Boxing Day....we were up early. Both Keith and I were teaching Sunday school so it was a bit of a mad scramble to be prepared to teach, dressed and out the door to get to church on time.
At noon we had the extended Steckley Christmas dinner (Keith's side) to attend. It was held at the Fairhaven School and Keith's parents were in charge of making it this year. It's potluck and there was more than enough food to be eaten!
From there we scooted home to change and freshen up and then it was back on the road heading to Mississauga. Our friend Gerry was flying out the next day on vacation and so we had made arrangements to meet him at The Keg (next door to his hotel) for dinner and conversation. It wasn't like we were famished and starved but I have to say the food was really good and we had a really nice visit with lots of laughs. There's something extra special about visiting with old friends that live on the other side of the country and that you don't get to see very often.
The next morning (Dec 27th) we woke up way beyond early. It was dark out. That's all I remember. Max had a hockey tournament for the next few days in Delhi. He had a 9:00am game. That meant an early early early morning drive to get there. It was also my birthday! I didn't mind getting up. I was pretty excited about watching the Maxter play hockey on my special day. My sister LeeAnne came along with us. We headed out nice and early...picked up some coffees and away we buzzed...
So here we are all doing what we do best it seems. I was taking pictures (surprise surprise) so you will see none of me doing that!
Keith was in the zone of driving...
LeeAnne was chatting away a mile and minute and keeping us quite entertained...
Max was in his own little ds world...making the most of our travelling time on the road...
And then while driving in the middle of nowhere...we finally arrived at our destination...
Heading into the arena ready for some big games...
The first game of the day against Simcoe...our guys got smoked. In particular, the opposing team had one little superstar that kept scoring over and over and over. Can't win 'em all...
Their second game wasn't until the afternoon. So in between the two games, we went to "The Styles Cafe" for some breakfasty-lunch with a bunch of other hockey families. The boys were all sitting together at one end of the table and things got pretty wild with them. WOW. I'm pretty sure that we were "that" table and that everyone else in the restaurant sighed a big sigh of relief when we finished up and left.
Second game of the day was against Delhi...
Max is the player in the white jersey in the foreground above. I can recognize him anywhere on the ice by his little crouching stance. Love it!
The end result of this game was that our little Huskies won. Very exciting! You know how when a team wins, the players like to pile on the goalie to celebrate their win? Well our goalie just HATES that. He's always trying to skate away from the team and they just follow him around on the ice until they get him. (see photo below) It makes us laugh every single time!...
By the time we arrived back at our house, it was close to 4:00pm. I had the foresight/brainwave to quickly set up my camera outside and get LeeAnne to snap a few family pictures of us. Looking back at them now, I'm so glad we did this. A little slice of who we are on this special day. I'm thankful for my awesome sis who puts up with my notions and whims and follows my precise instructions on how I want the pics taken (I can be pretty bossy with her! LOL! That's what sisters are for though, right?) And I'm also super thankful for my hubby and little man who pretty much always (cheerfully!) smile and pose and agree to getting pictures snapped when I ask. And sometimes that can be quite often. They're good sports!
By this time, it was getting to that early evening time of day. Everyone looked at me. "What do YOU want to do? After all, it is your birthday!" To be perfectly honest, I would have just loved to stay home and do nothing....perhaps jump in the hot tub and later rent a movie and enjoy popcorn. That sounded heavenly to me. It always does when you're in the midst of Christmas rush and non-stop go-go-go. So I knew why I was feeling that way. On the other hand I was thinking to myself, "Gee....should really do something cause it is my birthday." Well. I can honestly say the thought of going out to eat somewhere was NOT appealing. Eventually, LeeAnne and I decided we should head out to the mall and do a bit of boxing day shopping. I have never done that so soon after Christmas. We are always way to busy. So what the heck. It's a good time to do that. Keith and Max were a bit happy with those plans because it meant they were off the hook and could stay home and play with the new ds together. Boys! I quickly called my mom who said that "everyone" was coming over to their place that night for cake and icecream and so of course, I should be there. Easy enough. We agreed that Keith, Max and I would meet up at my parents place at 7:00pm. So off LeeAnne and I went to discover this wonderous thing known as boxing day shopping at Conestoga Mall.
Do you know what?
We didn't buy anything.
