Getting even older

Posted by: Jennifer

Well, my brother Paul turned 16 on the 13th, and Jose turned 30 on the 15th!  I figured that was a pretty important birthday, so I took it upon myself to organize a party.  It wasn't a complete surprise; Jose knew the time, date, and location, but the theme and the guest list were a surprise.  The theme was 70's, since Jose was born in 1976.  Jose knew of a few local people that would be here, but he didn't know about the seven people from Medicine Hat that would be here, including his sister!  He knew Natalia was coming to town at some point for a concert, but he didn't realise that the concert and the party were the same weekend. 

The 70's theme was a lot of fun.  I asked people to dress up, and my friend Jess and I hit Value Village.  She found a gorgeous full-length pink and purple number with a Hawaiian motif.  I actually purchased two dresses with the intent of e-mailing my mum pictures of me wearing the two so she could help me decide.  The final decision was a short, sleeveless, green and white dress with a large floral print.  I found a pair of chunky white sandals to go with my dress.  We also purchased outfits for our husbands.  Ryan got to see his in advance, Jose didn't.  For Jose I chose a pair of pants in a rusty brown colour, a tan-coloured shirt, and a clip-on tie that was striped in three different shades of brown.  Sadly, the only pair of shoes that I could find that would have fit nicely with the theme were two sizes too small, so he had to wear a pair of his own.

Natalia arrived at our house Saturday morning, and Jess arrived shortly after.  They were my saving grace because they were able to decorate and keep James out of my hair while I did things like vacuum and clean the bathrooms (luckily I'd had the foresight to do some major cleaning the night before - Jose couldn't believe his eyes).  We took another trip to Val. Vil. (as my dad would say) to get an outfit for Natalia.  We found a short little dress that somewhat resembled a migraine headache - violent pinks, purples, yellows and oranges.  We also hit the mall for some more decorations, and I found the perfect jewelry to go with my dress - a white bead necklace and bracelet, and a pair of thick white plastic hoop earrings.  What I really wanted to find was a black afro wig for Jose, but there were none to be had. 

After the mall we hurried home for last-minute preparations, and then the dressing began.  It was actually quite a lot of fun just getting ready.  I put James in a pair of brown cords with a tie-dyed shirt that my dad gave him, and Natalia did Jess's and my makeup because she's way better at those sorts of things than either of us are.  Jess and I actually considered going to get our hair done at a salon, but Natalia came to the rescue, and besides, we ended up not having time.

The party was a big success.  Ryan and our friend James and taken Jose snowboarding at Castle Mountain to keep him out of the house so I could decorate without him finding out what the theme was.  Jose showered at Ryan's place so he would be presentable for the party, and Ryan phoned us as they drove up.  I handed out a scarf to blindfold Jose with without letting him see my outfit.  I then whisked him upstairs (as fast as a blindfolded person can be whisked) and managed to get him into his own outfit, while Ryan changed into his party clothes in the bathroom (Jess had brought them over beforehand so Jose wouldn't see). 

I took Jose downstairs still blindfolded so everything would be revealed at once.  Once the blindfold was off, it took a few moments to process everything, but he was grinning, so I think we did good!  After a brief trip upstairs to view his new look, Jose began the party in earnest.  I'd ordered pizza (although we had to order more!), and there were chips and veggies and Jess brought cookies, and James's girlfriend Nikki made 70's-coloured Jello.  And of course, there was cake.  People hung out and listened to 70's music, chatted and did the 1976 Trivia Quiz that I'd scammed off the Internet (Ryan and James won the prize for that).  All in all, a good time was had by everyone.  Towards the end, the boys headed off downstairs for some Xbox 360, and the girls stayed upstairs to laugh at them.  Natalia was in fine form, and had us all in stitches.

Everyone except two people from Medicine Hat stayed overnight, so we were grateful for our new futon.  Unfortunately, I'd turned the furnace down for the party and forgot to turn it back up, so people in the basement were quite chilly.  We stayed up quite late, just in the spirit of the party, and then getting everyone's beds ready, and then James, who had gone down with no problem during the party while it was at full swing, suddenly decided to keep waking up every five minutes for a cry fest.  I think the drastic change in volume from when he went to sleep was the culprit.  I ended up nursing him to make him go back to sleep which I haven't done in ages.  Then by the time I got my makeup off, etc. it was 3:30!  I don't know when the last time I stayed up that late (early?) was. 

