Feliz Ano, 2008!!

My deepest apologies to those of you who know the meaning of this word (ano) without the ~ on the "n", when it would mean "year" ... "Happy New Year!" I do not mean to offend, I simply have an old computer and can't figure out what command or key sequence will give me an "N" with ~ on top :P

Anyway! Enough trying to dig myself out of hole ... pardon the pun...haha :)

Happy New year! This year, in keeping with our new tradition from Ecuador, we celebrated the passing of 2007 with an "Ano Viejo" (again, my apologies)... an "Old Man" to burn as a symbol of forgetting and moving on from the regrets of 2007.

Beth and Janna (although, mostly Beth) made him... his name is Ivan Malo, and the choseing of this name has a story, although, you'll have to ask my sister about it -I don't feel at liberty to publish it all over the internet :)

Here he is burning away, our old man... in Ecuador everyone lays their Ano viejo's in the middle of the street to burn (they are filled with newspaper/straw, and firecrackers!) them on the stroke of midnight. We set ours alight at 1 am in Canada, which is 12 midnight in Ecuador.

Luckily no cops came running to our house and no neighbors complained at the Roman Candles that came shooting up in our back yard from the lap of Ivan Malo !! :D

Christmas 2007

Well, I seem to be getting so far behind that I need to speed up the entries!! Over Christmas we had the privilege of having Nanny and Pappy over for a whole week and all to ourselves :) We did our usual Christmas morning thing, breakie down by the fire while we slowly open stockings (knitted by Nanny many moon's ago :) and gifts... it was really nice... here are a few photos:

Ok, my Nanny has to be one of the funnest people to buy a gift for - especially if the gift is clothing or jewelry ;) She guesses what it is first (a trait my mother is also annoying good at), then gasps is surprise, then goes on and on about how you "shouldn't have" or it's "too nice" for her to wear, or "it must have cost so much!" but at her first chance and with not much prodding she's got it on, showing it if with a big grin loving every compliment and soaking up every ounce of attention :) She is SO funny... she knows it too :) And at 81 years old -she look amazing in just about anything!Aren't they just wonderful? :) Pappy is trying on his new Christmas duds, and Nanny is in her housecoat, all ready for bed - she made me crop the photo so no one would know ;) oops!
Shortly after Christmas we went up to New Brunswick to visit the family up there... We made the traditional stop in at the Fredericton Market on Saturday morning and stood in line -despite the show- at our favorite Suflakie stand... mmmm...
This picture is of Hannah, Shauna & Ben's first girl, she's grown a lot since the summer! We hear that she is an awesome singer, and knows all the lyrics to the Gaither Vocal Band CD's (like a good member of the Fox family ;) but we couldn't convince her to sing for us... too many eyes watching I guess... at least she's humble about her talent!
This is the newest edition to the family, Gracie (Shauna & Ben's 2nd girl). It was our first time meeting her, she is really sweet :)
Played "Memory" with Sydney and Jada (Sonya & Pat's 2 oldest girls... Payton is the youngest and I don't have a good picture of her this time around...), watched their 1st ballet recital on video, and read story after story... :) They are SO much fun.
Apparently Christmas of 2007 will go down in the books for being the year of babies! While we were in Fredericton my cousin Sarah and her husband John announced that they were expecting a baby in 8 months and 28 days! Sarah told us all the day after she took the test! hahaha.. they are just a tad excited :) Sarah and Jeremy Marsh also made their announcement and little baby Marsh is to arrive in August! Another cousin, Stephanie and her hubby Matt are having a baby in June... this picture is of her and Jay when the 3 of us met up at Tim Horton's one afternoon in NB, on our way to PEI...

And that was Christmas 2007!