She was authentic in every way

Who has more fun than a shutterbug at a cocktail party?

 Location: North Vancouver; in the rain :); temps hovering close to 0ºC.

Daily Goal: Crash a high-falutin, catered affair, hosted by a very down-to-earth lady.

Trials & Tribulations: Abby (a long time family friend of ours and a best friend to Kelly) and her husband Dave, pulled out all the stops, then hopped on a plane with their children and headed for Costa Rica. . . for two years.

What better excuse to ring in a new year? We had a wonderful time, kicked off with a chef who, when I was shmoozing him (ALWAYS a good idea to shmooze the chef), knew exactly where Barriere was.

"My first teaching post was in Barriere, many years ago, before I reinvented myself and became a chef."

Needless to say, we were "in" with the chef.

Outside of family, I knew only one other person at the party personally (Abby's longtime friend, Madeleine). It was wonderful to meet those nearest and dearest to our hostess with the mostest, all of whom touted her praises - and felt exactly as I do about her.

I like to think of Abby as a shining example of, "good things come to those who wait." I keep a small plaque at my computer desk, which I feel sums up this great lady rather well:

"She was authentic in every way, and they LOVED that about her."

This party marked the end of our holiday blitz to the coast - Mike and I planned on getting on the road EARLY - and what a wonderful send off it was:

This greeting card personalized with Smilebox

Successes: This made for a great caption contest of Facebook:

Larry: "I farted!"

Anne: "I pulled Larry's finger!"

Sheilah: "Smells like somebody farted."

Mike: "I know someone farted, and it wasn't me!" 

Failures: For Anne to keep her PAWS off the champagne when it was MY turn!

Now, that's more like it :)
Happy 2012, to one and all!