Monday, April 1, 2013

A Weekend of Celebrations

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all had a stellar weekend. Ours was full of various celebrations. On Friday night we headed to the Greek Restaurant, Christos, to say goodbye to some of our best buds before they move to London.

I hate to label a leaving-do a ‘celebration’, even if Debbie and Luke are moving on to such an exciting city. Saying these frequent goodbyes, especially to dear friends, is a hardship of ex-pat living.
The good thing about London is that it’s just a direct flight away. And Luke will still have business in Aberdeen, so we’re hoping that he’ll bring his wife along to Scotland for those trips. And since she’ll still technically be living in the same country and time zone, we’ll still be able to text and talk with no extra hassle.
Still, I will surely miss having her in my daily life: taking classes with her at the gym, discussing books with her at book club, hiking up ‘hills’ with her, and losing to her at mahjong. 
I still feel like life hasn’t been quite the same since Tanvi left, and with Debbie gone, it’ll be even more lonesome.
Hopefully this morning sickness will be over soon so that I can hop a plane to London for a visit. And from London, maybe I can hop a flight to Dubai to see Tanvi and Ram. Hmmm…is it inappropriate to spend all of my ‘baby moon’ vacation days visiting friends? Anyways, back to the party….
 
Despite my new found aversion to Greek food, we had a great night out with our friends. Christo, the owner of the restaurant, did his best to make it a celebratory rather than sad atmosphere.
Luke and Debbie were given traditional Greek liquor shots to end the night and then forced to dance on the table for all the patrons to watch. It’s hard to feel sad when you have a side stich from laughing so hard.
The next night, we were off to celebrate our friend Diane’s birthday. Her husband threw her a super sneaky surprise party and it was fun to be a part of it. I wish I had captured Diane’s reaction on camera, because it was probably the most genuinely shocked face I have ever seen. I did manage to get a picture of the birthday girl blowing out her candles on her delicious and beautifully decorated gluten free cake.
Our friend Falene should open a gluten free bakery, because she makes the most delicious treats. I was also super impressed with her decorating ability.
It was a fun laid back night and I even managed to stay awake until 11 pm. Whoa! (It helped that I didn’t technically get out of bed until 5 pm that evening. Oops.)
 
On Sunday we headed to church for the biggest celebration in history. We so often hear the story of the crucifixion and resurrection that sometimes it can lose it’s impact. It’s nice to have a day where we really dwell on the miracle that after being dead for 3 days, our Lord and Savior rose again to continue spreading the message of his salvation.
 
After church, several of our friends met for lunch, but I decided to save what was left of my energy to take the dogs for a nice long forest walk instead. We bundled up in hats and scarves since it was the coldest Easter on record in Aberdeen. We were stunned to see how much snow was still on the ground just a mile inland from our house.
It was just as well though because Bailey goes nuts anytime she’s near snow, so she really got her energy out on her walk.
Both pups were mega relaxed last night, and their tiredness has continued into today. So far today, Bailey has been passed out, which gives this pregnant lady some guilt free downtime to rest and finish season 8 of Friends. 
It’s a hard day at the office…

2 comments:

  1. Oh no! I cant believe you took a video of that!! We look sooooo lame which is probably worse than if we had done something stupid. Anyway, I am so sad to leave, but we wont be too far from each other. You'll come visit, and I'll come visit! And when I come, I will make sure to be there before Mahjong on Friday's :-)

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  2. Aw can't believe the group is dwindling so fast:( Looks like Christos was fun though! And yes, I think you should spend all your babymoon vacay days visiting your friends:)))

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