Bendy Santa

We've been enjoying a nice low-key Christmas vacation so far. Sam's played with his new toys and tucked into his new books wearing his new clothes and jams. We've played Rummoli together and are looking forward to Boggle games and starting the new puzzle. Sam and I are starting the Guardians of Ga'hoole trilogy tonight. Sam and Jeremy have been wrestling, playing XBox and Kinect games, and watching junior hockey — and they've also been to a Sens-Penguins game and played a some hockey themselves at the Annual Brennan Christmas Hockey Game. We've worked together on the master bedroom makeover, all three of us spending the day in our paint clothes on Boxing Day (watch for the Big Reveal post soon!).

We've had yummy Christmas dinner leftovers in three guises already, and we're working our way through the last of the chocolates, cookies, and egg nog. It's been a feast! We've seen Tron in 3D at the cinema and have dug out some favourites from the DVD collection — Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean. There isn't enough fresh snow to head to Mooney's Bay for tobogganing, which is one of the last things on the vacation activity wish list ... but we've got our fingers crossed.

And through it all, we've been playing a little game with Bendy Santa. That's a small Gumby-like figurine that Paula from the English Department secretariat gave to Sam when he was just a year and a half old. Every year, he's taken it up to his room as soon as it emerged from the box of Christmas decorations. But this year, I hung it from the top of the Eiffel Tower clock near the fireplace just for fun. When it was spotted, I suggested we take turns moving Santa when no one else was looking. A short time later, Sam squirreled the entire tower, Santa and all, up to his room! And the game began.

Over the last 10 days or so, we've been taking turns "hiding" Bendy Santa in plain view when no one else was looking—he's been hung off the bathroom door handle, the kitchen ceiling fan, the dining room light and more. We don't seek him out ... we just come across him in our daily movements about the house—and then it's time to move him again. Anabel and Carter took a turn on Christmas, hanging Bendy Santa from the shelf above Huddie's food or wrapping his arms around the banister.

It all reminds me of Hide the Smurf, a game that Tracey and Jacquie played with Dad maybe 27 years ago. I don't know how long it lasted, and I can't remember if Janey or I ever played along with our younger sisters, but Hide the Smurf became part of our family story as surely as trips to Florida and summer camping and Sunday dinners. It's hard to determine how that happens—how a silly little game finds an enduring place in one's childhood memories, but it sometimes does. And when I spot Bendy Santa in a new location and Sam exclaims victoriously, "It took you so long to find him!," I wonder if maybe these small moments of fun will form as much as part of his happy holiday memories as anything else we've done.