new years n stuff

these are my 2 favourite from aribella's photoshoot...so far.  i want to call her belly.  and i shall.

sunday morning i woke up deep into the sniffles and sneezes and decided to stay at home and keep my germs to myself.  i amazed myself by putting the last few things from my suitcase away and then I PUT AWAY MY SUITCASE.  these are times of radical change.

izzy still plays with her toys and it's super cute to watch.

on monday i picked karey and family up at the ferry at 3pm.  i had washed my hair earlier (impressed??  you should be) and i used the car to dry it on the way to the ferry.  by the time i got there it was burning hot in the car and my cheeks were aflame.  by my hair was dry so that's all that matters.  my diffuser is broken so i haven't  been blow drying lately.   karey, al and katie came out pretty much the minute i arrived.  it was raining hard... like it has been most days this rainy december.  i got out and oversaw the loading up of the luggage and suitcases etc in the back. al had it all under control, i just kept my duvet and stool out of the way.  what.  you don't have a stool for the use of the elderly and infirm in the back of your car?? well get one.  as soon as karey got in the car she was like, oh my gosh it's so hot in here and had to crack a window but couldn't because it was on child lock.  haha.  but i unlocked it because i'm not a control freak...most of the time.

anyways i was driving them to langley so that's what we did.  and we stopped to eat.  i mentioned the vietnamese chinese fusion place sarah and i went to and al was into it, but when i asked karey she wanted white spot so i drove past the vietnamese place and then there were no white spots around and then we settled on montana's because it is family friendly and has ribs and good burgers.  i got a burger.  i was talking all about trying a brisket burger or sandwich (there is 3 different brisket options on the menu that all seem quite similar) and then when i ordered got the firecracker burger out of the blue.  i like to do things like that.  sarah knows.  karey got kapow shrimp tacos and gave me 4 or 5 of the shrimps which made me happy.  al got ribs.  like i knew he would.  i had a lemonade and used my telescoping straw for the first time, which made me feel so on trend.  so with it.  so me and coolio in the schoolyard.  katie was rambunctious as she should be, and required lots of attention from both of her parents but all went pretty smoothly.  we were in and out.  there were a few karey incidents on the way to the drop off place.  if you know karey you can guess as to what they were.  far be it from me to tell her tales.  we stopped at shoppers and i got tp, toothpaste and coconut lindt chocolates on sale.  i dropped karey and al of at a giant house in a neighbourhood full of giant houses.

then i drove on to abbotsford to pick up muffyduffypuffy from mom and dad's.  mom was in the middle of making moqueca, or brazilian fish stew and i joined in to help.  in the mean time dad and i worked on the 2 crossword puzzles we had left unfinished. i didn't get that much further on them without cheating.  the brazilian fish stew was so yummy.  everyone liked it which was gratifying to me although i didn't make it, mom did.  after dinner we played one last game of up and down the river. this time it was dad's turn to win and my turn to lose big time.  hmph.  made me want to play again right then and there.

martha came over to my house to spend the next 2 nights of new years.  sleep over time.

the next day we went to guilford town center and i look at shoes at torrid. evelyn gave me money for shoes for christmas.  i found some that i got but i don't love them and i may return them.  but i found a bunch of other things like a hot barbie pink sweatshirt and a navy jacket  with a hood that looks like a jacket but is made from sweatshirt material.  it was 50% off so i got it.  martha wanted to look into the possibilites of upgrading to a smart phone so we went to the phone shop and talked to the people and she walked away with a very pretty hwawei phone.

after the mall we got some mcdonald's and then stopped for a little visit with fattie and family.  fatima had 2 cute plates of goodies out for us all fancy.  the girls both made me cards.  i gave them their presents. i gave the girls the felt monsters i had made and i gave fats some beeswax cloths that i made.  we sat and talked and had a nice time.  then we had to go.

it was raining haaaaaaaaaaaaard.  and there were 2 accidents on the alex fraser going in both directions so i i did a uturn and took the tunnel.  i felt so legit in that moment.  such a legitimate person.

we only had about 15 minutes at home to look at martha's phone and add her kids and others to her insta and then it was time to go to the movies--our new years eve festivites!

a stressed out man was askin if anyone was doing debit or credit.  i let him take me to the machines and do it for me.  i always feel like this is so lame but he seemed so stressed that i allowed it.  martha gave me a gc for the movies so it was perfect for nye and it paid for both my movies.  our first movie was little women.  i was a bit worried that my deep love for the last little women would taint my enjoyment of this one but i have to say that I LOVED IT.  so good.  it's just the best story.  i love little women, almost as much as jane eyre, you know what i'm saying?  jo is played by Saoirse Ronan and she is a really really great jo, i think.  that was my favourite casting.  maryl streep as aunt march is of course great.  all the other sisters casting was ok, it took some getting used to, but i did.  and laura dem as marmie..i was able to swallow it all.  i loved the grandfather lawrence...the professor was a hubba hubba but the hardest casting was laurie.    that was a little weird.  he just always seemed so little and so young and never seemed to be a man.  but that being said i still loved it and i cried often and much throughout.

next we watched star wars which was fun.  it all just seems like the same story in a different time and different way.   when the movie was over it was 12:23.  it was 2020 and we didn't notice it arrive.  when we walked out of the theatre the rain had stopped.  martha said the earth had stopped weeping and washing 2019 off of her.

martha went to sleep pretty much right away but i dilly dallied a bit before joining her.  we had a late morning the next day.  i think i got up around 9.  did some scripture study and whatnot.  martha got up around 11 and we left at 11:30.  i dropped martha off at the bus depot in front of surrey central at 12 and a few minutes picked heather up from the sky train at the same place.  heather most likely walked right by martha on her way to sahib and i.  it was a gorgeous day.  the rain was gone and and the temperature felt almost blamy.  sunshiney.  we exchanged our gifts there in the parking lot with the windows down.  heather gave me a toque she knitted to go with my scarf!  so cute.  i gave her a telescopic straw and a needle felted bird and scandinavian santa (tomte) that i needle felted.  after our appropriate various reactions to our gifts we headed to green timbers urban forest for our nyd walk.  green timbers urban forest was a happening place.  the parking lot was full to over flowing and many cars were idling, waiting and backing out of the parking lot etc.  we lucked out and just so happened to be in the right place at the right time when a car was leaving so we got a spot pretty fast.

we had a really nice walk on a beautiful day in a beautiful place.  first we passed the lake and looked at the ducks and sat on a sunny bench then we ventured into the forest which was so lovely.  there were many places where the pools of the forest overflowed on the path but it did so in such a pretty way that we couldn't complain.  we said happy new year to everyone we passed and heather was patient with all my stops for little pics along the way.  we talked and talked and enjoyed all we saw.  it was very nice.  and as soon as my foot was starting to hurt we were on a path back to the parking lot.

we drove to richmond, stopped at pricesmart and got some chinese take away from the hot foods counter.  we chose stir fried green beans, honey spare ribs, bbq steamed pork buns and 1 each of taro cake, radish cake and water chestnut cake.  we took our spoils back to my house and ate them with my new panda chop sticks that nuria brought me back from china.  there were even little pandas to rest the chopsticks on.

the sun set just as i got back from dropping heather off at the sky train.  the fist sunset of 2020.  my last day of vacation.