Ghosts of Christmas Past

Oh how I loved that little kitty cat. Brandy was my 12th birthday gift and the best one I'd ever received! This is Christmas in our old townhouse on Wright Street. We moved about six months after this photo to my parents current home. We won't get into that here but let's just say it was a HUGE adjustment for my brother and I!

Legacy

This weekend my entire family (on my mom's side) got together to celebrate and honour my grandparents for 60 years of marriage.

Elisabeth and Gerhard Klassen aka Oma & Opa!


After being married for a mere 16 years I am in awe of 60 years together. Looks like Keith and I have only started our journey together.


I deeply admire my grandparents. They have been through so much in their lifetime yet have remained so faithful to God and to each other. They have shown the meaning of hard work, perserverance and gratitude in all circumstances.

This is the VERY abbreviated version: They both met each other on a boat that was taking people from Germany to South America. Opa had escaped getting enlisted from Hitler's Youth army to the regular army because he was too scrawny. His mom was a widow and didn't have much food to give her five children. Oma was a pastor's daughter and was known for being particular. The war ended shortly thereafter and they looked to Paraguay to start a new fresh life. They married shortly after arriving in Paraguay. They don't even have a wedding picture. They worked very hard there in harsh conditions. They were sponsored to come to Canada in 1956 and once again travelled to a new land to start a new life. They started from scratch and through hard, hard work made themselves a good life in Vancouver, then Richmond, a summer home in Oroville and now in Abbotsford. My Opa started Klassen Heating which is still a very successful business in the city. They have six healthy children who all are committed Christians, who in turn all have children and even their children have children!

We were blessed with an amazing venue to have our celebration evening. My Oma's nephew opened up his beautiful home on Eagle Mountain for all 50 of us! The meal was scrumptious, the surroundings grand and the company fun.

My grandparents love to get up and tell us stories of their lives...they are not shy people. My Oma gave the best line of the night when she was telling us how she met Opa (in her wonderful German accent):

'A strange boy put his arm around me and....it did not feel bad.'


My brother was the 'official' photographer of the night but I took a few of my own shots. Here are just a few so you can see what our evening was all about!

My contribution was to bake and carve up this massive ham! My electric knife is still having seizures.

A most lovely home.

The reflection of the grand windows makes for an interesting shot.

The basement was set up for the kids. Air hockey, ping pong and a big TV. It was nice to have a place for them to go while the adults visited over dessert. Beyond the glass doors is an indoor pool!

The youngest member of the crowd was baby Asher who is a mere three weeks old. He's a real cuddle monkey. He's with his mom Erin who is my cousin and her dad, my Uncle Ken.


And as per tradition there was a 'kids' table for the meal. Keith and I left Liam at home with a sitter which made for a most enjoyable evening.

A view looking from the hall into the kitchen.

They cleared their livingroom for us...plenty of room for all.

Andrew with some lovely ladies! My cousins Kim and Teresa and my aunt Margarete.

Keith was assigned the carver of the baron of beef. He did a great job...such a multi-talented man I have!

Aunt Louise with my second cousin Edith. Louise hosted us with her husband Gerhard. Edith is their daughter (my second cousin) and she helped with the serving and cleaning up. Her daughter in turn helped supervise the kids in the basement!

There was a scrumptious lemon layered cake for dessert.

A fabulous evening that would not have pulled off without all the hard work from each of the families. Amen!

Predictable

Nathan was obsessed with tractors.

Chad was obsessed with tractors.

Liam is obsessed with tractors.

Must be all from the same gene pool!

Not Much

Arg. I wish I had a scanner. I have some wonderful material for my usual Tuesday 'take me back' feature but it's sitting in my photo albums. I am hoping Santa hears my request for a new printer/scanner combo!

So here's a pathetic old photo of very little interest. Keith and I at his brother's apartment in about 1992 or so.

Date Night

Last night I had a special night out with my boy. I had won a pair of tickets from our local Christian radio station to go and see Gallery 7's production of Peter Pan. I just knew I had to take my theatre buff! It was a full house and a very good production. Nathan was pleased to watch his own acting coach in the lead role of 'Wendy'.
Afterwards, we made our way to a local coffee house for dessert and hot chocolate. Definitely a most enjoyable evening.

1980's!

Good times at work again with today being '80's day! I chose the early 1980's myself as I tried to replicate a 'Farrah Fawcet' hair do. A bit of work and a lot of hairspray, for sure!

Marci, me, Heather...looking 'rad'.

Even our facilities manager, Walter got in on the action.

The office crew.

Marci's inspiraton, Delta Burke.

Thanks Farrah for the hair!

Water Babies

The last time I was in Palm Springs I looked like this!

We'll be heading there again in just over a month and I'm looking forward to exploring it because I really don't remember much about it at all!

For Entertainment Purposes Only

This is how yours truly hangs up the vacuum hose.

This is how her better half hangs up the vacuum hose.

You should see my toothpaste tube!

I hope you were entertained.

Amateurs

My kids recently received a hand-me-down camera and have been having a VERY good time with it. After a few basic rules about what NOT to take pictures of (kill-joy mom said no bums, toilets, nose picking etc)they were off and running.

Here's a little sampling:

The Years Fly By

9 years ago this was our family!

TWO

Just so you can all share my pain. This is the disposition of Liam on most days (click for your personal viewing pleasure).
Never acts like this for his grandparents of course. He saves up all his angst for us! Goody.

Not My Way But His

How do you handle disappointments in your life?

I don't have a very good track record in this department. It took me a long time to realize that I have a lot of growing up to do in this area. Mostly, to protect myself from the huge let down I feel when disappointments happen to me I don't let myself get too excited about things in the first place.

I tend to keep an open mind that situations can go one way or the other. It's a defensive action that seems to work for the most part.

Recently I forgot about this little mind game I play with myself and got excited about a situation that was in no way 'for sure'. Sadly, the situation did not work out to my liking and now I am down in the dumps about it. It can be a bitter pill to swallow when you 'think' that everything should have gone your way and in your view there was no reason for things NOT go your way. But God always has His plans and they are not always in line with our plans. Sometimes later down the road things are revealed that end up making sense and you say....ahhhhh, so that's why it didn't happen! But there are also many times when it doesn't make sense and it never makes sense to our human eyes. This is when our faith in God's promises keeps me going. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God's got our best interests in mind. What would we do without this hope?

For people that don't know God, they can only shrug their shoulders and think it wasn't meant to be. I'm so glad I have a firm foundation to rest on in times such as these and I get the reassurance that God cares about everything that happens to me (or doesn't happen for that matter)!

Chatter

Somethings don't change over the years. We still sit at our kids soccer games and often are very cold! With Liam probably following in the steps of his older brothers, it doesn't look like we'll be moving forward from this predicament anytime soon!

(thought bubbles/photo courtesy of my Dad!)