One last holiday post

Every Christmas for the last 5 years my mom has given me the Swarovski snowflake Christmas ornament. I look forward to seeing what they look like each year :)
This year she also gave me a stand that will hold them - 20 of them to be exact. I hope she keeps up the trend :)
In order to make them sparkle, I placed our snowman (he lights up in various colours) next to them. The picture isn't so great but it looks really nice in person :)

Boxing Day with the Blacks

We hosted a Boxing Day dinner for Brannon's family yesterday; I'd never even cooked a turkey before so I took lots of notes from my mother during the cooking of her dinner the day before. I also had to borrow a few "tools" from her too! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite thinking that Brannon and I would probably kill each other during the process (we had a great time actually). Dinner was served exactly on time :)

The dining room all set up; the walls aren't actually *that* yellow.

A little closer up; too bad you can't really see my centrepiece here :(
Mr. Turkey all stuffed just before popping him into the oven.
Five hours later, he was 'done like dinner'. And for the record, my stuffing tasted just like my mom's so I'd say it was a success. I was even 'smart' and made another dressing (just baked in the oven) so I'd have lots leftover - Dad would be jealous :)
Since the table isn't at all big enough for all the dishes, we dished up in the kitchen. From left, mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese (YUM), italian sausage and apple stuffing, turkey (already carved), squash, maple-glazed carrots, stuffing out of the bird, gravy (4 whole cups!), bean salad (Donna), creamy broccoli salad (Donna), and italian salad with fixins on the lower level (Fran) along with cheddar biscuits.
Missing from the photo are the apps; sugar-coated pecans, pineapple dip and butternut squash & cheese mini-souffles (I need practice at this souffle thing) as well as Teeg's pecan pie and Donna's apple pie.
Think we were full afterwards?!?!?! I swear I used every dish and utensil in my house to prepare this meal - at least 3 times! lol

Someone trying to take credit :)
Yes, he eats ketchup on Christmas dinner.....BAH!

Fran brought the gift of the day; it's a puzzle game that you can put money into. Unfortunately, the recipient has to solve the puzzle to get the money :)
Bill worked on it until he got it :)

Mason's Birthday

Here are a few random shots that I took yesterday at Brannon's brother's birthday dinner.
Instead of a cake, he got a tray full of yummy holiday treats :)

They had a visitor from a cute little elf (Isaac)!Meet Tazer, their cat. She's tired out from all the excitement!

Lastly, I snapped a shot of their Christmas tree reflected in their front window :)

Christmas with Nattie and Murray

Our friends Natasha and Murray live in Kingston and we went to visit them this weekend -to see their new place and to spend some Christmas time together. Natasha made dinner for 12 (!!) and it was a hit; I hope she remembers to send me the roast recipe :)
We had some drinks and chatted, played some cranium, some 'rock band', but most importantly we helped Natasha and Murray get their first Christmas tree up and decorated. Here are a few pics from the evening. Thanks for the hospitality!

Natasha and her almost-decorated tree!

Hanging her newest ornament :)
This is the one I brought for her; I think of her every time I see a dragon fly so I had to pick up this ornament when I saw it in the store!
Some of their personalized decor :)
Of course....out come the rock stars!
It's supposed to be fun but they all look like they're concentrating really hard!

N1/N6 Christmas Potluck

We had our annual N1/N6 lab Christmas potluck this afternoon. What yummy food everyone brought, despite some serious problems with the pie(s) :) :)
So, this is us. I set my camera timer and managed to get into the shot for once too. I should have remembered to take off the silly Santa hat though (that's me in the middle).

Sweater dress

This photo is for my mom; she bought me this sweater dress as an early Christmas gift and I wore it this afternoon to the 'MS Family' Christmas party. I made Brannon pose for a quick shot in front of our tree before we headed out (I turned on the timer, set the camera on the counter - not even on the tripod - and took the photo without any regard for settings). It took about 5 tries before we both looked ok and it's not the greatest photo but it's a photo for today nonetheless and my mom gets to see the dress :)
Thank goodness the auto-timer is easy to use!!

OHRI Christmas Bowling

Our research institute's annual Christmas party is always bowling! It may sound rather lame but we have a great time! We drink lots of draught beer, listen/dance our butts off to 90s dance hits ("I'm too sexy for..."), eat pizza, and glow-in-the dark!
My photos didn't turn out so smashingly well unfortunately; I turned off the flash to capture everything glowing in the dark, and while they looked pretty clear on the screen, they wound up being pretty grainy at best, and blurry at worst. But oh well...here a couple that turned out ok!
Can't wait until next year!

