I forgot to mention in my last post that we recently celebrated another milestone. Ma, our driver, has now been with us for over a year! We are happy, he seems happy, so hopefully he will be with us for the rest of our time here.
Here are the pictures I promised. Finally able to get them up! Sheryl, if you send me yours on Dropbox I will post some of those, too. We had a couple great game nights! So many laughs...
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| The kids and Abbott couldn't wait to give me my birthday present! |
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| Shortly after we arrived the snow started to fall and we had good coasting weather for almost the entire visit. It was awesome and so pretty. It's been a while since we've had a white Christmas. |
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| For my birthday we went to Hamachi Steakhouse on the Halifax Waterfront. |
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| Nice photo:). Thanks, Erin, for the wonderful idea and making the arrangements. It was definitely one of the most memorable birthdays I've had. |
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| Beautiful view |
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| We were lucky enough to get Chef Mar and he put on a great show for us. |
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| As the birthday girl I got to try my hand at fancy cooking. I don't think they'll be hiring me anytime soon. |
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| A little wine before attempting to toss and crack the egg. Chef Mar was a little concerned. |
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| No problem! |
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| Brett gave it a try, too. What a great sport! |
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| It was just as fun watching the kids expressions as it was seeing Mar perform his tricks. |
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| Dad was ready for Mar to flip a bowl of rice into his hand. He didn't, but I'm sure he could have. |
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| Julia, Andy and Dale in deep discussions - probably about biking:). |
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| A big one! |
The great thing about cousins...
...and Nanny!
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| A bowling excursion with Tricia and her girls. So much fun! |
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| Family Dinner |
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| Uncle Jeff is crazy!! |
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| The Gang |
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| A little jam session after supper. |
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| Our almost annual Christmas Eve photo. |
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| Of course you get to open one present on Christmas Eve! |
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| Christmas Eve supper with Grammie |
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| This was something new for our little family - hot chocolate and fire outside on Christmas Eve. Last year we were here in Shenyang and the year before we were swimming in Florida. |
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| Christmas Morning! So much excitement. |
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| Even the cats got into it! |
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| Well, some of them. |
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| My superhero needed his tags cut off. |
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| They had to go on a scavenger hunt to find their gifts from us. Thanks Andy for your help:). |
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| My favorite people altogether:). |
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| Playing hockey on Drew's curling rink. So pretty! |
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| Nanny and her littlest boy. |
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| Proudly Canadian |
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| We sure do miss the cats. |
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| This is a few days ago here in Shenyang. It was nice enough for the boys to go out and play hockey after Nick got home from school. I let them go by themselves while I made cookies and watched out the window. My little guys are growing up. |
Great blog Jan!! Loved seeing all the pictures. Can you send me a link in dropbox? I know my kiddies had tons of fun!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos Jan! You covered everything very well. I will get right at drop box. I couldn't remember the name you had told me so now I will figure out how to do it. We still have tons of snow but it is much more mild today and raining so it won't last too long. I think we had the best of it at Christmas time although winter isn't over yet and we will probably get lots more. Stefan is hoping so as he bought a ski doo which needs quite a bit of work and he is hoping to get it going this winter to try it out. The winter is moving a long quickly though, we only have 9 more weekends of minor hockey. That will put us into March. I am still busy doing my hockey cards and photos and trying to keep warm. I must say I really enjoy the warm weather. I also have to take the time to try the snow shoeing as that will give me something to do outside in the winter and Jerry will also like it. Must go now and see if I can get the drop box to work. Bye for now! Hugs to everyone!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures Jan, but it seems such a long time ago! The good thing is that with time marching on so quickly you will be back home before we know it. I know the girls and Kenzie had a great time with you and especially the coasting.
ReplyDeleteOur snow was completely gone, but everything is white again. It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday morning when we got up, the trees were covered in snow, very pretty.
Must go and get my laundry done, have a great day, hi to Tim and hugs for the boys, take care.