11/29/2009 Our First Grey Cup Party

A cold front has come through the desert and things have cooled down. I don’t think we saw 70 today but the weatherman says we’ll be back in shorts in a few days time. We better be!

We stayed in today and I made Lemon Poppy Seed cupcakes and a Devils Food Cake for a party we’re attending this afternoon.

I did venture out long enough to snap pictures of our orange tree. They are turning more orange every week.

Bob pointed out these humongous grapefruits from our tree the other day.

Around one this afternoon the clouds moved in.

The skies got much darker than this and the wind picked up with sand and dust blowing everywhere. Then the skies opened up and we had a cleansing rain. It took care of the dusty smell in the air and it was so fresh and clean afterwards.

It was still raining at four so we drove over to Wilf and Marilyn’s place for the Grey Cup Party. For those of you who don’t know what the Grey Cup is,,,,it is Canada’s version of our Super Bowl. I was wondering why they were having their last game so early in the football season but the Canadians in attendance explained that their season starts in July because soon the weather will be 30 below and they can’t play in two feet of snow. Well, that made sense!

All the announcements prior to the game to include singing the national anthem had to be done twice, once in English and once in French.

So we gathered with approximately 20 others and we ate our way through the late afternoon into the early evening. Everyone brought something to share and Marilyn, Al and Carol Winters and someone else, but I don’t remember who, made pots of chili.

We quite haven’t figured this out yet but we noticed all the women were in one room and the men in the other. Granted, the ladies may not have been paying as much attention to the game as the men but we did look to the TV every time we heard cheers or groans.

Us Americans did take quite a bit of ribbing from the Canadians about our football. It seems they think our teams play “sissy football” because their field is longer than our 100 yards and they only get three downs versus our four.

I hung in at the party until seven when I left to go home to catch the next to the last episode of Amazing Race. When I left, the team we were all rooting for from Saskatchewan was winning. Bob tells me they lost in the last seconds of the game. I’m sure we can all relate to having our team have big win snatched away in the last remaining time of a game. It just hurts more when its the championship game for the whole season.

So this was our first Grey Cup party and we’re hoping it won’t be our last. Not that we really care who wins……its just the eats are so good!