No resolutions here!

I'm not a huge fan of making New Year's resolutions, I think it's strange to pin so many personal hopes and motivations on a date change.  So tomorrow will be business as usual around here, taking down decorations, cleaning and getting the house back to normal.

Next year will be full of more changes for us, some made by chance and others made by decisions.  It should be interesting as we're going to finish up our house renovations and think about moving (if everything works out).  Work should start to get crazy again after the Christmas lull.  Trevor starts new hours at his work starting Monday too -- 7am to 330pm (give or take a half hour on either side).  

And as for today, we'll be spending New Year's Eve mono on mono (LOL) -- Trevor's working a half day from home (yay!), and we're going to hit up Ikea for some organizing boxes (for appliance manuals in the house), a jeweller to get Trevor's watch band adjusted, the store for groceries and we're going to head out for dinner a little early to avoid the crazy rushes so we can come back home and watch a movie (and attempt to dominate Guitar Hero for the fourth night in a row).

Happy New Year everyone! :) 

Christmas and Christmas part two

This year we had a great Christmas (one and two!).  We spent Christmas morning sleeping in and making brunch until we left for Trevor's parent's place around 1pm (such a nice change from the usual rush to get there early in the morning).  All the snow that we had made for a pretty Christmas as well.

On Boxing Day we caught the ferry over to Victoria for Christmas part two with my family.  It was a little hairy getting there (snow and a quirky railway crossing), but all worth the effort!

We were spoiled with presents as well: I got an iPod touch, a new necklace, prints from Etsy, a Henckels bread knife, and winter boots; and Trevor got a new watch, Blu-Ray movies, a jacket and other goodies.  (He also scored a Callaway golf bag for $25 on the day after Boxing Day!!)

On the way to the island, a train crossing decided to activate itself without a train.  It was nice to see everyone helping each other out to get past.

Questionable electrical coordination (not mine...).

Funniest monster slipper shoes ever!

Festive evidence.

Trevor threw a snowball through our pile of snow on the fence.

The little man chowing down on a pair of sunglasses.  He's our festive elf!  :)

Christmas Eve

We had Christmas Eve dinner after all, but we were down one person who was stuck in the snow. Tomorrow's looking promising now for getting out and about for Christmas dinner. So far we've watched Scrooged, It's a Wonderful Life and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation -- I think we're all set for Christmas now!

It just keeps on going...

It's snowed all day now. Just look at our pile of shovelled snow! The Christmas Eve dinner (was) officially cancelled, and tomorrow's Christmas Day dinner/gift unwrapping at Trevor's parent's place is looking a little dodgy. Everyone's dream of a white Christmas has happened all at once!

This is just getting silly now

It's snowing like crazy here today, and it's looking like our annual Christmas Eve dinner will be cancelled. Oh well, we still have our power on, and lots of food to eat!

Yesterday and today

This was my car yesterday morning (it looks the same way today). There is zero motivation to dig it out!

And this morning...here comes the snow again!  I saw this out the window in the backyard and that big looming cloud front is coming even closer right now.  I think the snow might be here earlier than tonight.

OOooooo

All I can say is that this paper sculpture from Yula Brodskaya has me written all over it (except it really says 'bye').

My favorite garland

Last year I bought colour-changing ornament lights that I couldn't use because I couldn't figure out where I had put the adaptor for them.  Well this year, I found it!  I wound it through one of my favorite parts of our Christmas decor and it looks so cool with the white mini lights and the changing colours of the ornament lights.  Ahhhh...you almost can't see all of the renovation crap in the house!

Tree goodness

I think our tree is having one of it's prettiest years yet.  

Martha's minions are too smart

This is so cute (and a neat way to give a glass jar as a gift!).  If you're crafty, here's the instructions.

The cake worked!

I made a cake for Trevor's birthday today, and for once, it worked out!  I've had some horrible cake failures in the past (thanks to Cynthia for the reminder of the 'brain' cake...LOL!) -- and this cake will not fall into that category.  Hurrah!

(Although there was one thing Trevor noticed, he thinks it says 'Happy Birthday Trevon' since the 'r' in his name comes a tad close to the awesome border effect.  Oh well, you can't win them all.)

My favorite Christmas decor in the house

These are velvety flat red ornaments hanging from a string of mini lights on a mirror in the living room.  So festive!

(And on another note, the countertops have been put it -- there's a few small issues that we're going to have fixed, one being the glue colour not matching well -- but I'll have photos soon!)

Cravings

Note to self: This beet and goat cheese crostini looks most excellently tasty.  Must buy crostini and goat cheese, stat.

Glimpses of our Christmas Tree

Kitchen inspiration

I think I love the finishing details in these kitchen more than anything (that and how it's not all just white!).

 

See more here.

It's all about the kitchen today

I'm sitting waiting for the countertop guys to arrive with our new granite countertops for the kitchen.  We tore out the old (nasty) ones last night and stacked them in the backyard for a future trip to the dump (preferably on a day when it's not raining).

The kitchen looks like it's had it's head shaved.  Very odd.  And VERY hard to use.  Even opening a can of soup for lunch was a lesson in balance and patience.  (And the bathroom was used as a stand-in.)

Needless to say, even a day without a functioning kitchen throws me off.  Just a couple of months ago we were in this situation while putting in new floors.  It gets old, fast.

(Before and after pictures will be coming soon!)

Then and now

Venice has had record flooding in the past few days, and it seems so strange to see the photos of it now compared to when we saw it over a month ago.

Then (St. Mark's Square):

(Remember these yellow chairs from this café!)

And now:

(There are the yellow chairs!)