Forget about looking like Christmas – it’s now starting to sound like Christmas!  It has been a week of concerts, recitals & plays.  I was feeling somewhat bah humbug about all the extra events this week, but when sitting through Alex’s Boys’ Choir concert on Saturday night, I realized that this is what Christmas is all about.  I sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the music.

Sunday, the boys performed in “The Drowsy Shepherd” at the United Church.  They were great!  The play was clever & funny, nobody forgot their lines and Alex did a wonderful job on his solo.  He was a shepherd and Evan was a sheep!  I thought he would be embarrassed to wear the sheep “mask”, but he just pretended he was a cloud…

When the play was over, we had just under an hour to get Sarah to her highland dance recital.  My parents took Olivia home with them for lunch so that we could feed the others a quick lunch at Subway.  They met us at the Recital.  I love watching the little ones when they are just starting out; we were pretty proud when people approached us afterwards to say that we have to make sure to keep Sarah dancing because she’s a natural!  She loved it – everything except getting her hair into a bun!

The Dancers

We rushed home from that to get ready for our last B&B dinner of the Christmas Season, a group of hairdressers who have been coming here for the past four years.  Oh my, do they have fun!!  Oh, and D’Arcy also got the rink set up in that time too as it’s supposed to get cold this week…  (Heaven forbid we take a moment to relax in a clean house!)

Yesterday, I went to Halifax for a beautiful luncheon/Tourism Conference wrap-up meeting at the Prince George hotel and then managed to get a Costco run in while in the city.  I got home in time to throw some pancakes on to feed the kids for supper between band, dance & choir and Evan’s band concert.  He did a great job and we were really proud of him.  We were all really tired by this point.  I had to laugh when I told Sarah to stop staring at the people sitting in the row behind us and she replied, “but he’s just like my dad – sleeping!”

I didn't notice my dad reading the e-book before I saw this photo!

Unfortunately, the only photo we got of Evan as the lighting in the gym was tricking Alex's camera.

We took the long way home to see some of the Christmas lights.  Tonight we have the boys’ elementary school concert and Friday is Sarah’s preschool concert which ends with a visit from Santa.

If we’re not into the Christmas Spirit by then, we never will be!

Evan had a dentist appointment on Monday for a cleaning.  Olivia & I walked him over while my mom took Sarah to Highland Dance and Alex to choir.  Evan doesn’t like going to the dentist (who does?!)  but was fairly upbeat & chatty on the way there.  When we got to the door, he started acting reluctant, and then was fooling around, pretending to hide so that he wouldn’t have to go in.

The hygienist, Wendy, came out to get him and he said that he wanted me in the room with him.  I asked her if that was okay and she assured me that whatever made it easiest for him, we could do.  When Olivia & I got into the room, she asked us to go out in the hall before we got settled so that she could take his X-rays.

I realized that it was taking a long time, so I poked my head in to check on them.

Evan was sitting in the chair, mouth firmly closed.

Long story short:  I talked, cajoled and threatened, but he wouldn’t open his mouth.  He sat in the chair with his mouth shut and tears rolling down his cheeks until there was no time left because another patient was coming in.

As he was getting his coat on, the staff told me to take a deep breath and give him a hug.  They said not to re-book for six months to give him some time to put this behind us.

It was a pretty frosty walk home in every sense of the word.

When we arrived home, I told Evan to go straight to his room where he would stay until I calmed down supper.

We talked to him at supper and asked what he thought the consequences of his behavior should be?

We decided that he would lose all technology and he had to write a letter of apology which he then took to the office and read to Wendy:

“Dear Wendy,

I am truly, positively sorry for the way I behaved at my appointment yesterday.  I did not intend to waste your time.  The part I do not like about the dentist is the polishing part.  It makes me want to gag.  I did not mean to be disrespectful to you either.  Is there another kind of polish I could use so I don’t get that feeling?

See you in June.

Yours truly,

Evan

p.s.  Next time I will open my mouth”

Wendy thanked him and they decided that when he gets his teeth cleaned next time, they will use regular toothpaste for him instead of the polish.  He seems okay with that.

Ugh.  And we haven’t even hit the teenage years…

Last night, a very sleepy Sarah got out of her bed and came downstairs to where D’Arcy & I were trying to finalize some Christmas plans.  She came over to me and asked, ” Is my birthday October 28th?”

I replied, “Yes.”

She then asked me, “So when I started knocking on your belly, you told Dad it was time for a birthday?”

I guess that’s kind of how it works…

Last weekend, I was full of surprises.  D’Arcy’s birthday is just two days before our wedding anniversary.  (I like to tell him I’m the best present he ever got!)  Some years, I have a hard time coming up with anything special, but that wasn’t the case this year.

