Nearly February

It's hard to believe it's the end of January! But here we are, and time doesn't show any signs of stopping. David and I are keeping busy - he with his grad school stuff, and me with mine! I'm (more or less) on track to finish my thesis and graduate in April, although there is much to be done between then and now. I'm still working part-time as a teaching assistant, and I've recently taken on the role of part-time accounting assistant at the photo studio.

In my free time, I like to sleep.

Work and school aside, it's been a busy couple of months! David, Callie and I spent the holidays here in Montreal for the first time - a bittersweet experience, but one with its own kinds of fun. Early in the month we hosted a 20-person Christmas party, which featured a game of "yankee swap" and lots of festive beverages! And if you're on facebook, you already know that the party also featured a really, really large tree. We had a great Christmas tree this year. (:

On Christmas Eve we went out for a goofy movie, took a walk through the artistic lighting displays at Place-des-Arts, and eventually went to eat our favorite dumplings in Chinatown. On Christmas day we spent hours and hours opening our gifts and playing with each one in turn, which was silly and a lot of fun. We skyped with both sets of our families, made a HUGE turkey dinner, and even went outside to play in the snow. It's always lovely to have a white Christmas, and Callie is just too adorable to believe when she gets in the snow and starts frolicking!

Christmas Eve

Opening Gifties

Cookin' supper!

Frolic!

January hasn't slowed down much, which is fun in some ways and challenging in others. The fun things have included (among other things): toasting the New Year with pals, celebrating several friends' birthdays, throwing an "Extra-Classy Engagement Party" for two of our good friends, and attending bridal fairs (ladies' road trip)! And it's not even February yet!!

Happy New Year!

The best (view of) fireworks EVER.

Extra-Classy!

It was cold in Picton, ON that day. But fun!

The road-trip-sunset that WOULD NOT QUIT. (Blast those highway railings... but you get the idea!)

Also, we've gotten some snow. At one point it was over a foot deep on our back patio! It's hard to really appreciate it from this angle, but look under the chairs (on the right) to get an idea of the depth. The temps have been up and down (sometimes in the -15 range, sometimes above freezing and rainy), and right now it's more of an ice slick out there, but I thought I'd show you what it CAN be like when winter really gets going.

Today David and I spent hours and hours doing our respective "work" for the day (accounting, reading, writing, highlighting, emailing, even blogging), and at 8:30 p.m. realized we hadn't yet considered dinner. So naturally we went out for (you guessed it) dumplings! On our way home we discussed possible dinner options for Valentine's day, and inadvertently stumbled onto what we believe could be the setup for an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It all started when I had a brain fart and said "restaurants" instead of "reservations," and it spiraled out of control from there. We imagine the scene would go something like this:

Dee: (after trying to convince Mac that a guy is taking her out to dinner on V-Day) I sure hope that place takes restaurants for dinner.
Mac: (looks at Dee quizzically) Wait, what? Takes restaurants?
(Mac looks over his shoulder at Dee who has stopped walking; she goes rigid, then begins to have a seizure and drops to the ground)
Mac: Whoa, are you having a stroke or something?! (pauses, watches Dee)
Dee: (close up as she flops on the ground)
Mac: (pause, still looking down at Dee, who is out of frame) You better hope the hospital takes restaurants.

[cut to opening credits and chipper music]

Hopefully if you've seen the show, you'll appreciate the mood and comedic timing we were imagining.We haven't worked out a B-story yet, but yes, writers for "It's Always Sunny" - you can send the check directly to me.

Following our moment of creative genius, we've decided it's time to reward ourselves with salted caramel hot chocolate and mini peanut butter cupcakes. Now that's the way to end a Friday night!