Monday, May 6, 2013

sunshine, signings and celebrations...

The first weekend in May has come and gone...
and there couldn't have been a finer one!
 

Sunshine, blue skies and almost sizzling temperatures...
...and a weekend spent in the company of good friends
as we celebrated the release of the MGCC Celebrations cookbook.

Since I was scheduled to do today's post on the MGCC blog...
I'll will let you go over there and read all about it.


But I'll share a few stories over here...
that have not yet been told.

By Friday afternoon we were all ten in the valley.


Ellen drove up from Seattle...
and joined me for a quick dinner on 'my front porch' before we joined the rest at our first event.


Our pubishers joined us for our celebrations...
and we met them at the House of James book signing on Friday night.
Ben...marketing director from Minnesota
Russ...from Menno Media headquarters in Virginia
Amy...our editor from Ohio


We signed a lot of books over the weekend...
and met a lot of wonderful people.
Let me share a few stories.

Meet Karen.
She came out on Friday night to have her new cookbook signed.
She also brought her first cookbook along to show us.
She is cooking her way through it from cover to cover...
and near the front of the book she has a chart where she notes each recipe as she cooks it.
She has only a few dozen left to go!
How fun is that.
She stayed for the evening and chatted.
That was her idea of a fun Friday night out!

Then there were these three...
who came out yesterday.


 Sisters brought their mother to meet us as her Mother's Day gift.
Poor Mom had no idea where she was or what she was in for.
She almost panicked last minute...
as she thought she was about to go zip-lining.
Sorry, Mom...
nothing that exciting!

They removed her blindfold and she stood before us dumbfounded.
Who in the world were we...
and why was she here?


Then she saw the signs...
the books...
and it dawned on her.
We all had a good laugh!


We chatted with a gal who was buying a cookbook for her future daughter-in-law.
I asked her when they were getting married.
She laughed and said her son would first have to find a suitable bride.
We got a good chuckle out of that one.


It was so nice to have our families pop by over the weekend.
They have been our biggest supporters.
Marg's father-in-law even came out...
at 101 years of age.
Wow!

One other fun story.
Chef Dez is a local food columnist and culinary instructor.
A well-known one...
whose classes are always packed out.
He was so kind as to write an endorsement for the Celebrations cookbook.
Over the weekend...
he was busy at a food fair somewhere...
but sent his wife and sweet children by to meet us.
He sent some books to be signed...
and asked that we 'write something nice to me!'
We got a chuckle out of that.



We had such a good time with Amy (our editorial director) over the weekend.
She will be welcoming a new arrival this summer...
and we sent her home with a few things for the new baby.
Oh...and something for big sister as well.


I have no idea how that came about..
but after sitting all day we took Marg up on her silly idea to run a few laps before eating.


 Oh...and these two showed up again before the weekend was over.
It seems their usual attire has been retired...
but we recognized them immediately in their robes and aprons.
They are quite a hoot...
those two!


What more can I say?
It was a lot of fun...
our celebration weekend. 
 
You might want to check out  CTV's Canada AM tomorrow (Tuesday) morning...
where Lovella and Anneliese will be featured live from Toronto.
Check your local listings...
and watch them live or set your recorders.
Their segment will be at 5:45 PST or 8:45 EST.

Have a wonderful Monday...
and enjoy that heavenly sunshine!

14 comments:

  1. I'm sitting here trying to take it all in. Thank you for taking care of me on this wonderful weekend. I love your photos and recap...

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  2. So happy you all had the chance to be together for fun and celebration. What a joy it must be to see how well received both your cookbooks are. I am reading my new one cover to cover but not cooking through it systematically like that beautiful young woman with book #1. It's a work of art as well as a devotional and the recipe part is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned. I would have it as a coffee table book except for my little grands who like to wrinkle and eat paper!
    Congratulations and thank you!

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  3. Fun, fun fun!! I'm so glad the weekend book launch went so well and the weather cooperated too. I had to laugh at the dear lady being surprised by her daughters. I'd be scared too! I'll be watching Canada AM tomorrow morning! Blessings, Pam

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  4. What a wonderful recap filled with stories and people that attend our book launch. A double blessing with the sun shining brightly all weekend.
    Did you say Tennis? I think it's time for another race.

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  5. What an amazing success!!! I'm loving all the accounts of this incredible weekend you all had!!! Love the "race" you had to blow off some steam - as Lovella said. Too funny! Oh, I wish you would have recorded "those two" - I am curious about what they had to say. They really are a hoot and always crashing your parties...... Again, congrats on such a successful launch.

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  6. Congratulations!! Ladies, what a wonderful time for all of you! Loved all the footnotes though and where may I ask, did you find the lovely aprons shown in your group photo??
    God bless and walk tall! You did it!!

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    1. Noelle...our favorite seamstress, Julie, sewed all the aprons (Julie is third from the left in the group photo). It was her gift to us!

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  7. Sounds like a wonderful weekend. Amazing what God can do with obedient hearts!!

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  8. This just sounds like a wonderful time! Loved hearing about it all and seeing the pictures. I especially like the shot with all the ladies in their aprons. Glad it all went well! Enjoy your week...

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  9. I am so happy for all of you! I am so happy for me that I now own one of your cookbooks too, and love the job you all did on it! I have enjoyed all these pictures Judy. I must tell you, I feel so honored that you take time to blog about the events. It makes us all feel in a way, to be part of it all. The aprons look so good on all of you.

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  10. How exciting!! and I am glad that you are having so much fun getting your new cook book out! It looks like you have a wonderful time together! Best of luck with sales and love your aprons as well!!

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  11. I love reading about the weekend - thank you for sharing your excitement and pleasure in it. I have my books and will bring them for signing next week!

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  12. I have loved reading through this post and seeing all your great photo's I am glad you had a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends....I love the blindfolded Mother :)

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  13. What wonderful fun! I'm glad you had a big turn out at the Celebrations book signing, Judy! The blindfolded mother story was a hoot! LOL!

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'The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.'
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson