usual great job providing us with interesting movies to watch, for example, so I really must get that list together here before the New Year. My favourite one that I gave was to Vicki and Julie both, and it was special copies of Game Over that I'd created and printed which contain the original three chapters that I wrote back in the summer of 2009. Both women were quite fascinated by the thing once they realized what their new editions actually were - Vicki's first comment was, "But we already received this book, honey!" - and looked eager to read the fifty or so pages that neither of them had ever seen before. That gift was every bit the hit that I'd hoped for!

Eventually the festivities settled down into our more-typical mode of conversation (after we'd picked up the mess made by Cooper as he shredded anything resembling paper). Vicki lasted until around 1:00 a.m., at which point she left the rest of us to carry on while she headed off to bed. Around 4:45 she returned, though, to tell us that the wind was howling outside and she thought that Julie should just stay the night rather than driving home in the blizzard that had developed while we talked. Julie and I went outside and quickly determined that it wasn't all that bad (considering Julie only lives a few kms away), and so our three guests took that opportunity to pack up and hit the snowy road.

This was the second annual Christmas party for the three of us as friends, and it was every bit as much fun as last year's. Julie puts just as much time, energy and careful consideration into her gifts for us as we do for hers, and that fact really makes the whole experience unforgettable. Here's to good friends!