So this is what we discovered. There were some stores that had AMAZING deals on. Worth buying. But only if you really liked it. Here's a prime example. We walked into RW & Co. We both quite like that store. They had racks and racks of clothing on sale. With a sign that said "additional 50% off the sale price". OK. So that's a good sale. We started gathering up armloads of stuff to try on. Then we went into the change room and started the parade. Maybe the problem was we are sisters so we have no qualms with being 100% absolutely honest with each other. We don't worry about hurting each others feelings by sharing our opinion... we're brutally honest. ;-) So each time we would come out of our respective change rooms with a different piece on, we'd look at each other and start talking. If one of us really liked something, the other was sure to feel indifferent about it. There was always something wrong with each item. And if there wasn't something "wrong" with it, then we were just not very "excited" or "enthused" about the item and rendered it unforgettable and boring. So we left piles and piles of deals in the change room and walked out of that store with bank accounts perfectly intact. Next we meandered into Joneve. A favourite store of mine! Again, they had fantastic deals. Most of their boots were on sale and then they were offering an additional 50% off those sale prices. Well, this indeed looked very promising. So we started picking out boots to try on. The problem with this store was they only had two sales clerks working. Which wasn't enough. They had to go into the back and get your boots in the size that you wanted. It took so much time and then all of a sudden we started feeling bad about getting them get out so many boots to try on. Especially when we just weren't feeling the love of the ones we were trying on. So we left that store too, with empty hands and heavy wallets. And that was kinda the story of our shopping excursion....we felt really good about all the money we saved when we walked out of the mall that evening! :-)
Do you have luck Boxing Day shopping? I think you definitely have to be in the mood for it? I don't think it's my thing...
LeeAnne and I high-tailed it to my parents place where Keith and Max were waiting for me...as well as the whole family. My brother Chad and I have the same birthday. He's 9 years younger than me. It's funny, throughout the years, no matter how busy we are over the holidays, on the 27th, you'll usually find all of us congregating at my parents at some point that day to celebrate the two birthdays. We don't even really plan it....it just happens. So here we are...getting ready to enjoy some cake...
See my beautiful sparkly necklace I'm wearing? That was my birthday gift from Max. It coordinates with the "Christmas bracelet" I received from him a few days earlier. Sweet! :-)
The birthday persons...
We all hung out ate some cake, drank some coffee, played some games and enjoyed the evening.
I even got a "nice" card from Chad this year. That is something of a miracle actually. I told him that I was going to frame it because I'm sure it was one of those "once in a lifetime" things. Chad is famous in our family for his birthday cards. You wouldn't think it, but he puts alot of thought into picking out cards for his family members. Perhaps "thought" isn't the right word. Basically, he hunts for the most obnoxious cards he can find. I've received some douzies from him over the years. This year he told me he had trouble finding one that was "good enough" to be mean enough, so he decided to give me a sweet and nice one. Such a goof!
Overall it was a fabulous day. My hubby spoiled me with a gift certificate to my favourite esthetician. (Pretty toesies coming up soon!) I got to watch my most favourite hockey player in the world play not one but two games. I had a couple of yummy coffees throughout the day to keep me fueled. Got to spend a fun day with my hubby. Also got to spend time with my ridiculous sistah. And to top it off I celebrated with my entire family in the evening. Wish I would have taken more pictures that night. But oh well, when you're the guest of honour your focus is being a good guest of honour. (And not hounding everyone with the camera.) That's my excuse! ;-)
The next day (Dec 28) was busy again. Max had power skating first thing in the morning at the arena in town here. Then one of the best delights of the Christmas season occurred. We had some friends stop by for a little visit. Some out of town friends. More like, "different province, living halfway across Canada friends" stop by. Friends that I miss a big big bunch. And when you see each other in person and spend time together you realize even more how much you miss then. My friend Michelle and her entire family were able to stop by for an hour or two in the morning. We used to live a couple of streets apart in Vancouver and saw each other all the time. Now, not so much. We had a lovely little visit though and it put a smile on my face for days afterwards. It still does when I look at the pictures and remember our visit! Thanks for making time in your busy hectic schedule to stop by Michelle!
By noon, our friends were heading out the door to their next event. My friend Janice had arrived at our place and we were all piling in the truck to head back to Delhi for another game in the hockey tournament later that afternoon. Janice and I had lots of time to sit and catch up with each other. It was....another perfect delight! Thanks for coming Janice!! It meant alot to Max to have you there as his number 1 fan! ;-)
(Unfortunately, our team lost. Because of how everything worked out in the tournament, even though our guys won 1 game and lost 2 games, they still made it to the finals. So we had to head back to Delhi the next day for one more game.)
We arrived home later in the afternoon. Keith was pretty quiet on the drive home and finally admitted that he wasn't feeling very good. This is the start of when he came down with the flu bug. :-(
Janice ended up hanging out with us for a good part of the evening and we sure had a great time catching up. :-)
December 29th...by this point, Keith was feeling a bit fevered and definitely under the weather. He took Max down to his last game in Delhi and then they came right back home and he crashed in bed and slept and slept and slept. And I prayed and prayed and prayed that he would get better fast and Max and I wouldn't catch the flu bug.
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