Grandpa...What have you been doing???

Well by looking at the counter on my Blog I see that everyone has pretty well given up on me.....but I do have an excuse though....I"M GOING BLIND AND CAN"T SEE THE SCREEN......no...okay how about I WAS CAPTURED BY ALIENS AND TAKEN TO ANOTHER PLANET....no? Okay then...I'm just lazy..... all right!! So here goes 2 months of information in one posting. ................................................................................................................................. Oct saw Grandpa hit another milestone in his life...yes I turned 59. So what does a guy do for his 59th birthday...well I took a walk down the street and I ran into this 4 legged Mexican senorita who invited me over to her house for a party, after a few Tequila's she started to look prettycute. Little did I know but she was only after my Sombrero. Oh well even though I didn't win her heart I had a terrific Mexican supper with all the trim'ns and fix'ns. ................................................................................................................................. Next on the schedule was Gramma's birthday.......present. I had promised to take her on a weekend excursion and so opening up the bank account, I splurged and we were off to Vegreville .... yea right, do you think I would be writing this if that was where I took her. We packed up the MDX and headed for Jasper..or just outside of Jasper, a resort just at the Jasper park gate called the Overlander Lodge. No telephones, no radios, no shops and yes.....NO TV. Truly this was a test of marritable strength. But all in all it was a great weekend of relaxing, playing Yatzee and touring Jasper town in the winter. The scenery was spectacular and the food outstanding and we will definitely do this again. If any of you are looking for a place to leave the helter skelter life behind for a few days I would highly recommend this lodge...we were treated like royalty (see our photo album for more pics). I even ran into an old school mate of mine back in high school.......we just called him Blacky. Gramma really enjoyed the beautiful details of the room and surroundings as well as the relaxing atmosphere...there were no timelines or schedule to meet...just do what you want and enjoy. This may even be an excellent spot to have a family Christmas one year as we are only 30 minutes from Jaspers Marmot Basin skiing. ................................................................................................................................. What's next you ask???? Well its back in the MDX and we are off to where the gentle west winds blow and RIP the shingles off your house, blow the barbecue from your deck and whip up blinding snow storms....yes we are in Lethbridge. Tracy, Aimee and Amanda abandoned their families and headed out on a road trip to Portland Oregon to see an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" (that's their story anyways) and do some serious shopping which I'm sure was the real reason as Jason received a call from Master Card informing him the there were large purchases going on his card in Portland. But this left the door open for Grandma and Grandpa to spend some quality time with Dom and Liam....and did we have fun!! From skating to shopping and going to MacDonalds for dinners (Shhh ... Domi, don't tell them) we filled in a week of activities with no problems. When the girls got back they looked like groupies all dress up the same but from the stories they told it sounded like they had a fabulous time....we are trying to make this road trip an annual event. ................................................................................................................................. From Lethbridge we travel back to Morinville and the arrival of Christmas . Christmas's are changing Grandpa and Grandma...at one time we were excited to get presents and try and figure out what they were.....now our excitement comes from watching our grandchildren open their presents and seeing the glow in their faces. This year we started celebrating at Amanda and Jeremy's home on Christmas Eve (see photo album - Christmas 2007) and once again we were treated to an array of food that never seem to stop coming. I truly believe that Amanda will carry on from Great Grandma Kwasny as she loves to cook and does such a great job of it. After engorging ourselves with food and basically unable to move we retired to the living room where Jeremy played Santa and passed out the gifts.....I think everyone got what they want and more. Even Winnie participated in the festivities and opened all her own gift which followed with a slobbering thank you kiss. With the food still heavy in our stomachs we needed to wear some of it off so what better way then a challenging game of Wii......Grandma really got into the games and actually did fairly well at it. Even Grandpa impressed the crowd with his bowling skills.....not only are these games a ton of fun but there is definitely and an large exercise value in them so you will see one on in the Grandparent home in the near future. On a sad note I need tell you of the loss of one of our family members traditions....yes...Amanda has given into an artificial tree (much to Jeremy's delight) and although the there is not the aroma of pine in the Maas house during Christmas, there is also not the one million pine needle on the floor either. Even though the tree was an impostor.....it still was decorated with taste and looked fabulous. Enough of Christmas Eve...lets move on to Christmas Day. ................................................................................................................................. Christmas Day was held at Grandma and Grandpa's home with the dissecting of a 20 lb turkey and all the fixing to go with it. Grandma once more out did herself and we were again retiring to couches throughout the house to digest our supper. Earlier that day when everyone had arrived we could hold Dominic back no longer so we let him loose to open gifts and you could feel the excitement of the season as he would open each present and then come out with comments like "WOW I really wanted that" or "Buzz Lightyear...to infinity and beyond!" Maybe kids today do get more then I did for Christmas but you can still see the spirit of Christmas in them as their eyes light up from opening their presents and that's what makes this a special time of the year. We all got our turn at gift opening and once again we were all spoiled with everything we needed and more, even our little Liam. ................................................................................................................................. But don't think that this is the end of the Christmas festivities...we still have one story left. On Saturday Dominic and Liam asked if they could go swimming (see photo album - Christmas Swim Party) so it was off to the new built sports mega plex in St Albert for an afternoon of swimming, water sliding and all the other water activities you could think of. Needless to say that all who participated in the water events had a terrific day and I even seen Grandpa George making his way around the pool in an inner tube. This gave the grandkids to opportunity to wear off some energy and from what I heard they slept very well that night. This Christmas has given Grandma and myself a lot of pleasure and fun and the only regret that we have is that we could not have all of our family here to share it with us.......but that is why Christmas comes every year......soon we will.
Merry Christmas too all....and too all a Good Night! (I promise to stay up todate now....really)