Anna's Calendar

We still keep in touch with our Spanish host student, Anna, who stayed with us over the Summer. Her birthday was in November and went sent her a teddy bear that was wearing a t-shirt that said "Someone in Iowa loves me" and we all signed the shirt. She loved it and was so surprised when she got it.

We wanted something that would also be special for her Christmas present. I bought a round globe type Christmas tree ornament with a picture of a farm on it and it says "Christmas on the farm". Again, we all signed it. I have no clue if they put up Christmas trees in Spain, but I guess we'll find out, if she emails asking what the heck is this thing for?

I also bought a scrapbook calendar. It came with a few stickers, but I bought more and decorated it up with pictures from the time Anna was with us. I also added in words, and included dates such as our birthdays and our anniversary. I think she'll even be surprised when she sees I put in the dates of her family's birthdays and her parents anniversary. I'm sure she doesn't even remember me asking her about those dates.

I used colorful funky lettering stickers, because with her being a teenage girl, I figured those would go over better than some type of elegent styled stickers.

The ISU you see across the top is not part of the calendar. That's our calendar holder that hangs on our fridge and I used that to hold this calendar so I could take pictures.


Anna & Chelsea are both talented pianists, and they had a lot of fun playing together. Jay however is not talented, but he loved to tease Anna by banging on the keys while going on and on about how good he was, and she'd stand there looking at him, shaking her finger and saying "No. That's not so good." I had to include a picture of that! LOL



My family had a get together while she was here, and she taught us how to make a meal that is a customary party food in her city of Catalonia (near Barcelona). We had a lot of fun with that, so I included pictures from that day as well.


I think she'll really enjoy this and it will give her a chance to travel back in time to her visit here. As I was making this, I thought to myself "What a great idea for gifts for family and friends too". For any family or friends reading this, don't worry, this does not mean you are all getting calendars for Christmas this year. LOL But what a fun personalized gift to give.

I could have sent some pictures in and had it professionally made, but I am one that prefers homemade gifts, because that means someone took the time to make that just for me. I'm hoping Anna will realize how special our time with her was, by seeing that we made this just for her.