'Tis the season

I survived the mountain roads & Christmas traffic and am back home, safe and sound. My dad has screwed my patio doors shut so that no one else can break in (if you didn't know, someone broke into my house Christmas evening). If you'd like a demonstration of how they broke in, c'mon over and I'll show you. Dad figured it out in less than 2 minutes. Ask me how secure I feel.... Ask me if I stuck stuff in front of my bedroom door last night and ask me if I slept with both phones by my bed as well as my field hockey stick. Being home alone is made more bearable and less scary by the fact that I could call any one of my five neighbours at any hour of the day or night if I need to. THANK YOU P, S, L, L & J!!!! Let's face it - I miss the barred windows & doors and concrete walls with razor wire and/or shards of glass that we had growing up.

My brother gave me 16 chocolate bars. 16.

A few highlights of my Christmas:

- pillow talk with my cousin
- somehow I managed to win several card games. And Boggle. =)
- cute niece & nephew
- tickling my niece & nephew
- Dr. Gualm
- mmmmm, stuffing with raisins...
- tubing at Silver Star, including the run with Mr. Man-Am-I-Wasted
- Christmas carols on the trio of 2 violins & 1 very-out-of-tune-piano
- raspberry delight
- lots of good sleep
- chat with my sis
- snow, snow and more snow

A few illustrations of said highlights:

I think Christmas morning came too early for him:



He comes up with the funniest faces sometimes....



She liked my present, yay!



My cousin after winning a round of $2-Golf (but only because of Dr. Gualm's kindness in letting her win, of course):



Dr. Gualm himself. He lost.



Ready to head out cross-country skiing (but not before a little musical interlude):

i'm published woo hooooooooo!

OK well I guess it's the second time I've been 'published.' Which is quite an accomplishment for someone who's not trying to get published, right?

Published number one was one of my photos on the course catalogue (woo hoo, shooting for the stars with that one) at TWU.
Published number two is right here (though the quality of the pic isn't that great as it appears here - but oh well, it's mine all the same!).

My roommie heads for Kenya tomorrow morning.............. *sigh*. I shall stay here, hold down the fort. Maybe I'll vacuum.

It would be interesting to know the monetary value of the enormous quantity of chocolates at work right now. Serious. It's probably in the thousands.... I'm almost not joking.

moar funny pictures

I've got it good, I'm tellin' ya

On Thursday a group of us from work went to do a Day of Caring at the YWCA of Calgary. We spent the afternoon decorating some Christmas trees and baking up a storm of cookies - sugar cookies, shortbread, gingerbread, macaroons (I think) and some sort of cranberry loaf. It was a lot of fun, but before we set to work, we were given a tour of the facility and an overview of the kinds of stuff they see there and how they're involved in transforming people's lives. Pretty inspiring stuff, the kind that wrenches your heart out of your gut and makes you feel guilty to go home to your cozy abode and cushy lifestyle that turn the people on the streets, and those stuck in domestically-violent homes, into things you hardly notice as you wrap your scarf around your head and trudge to and from work with your head down, eyes focused on the little patch of ground immediately in front of your feet.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreautiful

My eyelashes froze together on my way home from work today.

Ice floes were floating down the misty river.

K's hands are cold but my eyes are warm.