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

Of all the trees most lovely!
(I just learned how many different lyrical versions there are to this song!)


Our tree - from a million angles :)
You can't really tell in any of the photos, but the tree is done up in copper/purple/pink. I love it but wish my angel (oh the irony) had lights so you could see her more clearly!
It also took me forever to figure out how to photograph it correctly; generally I'm happy with how they turned out though!

It's not Christmas without chocolate and mint!

So, this simple recipe is getting me loads of attention :)
I love love love chocolate and mint...but the combination of them both can't be beat so when I came across this recipe I had to try them out. I took them to a gathering on the weekend and they were a big hit.....also, Brannon's having a hard time keeping his mitts off them too!
Don't be naughty and I might share :)

Mint-topped Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Recipe:
Combine a package of devil's food chocolate cake mix with 2 eggs, a 1/2 cup of shortening and a Tbsp of water. Beat with hand mixer, then finish off with some elbow grease because it becomes super-thick. Roll into less-than 1" balls, coat with icing sugar, then place 2" apart on greased baking sheet (this is important because they spread!). Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and top with a thin mint (Haviland, Zachary, etc.). Let stand to cool.
You won't be disappointed!

Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Party - 2008 Edition

We went to Brigitte and Craig's fifth annual Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Party on Friday night (although it was only the third year for us). As usual, a good time was had by all; they came up with more games than ever that made for many many laughs. The company was great, as were the decorations, the food and, of course, the wine! Can't wait for next year :)

Brigitte's gorgeous Christmas tree

Wonderful food

The wine table early in the night, before everyone else arrived!

The ever-popular present game...and Leslie tearing into it!
And we have a winner! Yay Evelin!
A new edition to the game file; the idea was to make reindeer antlers as quickly as possible with 8 balloons and a pair of nylons. In order to win, you had to wear them :)

It's official!

I've started my Christmas shopping! I was on my own tonight so I decided to check out the holiday decor at Pier One Imports. I found very little that complimented my colour scheme but I did make several small purchases, including a gift for one of my friends. I saw something and immediately thought of her. SO, I've officially started getting ready for the holidays. I wonder when Brannon will let me put up the tree?!?!

Out-of-focus

I was outside in the dark last night playing with my new lens (it's a zoom lens with a macro function; the only caveat is that it's only capable of manual focus) and decided that Christmas lights look better when out-of-focus. I thought they were suitable for today's entry since they look rather festive. Wishing you all a safe and happy New Year!

We're off to a house party tonight so hopefully I'll get some good photos for tomorrow's entry!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My mom asked me to take some photos of her tree today but instead of posting more of the tree I thought I'd post this one. As I was taking snapshots I caught my reflection in this ornament; I thought it was cute :)

I hope you're all enjoying your holidays and are full of turkey!

Blue Christmas

I finally got to my parents' house. They live on a lake and much of their house is done in blue colours....as is their tree....

Ornaments

Look carefully; this is a fish

I really like this shot; I love how you can see the tree's reflection in the window against the lake and also on the floor.

Christmas Colour

I've been so busy lately that I was only able to dig out my Christmas decorations last night. This is a flashing snowman that my mother gave Brannon and I 2 years ago as a pre-Christmas engagement gift (Brannon proposed at the end of November) and it carries a small heart-shaped charm with our initials and engagement date inscribed on it. Anyway, it lights up in numerous colours so I snapped a few quick shots to demonstrate it's colour!

Banff

What can I say about Banff? It was peaceful, majestic and bright. From the moment I arrived I enjoyed myself. I had very little precious spare time as you know I was there for a conference. I feel I should mention that I thoroughly enjoyed the work-related aspect of being there as well. I learned so much, met some wonderful and highly intelligent researchers/students/financial donors/patients, and left feeling inspired about what I do (and those who know what I've been experiencing in the lab for the last several months will understand how important some inspiration actually is). I spent every free moment running around inside and out with my camera and came home with 400+ photos. Needless to say, I can't post more than a few but if you would like to see a slightly bigger sample of what I took please see my facebook link:

From a distance...

This is what I saw as soon as I walked out of the hotel driveway. Not too shabby!

A view from one of the hotel terraces.

The Bow River in the village of Banff isn't completely frozen yet.

Another spectacular view from the hotel.

I can't help myself when I see gorgeous cloud formations. Banff had so many!

The mountains as seen from under one of the hotel arches.

I took a walk down one of the trails and found some icicles forming along the Bow River.

Everything was frosty!

A replica of the Fairmont Banff Springs made entirely of cereal and candy!

This tree was easily 30 feet high!