Auntie Brenda's Wedding

December 29th

The 29th was set aside for my Auntie Brenda's wedding to John Miller. The ceremony was held at the same church we were married at and the reception was at the new RCMP Heritage Building. We had a great time.

Auntie Brenda, her two kids Mandy and Daniel

Auntie Brenda, her two kids Mandy and Daniel

Logan and I

Jason and Stef

At the Reception

Me and Janelle (John's daughter)

When was the last time you did the Macarena

And at the end of the night it was back to our house for more drinks, more food and for Jason's birthday another cake.

December 28th

Continuing this jam packed holiday we headed out shopping for some Boxing Week sales at Best Buy etc. No purchases made - and it is not my fault- the GPS we were looking at was out of stock. I didn't even say no.

At 4pm headed off to the Wedding Rehearsal of my Auntie Brenda to John. I was the reader of the 1st lesson from the Song of Solomon. The rehearsal went as most rehearsals do, and I headed home to the party planned for my parents house. This party started as my mom inviting the Kotlar's over for drinks. It escalated to an invite extended to everyone we know, both family and friends.

There were tons of people. Living room, kitchen and family room in the basement were all full of people. It was great. I saw both sides of my family and all of my bridal party in one place - we even had the ring bearer - we were only shy the two flower girls.

And on top of everything else, it was my cousin Jonathan's birthday.


So there were more snacks and more drinks. (are we noticing a theme)

Christmas #3

December 27th

Time for Christmas #3 - off to the Glass house. Both my Dad and Matt had to work this one day of our holiday so Logan and I spent the working hours with Mom and Stef. We snacked and played some games. We then decided that it was time to move away from traditional meals (that we had been eating for days straight) and order pizza. Dad was supposed to pick it up on the way home from work. It was taking him a long time and we were starting to wonder. When he finally showed up he told us that he was in an accident. Some lady rear ended him at an intersection. He wasn't hurt - but my first car, my little red sprint has some damage in the rear. This wouldn't me that big a deal except that they are trying to get vehicles older than '92 off the road and it is a '91. So if Dad makes the claim they will write off a car that is still in great working order. My poor little car.

After dinner we played a little Guitar Hero and then off to Grandma and Grandpa's.Cousin Kari and her family were also there to visit.

We had some snacks, some drinks and some games.

The boys played a little shuffle board

I am also proud to show off the gift that I created from my Grandparents for last Christmas. I crossed stitched these snow man, and with a little help from my family I mailed the fabric to, it was put behind glass on a tray. I am very proud.

This years crafted gift is a table runner of brown jacquard fabric with metallic thread embroidered swirls with red and green holly embroidered where the swirls cross, and fabric Christmas dinner napkins. I handed out three sets and kept one table runner for myself.

Travels home

Boxing Day
Christmas Day we stayed up until 2 am, Logan worked until 4 am and we were up again at 6 am to head off to the airport. We arrived in Regina at 10:18 am - and our whole family was there to greet us. We headed off to Kotlar's to have Christmas Day the second.

We opened some presents
had a few drinks
played a few games.

Plenty more great food and great times!

The holidays are busy time

Christmas Eve

Logan had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we stayed in Calgary for those days. We were taken in by my Uncle Gord and Auntie Shelley. We headed over in the afternoon for snacks and then off to church. Logan had to leave almost right away for work - but the rest of us had some dinner. As is German tradition, Christmas eve is the time you gather and open presents. With Logan at work, Uncle Gord, Auntie Shelley, Jonathan, Jason and I gathered around the tree and opened some presents.

Christmas Day

Logan returned to Uncle Gord's in the wee hours and was up again with us for breakfast. We moved into the living room with Mimosas and opened the rest of our gifts with Logan.

Logan's new "pook toque"
and new skates
Uncle Gord giving Logan style tips...

In the early afternoon Logan was back off to work, and the rest of us enjoyed a full Turkey dinner.
with My very first pie from scratch. I picked the apples, peeled sliced and seasoned and made the pastry all by myself from scratch. I was quite proud - and it tasted good!

Logan was able to return to the house for his dinner break around 10pm and partake in some turkey. But he needed to leave in a hurry and we didn't get our Christmas picture in front of the tree. So I texted him and told him he needed to pop by before we went to bed.

We enjoyed some good food, good times and good company.

10 more shows

There are only ten more shows. This run has felt like it would never end, but there is only one more week after the two shows tomorrow. But two shows tomorrow...it just takes is out of a person.

Stef and I went power shopping on Thursday and Friday afternoon. We did most of our shopping on Thursday and finished on Friday. It feels very good to be done. And because we finished I was able to send almost everything home with Stef.

We have done some other Christmas-y activities. Cris and Jen, Logan and I went out to Zoo Lights at the Zoo on Monday. It was great fun. It was a little cool but there were huge bonfires spread out along the way. Very festive.

I hope that all of you are getting the opportunity to do some festive activites other than shopping.