For his birthday, I managed to pull off the X-Ring surprise.  Our anniversary surprise was, in my opinion, just as good!

The opening of the Tourism Conference happened to coincide with our anniversary.  My parents moved in to our place Saturday afternoon to look after the kids (and a full house, I might add!) while we headed to the city.

I had made 7:00 reservations at Gio’s, the restaurant at the Prince George Hotel.  We had tried to go there for dinner back in the summer, but it was closed.  The Halifax tree lighting was that night, so there were people everywhere downtown.  We were running a few minutes behind (surprise…) so we called to say we would be about ten minutes late.  The hostess sounded relieved.  As it turned out, there was a rowdy party from the Turkish Embassy who were having some cocktails before heading to a black tie event at the World Trade & Convention Centre.

We made our way through the crowd and were seated at a table next to some of our regular B&B guests!!  When we went out for dinner on my birthday in June, they were seated next to us at a different restaurant!  They joked that they were starting to think we don’t really work!  We told them it was our anniversary and they sent us some wine.

If you are in Halifax and have a chance to try Gio’s, we highly recommend it!  The food, the service & the atmosphere were wonderful!  To start, I had the scallops while D’Arcy had the oysters.  I had the lobster as a main course and D’Arcy had the swordfish.  We topped it off by splitting the “bing, bang, boom” and the waitress brought over two glasses of champagne.

Dinner at Gio's

All the while, I was asking D’Arcy what time it was and he started to suspect something was up.  When dessert was served, I produced a gift bag and presented it to him.  He wasn’t impressed that I had brought a gift because he hadn’t, as per our normal protocol, bought me anything.  I told him to trust me; that I hadn’t bought him anything.

D’Arcy & I met back in 1995 while working together at the Granite Brewery on Barrington Street which is now the Henry House.  Throughout the years, D’Arcy has commented that he thinks it would be fun to wear our work shirts from back then (which still hang in the back of our closet) and go have a beer.  I normally roll my eyes at this suggestion.

But last Saturday, when he opened the bag and found our shirts (actually both his; mine must have been tossed at some point), I said, “Alright, we’re in the city – let’s go have a beer and wear our shirts!”  He laughed.

We walked to the pub where D’Arcy knew, because it was Saturday night, our friend Mel would be working the bar as he has for the past 15+ years.  (Mel actually took our wedding photos!)  When we got in the door, D’Arcy greeted Mel by saying, “Okay Mel, I’m going to take tables eight through fifteen!”  It was then he realized that our friends Rod & Keltie were sitting at the bar – also wearing their old shirts!!  Oh what fun we had with that!  Brenda, who had also worked with us, was able to be there and I don’t think we’d seen her since Evan was born!  My only disappointment of the night was that our good friend Denise ended up getting sick and wasn’t able to come like we had planned.  I had been so looking forward to getting caught up with her!

A few of the family also joined us, so it was a great night!

With Rod & Keltie

Some family!

Some former Brewery staff: Brenda, Rod, Mel, Anne, D'Arcy & Keltie

We closed down the pub and ended the evening with a donair, just like the old days.  It was fun being out in the city again and seeing our old friends and I hope we are able to get together sooner than ten years next time!

Because Martha had been teaching and then had Parent-Teacher on Thursday when the boys got their X-Rings, we agreed to get together here on Friday to celebrate.  Just before I was heading out the door to go curling, Martha called and asked if we’d be up for lobsters if Stephane could find the truck.   Who would say no to that?  I pulled a package of puffed pastry out of the freezer to thaw and was out the door.

When I arrived home from curling, Martha & Stephane had just arrived and D’Arcy was upstairs putting the kids to bed.  Sarah & Olivia did come downstairs once for some hugs, but then went right back up to bed for the night.  We poured some drinks, put the salted water on the barbeque to boil and I wrapped some cheese, rosemary & port jelly in the puffed pastry and put it in the oven to bake before serving with crackers.

Stephane wanted to know if D’Arcy had truly been surprised and was amazed when D’Arcy told him that he’d had absolutely no clue!  I couldn’t have pulled it off without Martha & Stephane’s  help!

We talked about the Ceremony and laughed at how awful the guest speaker was.  The content of his speech was definitely geared to the younger graduates and not to the mature students or children or parents who might have been in attendance.  D’Arcy & Stephane knocked rings and the night was all-around fun!

We had seafood casserole & asparagus to start and then moved on to our lobsters.  Martha’s hands break out when she cracks open lobster, so Stephane opens hers for her.  Since he’s so fast at it, he started all four of them for us.  I appreciated not having lobster juice all over me!  I brought out the section of D’Arcy’s cake that said “RING” for dessert and we had champagne.

Not bad for an impromptu dinner!

The Lords of the Rings

The "Master" (of Education) at work!

Martha & Stephane

Seemed an appropriate dessert!

