Happy Birthday Ray! The Christmas Villages are finally done! November 15 - 27

 Happy 68th Birthday Ray!

For his special day, I went into Duncan for a big grocery shop at Superstore and some fresh seafood. Once back, I made mussels and a wine and cream sauce for lunch and for dinner we each tied in to whole fresh crab qne a coconut cream pie for dessert. 

Saturday for lunch I made Ray Navajo Fried Tacos that he had been asking for. Made enough for lunch on Sunday with the kids too. We'd discovered these on one of our winter trips in the USA in Cameron, AZ. Delicious.

Showing off Christmas Village #2

Jason, Kristi and Amelia, with Olaf in tow, arrived about 2:30 to spend the evening and overnight with us for Ray's birthday. Amelia got to stay upstairs in the "big girl's bed" for the first time. She's sure excited to see us.

I'd prepared our old little Christmas Tree from the motorhome so Amelia could decorate it up in the loft outside her new bedroom. She now has a new play area, so not so many toys on the livingroom floor. lol

The magic of Christmas for little ones.

Before dinner, Amelia gave Papa his present. She'd coloured the wrapping paper. Jason made Ray a bread knife with a beautiful wooden handle he'd laminated and shaped. 

Birthday dinner is Prime Rib and yorkies with all the fixin's, everyone's favourite! Fortunately the BBQ is under the gazebo at this time of year, so I don't get soaked with the rain.

Amelia helping Papa put all his people in the villages.

Amelia made Papa a special birthday hat to wear lol 

She has to sit really close to her Papa! After running around the house for a couple of hours she's hot, so went shirtless. lol

After dinner it's time for dessert, Amelia helped us all sing Happy Birthday to Papa.

Helping Papa blow out his candles.

After a busy afternoon and evening, it took a bit to get Amelia to go to sleep upstairs, as she was pretty wired. :) Once she fell asleep though, she was out for the night. Kristi slept upstairs in the other guest room to be near if needed.

Sunday morning Ray used his new knife, slicing the french bread for french toast. It worked fabulous. Thanks a bunch Jason. Ray, Kristi and Amelia took Olaf for his morning walk while I cooked breakfast.

After breakfast, Jason helped me hang the garland around the front door, which is new this year and brought up the Christmas tree from the basement, so it's ready for me to decorate. He is so helpful.

Kristi helped Ray getting his trains runnning. One set was successful but the other will need Ray to fix some "bumps" in the track line derailing the train. Amelia was excited to see the train running finally.

Showing Papa her games on her tablet.

I made more frybread and fed them Navajo Tacos for lunch.  By 1 pm they'd packed up and were on their way. What a whirlwind 24 hours! Time for us to collapse in our chairs. 

Today is Grey Cup, Canadian Football Championship held in Vancouver this year. Of course it is an appetizer party for two. I'd bought a bunch of frozen stuff to throw in the oven after such a busy few days. Ray ate chicken wings, scallops wrapped in bacon and tempura prawns. Toronto beat Winnipeg and was a close game, for the most part except, the last quarter. I spent the time reading while Ray watched the game. The half-time show was great though, with the Jonas Bros. playing. Amazingly I recognized every song they played.

I think he had a great birthday! His present from me was the framing of his Dad's medals and picture of the Lancaster plane he flew in as Wireless Airgunner.

Monday, Ray got the rest of the Christmas lights put up outside, the deck railing and in the garden while we had a nice dry day. I finished up the tree in the living room.

Tuesday the forecasted "Bomb Cyclone" arrived. We had quite a bit of wind here at the lake and you could hear the rain sheeting across the roof. We were fortunate to not lose power, but 25,000 in the South Island did and 95,000 people on the North Island. BC Hydro will be busy for a few days.

Here are some short videos of Ray's masterpieces.

Also new for this year is our "blowups" for the sundeck so we (Amelia) can see them from inside the house. We didn't put them out until after the Tues/Wed storm.

We are mostly staying hunkered down with these storms with another one today, Friday. Probably more power outages for some on Vancouver Island. After exercise class we headed up to the Cowichan Exhibition Craft Fair in Duncan. We haven't been there for a few years so it was nice to check out all the artisans.

They even set up in the horse barn lol

Saturday, we stopped by a Christmas Village Garage Sale lol. We saw the event on the local news and I know the guy, Dennis, from our exercise class. We stopped by really early, 8:20 am, before heading up to Nanaimo to meet up with Kristi and Jason. Since we were early we helped them set up, displaying all the stuff on banquet tables. In exchange Ray was able to pick up 26!!!! houses so Village #3 is in the process. All proceeds from selling off 1/2 of their village is going to Cancer in memory of his wife. We only bought about 1/8 of their village pieces.

We met up with Jason and Kristi at the Christmas Village German market  and ate some bratwurst. Back home to Kristi's and spent some time with Amelia .... "Papa's is her favourite".

Back home by 3:30. A great visit.

Sunday through Thursday, not much to report. Tuesday, we went to Superstore and got our 2nd Twinrix Booster for Hepatitis A and B, one more to go end of May. Ready for our trip to Puerto Vallarta in February.

Christmas Village #3, under construction. lol Final measurement taken before Ray takes the foam back downstairs and glues and paints. My dining room area getting smaller, and smaller. :)