New Carol Photos

Scrooge with Nephew Fred in Scrooge's Office
Scrooge with Mr. Shelley a Merchant on the streets of London
Scrooge and Marley in Scrooge's Bedroom
The Fezziwig Party (with Christmas Past on the very left)
The Cratchit Family in their home
Scrooge with Christmas Present
Scrooge and Cratchit Family (after Tiny Tim dies)
Scrooge with the Turkey Boy (when all is well again - and in colour)
Finale - when Scrooge shows up at his nephew's Party
The final moment with Scrooge, Boy Scrooge and Young Scrooge

First Christmas Party of the Season

There is a group of us that I like to call the usual suspects. We get together quite often but not all of us - as we all have crazy schedules. We planned with plenty of time in advance to arrange a Christmas Party for the whole gang.
Everybody contributed to the dinner.

Here you see me teaching Tyler how to peel potatoes for scalloped potatoes.

This was what was left of our delicious meal. Asparagus and Carrots, Scalloped Potatoes, Orange glazed ham. Very nice (this picture does not do it justice).
Then we had a Dutch Auction of Christmas Gifts.
Logan received a Ukulele as a "loaner" gift and underscored the whole evening.
Stef and I plotting how to keep the games that we scored (I was unsuccessful)

Now Logan got really crazy as Logando in his version of Ukulele HeroWe had to try out the new board games. Stef got "Things" a very funny game of opinion - here is Jason unable to contain himself as he reads various answers thru tears.

Craig and Jen relaxing as the party starts to wind down (at 11 o'clock)

A good time was had by all!

Twas the nightmare before Christmas....

It may seem like a long time since I have posted, and that is because I have been stuck in my nightmare. Oh well. Things are going better. We opened! That is huge. That means they can't rehearse any more. Which is a huge factor in my mood.

We got an excellent review.

"A dazzling Christmas spectacle" was the headline of our review in the Calgary Herald. "

In the early stages of Scrooge's journey, the Ghost of Christmas past vows to
awaken Scrooge's humanity. The same might be said of A Christmas Carol's
effect on its audience."

or my favorite quote

"Kevin Rothery's Ghost of Christmas Present comes off like a Richard Simmons
who's gotten into the rum and egg nog, but it works."

But things are starting to become routine and that is a good thing in theatre. It is a short window in which we can relax into our jobs.

Ahhh...my Christmas Nightmare

Last Christmas I worked on A Christmas Carol with Theatre Calgary. I really enjoyed myself.

This year, is different. It is the same script, set, costumes. Of 17 actors 14 are the same, of 7 children 2 are the same, the crew is the same. One would think the experience would be somewhat the same. However, three vital positions have changed. That would be the director - the director was the assistant director last year and was meant to present the same show. It is a remount after all (that is recurring theme of this nightmare). The other roles are the stage manager and apprentice stage manager (I am the only returning member of the stage management team). The apprentice is great, we are having a good time together. The Stage Manager is making everything difficult and making everyone angry.

The lines have been drawn, the proscenium arch seems to be the dividing line. Director and Stage Manger vs. Everyone else. We moved to into the theatre on Thursday and I have never had a worse experience than I have had over the past 7 twelve hour days. This show is even worse than a show I did in University where I cried everyday. So far I have only cried twice out loud (and more times that I can count in my head).

But... the original director has returned to help "clean" before we saw an audience yesterday. He took the reigns without hesitation and "fixed" everything back to the way it was last year. Two weeks of wasted rehearsal, 5 twelve hour tech days worth nothing and finally a show I can be proud to be involved it.

Christmas Present: Look Scrooge (he points to the stage management booth), she sits there passing judgement on all of us thinking she knows everything - but she doesn't seem to know what she is doing.

Scrooge: (scowling) At least we know she won't be working here again.

Ahh...Dry Weather / Dry Skin

I have eczema. Yet another great trait I picked up from my dad (along with bad eyes, and bad teeth). Every winter my skin gets red and itchy on my upper arms, upper leg and cheeks when it gets really bad. When I was young I went to the dermatologist to solve the problem. He/she (I can't remember) told me about

Buff Puff SinglesThey seemed to do the trick through most of high school. It wasn't until Gr. 12 when they stopped selling it in Canada that things started to get worse.

Now every winter I look forward to an itch that can only be satisfied but rolling around on the carpet - much like Baloo the bear from Jungle Book on a tree.
I saw an ad on TV not to long ago for Spectro Eczema relief. So I bought it today. We shall see how it goes.

Rehearsal, zits and bad eyes

Rehearsal keeps ticking on.

Clearly I am a little stressed as I have started breaking out. I am 25. Shouldn't you stop getting zits when you aren't a teenager any more. I have heard no.

Oh, and I think my eyes have changed again. I realize that I got my glasses a whole year ago Sept 13 . But again - 25 years old. My eyes should stop changing every year.

Just when I thought I was a grown up.

Halloween Pictures

Jason Haughey bought a new camera. Now that he has this expensive camera it is out with us all the time and he documents the crap out of everything we do. As such, I don't take a camera any more so I now steal pictures off of other peoples facebook. This explains the delay in the post.

Here I am, a Stepford Wife

Raveigh and Stef both went as Tom Cruise from Risky Business
Tyler as Spiderman, and Logan as an...off duty cop?