At last - an update!

I know it's already February (!!) but I feel that I should backtrack and discuss Christmas. Christmas was great! We planned carefully this year and managed to spend more than two weeks back home in Arkansas, and it made such a difference. In 2008 we had around half that much time, and it just wasn't enough! This year felt a little more manageable, and we had a wonderful visit with friends and family. As always there are tons of pictures, and you can find them here!

The day after our arrival was Derek's birthday. We had a nice walk around the lake with the dogs and took a few portraits, as well as a break to swing for a bit. (:



Then we had cake and presents, and ended up at La Hacienda for dinner. I hope Derek enjoyed it as much as we did - I know David and I were starved for some decent Mexican cuisine!

The next day, David and I went with my parents down to south-central Arkansas, to visit my Mamaw for her 90th birthday. It was really nice, and gave me a chance to see some family members who I haven't seen in at least a year, some much longer. Plus lunch was good ol' southern fare - a buffet of fried catfish, fried corn nuggets, fried everything! All Mamaw's favorites, and definitely not the kind of meal we can pick up in Montreal.



Andrew, Annalise, Chris and Laura joined us at Hazel and Derek's house shortly thereafter. There were lots of games played (including poker and Star Trek Scene It), as well as a trip to Lokomotion Family Fun Park. When we got there it was all but deserted, but the staff seemed more or less happy enough to set us up with go karts, mini golf and arcade games. The weather was gorgeous and it was a really fun afternoon!



We also visited Taste of Thai for dinner one night, followed by our traditional walk around the square to admire the (always beautiful) lights. Other activities during the week included David and his brothers playing frisbee golf, the ladies going out for shopping, and Derek and Chris repairing the ailing fish pond. We had a lot of fun opening stockings on Christmas Eve, and of course exchanging presents on Christmas day. Dinner that night featured Christmas crackers full of little toys and golden crowns - very regal!





On the morning of the 26th we headed over for Christmas at the Gieringer house, where Darby and Stephen joined us. Callie also met Dex, mom and dad's exuberant (and large) puppy, for the first time, and by the end of the week Callie had really put him in his place! But for the most part they got along just fine.



The family opened presents and had a really nice boxing day dinner together. Darby was still a little uncomfortable because of her foot surgery, but she looked cute anyway.



We also realized how much fun the Wii can be, and had a ton of fun playing the sports games. Turns out most of us are pretty darn good at Wii golf! (Although personally, I particularly enjoyed the archery.)



One night David and I walked through campus, and finally found our names on Senior Walk. I can't believe it took this long to go find them, but it was cool once we did. Especially since there wasn't too much ice on top of our names, and we were actually able to read them! (And if you're wondering, yes, Cara Gieringer is my cousin. Way to go, Cara!)





We also got to see some of our friends a couple of times while we were home, and it was really great to catch up. As always we would have loved to see them more! I also was lucky enough to get to photograph Courtney, Amos, and their two children Maddie and Jude in mom and dad's studio one afternoon. Those pictures are already up on facebook and flickr, if you want to see more of their beautiful family.





Our last evening at home was New Year's Eve, and we celebrated it with mom, dad, Darby and Stephen. Mostly we played Wii, and then raised our glasses at 12:00 to bring in the new year!



We left Arkansas on the morning of the 1st and came back to Montreal. Thankfully this year we had zero travel problems, and the trip went very smoothly. We were sad to leave, but so happy that we were able to have an extended visit.

Since we got back, things have been an odd mixture of busy and slow. January seemed to be the month of birthdays, so each weekend we had a celebration to attend. One weekend we went bowling downtown (under blacklight) in a trendy club, another weekend we went to see the opera Tosca, and still another weekend was a pancake dinner followed by a visit to an electronic music festival called Igloofest! It was cold and crowded, but very cool.



Other than the birthdays, the month was fairly slow for me. I tried to find projects to do around the apartment, including making a set of stairs for Callie to get on and off the bed with. I used some old shelves we had sitting around, and actually had a lot of fun planning and then building the stairs. And Callie seems to like them!



David has been very busy with work and school, but it seems to be paying off for him well. Recently a research project he is involved with was featured on a Quebec TV show! In that particular experiment, the lab was studying the effect of different musical styles on the physiology of listeners. It's actually an experiment that I participated in once, too, but I guess that was a different session than the one that was videotaped for this show! Stephen McAdams, who you'll see in the video, is David's advisor. Unfortunately the video is in French, but if you watch it you'll see David attaching electrodes to participants in the audience. :) Fun stuff! (Also, you really only need to watch about the first 1/3 of the video - the rest of it is just the talk show! But if your [Quebecois] French is pretty solid, then by all means feel free to enjoy it.)

See the video here!

In other news, I have finally gotten a job! A local photo studio has hired me to work as a studio photographer and assistant, and also as a 2nd shooter for wedding photography in the summer. On top of that, I will probably also end up taking on some administrative and managerial responsibilities within the near future. I got the phone call today and I will start on Wednesday. I am super excited, and SO glad that I held out, stayed (more or less) patient, and didn't give in and get another clerical job! This place seems like it could be a great fit for me, and I can't wait to get started.

Overall David and I are doing great, although the winter itself is as cold and gray as last year. Brr! Thankfully we have exciting prospects on the horizon, and that always helps to get us through the snow. The miles and miles of snow... (;