The next morning, everyone who had stayed at our house plus Ryan went to the Cheesecake Cafe for brunch.  We had a nice feast, and James enjoyed a large selection of melon with a couple of slices of cheese and some Cheerios thrown in, despite the fact that he'd eaten breakfast a short time before. 

That was pretty much the party!  I had a lot of fun planning the party, and then had a great time during the party.  I think Jose did too.  James was the life of the party.  He had a fantastic time with the balloons.  In fact, he is still enjoying them.  He had such a wonderful time with them, I didn't have the heart to pop them.  They're gradually losing air and being quietly removed from the collection, but he still has quite a number of them to play with.

Click on the thumbnail for pictures:

Bye for now,

Getting old

Posted by: Jennifer

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY PAUL!!!

Bye for now,

Finally!!

Posted by: Jennifer

After much difficulty - blood, sweat and tears, the whole deal - we were finally able to get the Christmas pictures into a slideshow.  It took an hour for me to do all the descriptions, and then the stupid program we were using didn't work properly, so I had to do it again with a different program.  The only problem is you need to use Internet Explorer to see the pictures.  It's stupid, I know, but for those of you who normally use Mozilla Firefox, you'll have to switch over to Explorer this once.  I'll go back to the normal way of posting, but there were 94 pictures!!  It wouldn't have looked good on the usual page.  Just click on the thumbnail below, and it will take you right there. 

Happy viewing,

Forgot to mention

Posted by: Jennifer

In my last post, I was going to tell about a couple of things James does now.  He dances, give "five," will give things to me when I ask him to, and can crawl up the stairs.  Going down the stairs is another matter, so we've been teaching him how to go down backwards.  Otherwise, he just tries to sit down where there's nothing to sit on. 

Also, a little tidbit I forgot to add in my Christmas tale: James got a haircut from Auntie Claire on Christmas Day.  It's very cute, but a little crooked at the back due to the fact that he squirmed a bit.  Claire did say that he was a lot better than some five-year-olds she's done though, so I was pleased about that. 

As for pictures, I went to do them on my laptop, but every time I opened the file from Jose's computer, it crashed.  I haven't had a chance to go downstairs to do it, because a certain little someone makes it very difficult to do anything down there because he's into EVERYTHING and it's tougher to watch him there.  So, hopefully they'll go up this weekend.

One last thing: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIA!!!

Bye for now,

New Year Resolutions

Posted by: Jennifer

My first New Year's Resolution is to be more faithful in updating the website.  I realise that it's unforgivable that December only had one post.  Here's what's been going on:

We had several Christmas celebrations starting on the 11th with my Dad.  He and his wife Sue came down for a visit and brought a huge load of gifts with them.  We were quite overwhelmed by the whole thing, but it was  a lot of fun to see James open his very first Christmas presents ever.  We had a really nice roast beef dinner (if I do say so myself!), and a good visit.  The next morning, James and I met the two of them for lunch at the Lethbridge Lodge where they'd been staying.  Jose had to work so he missed out. 

The following weekend was Jose's Christmas party at work.  It was a lot of fun, and Jose won a couple of door prizes - despite claiming to be unlucky.  Also, I was sitting in the winning chair for the poinsettia centrepiece, so it was a fruitful evening.  My mum came down to Calgary to babysit, so it was a stress-free evening as far as James was concerned. 

That same weekend was the Christmas play at our church.  I helped the grade 3/4 class with their rap (they were Augustinian monks).  We had the dress rehearsal on the 17th and the performance on the Sunday during the main service.  The kids were awesome, and I was glad to be involved in something so meaningful. 

The week leading up to Christmas was full of last minute shopping, mailing out Christmas cards (by the way, if you didn't get one and would like one, e-mail me your mailing address - I have a few left), and getting things like laundry done so we could go away. 

