Xiaoniu 小妞

Yesterday, we helped celebrate grandma’s 75th birthday. The family arranged for a big party so that all her friends, family and old-coworkers could visit and celebrate together. Grandma and everybody had a great time. Since we missed seeing the family for Christmas we slowly, throughout the day exchanged gifts.

The day started off pretty slow for us. There was plenty of stuff to do at the house before we even thought about packing the car and departing. We got everything ready and were on the road about 2 hours later than I wanted to leave and about 1.5 hours later than mom wanted to leave.

A quick stop at the store for a card, two eggrolls (lunch for me) and a coffee and we were on our way. Not 45 minutes later we were stuck in traffic. It took us about 1 hour to go 4 miles on the highway. There was construction and they had three lanes merging into one. Just after that hour long delay we passed a minivan on fire. We were lucky enough to zoom by before the trooper started to close the highway. The fire was producing a lot of smoke, which was blowing across the highway. Too bad the camera was packed or I would have taken a picture.

It was about 2:30pm by the time we arrived. 30 minutes after the party started. It was pretty much in full swing, with lots of finger food to eat and plenty of people that I don’t know. I’m sure grandma knew them all though. Uncle Mike and my cousins Vanessa and Marc from California came out too. It was great to see them. I feel old when I make comments like “You’re getting so tall!”, “You were so much shorter when I saw you last time. Did you grow a foot in the last month?” and “Okay, you can stop hitting people now. Nobody likes it.”

With only a couple eggrolls in my tummy I dug right into the food. Afterwards I got a chance to catch up with some people I did know and of course got plenty of time to chat with my cousins. I also took lots of pictures with Sue’s new camera. Sue wasn’t able to attend so she can see everything through the pictures I took. All of the pictures are posted here. BTW the camera works great. It has a lithium-ion batter, which charges fast, lasts a long time and can be recharged at any time. That in itself is worth the upgrade. Not to mention the huge pictures it takes (7.1MP).

Cousin Vanessa showing off her birthday present from us. It’s a handmade necklace (designed by Sue and made by me) made up of Swarovski crystals and sterling silver.

Cousins Jessie and Sarah showing off their necklaces:

And sniffing each others thingies (candles). They fell into a fit of giggles just after I took this one.

Food, food and more food. And some wine and excellent cheese.

Grandma’s haul from the party. You can’t even see our present, but we got her a nice crystal Mikasa frame with out picture in it. Since everybody else seemed to be busy while she opened presents I had her open it for me.

Group photos with the family. Too bad the guy taking the picture was covering the flash or these would have turned out really nice. The first one is nice, but I took it.

Jessie and Sarah showing off their wood:

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jane’s wood:

Grandma’s wood:

That’s it for this post. There are many more pictures in the gallery, including ones of everybody (and me) opening Christmas presents at the party. Enjoy.