Congrats to my brother Steve and his wife Vanessa on the birth of their first child.  Nathaniel James Boon arrived at 12:41 this afternoon. The inspiration for his name is obvious to me.

My boy turns 8 today.  I can't believe I'm the proud parent of an 8 year old.  That sounds awfully old to me. It's been an awesome eight years.  James has taught me far more than I could ever teach him. Happy 8th birthday, James!  Daddy loves you very much.

My son's birthday party is this afternoon, and he's asked that he and his friends see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. I sat him down and tried to talk him out of it.  I showed him the 21% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, I explained to him the several

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary.  I honestly love my marriage (and wife) more and more with each passing year. My wedding was unusual.  I shared the story six years ago. We both had classes that chilly Toronto afternoon, but we had an appointment we couldn't miss. Ten days earlier,

Dear Santa, I have a bone to pick with you.  You brought my daughter this great wooden kitchen, which she absolutely adores, but you brought it in a hundred pieces.  I spent most of the morning building it.  Couldn't you have delivered it already made?  I'm sure you could have

This is my little brother Steve and I at Christmastime in 1978. My sweater says "CANADA" in anticipation of an Olympic gold medal that would be won 32 years later by our men's hockey team.

The tree is up.  The kids did pretty much all the decorating, and I just stood around taking pictures. We usually put up the Christmas tree the first weekend of December.  If you put up a tree, when do you put it up?

My kids each wrote a letter to Santa and gave them to the postal employees at the beginning of the Santa Claus Parade last month. Today, they got Santa's reply.  It blew little Michelle's mind that busy ol' Saint Nick took the time to write her back.  Here she is

I was just going through some old photos when I saw Rufus.  My wife and I adopted Rufus when we were trying to start a family.  Rufus is a monkey... well, to be more accurate, Rufus is a picture of a monkey. My wife and I got married almost 14

It's unseasonably warm in these parts.  I don't think we're supposed to have double digit highs in late November.  This heat has totally freed up my weekend. You see, I had a pretty busy weekend planned.  This morning I had Learn to Play Hockey with my daughter, this afternoon I

The pumpkin is carved.  Here's what our 2009 Jack O' Lantern looks like. The kids are happy, so I'm giving myself an A+. Here are a few other photos from a walk we took earlier today.  There are some pretty cool Halloween displays in the neighbourhood this year.

All week I've been telling my daughter today is Apple Day.  On Apple Day, members of Scouts Canada sell apples to raise funds that pay for activities throughout the year.  When I was young, I participated in Apple Day, and the past two years I've helped my son.  This year,

The past two years, my son has been a Beaver.  For the unaware, Beavers are essentially Boy Scouts between the ages of 5 and 7.  Although still eligible to be a Beaver, my boy has decided to move on and do indoor soccer instead.  For the first time since 2006,

My son has a Gmail account.  Gmail is integrated with the Google instant messenger, Gtalk, so when James sees me online, he likes to chat. This afternoon, James' cousin told him about this cool video game he discovered online.  Apparently there are aliens and stuff, so James tried to download

My mom, having taught for 39 years and having just retired from teaching developmentally disabled students, has become proficient in the area of  communication for non-verbal people. Through a series of communication  pictures used through a program called Boardmaker, adults and children  alike who are non-verbal, either from developmental difficulties

For her 5th birthday, my daughter got an iPod Shuffle loaded with her favourite songs.  She loves music, is always singing, and I knew she was ready for her own personal listening device. I still remember my first Walkman.  It didn't come fully loaded with my favourite tunes, nor could

Five years ago today, the baby of the family was born. She's certainly no baby today.  She's a bright, enthusiastic, well spoken little girl who sometimes acts more like a teenager than a kindergartener. They really do grow up too quickly.  Here's my Michelle at about six months of age.

Time is but a measurement, a most egalitarian offender, ageing the rich and powerful and the poor and meek at precisely the same rate.  There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. Today, I've been

Today is Father's Day, which means the kids piled into my bed way too early to give me hugs, cards and presents they made. I've made the super corny statement in the past that every day is Father's Day for me, but it's true.  I've been blessed with the two