Dec. 26/06 Merry Christmas to you all! We had a very nice Christmas! On Christmas Eve, I cooked roast beef for Mom and Wilson. John opened his guitar Christmas present from grandma and absolutely loved it. We took it promptly over to Mr. Nerino’s house to have him tune it. I went to 8 o’clock mass and John went to bed. Christmas morning, John awoke at 5 a.m. but I wouldn’t let him get up. He then slept until 6:30. He certainly ripped open the presents this year. Took no prompting from us. We had to get him to slow down in order to make sure he was actually opening his own present! He’s really enjoying the new keyboard from Santa. Christmas morning we went to Wade’s house. John made shy with Taylor (Wade’s niece), however, finally warmed up to her. John got very hyper at Wade’s so I decided to take him sledding at Pronger Park for a bit. He really enjoyed that and likes to go fast down the hill now. Christmas dinner at Grandma’s was delicious although mom ate too much! John ate continuously. Dec. 15/06 Today was John’s JK Christmas Concert. We were concerned that he would be scared, but he surprised us indeed. He was the comic relief of the show. It started with his hat that kept slipping off of his head. Then he and Abey got very silly and knocked down the Christmas tree. All and all, it was a hoot. They did a Christmas Poem that John said very well, sang Rudolph and danced to Feliz Navidad. Last night we had the Best Start Christmas Party. The girls worked really hard to come up with lots of activities, but the room was way crowded and it was hard to enjoy. John didn’t want anything to do with Santa, really, but when one boy was misbehaving, John was heard saying, “Stop that Alex! Santa can spy us you know!” We made our gingerbread house last weekend and that was fun. John loved eating royal icing (too sweet for me!) and the candies. He’s very excited about the whole Christmas thing this year and it’s so sweet. Tomorrow he’s going to Brooke’s house to bake sugar cookies. He informs us that he is marrying her when he’s 21. He has a new interest – flags! So, now I’ll have to learn about all the flags of the world. He especially likes the provincial flags, with Saskatchewan as his personal favourite. I think it’s his favourite because it’s green and yellow. He also likes tertiary colours. I should really quit teaching him these terms :) Dec. 2/06 We put up the Christmas tree today. John was very excited about it. We have a whole bunch of ornaments hung on the same branch now! Last weekend was John’s friend Brooke’s party. It was a swimming pool party. John had a great time, but did melt down when mom called him a “clown” because he had cake all over his face! I had my parent-teacher interview with Ms. Fenton this week. John’s doing very well at school and she’s looking for ways to challenge him because he knows everything she is teaching! That’s going to be the biggest challenge! Keeping him interested and challenged. His report card was awesome! He’s a kind and very intelligent boy. Mom and dad are proud. Today we bought a gingerbread house to build. That should be fun! © 2006 Derek Kennedy

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