Aguape

Just as a quick sidebar, tonight at the young men's activity I introduced the group to Aguape, the exhilerating game of anything goes volleyball. They loved it. Me and my friends invented that game back when we were in young men's. A few weeks back I introduced them to Fugitive and Stairway to Heaven as none of them had ever heard of those before. They were instantly sold. I just thought my old chums who frequent the sight might get a kick out of remembering those sweet games.

Christmas 2005

This year was the year where we would spend Christmas Day with Tammy's side of the family. We drove out to Olds for Church on Christmas morning and then we headed back to Tammy's parents house in Carstairs for the big breakfast and the big gift exchange. It's getting crazy having everyone on her side together in the same house these days. I think there were 18 people, one cat, and one fetus gathered around the tree that day if my math is right. We spent the rest of the day there hanging out and playing games. Aaron and I had our traditional Christmas Chess game (which I won) and everyone joined in for some Mad Gab. It was a lot of fun and of course Emma was showered with gifts from her Grandparents and her cousins. We had our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day when everyone went over to Kristie and Iain's for turkey and some figgy pudding. If the family continues to grow like it has, we may have to rent the Ranchlands Community Center for Christmas 2007. I have connections there.

After festivities with the Olsens came to a close we still had some presents left at home that Emma had yet to open. We opened one a day and by the end of the week I think she really got the hang of it and started to understand what was going on. She loves all her new toys, especially the cheapest ones, ironically. That week we also got invited over to Luke and Jenny Smith's place for a party since Derek and Rachelle were in town. It was good to see everyone and find out who looks the best and who is the most successful. On Thursday night we invited my family over for a bit and then we all went out to Boston Pizza for a warm meal and some hockey. The food went down and the Flames won so it was a good night. I had the week off of work and Tammy didn't have to watch Madison so we spent our days cleaning house. Even though it was "work" I still felt it was a very relaxing holiday compared to the mad schedules we've been keeping lately.

The day of New Years Eve was spent having Christmas with the Bourne side of the family. My parents hosted and we spent the day merrily playing cards, 8 person Star Wars on Xbox, and watching the hockey game. Our traditional gift exchange involves drawing names from a hat but this year we changed it up a bit. This year everyone bought a gift that started with the letter "C" for "Christmas" and then we took turns opening them and stealing them from each other until everyone got something they wanted. It was fun but I don't think it caught on as a continuing tradition. Tammy got a Betta fish complete with an aquarium and I got the Nonesuch Dickens Christmas Books. Come to think of it I don't know how the fish had anything to do with the letter "C", but oh well, Tammy loves it and she named it Chester so what are you going to do? Most people were pretty tired at the end of the day so the new year rang in pretty tamely. I cant remember everything we did but I do remember not getting home until 4am for some reason. After changing Emma twice and finally getting her back down to sleep we finally hit the hay around 5am. We had a full session of Church the next day but only Tammy ended up going for the last 2 hours to teach her Sunbeams class while I stayed home with Emma. After Church we went back over to my parents house and had our 2nd Christmas feast. Then we hung out the rest of the day playing more games and just chilling like the Bournes do. By and large it was a fantastic holiday.

SAIT Christmas Party 2005

The holidays were busier than I thought they would be so I'm a bit behind on the news machine. Our program at SAIT hosted another Christmas party this past December after finals. All the usuals and the unusuals were there, including most of the faculty who seemed to out-party the students. It was a swell time and I even came away with a door prize, Snoopy seat-belt covers! Goodbye caloused colarbones!

Nap

This was a cute pic of Madison, Emma, and Kaylie having a nap on the Dykes's couch so I thought I'd post it up. Since Tammy has started watching Madison during the days over at the Dykes's house, Emma gets to see Madison every day and Kaylie drops by for a visit every now and then. Somehow Tammy manages to get them to settle down and sleep for hours at a time. I think she drugs them with turkey pablum so she can play with their toys.

Quickie

I have a couple seconds for a few updates. Emma turns 6 months old today! She's a barrel of fun as she's now loving solid foods and growing a couple bottom teeth. School is out for Christmas break, I had all my finals last week and now I'm off until the 9th of January. We were pleasantly surprised by a couple scholarships I was granted over the past couple of weeks thanks to my brilliant performance in school last year. I'm now working full-time again for Dejong over the holidays and Tammy has taken up watching Madison during the day but we both get the week between Christmas and New Years off. Despite our busy schedules we managed to decorate our house over the past week or so, it actually looks lived in now. Everything is tickety-boo on our end and I'll post more as the holidays roll on.

4 of 9

Here are four of the nine great-grandchildren on the Bourne side, and their Mums. From left to right we have Emma with Tammy, Josh with Erica, Lucy with Heather, and Brian with Corinne. This picture was taken over at Graham and Leahs on Monday night when we crashed their place to see the Powells one last time before they went back to Utah.

Malauney and Woody

My cousin Malauney got married this past friday to her new husband Woody Crapo. The wedding and reception were held at the East Stake Center and the theme was a winter wonderland. It was exciting to see another one of the cousins take the plunge and it was great to see the family again. Congratulations Malauney and Woody, you're at the end of your troubles, I just don't know which end.

Hockey Night Reloaded

This past Friday I got to go to another Flames game, this time with Aaron, Iain, and Keegan. Jodie got the tickets from a client at work, they were second row right off the Flames blue line. It was pretty nifty being so close even though it was sometimes hard to see the action down at the other end of the ice. Probably the highlight of the night (since we lost 5 to 2 to Chicago) was when Darren McCarty skated over to where we were sitting and tossed a goal scoring puck over the glass to us. Aaron caught it and being a good uncle gave it to Keegan. The game went down hill from there but that made up for it. After the game we went to the Fan Attic and Iain bought a stand for the puck and I bought a little Flames t-shirt for Emma as she turned 5 months old yesterday. It was a great night and Jodie says she might be able to get those tickets again so perhaps we'll get to see a few more games. I took some pictures but my camera ran out of batteries before I could really get any good ones.

Woody's Bachelor Party

I don't know if I've mentioned it on the site yet but my cousin Malauney is getting married this month to her fiance who is Woody Crapo. This past Friday we had a Bachelor Party for him at Graham and Leah's place which included some food, folks, and fun. Malauney will be the 9th grandchild on the Bournes side to get married which will make the grandchildren count (including the in-laws) somewhere around 31. Out of those 31 grandchildren there are 9 great-grandchildren which brings my Gramma Bourne's posterity count (including her own 5 children and their spouses) to 50. Someone can correct me if my math is wrong or if I've forgotten anyone. 50 people and growing. I know some families have triple that but I still think it's an impressive show of force.

Homecoming Queen

Emma's Great Grandma Bourne returned from her mission in Salt Lake City over the weekend. She has been working in the Family History Center for the past year and a half and has had 5 great grandchildren born to her during that time. She is the last living Great Grandparent that Emma has, so we were glad they could finally meet. We had a big Family lunch over at my parents that most people were able to attend, and it was good. Later that night my cousin Malauney had her Bridal Shower there so the guys got kicked out. The Trevors and Tyler and I crashed the Jones's house and watched the Flames game as they beat Vancouver 1-0. Great Gramma Bourne will be staying at my parents for a while from what I know but she's never one to stay put too long. I think she already has plans for a road trip down to Florida with some mission buddies and she's talking about going on a third mission as well. We're glad to have her back though, even if it is temporarily.