Celebrate

Boy we've been busy this season. Tonight was free activities at the Museum of Civilization, culminating in a fireworks display set to music to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Ottawa being chosen as the capital of Canada. It was AMAZING! So many different types of fireworks, colours and twinkles and shimmers, quite different than other displays I've seen, and it was so long! Again, it was massively crowded, but with the bits on our shoulders we were able to see most of it.

Wishing you and yours all the best in 2008.

Train

We went to the Alight at Night display at Upper Canada Village this evening, so beautiful but SO busy! This cool train, all in Christmas lights, was just down the road from the village, we had to stop to shoot a few pictures.

Joyful

Such a happy, joyful girl (most of the time ;) )

Snoozin'

Such a long drive back from my parents' place...

Pretty kitty

Katie really needs a pet, she adores my mom's cats. Here she and Sampson snuggle on the couch.

Mmmmm!

Boxing Day dinner at my mom's, soooo good!

Merry Christmas

May you all have a joyous and blessed Christmas.

A visit with St Nick?

Our office had crafts and snacks set up for us to bring our children to work today. We didn't stay too long, just long enough to make a few Christmas crafts and enjoy a visit from one of Santa's helpers (who, unfortunately, had the worst beard ever, but he's such a good soul for making the effort).

Gooey Goodness

I had to share a picture of C's amazing butter tarts. Christmas - it's all about the baking ;)

Abandoned

Today brought rain and wind (apparently more wind than I realized). I couldn't help but snap a shot of this sad, abandoned umbrella I saw along the road.

Ornament

I love this sweet little teddy bear ornament. Hard to believe he was a dollar store find a couple of years back...

Twinkle, twinkle

I love this house - I think they single handedly keep Noma in business :) This is just a tiny corner of the huge light and life-sized cut-out display (which this year also features 'Jingle Cats' screeching over outdoor speakers).

Award!

I got an award at work! It was definitely a surprise. Didn't come with any cash, but the recognition is pretty sweet.

PS - sorry for smudging the deets, never know what kind of wackos might stumble in here from cyberspace.

Spectacle de noël

What I really love about the French school is that they're not afraid to use the word Christmas (noël) :) This is actually the daycare attached to the school, where both kids have attended for more than 2 years now. The various classes wore jammies and performed Christmas songs (K and J's class sang 'petit papa noël'), then there were presents and a potluck. Such a fun evening.

Angel tree

Our office Christmas lunch was today at Wilfrid's in the Chateau Laurier. It was nice (though rather expensive - $9 for a glass of house red!!). All through the lobby and near the restaurant were beautiful trees - I'm too lazy to google but it seems like they were for a charity fundraider. This was my favourite, an angel tree, complete with wings and halo.

The morning after

Hoooboy did we get slammed with snow! The drive into work was a challenge for sure - this is the sight that greeted me at the Tim Horton's Drive-thru, snow as high as the garbage can and order speaker! At least the drive-thru lane was plowed :)

Icicle boy

It snowed all day long (it's still snowing!). The bits braved the snow a little but it was blowing around so much it was hard for them to even keep their eyes open. Jonah enjoyed a little icicle snack before coming in to warm up with hot chocolate.

Il neige

They're calling for a huge dump of snow tomorrow... on top of all of this that's already in our yard...

Sleepy

Poor fella fell asleep in front of the computer.

O tannenbaum

My cute little glass Christmas tree thingy - it's lit from below by coloured LED lights. C bought it for me last year to cheer up my little cube at work :)

St. George's Anglican Church

I love the juxtaposition of old and new when ancient churches are encroached on by urban sprawl. This is just the edge of St. Georges Anglican Church on Metcalfe St in Ottawa.

It's genetic

Katie likes to pose Spidey too :)

Fun in bumper to bumper traffic

I don't know what's happening with this city lately but I've been stuck in traffic every day lately. I amused myself by playing with the camera settings and photographing taillights...

Lights on Parliament Hill

As part of Christmas Lights Across Canada, Parliament Hill in all of its Christmas glory.

Vision

I had a vision of a little white tree decorated with pink and black. Unfortunately ornament makers don't share my vision, so I've been (incredibly slowly) making my own decorations from glass beads and organdy ribbon.

Horsies

Isn't this neat? An open horse drawn carriage. It's a tourist thing, but I've never seen them during the winter, nor have I ever seen one on the Sparks St Mall (you'll get a $50 fine for riding your bicycle along Sparks but it's OK to bring your horses?) Rather pretty in the falling snow.

