Well...Christmas was fantastic.

After six years in Manitoba without my family around (luckily for a couple we were fortunate enough to have Dave's parents with us) we had the chance to spend the holidays with my parents and my sister.

As is typical, us girls sure had some great laughs. We overdid the stockings to a huge degree which led to some almost hysteric laughter at 1:30 in the morning on Christmas day as we saw the fruits of our shopping...(We all decided to get "a couple things" for each stocking) I really wish I had a picture but its on my mom's camera, but you can bet I will post it here when I get my hands on it.

Mom, Lisa and I went to see "4 Christmas's" as a celebration of the Holidays and my birthday and it was a really fun Holiday movie. It is so nice to be able to enjoy stuff like that with them. Many times throughout the Christmas season I closed my eyes and said Thank you for the opportunity to be together.

Although, all my gushing wouldn't be accurate if I didn't mention that my first holidays in quite some time without my friends was also very noticeable. I hope my Manitoban friends know that they are missed always...

I received lots of fantastic gifts this year, but of course the one that made me cry was the camera my sister and husband got for me. My sister gave me a card encouraging me to follow my new passions...I got a Nikon D60, and while I am thoroughly enjoying playing with it, I must say I am quickly humbled. Sure made me appreciate the talents of my friend and mentor Tasha who is an incredibly gifted photographer. Apparently retouching photos is much easier than taking them! But, all joking aside, I am very excited to learn and spend more time than I really should reading up about photography online. I have already started a "piggy bank" to save up for a new lens (it is a fantastic digital counting one from my mom for Christmas, the readout says I have 6.35 saved up already!! WOOOHHHOOO...hehehe)

Other gifts that I totally love are my Cuisinart griddle/grill and mandolin. (that's two separate things) Helps me with my other passion- cooking!

My boys both got me beautiful gifts, a crystal angel with a beautiful poem about mothers from Drew, and a gorgeous bag from Wesley. He has some great taste!!

I am hoping to start a new blog this year. I have been hemming and hawing, because I have been with blogger forever and I would hate to lose it, but I kind of want something a bit more customizable. I want to post photos as I am learning, and be more involved in writing and sharing recipes etc. So we will see!

So, on the dawn of 2009 I am feeling better than I have in a while. I have a job I love, living close to family, a new hobby, drew is now old enough to babysit...Aaaahhhh, so many possibilities!

To top off all the ooey goeey awesomeness, Michelle is coming for a visit in Feb, and I am just so excited to see her!

Anyway, here are a few shots from over the holidays. The boys games for there DS, which was pretty much there favorite gift, although, they are pretty excited about the hockey sticks from papa too :) Anyway, if you click on the pics it will lead to my flickr site and there will be more there as well. Comments are always welcomed :)

Much love to all of you for 2009. I think its gonna be a great one!!

Christmas post to follow after I get myself a cup of coffee...

LOL.



If you click on it, you can view it bigger I think...

It was my birthday yesterday. I turned 32. The first part of the day I sort of sat around and hrrumphed about all the things I didn't do last year - but then you know what I started to think about all I HAD done, and it became a very nice reflection.

I spent half last year in Manitoba, continuing to grow very important friendships, work at a job I loved, build up a huge stockpile of "coupon deals" just in time to give it all away, and most of all, I spent some time alone with my kids when we were preparing for a move...That was a biggie for me. It wasn't easy but I got through it "with a little help from my friends"

Our family moved back "home" to Northern Ontario. I have since developed some new habits that I can say are a vast improvement from my time in Manitoba. I have made some new friends and found a new church home. My boys are happily adjusted and best of all, I have mom and dad around the corner so to speak!

I also started a new job, which I love, that has enabled me to tap into a peice of myself I didn't really know existed. Those of you who have known me awhile tend to know that I am a certain kind of personality. I tend to latch onto an idea and get all excited and throw myself into it with everything I have and love it for about a month. Then I get bored and throw in the towel. I have always been this way, until....well, now I guess! It is so exciting to me to find something that I feel passionate about. (I do photo retouching in case people are thinking what the heck is she yammering on about) It isn't necessarily the retouching that I love so much, but the idea of taking something and making it "extra special". I love learning more about it, and trying different techniques and fun processing of photos. I am sure that sometime in the future I would like to take a Photography course and start heading down that path too. It makes me smile every single day...I also get to talk almost daily to a great friend that I miss so much as she is my boss, and someone I admire so much for her talent and dedication.

So, in essence, new job, new house, new city, new province, new friends, new church....etc. Not bad for a year ;)

I think that when I look at my 32nd year there is one thing I want to improve. I always make this big long list for myself and never manage it. So, this year, I want to improve just this one thing...

I want to be less lazy. Now, I know that there are SO many things under that heading but basically I want to be able to go to bed and say to myself "I was less lazy today!" Simple to many, but something I always struggle with.

for example:
-I was less lazy when I decided to make a healthy meal for the family instead of going out.
-I was less lazy when I stopped procrastinating and got all my work done quickly (ahem, boss lady, you need to pretend you didn't read that)
-I was less lazy when I made sure I spent 30 minutes in the sun.
-I was less lazy when I walked on the treadmill instead of eating chips with my shows last night

You get the idea. So that is the goal for my 32nd year. I have a great feeling that its going to be a wonderful one.

My BFF is coming to visit in February and I am sooooo excited! Look out world, Julie and Michelle are on the loose!

Well, I have rambled enough for today!

Merry Christmas Everyone!