More knuckle bumping (we decided that was a more appropriate pose than holding hands!)

Lots of laughter!

I had been keeping a very big secret from my husband since September; maybe before since I came up with the idea a long time ago.

D’Arcy has been taking his Masters of Education in Administration at St. Francis Xavier University (St. FX) for the past four years.  He started when I was pregnant with Olivia and on bed rest.  During the month of July for three years, he would drive back & forth to Antigonish every other day to take courses.  During the school year, he would take courses online and at night.  The past two years, he has been researching & writing a Thesis on Post Secondary Decision Making.  All this on top of teaching full time, helping with the B&B, volunteering & raising four children.

(We’re really proud of him!)

Back when he decided to begin his M.Ed, he had a choice of Acadia University or St. FX.  As he was making his decision, he casually mentioned that if he went to St. FX, he could get an “X-Ring”.  I’ve never forgotten that.  He lost his undergrad ring from Dalhousie while he was canoeing back when we were first married and we never replaced it because there were always many more priorities.

Back in September, with the help of Martha & Stephane (who is also finishing his M.Ed at St. FX), the university, the jeweller & our parents, I was able to order him an X-Ring without his knowledge and register him for the X-Ring Ceremony which takes place on the same day each year, the Feast of St. Francis Xavier.  Click here for background on the ring, the ceremony, and why it is such a big deal.

I planned that we would tell him that he was getting the ring on his birthday last Friday and invited both sets of our parents and his sister Erin to join us for dinner.  The Sunday before, I found out that the ceremony was actually in the AFTERNOON, not the evening like I had originally thought, so I spent last Monday emailing D’Arcy’s Department Head, who along with the Principal of the school were able to get him the afternoon off to attend the ceremony.  Phew.

When D’Arcy’s birthday came, I told him that I would be making supper for the family and left it at that.  Based on the cakes I’ve been making for the kids lately, I told him his cake would be his present.  He went to school and I went to work decorating.

When he got home from school, I sent him off to curling with the boys and set the table.   When he got home, he looked at the table and commented that it was set for more than the six of us.  I reminded him that I had told him we’d have a family dinner and to be patient.  He figured out easily that I had invited our parents, and when his mother called from the road because it was raining so heavily, he tried to make her think she had spoiled the surprise.  Meanie.

My mother had brought cheese cubes and bacon-wrapped-water-chestnuts as appetizers and Olivia was concerned that she was allergic to them.  We explained that water chestnuts are actually a root, not a nut and that they were safe for her.  She proceeded to eat at least eight, delivering her toothpicks to either my mother or Aunt Erin!

I had made Grandma’s Seafood Casserole on puffed pastry for supper and Auntie Ruth was able to arrive in time to join us.  Before we knew it, dessert time had arrived.

When we were making the cake, Sarah asked, "We're making him a cake of Grandma & Grandpa's key?" (The key to their house is on a St.FX keytag!)

Starting to realize what the cake symbolized

Explaining how I had managed to pull of the surprise with everyone's help!

Yesterday was St. FX day, so D’Arcy went to school until 11:00.  The boys had an In-Service day, so we all went to Antigonish with D’Arcy to watch him get his ring.  We were pushed for time, so dropped him off to go pick up his gown and I took the kids through the McDonald’s drive-thru to get lunch.  Parking was a nightmare, but I finally found a spot on campus and the kids ate in the van.  We rushed over to the gym, but when we arrived, we were told that the gym was full.  (Only graduates & faculty actually attend the ceremony; family members & friends watch from the gym through a live feed on big screens.)  The girl proceeded to tell us that they would take us to the Conference Room upstairs, but we had to wait because the procession was about to start.  We then heard the bagpipes, and the graduates started to parade by.  Because they had mixed up D’Arcy’s last name, he was actually at the front of the line and we got to see him as he marched by us in his gown!

When the students had gone by, we were led upstairs to a large conference room with three big screens.  The chairs were full, so the kids & I sat on the floor in front of the front row.  We couldn’t have had a better view!  I had taken a bag full of books & crayons & paper and the kids were really good.  Olivia whispered to me a fair bit, but at least it was whispering, not talking, and they didn’t ever get up and run around.  I had five different people come up to me afterwards to compliment their behavior – it was a pretty dry two hours for kids!

Unfortunately, because of the lighting in the room, it was hard to get a good photo, but we had a perfect view of D’Arcy & Stephane both when they got their rings and on the way out when they knock on the kneeler from the church.  Sarah made me laugh when, in between when we saw D’Arcy & were waiting for Stephane, she muttered, “Godfather, stop being such a slowpoke.  Stop dilly-dallying and get up here!”

We were able to get some photos afterwards of D’Arcy & his new bling!

