We held our annual Sens Skills competition earlier this week and it's something we all look forward to each year.  I think all the guys enjoy it. You get to showcase your skills and have fun with it and not take it too seriously — although some guys do. It's a great day, it's fun for the fans and we have a lot of fun with it.

When you get into the heat of it, when you're skating around the rink as fast as you can, or you're doing the relay against your buddy or shooting, it's fun but you're also trying to show your best. We enjoy the healthy competition between each other and there's bragging rights in the room afterward. It all makes it fun for everybody.

Sens Skills is a 'great day' for Nick Foligno and his teammates, who mix fun with healthy competition (Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photography/OSHC).

We had two days off for Christmas and it went by quick. I went home to Sudbury to spend time with my wife's side of the family. My family actually went to Buffalo to be with my brother, Marcus, because it was easier for him to make the 45-minute drive from Rochester, where he's playing in the AHL with the Americans. So they were all there with him and I went back to Sudbury, but it was nice to see some relatives and be with my wife's side. We had a great Christmas with them and it was a lot of fun.

I didn't actually get to see my family over the Christmas break, so hopefully they'll come to Ottawa and visit in the New Year while we're here. That'll be nice. While I missed getting a chance to spend the holiday weekend wth them this year, I got a nice early Christmas present the week before when Marcus got called up by the Sabres and played his first NHL game against me here in Ottawa. I got to see all my family that day, so I was lucky that way.

Marcus was thrilled to get his first chance to play in the NHL. It was a real good taste for him of what things could be and now he knows if you continue to work hard, you could be there sooner rather than later. I thought he did really well for his first game. It was a neat thing for him to experience and now he knows how hard he has to work. I don't think it's going to be too long before he's in the NHL. He's a real good player and Buffalo could use a guy like him.

It is hard having such a short period of time off over the holidays. You're almost looking at the clock the whole time because you realize that you have to leave in a day or two. But you know what, you try to enjoy it as much as possible and it's so great to be around family and friends. All the guys really appreciate that we get those two days off to go home and see family. It's a real good thing and you almost recharge the batteries and get ready for this big push the rest of the way.

It's kind of cool that we're going to finish out the year in Buffalo. It's too bad we're not staying over. It's a neat little thing because Buffalo is where I was born and there's a lot of memories there. It'll be really neat to ring in the New Year there and, hopefully, my brother is called back up for that game. That would make it even better.