{"id":254256,"date":"2007-12-18T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T18:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=254256"},"modified":"2025-08-28T17:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T22:30:28","slug":"the-ingram-family-christmas-letter-for-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2007\/12\/18\/the-ingram-family-christmas-letter-for-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ingram Family Christmas Letter for 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we often do, we started the New Year off with some winter fun at our friends Marc and Kris’s place, including some skating on the pond<\/a> and our version of curling, which involves Tide bottles filled with water, which we freeze and then use as curling rocks<\/a>. We ate a lot of great food<\/a>, as always, and this year Caitlin brought a couple of her friends to celebrate with us, and they enjoyed<\/a> all the features of the Farm, especially the hot tub<\/a>. Then it was off to hockey practice for Zoe, who started playing for the local house league team a few years back (where they are known as Team Bubblegum for their pink jerseys<\/a>). We did some skating<\/a> on a little rink someone shovelled off down at the marsh at the foot of the Rouge river near our house as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In March we made another visit back to the Farm<\/a> for some more winter fun, including some games of pool in which Zoe demonstrated her game face<\/a>. There were also snow angels<\/a> to be made, of course, and Zoe and Meaghan made a little fort inside the massive pile of snow<\/a> that was created when we shovelled off Marc and Kris’s deck. Then pretty soon it was time to escape winter and head south to Becky’s mom and dad’s place near Venice in Florida, where there was lots of beach fun<\/a> and swimming pool time<\/a> and of course Zoe’s birthday<\/a>. We did a dolphin-watching boat<\/a> tour (but didn’t see any) and we had some fun games at the clubhouse<\/a> at Bay Indies, where Becky’s mom and dad live. And of course we had to blend in by playing<\/a> some shuffleboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we were in Florida we made a trip up to Busch Gardens<\/a> in Sarasota, where there were flamingoes<\/a> and parrots<\/a> and play parks with treehouses<\/a> and dinosaur eggs<\/a> and cars the kids could drive (but not really<\/a>). There was a barrel ride<\/a> and naturally there were lots<\/a> of rollercoasters<\/a>. And while in Florida, we also got to spend lots of time on our favourite beach — the white beach at Siesta Key<\/a>, where the sand is like sugar — and playing in the waves<\/a>. Back at Bay Indies, there was a parade<\/a> and lots of sunbathing<\/a> by the pool and hot tub time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Scarborough, spring had arrived (or was arriving) so Zoe and Meaghan went for a hike up a creek<\/a> near the house, and then we ushered in spring for real by heading downtown on the GO train<\/a> with Becky’s brother Dave’s family to see a baseball game<\/a> at the SkyDome<\/a>. We also went to Canada’s Wonderland north of Toronto for some rollercoaster time with Becky’s brother’s family and her sister Barb’s family<\/a> as well. There were spinning barrels<\/a> to be ridden in (not by me of course) and a swinging pirate ship<\/a> and toy trains<\/a> and other rides that are hard to describe<\/a>. While Becky and the bigger kids went off to ride the big coasters, I went to Hanna Barbera Land with Zoe to ride some of the smaller ones. She talked me into riding the spinning teacups, which was very bad idea vertigo-wise (I had to lie down for about an hour afterwards) but Zoe loved it<\/a> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Back in Scarborough, Zoe took part in a giant dance event<\/a> along with hundreds of other kids at Scarborough City Hall, and Becky and I went to McMaster University in Hamilton with Caitlin to check out the campus<\/a> because she’s going there to get her nursing degree. We also made a trip up north to Gravenhurst in Muskoka, where Becky’s mom has moved into a new house, and we got to say hello to the Segwun, the historic mail-ship<\/a> that Becky and I had our wedding reception on. In May, it was time for Caitlin’s graduation from high school, where she looked fantastic<\/a> and she and some of her friends took a limo<\/a> to the prom. We also did our second Mesh conference<\/a> in Toronto, which some friends<\/a> and I started to talk about Web 2.0 and blogs and whatnot, and