8-8-08

That is pretty fun, hunh? So, what did you do to celebrate? If you know anything about me, you know something as simple as this date would require some type of major activity to commorate. Lucky for me, the IOC planned the evening for me and I have to say, I coulod not have done better. See, 8 years ago, Christopher and I started this tradition. (Okay, so I started it, but Christopher has willingly participated since the beginning.) To celebrate the Olympic games, we plan a meal in honor of the host country to eat while we watch the Opening Ceremonies. Eight years ago I made Alice Springs chicken (thank you, Outback Steakhouse) for the Sydney games. It has turned in to a pretty fun tradition. Quite a few months ago, I started telling Christopher that I would probably be too busy to do dinner so it was all about him this year. Turns out that was not so much the case as Abby is all too easy but he stepped up to the plate anyway. He made some yummy roasted pork in plum sauce and fried rice. It was delicious!!! He also offered to attempt my favorite, Hot & Sour soup but I thought the other two items were probably enough. His cooking really means a lot to me for two reasons. First, he was also put in charge 4 years ago (Athens) because I was waaaayyy too sick (pregnant with Noah). We picked a lamb dish and it might not have turned out quite right but he was willing to try again. Second, it shows his willingness to go along with my silly games. He always humors me and it is one of the things I appreciate most about him. So, if you are free in 2010, please consider yourself invited to our Vancouver party. We have some time to work on the menu but we are thinking it will probably include Canadian bacon and maple syrup. If you have any good Canadian recipes, please send them along.
Back to Beijing, I hope you were able to catch the Opening Ceremonies yourself. They were amazing! We almost missed them. That would have been funny, right? Christopher thought he'd heard the show was to start at 8:08 and neither of us bothered to look it up. Luckily, my mom called at 6:30 and said they were starting. Obviously, dinner wasn't ready yet so we turned on the VCR and kept to our original plan of getting the boys to bed and sitting down as close to 8:00 as possible. We made it just in time for the athletes to enter the stadium. While maybe not the most entertaining part of the evening, it is always fun for me. I love to see the countries with 1, 4, 7 athlete[s] and think about how they must feel carrying their entire country's hope and pride. I think it must be so exciting for them. As I sit here, I can't really remember anything about the past ceremonies we have watched. I am wondering if I will forget China's also. We watched the video the next night and I think the only thing we said was, "Wow! How is that possible? That's amazing!" If you didn't get to see it, you really missed out. If you'd like to borrow our tape, let us know.