"We like to party"

As soon as December hit us (or when the snow began to fall) we entered into this magical winterland full of christmas parties, snowball fights, hot chocolate and yummy Christmas treats.

I made this Christmas wreath myself!!!!



Here are a few snapshots from my PDP Christmas/Bridal shower party. Since two of the girls in my program are getting married in December, we decided to surprize them with presents and cheesy shower party games.






This was a game we played where each team had to decorate an "elected" bride with a wedding dress made out of toilet paper. Notice that 2 of the "elected" brides were the 2 guys in our program.....hehehehehehee



Next party was a house party attended by mostly people from our church. It was definately NOT boring. There was a lot of crazy middle aged people dancing up a storm to eighties music (and I definately joined in with them).



There wasn't any official dancing at Alex's party, but we showed off a few of our moves at the end for the party finale. There was random Christmas songs, Christmas stories and plenty of good food. (**don't let the jacket fool you-this party was on an entirely different night as the other house party)

An "all star" weekend

This past weekend was a very memorable one for us.

Saturday:

8:30-10:00am
I took the skytrain intop Vancouver. It brought back fond memories of the subway system in Seoul.

10:00am-12:30pm
I went to Utopia Academy in Vancouver to get my hair cut. Dispite the "new tecniques" the student was trying to learn on me, it was a good haircut.

12:30-1:00pm
My American cousin, Jake, was in town so he met up with me at the salon and we went to Chinatown. We did lot's of touristy things, like taking pictures of the Chinese garden with our cell phone cameras and going to all the local gift shops.



1:00-2:00pm
Jake and I had some Nem-sam: a Chinese arrangement of small foods.



2:00-3:30pm
Jake and I went to Metrotown (via the skytrain)---we're sooooo metro. We did a little Christmas shopping/adding things to our own Christmas wishlists.




4:00pm-by this time it was starting to become a snowy winter wonderland.




6:00-8:00pm
Triple date with Jamie, Brian, Laura, Ryan, Lane at Pasta Polo (a very yummy organic pasta restuarant).

8:00-9:00pm
Off to Chapters to look at all the picture travel books and to make my own travel wishlist.


9:00-11:00 pm
Bowling to our hearts content. Jamie got a "turkey" (3 strikes in one turn).

Sunday-snow day!!

Christmas bake-off. I made shortbread cookies, banana chocolate chip loaf...and brainstorming more recipes to come!!

7:00-10:00pm
Not too snowy to make an appearance at Nathan and Lydia's pad for some "catching up" time.

Total snow accumulated: almost to my knees
Approx. temp: -10

Quattro Reunito!

We're lucky to be able to share lives and memories with 2 highly interesting and special people, Lydia and Nathan (the Skulls). After seeing Lydia and Nathan every day for 12 months in a far away alien land, the four of us have been apart for the past few months. But now the Skulls are back in Langley (after spending a few months in Ontario, Mexico, and Boston, to name a few of the places they've been).


Even better, they live really close to us - only about 5 minutes away by car. That's almost as good as in Korea, when we lived a 2 minute walk away from each other.

Dodgeball isn't just for kids anymore....

Dodgeball: the name of a traditional American game involving players trying to avoid being hit by a ball that players on the other team are throwing at them.


Bait-ball: One team member lobs a ball up in the air to distract the other team, while a second team member throws a ball at normal speed in hopes of getting someone out.

Suicide throw: In some rulesets, individuals can cross the center line while jumping. They are only out when their feet hit the floor. Suiciders take advantage of this by attempting to jump across the center line and throw the ball before their feet hit the ground.

Mexican Flying Coffin Filler: Involves a blocker springing a thrower up off of his/her back to gain forward momentum on an aerial throw

Fake Doctor: This tactic can be used in Dr. Dodgeball. First, a selected teammate pretends to be 'out'. Of course, they really are not. Second, another teammate pretends to be the doctor and touches the teammate, bringing them back 'in'. The opposing team then thinks that the second person is the doctor, even though he is not. The entire team then aims for the second person, thusly sparing the real doctor.




The team: Chuck it like it's hot.

