Cheers!

Wishing you all a very Happy and Properous New Year!

May 2009 bring nothing but Joy and Happiness to all!

Merry Christmas!

Cookies Galore!

This past Tuesday, I hosted my 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange. We were a total of 10 bakers, everyone bringing with them a dozen cookies for every baker. So in just a couple of hours, we all got ourselves 10 dz. cookies to enjoy throughout the holidays. And all while sipping on festive martinis and nibbling on appies and of course, the actual cookies themselves! New friendships were made and old ones rekindled. Fun was had by all!

Here we all are with the packaged cookies (and drinks in hand!)

Here is the layout of our samplers (yum-yum!)

My cookie this year was the Walnut Shortbread.

Et voila! The finished, packaged product!

I must thank Gord for being the best waiter, bartender and photographer all the while taking care of the two girls!

Coming up for air!

I haven't really had the time nor the energy nor the desire to make any posts of late but today, due to the snowstorm followed by ice rain that we've had, it is REALLY quiet at work.

So here's a summary in bullets of what we've been up since my last post.

• A few weekends ago we headed up to the cottage to prepare it for the winter. Bringing in firewood, winterizing the windows, turning on the heated water line etc. I was in charge of feeding everyone and playing with the girls, of course!
  

• A few weekends ago, we went to see the Santa Claus Parade downtown which I have never done even as a child. We also took the girls to see the Ogilvy window. It was, however, really, really cold!







• On Friday the 28th, I had a doctor's appointment so I decided to take the entire day off and take the girls to see Santa Claus at Complexe Desjardins. This has been a yearly tradition since Cara-Li's arrival in 2003 with our dear friends C. & J. Needless to say, the girls played hooky from school :) We had lunch at Baton Rouge, saw Santa Claus, played and shopped in the mall. A great time was had by all!








• On the Sunday, we were invited to G's Christening. It was a beautiful ceremony followed by a lovely lunch. The whole Church thing was cool because Cara-Li is doing Religious Studies at home with moi and so much stuff that we've covered was being talked about during the ceremony. Cara-Li kept looking over at me with the look of 'I know what he's talking about!'. She's much better that I was at her age where I'd just sit there and daydream.

• Last weekend was a real busy one! We fell out of bed on Saturday morning and rushed out to get a tree as we were going to trim it that evening. We walked over to Alex's around the corner and picked up the nicest one he had and wheeled it home in our wagon. The girls were not impressed as they had to walk home.






• Next, Cara-Li had a Gingerbread workshop to attend with her friend C. at the library. Their houses turned out to be works of art!

• Upon her return it was off to the hairdresser's for their Christmas haircuts.



• Alexia then went for nap while Gord took Cara-Li for their annual Skate with Buzz the Bee event at Concordia University. It is a fundraiser where they collect canned food for the less fortunate.





• And finally, after dinner, we decorated our tree. I must say that by this point, I was spent and just wanted to get the whole thing over with. But a couple of glasses of wine did take the edge off :)




• On Sunday, we attended the Adoptive Families of Quebec Holiday Party. It was held at a Dim Sum restaurant. Yummy! And of course, Santa came around and brought gifts to all the kids.






• Once home, Cara-Li changed and was off to a birthday party at Loblaws where they had a Gingerbread House Workshop. Anyone need help with their houses? Cara-Li has become an expert!

• And finally, I have taken pictures of my finished master bathroom. So here are the before and after!

BEFORE

AFTER