When we gave Ethan his Christmas coupon for his day to do whatever he wanted with his Uncle Billy and Auntie Debbie he answered “I would like to go to a Calgary flames hockey game.”   “well” said Uncle Billy “that  might be a little hard for us to do – would you consider a junior Hitman game or going to the climbing wall?”  Ethan had to give that some thought.

When we went to visit Ted we casually mentioned to him Ethan’s wish and Ted said to leave it with him and he might be able to snag a few tickets from work.  We thought no more of it as we were heading off to Waterton for 2 days. 

When we were leaving Waterton I received a text from Ted asking if 6 tickets were enough – I quickly called Steph and asked her if everyone would want to go together and she quickly answered YES!  I couldn’t believe Ted was able to pull this together for Ethan and all of us – how incredibly thoughtful and kind of him.  He is such a sweetieJ

We decided the best thing to do it not tell Ethan and make it a big surprise – so we told Payton as she is not the type of little girl you spring things on, but she is a great little secret keeper.

Bill, Lou and I met Ted early in the day for a beautiful xc ski in Bragg Creek – Thank god Lou used the wrong wax on his skis as Ted and Bill were  flying – Lou and I had a lovely ski and a nice visit – Drizzy was keeping an eye on me also.  Biggie liked to go fast with Ted & Bill. 

The weather was bad, so Lou drove back to Nanton to pick Steph and the kids up.  They drove to Calgary and then took the C train to the arena.  We went back to Ted’s cleaned up and also caught the C train.  The kids beat us there and were watching for our train to arrive.  Ethan still had no idea what was going on and thought we were meeting for dinner.  He kept spotting people in their Calgary Flames jersey’s and saying “mommy there must be a hockey game tonight.”

As we entered the Saddledom Ted asked Ethan “would you rather go for dinner or to a hockey game?” and Ethan answered “I don’t know maybe both?”  Ted went up to the coneserge desk and picked up an envelope of tickets saved under his name and he ripped a ticket out and gave it to Ethan and said “let’s go watch the hockey game” – Ethans  eyes were big and he was looking back and forth from his mom to his dad to Ted trying to piece it all together .  It was priceless -  that wasn’t the end to Ted’s surprises as we all hurried to follow Ted and his long gazelle like  steps – he lead us to a big wood door and right into a box that he had arranged for us to enjoy a very magical night.  There were lots of hugs and high fives passed around.

The fridge was stocked with cold drinks, there were huge bags of popcorn and an entire buffet set up for us.  WOW!!!!  What an experience!

I think the part we all enjoyed the most was watching Ethan line up all his treats and totally lose himself in the game.  Steph leaned over to try to explain to Ethan how we had kept it a secret from him and Ethan put up his hand and said "stop talking mom I am trying to pay attention to everything!"

We cheered hard, danced to the music, tried to win the 50/50 draw so we could bring everyone with us for the rest of our trip and just enjoyed the family time and the incredible experience.

A huge thank you to Ted for always being so thoughtful and for making Ethan’s wish come true………

What a special night for all of us to remember….We Love you Ted.