On Saturday morning, we had gifts and surprises. We do secret santa gift exchanges every year, so we had those to open and we also had surprises for both Ada and Tasha. For Tasha, the rest of us had been working on a collaborative wall hanging. It had been nearly a year in the making and planning, and it was (nearly, and actually was by the end of the weekend) done. She was totally surprised and loved it. We loved it too. I think it totally matched our vision and yet was more beautiful than we expected.
The surprise for Ada was a non-wedding shower wedding non-shower, or something like that. Ada and Katja have been together for a long time now, and we wanted to celebrate and fete them with presents. Katja was present for the party through iChat, and they were both surprised and maybe a bit overwhelmed by the presents. It was so great to celebrate them.
Once the presents were done, it was nearly Kate's nap time. Once she was asleep, the five of us headed down to Maria's Taco Express for lunch and then over to South Congress for some poking around the shops and a long coffee break at Jo's. Dinner that night was fajitas at home and a fire until very late at night.
Sunday morning we decided for something a little more active and we headed out for a hike on the greenbelt. I don't remember very clearly what we did during nap, but I think we just hung around the house and some people napped while other read or knitted or just sat. That evening we went to the Salt Lick for bbq. Yum. And we perfectly timed our return into Austin to drive over the Congress bridge just as the bats were pouring out. We'd been planning to stop and watch, but the view from the slow drive by was so perfect, we just headed home for another evening by the fire.
On Monday, Graeme had to go to work, so the rest of us piled into the van for a day trip down to Gruene. Lunch at the Gristmill, some window shopping and a beautiful drive on the back roads back into Austin.
It was a perfect weekend. Now it's time to plan the next reunion.
