Dinner and a Distant Relative

Good morning…if you can believe it I am the first one up and it is 7:20 a.m. Outside, the air outside takes my breath away.  I only opened the back door to let the big dog out and Burrrr.  The sky is a gorgeous blue with wisps of white, pink and gold strewn across the horizon. Beautiful!

Both pups are now snuggled in for the morning. Lacey on her cozy bed and Mojo warming my feet. The Mr. is stirring and soon will be downstairs.  He asked for one last birthday gift…that I get up first with the four legged clan to feed them.  “Thank you” my sweet pets for sleeping in.

Yesterday we ran errands for the boys to get the games they wanted from Grandma D and Pa Don. One of the games is Harry Potter Book of Secrets.  The game has a camera connected to the T.V. and it transports the boys image into the television where they explore and perform spells.  The technology is unbelievable and the kiddos had so much fun.

At 1:30p.m. Grandma came over for green chili and the Mr.’s family birthday party.  Uncle T. and Auntie B. were soon to follow.  The Mr. opened gifts and then came the birthday song and pineapple upside down cake.  The family left at halftime of the Syracuse and W. Virginia game.  The boys came down for lunch and then ran back upstairs during gifts…back down for singing and cake.

We were ready to go to our friend’s for an early New Year’s/Birthday dinner celebration….I was not happy with my wardrobe and made a last minute change, still we made it to the party on time. We were quite excited to meet a new person that was coming to the party, as he is from Scotland.

I called Gram Annette earlier in the day to find out any details she could give me on the MacInnis Clan castle.  During our conversation she told me the family crest was a bee and a thistle and she thought it had recently been changed to a strong arm and an arrow. The castle is actually more of a tower with narrow rectangular windows to shoot arrows from. All very interesting and quite coincidental that she mentioned the crest, since I didn’t ask about it and it randomly came up in our conversation.

Back to the dinner party…..We arrived shortly before the rest of the guests.  I put the German Chocolate cake out on a lovely cake plate and the Mr. opened wine to decant for dinner.  The home looked amazing, candles aglow and Andrea Bocelli’s songs flowing throughout. We were mingling with few of our friends and then the Mr. made rounds to converse with the 2 new couples. (I am still getting used to not drinking the first few sips of “ice breaking” cocktails/wine that make meeting new people sooo much easier).  Anyway the Mr. waved me over and said I had to talk with Hamish the Scotsman.  Hamish and I started chatting and I told him what I new of the Castle.  I told him the name MacInnis and he looked so surprised.  It turns out that his middle name is “Innes”…he then asked if I new the clan crest. I told him that it was the bee and the thistle and he held up his clan ring….which by the way the clan protects wholeheartedly.  Yes, it was the bee and the thistle. Unbelievable!  He said the chances of this chance meeting were truly unimaginable.  Hamish and Lindsey are heading to Italy in January and the Mr. is “hooking them up” and yes we are going to plan a family adventure to Scotland with their help…

The dinner was fantastic! We all had so much fun. Everyone told a short story about how they met our Hostess…some of the stories should be made into movies…We’ll elaborate in a later post.  We sang Happy Birthday to the Mr. and had a Champagne toast to the New Year.  2013 is going to be great!

We made it home at 11:30 (late for me) and the oldest was still awake and watching SNL with the sitter.  He is still asleep….smiley face here. I’ll check with the Mr. to see if he has any additions to the post this morning…

God Bless

It was a really really fun night. Meeting Hamish and Lindsey was nice and we also met two other new friends, Ginnie and Scott. We all hit it off right away and will soon do something with both of them. The other 2 couples and our hostess and her date and us all know each other well. Ginnie as it turns out was Ben Nighthorse Campbells Chief of Staff. He was a democrat senator that turned republican and is quite famous around these parts. Just interesting what some people did or do. Ginnie in her own right, was quite flirty with her arms around everyone and kisses smack dab on the lips when we were leaving! She and Scott are newlyweds for about a year and a half and so was Hamish and Lindsey for about 2 years. Scott was really enjoyable and is an attorney. Anyhow we all had a great time and 11pm rolled around really fast.

Everyone had a blast and we always have a great time when we get together, the two new couples seem like great additions to our little group. Hamish has vowed to get the misses a ring from the clan which she’ll be really excited about. It’s nice to know your family history and have something to identify with from your past. As she said, they’re quite protective of the rings and the clan but he did say I could also have one since I married into the clan. He was truly shocked and said in his entire life no one has come up to him and brought up the family. It was like two long lost relatives meeting each other for the first time, fun.

That’s about it, time to get moving, take care and as the misses said, God Bless.