Every tuesday night we're chucking it and we're hot,

The first picture is Jamie's parents back yard last week (October 25th ish). The second picture is their back yard as of this weekend (October 29th ish). Note how high the snow is one the swingset. They've never seen this much snow in one snowfall, let alone in October.

What's happening with the Grahams???

After looking through my friends' blogs and inwardly complaining that I wish they posted more...then realized what a double standard I was setting b/c the last time I posted was 3 weeks ago.

So let me break it down for you...




I went to a wicked awesome basketball game at TWU on Friday night. There was a marching band. There was a dance team. There were 3 overtimes (maybe 4???). They lost by 2 points. You could cut the game tension with a knife.



By the way, the housing market SUCKS right now. This house we looked at in Abbotsford was delapetated/moldy/needed to be torn down and rebuilt and it was OVER our budget.



I love fall.




This past weekend was a busy one. We had around 12 people over at our new place, all at different times throughout the weekend. It was swell seeing lot's of family.




I'm back at the elementary school, student teaching. This is the highlight of my decimals unit: the Guiness Book of World Records board. I asked each of my students to find random decimal facts by looking at the book or by using the internet. One girl was confused when she found internet information about beer instead of Guiness World Record facts....hmmmmmmm.


Jamie's parents' hometown of Burns Lake has been on the news a lot lately because they have 3.5 feet of snow and the power has been out for the past 3 days.


BEFORE


AFTER

2

2 years ago......




You asked me to be your wife.

A little bit of everything

Sorry folks, we've been a little too busy to post and now we have a plethora of pictures. So I've decided to do a bit of a smorgasboard of pictures.



This is Hatzec Lake in Mission, BC. My fellow PYP classmates and I went on a retreat at the beginning of this month and we had a blast (not to mention the beautiful scenery)



Then, my cousin, Callie, got married. It was a beautiful, fall-themed wedding and we got to see our cousin's baby for the first time and we got to play catch up with a lot of relatives.


Next, we went to the island to visit my sister and brother in law and their baby (our niece), Zoe.


Lastly, Sarah and Zoe had a little visit with us this past weekend, and they stayed with us. This is a picture of our little niece (Zoe) and a picture of Zoe and her mom.



PS-could someone tell me how you work that feature that allows you to have a whole bunch of tiny pictures into one big picture???

Home sweet home

Here's just a peak..........

A few more pics..

I LOVE the Oregon Coast and I miss it already!!!!!


Here's us being all "patriotic"

Oregon Coast---Suttie style

As many of you may have heard, my twin sister and I just finished our weekend adventure in Seaside, Oregon. We totally showed that town who's boss. Here are just a FEW of the random things Keegan and I did on the long weekend:

1) wrote a crazy song about Keegan's "special friend" and preformed this song at a vacation house we stumbled upon. The people happened to be doing an inpromtu "talent show".

2) Rented bikes, rented a kayak and explored the entire town of Seaside at 11 am on Saturday morning.

3) Left Langley for our roadtrip at 4:30 am on Saturday morning----totally beat the rush hour traffic!!!!

4) Walked countless miles down the beach, in the dark...could find where we were......

5) Met a random surfer who was staying at the same campsite as some of our friends from Abbotsford.

What's going on in Burns lake?

Not too much, thanks for asking. We've been just relaxing and spending lot's of time with family and friends here. I made my first jam, my first gravy and my first pie...EVER.

There are 12 members of the "official" Graham family here this week: me, Jamie, Sarah, Zoe(the baby), Ian, Dave, Will, Ellen, Nate(cousin), Matt (cousin), ma Graham and pa Graham and with Kyla(Dave's girfriend), that makes 13 of us......That's a lot of food.....That's a lot of dishing.....that's a lot of toilet paper........

One night we got a little crazy and decided to introduce little Zoe to one of the finer things in life. Don't worry, the bottle was empty.

A few new faces..........

Along with seeing the Graham family for the first time in a year, we had ANOTHER milestone: seeing our new neice for the first time.



Zoe and uncle Jamie, enjoying some time together.




Zoe and auntie Jennica.