A bit of this and a bit of that

Now that the holidays are over, I guess it is time to get back to the real world…

Mark and I had a great week off. We were very busy – as usual – so much so that I didn’t even write about most of what we did on the blog as there was no time...Here is an edited version of our activities.

Last week I had a couple of great lunch dates. The first with my good friend Kelly. Kelly and I have been friends for about 16 years now. It is scary to actually think that! Wow!! We had a great lunch – although it could have been longer, but Kelly had to get back to work. Pumpkin received two beautiful gifts from Kelly.The first is a board book copy of "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes". Now we have two versions of the book. Pumpkin can have her own copy as we are reading to her. Our second gift was this beautiful 'flipping" picture frame. It stands on its own and holds 25 pictures. It is like an easel - very cool!!

My second lunch date of the week was with my cousin Kathleen. We generally try to do a dinner date so that we are not pressed for time, but with the holidays and all sorts of other things going on, lunch was better then nothing. Again, our lunch could have been longer as there is never enough time to say all the things that we want to say!

On the 29th, Mark and I attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Linda. Wow was she surprised!!! You should have seen her face!! Our friends from Port Hope made the trek out here for the party and it was GREAT to see them. Linda (neighbour Linda) decided that we should have a theme for the party and it was ROMAN HOLIDAY. This was chosen as Linda (Birthday Linda) was going to Rome in April and we thought it would be fun. So we dressed up in costume – Wow was it a HOOT!! We all got into it and really had a fantastic time.

On December 30th we had “Cottage Christmas”. There is a group of ladies that Mark and I go to the cottage with in the summer – the same group from Port Hope from last night as well as the two Linda’s. Linda (neighbour Linda) has a cottage and she is gracious enough to let us all come and trounce on her peace and quiet. When we are there, there are 7 of us and 5 dogs in a small cottage!! We had another lovely night of present exchanges, a WONDERFUL dinner and LOTS of laughs!!

In October, we were in Port Hope for Linda and Beth’s birthday and I brought some meatballs as a contribution to the dinner. I came home with my crock pot and that was that. Well, at the end of the evening, there was a black serving spoon left over. Beth and Joan were SURE that it was my serving spoon. So as a joke, they wrapped it up for me and gave it to me for “Cottage Christmas”. I opened the spoon and was glad to have a new serving spoon – as you can never have enough. Well Beth and Joan are killing themselves laughing at me. I don’t know what is so funny. Then they proceed to tell me that it is my spoon and they are returning it to me. It was not MY spoon (well it is now). So that sent everyone into a fit of laughter!!

So at the end of all of this, I have a new spoon and the original (unknown) owner of the spoon is out a spoon!!

As for December 31st, Mark and I took it easy. I think this is the first time that either one of us ever stayed home on New Year’s Eve and it was WONDERFUL. We had a nice dinner, watched a movie and were asleep before midnight!!

That brings us to New Year’s Day. We went to Hortense’s for our traditional New Year’s Day Chinese food dinner – this year we had lunch instead though. Roger and Anita were headed to Ireland and their flight was at 6:00 so we started earlier – 1:00 so that they could eat, socialize and then we could take them to the airport by 3:30. The rest of us stayed and played cards. No pictures as I was unable to locate my camera – it has since been located.

That brings us to today – my last day of vacation…I have to go back to work tomorrow:( - Mark went back today. Needless to say, I would rather be on vacation...

I hope everyone had a wonderful 2006 and may 2007 bring you LOTS of happy baby news!!