One Last Celebration For February !

 Today my son and his family come to celebrate all the birthdays in the house. I am excited beyond words. Other then dinner I have nothing planned. I am just happy to spend time with my family. 
  Dzidzia's birthday was this past week and we took the opportunity to celebrate alone. A night out just the two of us, Relaxing and having fun. 
  Dinner at a local steak house was as always enjoyable. The Guinness Girls were there raising money for the local fire fighters, free stuff is always fun. I love my Tee shirt and Dzidzia loves his new beer glass, and we both love that we helped where help was needed. Who says helping can't be fun.

  It is winter here. I may have mentioned before that there is snow on the ground and it is below freezing cold. I am sure I have. Anyway what do you do on a cold winters night for fun after dinner. If you are Dzidzia and me you go swimming. Yep thats right swimming and then a jacuzzi filled with HOT water and bubbles. We picked a lovely hotel close to the Steakhouse that had both a heated pool and jacuzzi bath. I packed Apple cider vinegar and bubble bath, Dzidzia's favorite cocktail, our bathing suits and my camera and we were ready for the fun to begin. In case your wondering the vinegar is suppose to help ease joint and muscle pain if you soak in it. I was feeling much more relaxed and comfortable after the soak that is for sure. Dzidzia was like a kid playing in the bubbles so I am pretty sure the soak relaxed him too.

  We came home happy and full of energy, well happy anyway.  Couch potato would best describe me at least for a little while. Then the Dzi come's in and tells me to take a walk out back with my camera. I love this man more and more each day and these pictures are one of the reasons my love keeps growing.

 What a way to welcome in the weekend. One of the best gifts this month. 
   

The Weekend in Pictures!

A busy weekend for me an even bigger weekend for my camera. Between mom turning 89, the snow I didn't wish for, and game night my camera got a real work out.
  We took Mom out for dinner the day of her birthday and enjoyed a fun time together. Mom completely enjoyed herself people watching and chatting away. When the wonderful wait staff brought her the FREE sundae and sang happy Birthday to her I thought her smile was going to reach behind her ears it was so big.

 I spent Friday cleaning. I mean a deep deep cleaning that took all day and part of the evening. I didn't intend to do a deep clean but one thing lead to another and before you know it I am knee deep in the refrigerator scrubbing out the crispers. I fell into my bed dust rag still in hand and slept like a baby.
  The Friday deep clean left me free to be in the kitchen all day Saturday preparing a mountain of finger foods for " Game night". For most years we have had three dinners in the month of February inviting up to 20 people to each dinner. That translates into a lot of work for me, and this year I didn't want the hassle so I came up with "Game Night" one party to celebrate all three birthdays as well as something different and fun. There was only one rule no electronic games. It was a great idea and we all had a blast. Of the 15 or so expected 7 guest live close enough to brave the weather and really bad roads, making our numbers be a cozy 10 people. We threw the rules to the wind and just played the games so that everyone could join in and play one game all together. It is a party we will do again without a doubt. I love giving a party that absolutely everyone enjoyed, and walked away wanting to do it again.

  Did I mention that it snowed on my party. So far this year every snow storm has missed us by miles. No matter what snow dance I do the snow goes north and dumps more where it isn't needed or wanted. So this one and only day of winter I would rather it not snow what happens? We get the messiest snowiest storm so far for the season. True it was only 6 or 7 inches of snow, but the powers that be were caught with their pants down and the roads were a mess ,making driving dangerous and in some cases impossible. The change over to rain didn't happen as soon as was predicted and the mostly rain and ice storm became   a snow event. Every time I heard snow I would cringe but I kept cooking and preparing for my game night sure in my heart that this storm like all the others would just go north. My heart wasn't so sure when it started snowing an hour earlier than predicted and accumulating at an amazing rate of speed. My son and his family were the first to cancel at my request, then Hubby's siblings that don't live around the corner much to our relief chose to not risk the roads. The rest of our guest lived in walking distance and I knew they would  make it no matter the weather, so the party was still on it just got a little ambiance added to it. Beautiful white snow outside and a warm cozy fire inside. 
  The snow did bring me a whole lot of camera opportunities out my back door. The birds were so plentiful that I finally stopped putting the camera away and left it sitting at the ready near the door.

 Sunday was a day of rest. I took my camera for a walk, there wasn't much to see or picture. It was just a gray wet mess with all the snow melting. I took the opportunity to practice extreme close ups and am pleased with the melting ice. I call it lacy ice. If you look close in the water drops on the branch you can see my house through the drop.

  Sunday brought me a pleasant even flattering surprise. I have been invited to play with the big boys so to speak and enter a photo contest. It was a mass mailing for sure but that my name is coming up at all means at last my work is getting out there and someone besides me and you are liking it. I will be entering the wild life section of the contest and maybe Macro as well. I just haven't found the photo I want to use. When I do find that perfect picture I will be sure to share it here.