While watching, the ceremony is on the screen in the background

Part of the Cult

Posing at the kneeler from the church where the graduates knock their rings. Olivia's only tears were when she thought we were leaving before she could knock on it! I sense another future X-Grad in our midst...

Tonight, Martha (who was teaching and had parent-teacher in the evening) and Stephane will come over and we’ll have a small celebration together to celebrate the boys’ impending graduation.  I am so grateful to everyone who helped me make this happen for D’Arcy!

Now to get that Thesis finished…

Last night, D’Arcy & I capped off an amazing few days at the Tourism Summit by attending the Crystal Awards of Excellence & Gala Dinner.  It was wonderful!  It’s so much fun to watch the various tourism operators or workers be recognized.  The food was delicious as usual, and the Celtic Tenors provided the entertainment.  They were fantastic!  I am so proud to be part of that organization!

There were nine major awards given out and three Pineapple awards which are given to people who go above & beyond.  I especially loved the story of Seamus Ryan, who won a Pineapple Award for going above & beyond in his job. He was nominated by his employer, Scanway Catering, after he saved the day at a wedding reception.  The bride & groom (being married at a remote location in Cape Breton, far away from Scanway’s operation in Halifax) had decided on make-your-own strawberry shortcake rather than a traditional wedding cake, but when the catering staff opened the bucket of what they thought were the strawberries, they found strawberry preserves instead.  Seamus set off to buy strawberries, but all the stores were sold out!  Finally, he came upon a u-pick and started offering money to people to buy their strawberries.  When he realized he still didn’t have enough, he rolled up his sleeves and started picking berries himself!  He made it back to the wedding with less than an hour to spare and the bride & groom were none the wiser!  Seamus summed it all up when he said in his acceptance speech, “Nova Scotians know hospitality because we practice it in our own homes.”

After two-and-a-half days of constant information, it’s fun to kick up our heels & celebrate.  We were honoured to sit at a table with Dick Lemon, who we had nominated for the Tourism Innovator Award.  (He WON!!)  Dick is the man behind the Not Since Moses race that the kids participated in on the first day of summer vacation this year.

The dinner was over about ten and then there was a dessert bar.  Although it was a school night, we did go out with some of the other Board members for a nightcap before going back to the hotel.

I’m looking forward to next year already!

D’Arcy & I have been in Halifax for the past three days, immersed in all things Tourism during the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia’s Conference, “The Evolution of Tourism”.

The following video was made from clips sent in by various tourists who have visited Nova Scotia and then entered an “I love Nova Scotia” contest to win a $15,000 Nova Scotian vacation. It’s been shown a couple of times over the past two days and it makes me chuckle each time I watch it.

Is it any wonder we love what we do?!

Off to the Crystal Tourism Awards of Excellence and Gala Dinner tonight. (Shhh – someone I nominated for an award won!!)

Back to regular life and blogging tomorrow…

Yesterday, I received the following email from a friend I went to high school with:

“Hi Anne, I use Canoe as my home page here at work and at home and was pleased to see that your B&B is listed as the top one in Nova Scotia. Congratulations!!”

It was an article, written in conjunction with bbcanada.com, that listed the Top B&B’s across Canada, one from each province.  Ours was chosen to represent Nova Scotia!

How exciting!  I found out later that the journalist at Canoe worked with both bbcanada.com and the Provincial Tourism Associations across the Country to come up with the winners!

Now that’s a great way to start the day!

But we need to get through D’Arcy’s birthday, our anniversary & the TIANS Conference first!

Last weekend, my mother came over and we tackled the Christmas decoration of the guest living room and the dining room.  We put trees up in each and decorated the mantles over the fireplaces.  The kids were so excited to see the decorations come out of the attic and were disappointed when we told them that our own decorations won’t go up until into December!

D’Arcy’s birthday is on Friday and I told him that we’ll have dinner together as a family to celebrate.  I also told him that his gift will be an “extra special cake” that the kids & I are making for him.  Evan is the only one so far who knows what it’s going to be since he’s the only one who can keep a secret!  Sarah thinks we should make a runner and Olivia thinks we should make him a refrigerator cake!  (It’s neither of those things if you’re peeking at this Darce!)

We head to Halifax on Saturday for the TIANS Conference.  Back in the Spring, we received a gift certificate from a special guest, so we will mix business with pleasure and go to Gio’s for dinner to celebrate our anniversary a night early.  We tried to go there in the summer, but they were closed.  I’m really looking forward to a wonderful grown-up dinner and I think I’m going to have a hard time choosing what to have; everything looks so delicious!

In the meantime, I have to pack, organize, clean, etc. to get ready.  My mom will be taking the kids to an Advent Celebration on Saturday, so I’ve offered to send enough safe egg-free cookies to serve all the kids.

Back to the kitchen…