Catch up again...

Yes, I'm doing catch up again. Never ending! But, this time I am a week behind due to a trip home. Of course I'm super thankful that I was able to go home as it was for my Grandfather's funeral. I went home on Sat/Nov 6 and came back on Fri/Nov 12 so I had lots of time to spend with family. It was wonderful. My father comes from a family of 14 kids, 55 grandkids, and 64 great grandkids. So, there was a lot of catching up to be done!! 46 of the grandkids made it home so I really enjoyed the time with all my cousins. And since I went home by myself (Darryl did an amazing job all by himself for a week!!!), I was really able to truly catch up with lots of my family. No chasing around the kiddies!

We did manage to get some family pics....

Dad and 11 of his siblings.
(He's the handsome lad in the middle. Yellow shirt.)

Not to go into anything too sad...but I thought it was very nice. Because my grandfather was a veteran from World War 2, the military was part of the funeral. My father, being the oldest boy, was given the folded Canadian flag in honor of my grandfather. It was really nice. Something my father can keep in memory of his father.

Some of the grandkids and great grandkids...

Can you find me?

We did manage to have a wonderful kitchen party before we all left Nova Scotia. My uncle, Archie and his wife, Margie, hosted the party. My Grandfather loved to play cards so Archie and Margie had 3 tables set up in the kitchen for card playing. Came close, but I never won a game!! And the living room was where all the guitar playing and singing went on. A very late night but it was awesome!! Lots of laughs.
A great last farewell to Grandpa.

The day I left to go home was Shamus' first karate test. I'm glad I was able to make it. He has to have a "tip test" before he can go for each belt. His first belt is the blue belt so this test was the "blue tip" for his blue belt. It's basically like a quiz before the exam. Tells you what you need to work on before going for the actual belt. Shamus did really well and Darryl and I were very proud.

Shamus did get his Blue Tip.
A nice pic of Shamus, his sensei, Denis, and buddy, Matteo.

The weekend before I went home was Halloween. We went to Ottawa and celebrated with Duane and his gang. We took in a Halloween party and I really enjoyed all the costumes. I guess I kind of forgot how big Halloween is here since you don't see much of it in Australia. It was really fun!

Purdy and I.
The plug and socket. :) You get the idea, right?

You'll notice that there will be a lot of firemen/women at the party. And burnt people, water costumes, people dressed as curtains...etc... The people hosting the party, Lou and Paula, hosted the party last year but ended up fighting a fire at the end of the night. One of the candles caught fire on their curtains. Not the best end to the night but I guess it didn't discourage them as they threw the party again this year!!

Duane and Cathy.

Yes, that is Duane's fire hose.
Pull the axe and out pops the fire hose. He enjoyed entertaining people with that little trick most of the night.

This is Paula's china cabinet.
Normally full of china but for Halloween she goes crazy with decorating. I only took a couple of pictures but she had Halloween stuff EVERYWHERE in the house. Very impressive. Same as my sister, Cheryl's house.

I really liked the mummy hanging from the curtain rod.

The host, Cowboy Lou.

Hostess, Paula with Cathy.

My favorite costume of the night.
"The Exorcist."
Amazing, right? Love the eyes.

As the night went on, it got more and more interesting!

We had a great time. And now I'm getting excited for Christmas! Even Darryl is and normally there is no Christmas music allowed until December 1. But, we're both excited about a white Christmas. It better be!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments and emails from my last post. Very thoughtful and sweet.
K, I think I'm caught up again.