Christmas 2008

I'm finally "home" (though I don't think of nyc that way) after a 2 week cross Canada journey. I spent Christmas in Calgary and New Year's in Toronto. Of course the visits were too short and I didn't get to spend enough time with my friends and family- but I still got to see most and get sort of caught up. I didn't get to see my bro Stefan (his first Christmas away because he had to work) and friends Leigh and Lori (they were also away) but there will be time in 2009...
I was going to go through my trip day by day... but after writing a few paragraphs I started to fall into a coma... here are some pictures instead.

The first group of pics are from my annual 'girls' potluck. There are 8 of us who have been friends since high school (some from elementary... and some even earlier than that!) who have gathered together for a dinner every Christmas. This was our 16th year- and Sandy created the most amazing gift for us- by creating a book with pictures from the last 15 years. It was so beautiful and really made us reflect on the past (horrible hairstyles) when we were a bunch of single high school girls, to now where we have families and children. Not to be too nostalgic or anything but it made us thankful for what we have. We missed our friend Jen- but she was in Hawaii- not feeling too sorry for herself I'm sure.






This next batch is the family- and Olivia's trip out to a University of Calgary's basketball game. Her Dad (my brother David) is a big ball player so we thought we'd come out and cheer the team on. This first picture is three generations- Grandma, David and Tanya, and O. Claire and Shawnee gave O her first pair of Nike running shoes- which were a big hit.






These last pictures These last few are from Rob's NYE party... this is at the end... for some reason Jen is hiding in this one. There is a good one where you can see her- but I look like I have 3 chins... so I'm not putting that one up!!! : )



There are many people I didn't get pictures of (Mom, Cliff, Paula + family, my other Toronto friends) but I didn't carry the camera around with me everywhere!!!!!