Jose and I decided to exchange gifts before we left to Calgary and the Hat so we wouldn't have to haul extra stuff with us.  Good thing we did too, but more on that later.  Even though Jose had accidentally seen one of his presents listed on a gift receipt before Christmas, we had a good time.  James thoroughly enjoyed his school bus that plays several verses of "The Wheels on the Bus" and Sammy was initially afraid of his present - a combination tennis ball and rope deal.  He overcame his fear when we returned home after the weekend.  Once our presents were opened, exclaimed over, tried on, etc. we packed the car and took off for Calgary, returning only once after filling up the car with gas for Sammy's food.  If only that was all we'd forgotten, life would have been much happier, as I discovered when I went to put presents under the tree at my mum's house.  I'd forgotten a gift bag full of things like my mum's stocking stuffers (luckily I wasn't the only one responsible for that!), Jose's gift from Santa, James's Christmas jammies, my brother's gift, and a few other things.  LUCKILY I'd some presents home with my mum the previous weekend, and it was only the few that I hadn't got at that time that I left behind, otherwise, no one would have had any presents from us!  The other major thing I forgot was my stocking.  It was my first Christmas EVER not to hang that stocking up, and I was rather heartbroken over it.  My mum made Jose and James stockings, so she had them. 

Other than that rather major glitch, the rest of the weekend went much more smoothly and was a lot of fun.  On Saturday, we went to church at my mum's church in Cochrane, had tourtiere, and put on our Christmas jammies - my mum made a very fortunate impulse buy at Old Navy and bought James some jammies too.  Then we stuffed stockings and went to bed to await Santa's arrival.  In the morning, we opened our stockings, then had a really yummy breakfast, and then, contrary to tradition, we dove right into the presents under the tree.  Usually we go to church then have lunch while we open presents, but the timing was different this year.  After presents, James had a nap, and then we all headed over to Claire's for a few more presents and a movie.  My mum was the only one who headed off to church.  For supper a friend of my mum's from church came over because her kids were spending Christmas with their dad.  We ate the 21lb turkey that Jose bought off the Hutterites who sell them at Hi-Way Service this time of year.  It was really delicious - the whole meal was.  Jan brought some food too, and since she's a gourmet chef, you know it was good!  After supper my friend Adriana came over and we had a nice visit.  Too short, especially since she lives in Montreal, but that's the way things go. 

On Monday, we headed to Medicine Hat where Jose's family was waiting for us with yet another haul of presents and more good food.  We had more turkey, but it was pan con pavo - literally, bread with turkey, or turkey buns.  Jose's mum cooks the turkey totally differently, and then either serves it up with other food or better yet, puts it on a bun with veggies.  SO GOOD!!  We tried out John and Natalia's 90's Trivial Pursuit that we gave them, and had a nice visit.  On Tuesday, we had some more turkey buns, paid a brief visit to the mall, and then headed home.  We had so much stuff to fit in the car (including a 27" TV that Natalia and John gave us because they got a new TV) that Jose's dad followed us home with Chico.  So they stayed the night, and left the following day, only to return this weekend!

Jose had to work from Wednesday to Friday which was a bit of a bummer, but he took yesterday off so he hasn't been working too terribly hard over the holidays.  Like I said, Jose's dad and brother were here this weekend for New Year's.  Jose's mum is in El Salvador right this minute, so she wasn't here.  Jose's dad left on Sunday, leaving Chico here, and my mum arrived about the time Antonio reached home.  While she was here, she "helped" make a pillow for our new futon downstairs.  By "helped" I mean, did all the tedious sewing for it.  I had fully intended to do it myself, and even brought my mum's sewing machine back with me from Calgary, so please don't get the impression that she slaved away on it.  I offered, but the machine was being rather finicky, and I think she kind of wanted to do it.  I pinned everything in place, and stuffed it, so I wasn't totally useless. 

So that's been the month of December in a nutshell.  James is into everything, especially the dog's water, the stereo, and pretty much anything he really isn't supposed to have.  He's learned "don't touch" in both English and Spanish.  In fact, he understands so much now it's really awesome.  He'll make the sound of a lion when you ask him to (most of the time), and he'll make his viejito (little old man) face on command, and he gives kisses to people as well as his animals but not quite as generously. 

I'll post some pictures later, I have to get them all organized