We're home!

Saturday, as I mentioned, was very busy. Pink and Jill came in around 11:30 a.m. and presented us with a lovely scrapbook they'd made documenting the English classes we had participated in. I was really touched! We had our final class with them. Brent had us all singing to Philip Phillips' "Gone, Gone, Gone". It was great fun.

After lots of hugs and promises to stay in touch, we said goodbye to our lovely friends. We're going to set up a couple of Skype classes! They're so sweet!

Brent went out to pick up groceries for Diego's birthday party and while he was out, we packed up our suitcases as much as we could. When he came back with a new pie plate, more flour and shortening, I started making a bumble berry pie. I had extra berries, so we decided to make tarts with the rest. Brent decided he wanted to make some apple tarts, so he rushed out to get a couple of apples and I let him make the pastry - he'd seen me do it several times before and wanted to try it. Whew! Everybody loved the effort!

Bern and I basically made the whole supper. Bern made the mashed potatoes and prepared the corn on the cob. Brent had bought enough chicken breasts to feed 20 people! He trimmed off the fat and ugly parts and I cooked it. One of the guests, Paul brought a garden salad. Tammy's sister and her husband went out for supper but her mother stayed in to take care of little Evan (who was fussy ALL night long). I don't think he's used to all the noise and commotion! Nikki thrives on it, I think!

Notice the thumbs up?

We started watching "Whitehouse Down" but around 10:30 we decided we'd better get some sleep - we had to get up at 4:00 a.m.! We said goodbye to our new friends and went to bed.

At 4:00 a.m. we got up and got ready to go. As we came out of our room to leave for the airport, Tammy and Nikki surprised us by going to the airport with us. Brent had told Tammy he thought she should just stay home and rest, but she was having none of that! I just love that girl so much. Nikki was all smiles and giggles - she was probably thinking it was great that she was woken up by all the people who were usually trying to get her to go to sleep!!

The drive to the airport was great, traffic wise - a pleasure since driving in Taiwan was usually a very stressful proposition! I held it together until it was time to say goodbye. At least Bern is now talking about going back again - hurray!

The flight wasn't too bad, either. We were worried we wouldn't have time to connect flights in Hong Kong, but we ended up having more than enough time - we did have a long walk between gates, though. We were pleasantly surprised to have all three middle seats to ourselves on the 14 1/2 hour stretch to Toronto, which made a huge difference being able to stretch out our legs and not be cramped up. I watched quite a few movies and tried to sleep (should have taken some Gravol, I guess).

Heather and Mike met us at the airport and after freshening up at the Craig's house, we walked over to the Tom's for Thanksgiving dinner. James and Stephanie were already there and it was fun telling them about our holiday, since they're going over for Christmas.

Jan made a lovely turkey dinner, as usual, which we totally enjoyed. After dinner, we had cake and champagne to celebrate Katie and Clinton's engagement. They're planning their wedding for next September 19 - we're all invited!

 

 

We stayed awake as long as we could, with catnaps now and then. We decided to go back over to Fran and Mike's and go to bed around 9:00. We woke up at 5:30 and finally got up at 6:30 a.m. I went upstairs to make a cup of tea and fix some Cheerios. Fran heard me in the kitchen, so she got up and I made her a cup of tea, too. She turned on her computer for me so I could facebook Brent to let him know we were home and safe.

We stayed until 10:00 a.m. and then, on our way to James', we decided to go have breakfast at Mo's....bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and coffee! So good! After a short visit with James and Steph, we came home to Welland. Since we had no food in the house and since grocery stores weren't open due to the holiday, we went to Wendy's for supper - hamburger, fries, frostie! We slept like babies last night and this morning, I went out and stocked up on food. It's good to be home, but I sure do miss that baby!