PS - the picture is poorly composed because I was balancing my camera on top of a large coffee from the Tim Horton's that's just out of camera range)

What does $388 look like?

Apparently it looks like this. Hopefully it'll help me to not have to give even more money to my dentist.

Christmas cards

Making some Christmas cards...

Delivery

Last January I signed up for a Chrisco hamper. My mom got one the year before and talked me into trying it out (plus I think she got a commission from my order :) ) So today the delivery came... wow it's a LOT of food! C had to do some shuffling to get all of that stuff into the freezer!

Snow Day!

HUGE winter storm came through, brought large parts of the city to a stand-still. School bus was cancelled so the bits and I stayed home. The wind was pretty fierce, but in the shelter of the yard the bits had a blast!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Put up the tree and decorated it today (after a trip to Smiths Falls to see the CPR Holiday Train). Both bits were very interested in helping this year!

Boozy goodness

And oh so classy with the Dora the Explorer placemat in the background too :)

Sunrise

Beautiful, isn't it?

PS - the structure in the foreground with the lowish walls will be the community skating rink once it's been flooded.

Surprise!

I had no idea he could do this! Generally when I work on the alphabet with him he only recognizes 10 or 12 letters, yet completely unprompted he actually wrote his own name today.

I think he's a lot smarter than he lets on.

Tiny Dancers

***picture removed due to questionable linking***

Katie likes to dress her little brother up and teach him pliés and pirouettes. He's always willing to do whatever makes his big sister happy.

Does drive C mental though :)

Spidey!

I'm completely obsessed with this amazing articulated Spiderman toy of Jonah's. You can pose him in so many ways! Most of which make him look like he's batting for the other team (as if the skin tight spidey suit didn't already do that!)

J and J

James and Jodi, my oldest friend (in time known, not years, we're a pair of spring chickens) just before she left to go home. Most of my friends live very far away, and while I'm so grateful for them and their friendship I wish they were all a lot closer...

Back at home

Back at home and visiting with my girlfriend from waaaay back in highschool. I took her and her daughter (and the bits) to Parliament Hill today, and for the first time in the 11 years I've lived here we went up the Peace Tower. This is the view behind Parliament from the Peace Tower, the domed roof is the parliamentary library and you can see the Ottawa river and the mouth of the Rideau Canal (as well as two inter-provincial bridges and Nepean Point).

The Big Céilidh Fiddle

Sitting along the harbourfront, behind the "Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion" (I have no idea what that is or what it does) I found this gigantic violin, sitting 18 meters tall. Wish I knew more of its significance, but it sure was cool.

Spanish Bay Inn

This is Spanish Bay Inn, in Sydney, NS. I didn't stay here, but I loved the stone work and round windows.

And the morning after

Sunrise at Sydney Harbour, on a cloudy morning at 6:41am. You can see the lovely boardwalk that runs all along the harbour.

From my hotel room window

The work is long and the daylight short, but the view from my hotel window is spectacular. This is Sydney Harbour, 9:59pm on a cloudy night.

Fa-la-la-la-laaaaa

Normally it bugs the snot out of me the way that malls and stores start Christmas even before Hallowe'en has passed, but I have much more Christmas spirit this year than normal. OK, it's still driving me bonkers hearing Christmas carols piped in over breakfast at the hotel, but this window display on Charlotte St in Sydney, NS made me smile.

The Ocean

I've touched both oceans in the span of four months, a mind-boggling experience for someone who lives pretty much in the middle of the continent. This is the Atlantic, along the Cabot Trail near Ingonish, NS.

Gingerbread house

After having family portraits taken today the bits and I built some gingerbread houses. They definitely don't look like Martha Stewart's gingerbread houses, but I think they're awfully cute (and rather tasty too!)

I get no respect

My coffee-a-holic reputation precedes me - this is the whiteboard outside of my office.

Beginning to look like a bathroom again

Bit by bit the reconstruction continues...

'Splodin'

Apparently our downstairs fridge is a weeee bit on the cold side (I blame the bits) this can is frozen solid and ready to POP!

All the pieces, bits and pieces...

Ready for assembly? Bits and pieces of the new vanity.

Doughnut man

The bits have definitely inherited my love of doughnuts. I can't remember exactly what this concoction was called, but it was filled with caramel.