‘Tis the season! (Part 2)

In a previous post, a strand of Christmas lights went up. A suitable compromise between my girlfriend and I – I being of the Novmeber 1^st decorating train of thought, and she being of the December something^th train of thought. Last I left you, we had put up the lights, and were wondering if this small act of decorating would tide us over until our later-in-November-and-possibly-even-December slated Christmas decorating date.

The answer is NO. On Sunday, it happened. My lady came home from work around 2:30 and we had some time to kill before heading to a family dinner. Surprise, surprise – it wasn’t me that broke! I asked “What do you want to do?” and she replied (with no coaching, begging, or pleading from me) “Let’s put up the Christmas tree.”

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

With this decision came the great furniture shake-down. We had to make room in the living room for the tree – and decided to switch the large living room chair for a smaller one from the bedroom. This resulted in approximately 45 minutes of furniture re-arranging in the bedroom – and a completely new setup in there. Mission accomplished! With the living room appropriately cleared out, we happily began putting the tree up. The branches of the tree were carefully spread and we and settled it into place. Together, we wrapped the white garland around the tree and got things started. Soon, it was beautifully decorated with glass ornaments, silver bells, nut-crackers, and a few odd balls! Our white-themed tree turned out beautifully, topped by a white paper star! The only thing missing was Christmas music playing softly in the background, but I think that might have been pushing it…

A woodsy Christmas ornament. So cute!

A chubby little snowman on skis! Old school glass with glitter!

A classic-looking nutcracker soldier ornament. So handsome!

A modern wire Christmas ball, an amazing silver accent!

Another glass ornament. Santa in white and gold!

To go with the white theme, we got a few glittery white owl ornaments!

Another glass ornament of a rocking horse with presents. Love the colours!

To finish things off, we hung up our stockings (and one for my girlfriend’s fantastic and bordering-on-famous sister) and lit some candles.

The stockings were hung by the candles with care (we don’t have a chimney!)

The tree and the lights! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… ♫♪♪♫♫

Now it feels like Christmas! I love decorating 🙂 On the way to family dinner, we stopped at Canadian Tire to grab two more strands of frosty lights for the balcony…

Hangovers, fire, smoke, and bleeding

A little late in posting for the day, but here’s this week’s roundup of photos! They were all taken with my phone. I should really carry my camera around with me more…

Olive: I should not have had that 15th beer….. OH MY HEAD!

Reflected sunset. A neat capture of the sky reflected in some windows.

Snapshot of my girlfriend’s dad building an awesome fire. Loving the colours and the subtle shape of him being lit by the fire.

A fuzzy shot of a giant bug we encountered at the cottage. UGLY!

I don’t know how I cut my leg, and it must not have hurt. By the time I noticed, the blood was already dry!

A puff of smoke escaping through a knot in a log. It looked like it was breathing…

Photo day: Rewind!

Today is a rewind of some photos that I love that I don’t think I’ve posted here before. I was looking through all my photos from the last  six months and found some really awesome ones that I wanted to share 🙂 Click on them to enlarge and see details!

Fire graffiti from camping

fire sparks from camping

droplets on a leaf - it looks as if this was taken at night, but I can't remember...

Levi's eyes sometimes go in opposite directions... he's cute though 🙂

I was playing with my hair and got this weird closeup of my eye. I like the composition and shapes 🙂

Chopping pepperoni at Mike's place... best pizza ever!

This is a shot of the inside of my mouth - I was trying to take a photo of one of my molars (huge chip) and my hand got in front of the flash. This is the resulting "horror movie" photo

I snapped this one while reading... I remember it was a really nice day out!

Lists and memories

I’m looking forward to this weekend – I’m going camping! Peace and quiet, nature and self-time.

I always loved camping, seeing as our family of 6 went camping almost every summer for as long as I can remember. We had this BIG orange tent that we all fit in (until us kids started growing too much). It was the ultimate family time together. Living in, cooking in, and exploring the outdoors.

As a family, we would go to the beach, go swimming, go on Dad’s sailboat or the windsurfer (I was too little), go on a hike or a picnic, and get dirty! At night there was the amphitheater, where we would learn about wildlife or watch a movie. We might also hike out to the rocks by the water at night and lie for hours watching the northern lights, or we would have a fire with marshmallows. These were such good times, and I feel lucky that my parents were adventurous enough to take all four of their kids into the wilderness and the dirt for some good family fun!

This weekend I will be exploring a new campground at Valens Conservation area in Flamborough (near Cambridge). They have a man-made reservoir there with a lookout, swimming, hiking, and more! I think it’s going to be a great time 🙂 There are sure to be some pictures (and maybe video) that will get posted here!

In the meantime, it’s time to make some of my famous lists! I’m always making lists so I don’t forget anything, but inevitably something gets left behind. Grocery list, list of clothes to pack, list of camping gear…

Don’t forget: tomorrow is Photo Day! Stay tuned for some great pics 🙂