Paul Brandt Concert!!

I got tickets to the Paul Brandt Concert for my 25th Birthday from Mom and Dad! It was here in Halifax early February - Julia and I went and reminisced about our by-gone Alberta days and singin' along with Paul while drivin' through the Rockies :)

The Concert was Great (and I'm not even a big concert kinda girl!) and I just super enjoyed how much he interweaves his Faith in the music... probably most of the people had no clue he was quoting Scripture in almost all the songs. Good fella'.

Here's us with our brand new CD's... cracked 'em open for the drive home :)
One Song on my CD is really good... I think I'll blog it sometime cause it just really resonates with me... anyway... stay tunned :D

Miss you Jules!! Love ya ;)

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!

Traditions...

One of the nice things about living at home again is being around for all the Traditions :) You know me and Traditions... we go back a long ways and aren't so easily separated ;)

Mom and Dad making our yearly "Almond Butter Crunch" Christmas Candy - they've been making this since before Janna and I were born - now THAT's a tradition ;)

Look at us being helpful... we always get the important job of painting on the chocolate -this year we got a bit confused I guess... Janna seems to have chocolate fingernail polish even!!


Decorating our Christmas Tree











The MacIsaac Christmas Party - every year my Nanny's side of the family has a big gathering in O'Leary PEI, of all her brothers and sisters (15 at one point -less now), their children, grandchildren... and on it goes... not everyone can make it every year, but the show must go on! year after year after year after year... perhaps it's from this side of the family that I got my affinity/need for traditions!

Nanny and Pappy and grandchildren (at least the ones present)

Christy and Pappy
( just in case you are wondering at the name change... My Pappy has called me "Christy" for as long as I can remember -it's his nick name for me, not "Chris"- "Christy" and he's the ONLY one on the planet who's allowed :) (even strangers or patients when they get my name wrong and call me Christy, they get the whole story... "sorry, you can call me Chris or Christiane... but my Pappy is the ONLY ONE who calls me Christy"...)

Of course, another tradition that goes without saying and is sorely missed when one of the families is away... That is the Bryant/Fox Christmas Eve gathering :) We have pictures of this event from WAY back... one where I'm holding Jamsey in my lap and he's pretty new! Here's a few pics of our 2007 Christmas Eve, with EVERYONE present (no kids were in Africa, Australia, or Ecuador!)

That's most of the "pre" Christmas ones (that come with pictures anyway ;)

Here comes Santa Clause, Here comes Santa Clause...

Woah, sorry about the delay people! Finally here are some pictures from the Holidays! These are the "leading up to Christmas" ones :)

Our Wednesday Morning Ladies Bible Study - the highlight of my week!

Carol sing at Peter's house... awe I love our Church!

Baking with our small group Youth Group girls

Kristen making rice krispy squares










Laurissa packing up boxes of Christmas goodies to be delivered to special people

This is most of our YG girls (grades 9 & 10) From left to right, back to front: Me (Christiane), Regan (Rudolph), Erin, Fiona, Kristin, Heidi, Laurissa (kissy), and Cerys :)
This picture was taking at the Christmas party after our "gift that keeps on giving" night where we walked around Spring Garden Road (downtown Halifax) giving out gifts to random people we felt the Lord put on our hearts - we had a blast... my favorite was the 2 ambulance drivers we waved down at a stop light... they probably thought someone had died! haha, they just got chocolate instead :)

Janna and I spent a day in Tatamagouche with Sam, one of our all-time favorite people. She had just recently had a baby in November, and this was our first time seeing little Danny :) (and first time meeting Marcus too for that matter! AND my first time getting there without getting lost -haha!)










He's just beautiful - and she's such a proud mommy :) It was SO good to see you guys!

And this final one is of my Nanny teaching my Dad how to make biscuits for our Seafood Chowder on Christmas Eve! I love this picture :D

Serving In Mission

As most of you will know, I've been in the process of going to Sudan for almost a year now. It all started last February, gained momentum through 2 orientation courses in Toronto this fall, and a an interview where SIM (Serving In Mission) accepted me as a new member and Sudan said "come on over!!" :) Yay! So, here are a few pictures of SIM related things from this Fall...

This is myself, Erin & Don (who are now married) & their new little girl Mahayla, and Craig -at the SIM annual fall retreat at Malagash in September :) This little group is a bit of a "Benin Reunion"...we all were on the same team to Benin, West Africa, 7 years ago

On a walk downtown Toronto in October when I was there for 3 weeks for 2 different courses! Whew... exhausting, but both really good!!

This was our MissionPrep course -the first 2 weeks... It was really, really good -there are still things that I need to process through! I met some really great people, all of us working with different organizations and going to different places around the world -Brazil, Vietnam, France, Ethiopia, Sudan, East Asia... cool :)

This last pictures is of Dan, Me, Sarah, and Sonya -the four muskateers for the first 2 weeks, then Sarah went home to get married, and Carrie (who I apparently didn't get a picture of) came to the SIM guest house for the remaining week of SIMCO. Good friends, laughed a lot, went through a lot, made many trips to the grocery store, and watch a lot of TV in the evenings... when we didn't have homework that is ;) Oh the memories!

Thanksgiving with the Tan Man

About a week before Thanksgiving my friend Paul made a spontaneous decision to come to Nova Scotia for a visit!! He was here for a week and it was great to show him around to some of my favorite places and introduce him to some of my favorite people :)

Of course, the first stop was to Peggy's Cove where we stayed for a few hours, both of us doing work or reading on our own corner of Peggy's rocks :) I just love sitting and 'BE'ing there, listening to the waves crash and the spray catch the sunlight... mmm, nothing better, really... hopefully Paul caught a bit of that awe and appreciation that afternoon... actually, I'm pretty sure he did cause he asked if we could go back sometime, but we never got too --next visit Paul ;)

Another day we went on a hike with a bunch of people, to Cape Split, in the Valley (where all the apples and exciting things grow). Jordan and Julia both were there -they know Paul from when they lived in Edmonton, along with Ally, Kristen, & and Luke -it was a fun day. It felt like a pretty long hike before we finally got out to the cape... but eventually we could all collapse in the grass and wind to relax and enjoy the amazing view (pictures never do things like this justice!) The cliffs here are just crazy... if you ever fell, you'd just die -happy thought huh? It was a really peaceful afternoon, and from here we went for some fish and chips -all part of the experience!

Paul and I had multiple expeditions out to find the perfect leaves... unfortunately we had a really warm Fall here and our leaves all turned at least 2 weeks later than normal, meaning that Paul wasn't here at their peek -bummer. Anyway, I have a few pics of some nice leaves... you'll just have to use your imagination a little bit (those of you not from out here!)

And what would be a trip to NS to visit me without a stop in at camp!! Malagash is probably the thing that means the most to me (besides people) so I was really glad I could show Paul around. Of course, he HAD to get a picture at the anchor- it's tradition :) We also went for a walk down at the beach and sloshed through the water to get out to the sandbar (cold, wet jeans on a windy day? no problem :P)

I love this last picture ... I didn't even realize, but Paul pointed out that this street in my subdivision is his first name (his Chinese name) - Howe Tan! I tried to tell him that I had it specially put in for his visit but he didn't believe me :P It was fun to have you here Paul and great to show you some of my life back at home -Thanks for comin' to 'lil ol' Nova Scoter :)