it was a real blast to interview people like Mike Arrington<\/a>, who started TechCrunch, and Jim Buckmaster<\/a>, the six-foot-seven-inch tall CEO of Craigslist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the regular spring Family Day event in Scarborough, Zoe got to ride her favourite pony<\/a> Bobby and play some games<\/a>, and then it was out to Frenchman’s Bay where Meaghan competed in a dragon-boat race<\/a> and Zoe got to try out a kayak<\/a> (she also tried rollerblading<\/a>). Meaghan also went on a school trip to Quebec and took some great<\/a> photos, and then before long it was time for prom<\/a>! And later we made a trip up to Marc and Kris’s cottage on Go Home lake<\/a> in Muskoka, where we did<\/a> some canoeing<\/a> and Zoe did some fishing<\/a> and Meaghan and I jumped<\/a> off some cliffs (from a fairly low spot) and Becky and Kris sat in the waterfall at the slide<\/a>, which connects Go Home and Georgian Bay. Pretty soon it was time for summer camp at the United Church camp on Golden Lake, where Zoe and her cousins Rylie and Laurel got to do outdoor camp<\/a> and Meaghan and her cousin Matt did indoor camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the cottage, there was beach time<\/a> and lake time<\/a> and boat time<\/a> (two different<\/a> kinds<\/a>) and and hammock<\/a> time and lots of fun and games<\/a>, and of course sunset<\/a> time. And there was Becky’s birthday — I won’t say which one — and some comments that brought a quizzical look to Becky’s face<\/a>. I wish I could say I remembered what Caitlin said, but I don’t! And there were sunset cruises<\/a>. Later in the summer, Meaghan and her cousin Matt flew down to Nova Scotia to spend some time with Becky’s uncle Jack<\/a>, who lives there, something Caitlin and her cousin Michael did the year before. They saw some seals<\/a> and visited an old fort<\/a> and saw the Bluenose II<\/a> and generally<\/a> had a grand old time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since they were down there, we decided to drive down to get them, and to visit our friends Rob and Vicki at their place in PEI<\/a>, where Rob’s family are from. We stayed at their place on Bay Fortune near Souris, and played on the giant beach where we found starfish<\/a> and crabs<\/a> and ate tons of oysters<\/a>. We celebrated Caitlin’s birthday<\/a> by giving her a giant laptop computer she could take to university, and we took a ferry<\/a> over to Jack’s place<\/a> to pick up the kids. We also visited the famous lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, where took some obligatory family shots<\/a> and back near Rob’s place Dave and Rob and I played a round of golf<\/a> and we had lots more fun on the giant beach<\/a> near the Hyndman place. We took a day trip to see the red stones<\/a> near Cavendish and we also went to see the dunes at Basin Head<\/a> and jumped off the bridge into the outflow<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the fall it was time to take Caitlin off<\/a> to university in Hamilton, where the kids helped<\/a> her make her bed while she cried. Don’t worry, I said — it’s just like daycare; you will be sad for awhile but then you will make friends and then it will be fun (which she admitted later that it was). Back in Scarborough, Zoe did a fun run through the park and was clearly exhausted<\/a> at the end but did a great job. Then there was Thanksgiving<\/a> up at Becky’s mom’s new place in Gravenhurst and a fall visit to the Farm<\/a> for some pumpkin-carving<\/a> and then a trip to Ottawa<\/a> for some skating<\/a> on the canal and the obligatory poutine<\/a> and beaver tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s about all the fun that was had by the Ingrams in 2007. Hope your year was just as fun, if not more!<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we often do, we started the New Year off with some winter fun at our friends Marc and Kris’s place, including some skating on the pond and our version of curling, which involves Tide bottles filled with water, which we freeze and then use as curling rocks. We ate a lot of great food, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Ingram Family Christmas Letter for 2007”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crsspst_to_mathewingramblogwordpresscom":true,"mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254256"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275361,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254256\/revisions\/275361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}