T'was the week before Christmas

OK, I know I've been MIA again. But I blame the cold weather. And to be fair, it hasn't been as big a gap between posts as last time. Besides, who's keeping track anyway...

Apparently I've left myself little point-form notes (of course) on bits of news to share for when I finally do sit down to write another post, so I'm gonna use them as headings to help you skim through as you wish. Here we go, as best as I can [be bothered to] remember:

 
Halloween
I suppose the end of October was when I sort of left you hanging. At that point, I had just left my personal assistant job and was spending most of my time browsing through job postings on Workopolis when we thought we might as well dig up the old Halloween costumes in the storage room and go be social.

We hit up a house party first hosted by one of Mike's colleagues before heading downtown to meet up with Candice for some tasty Vietnamese Pho in Chinatown.

Here we are as Doctor Mike and Nurse Sunny (OK, I'll admit, not particularly creative, but I wasn't about to go out and spend money on new costumes). 

Andrew, the guy with the awesome shirt, Ritchie
I met Andrew when I was 15 while we were both on exchange in Alsace. He made me my first mixed tape and is one the most wonderfully weird people I know. Andrew was in town for his buddy's wedding and hung out with us for a night -- we had a couple of beers, went out for all-you-can-eat sushi across the street and had a great time. The last time we'd seen Andrew was in the summer of 2004 in Halifax during our road trip out to the east coast and I really hope it won't be another 6 years before we get together again! Here's a picture of Mike & Andrew being silly.

My new job
Given that this was my second bout of voluntary unemployment within 6 months, I knew I couldn't faff around and put off the job hunt like last time. So, while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself, I thought back to all the different jobs I've had and realized that the one that had made me the happiest was working part-time at the Flower Market in Kingston while going to school. Lucky for me my awesome friend Shannon put me in touch with a gorgeous boutique flower shop called Pistil Flowers and I ended up with a job doing something I absolutely love: being on my feet, working with my hands and playing with flowers all day.

The people at Pistil are just my kind of people (quite literally, since half of them are Asian!) and I'm having so much fun and learning to make the prettiest things. Another bonus: since the shop is in the heart of the Financial District, the majority of our clientele are 9 to 5 business people, which means I don't have to work evenings/weekends!

OK, no, I haven't exactly figured out what I ultimately want to do with my life, but I've decided that I can put that on hold for a while longer... it's all part of the journey! At the moment, I am happy :o)

Thanksgiving weekend at the cottage
We went back to Kingston for the long weekend and spent Thanksgiving at the cottage with all of Mike's family which was lovely. We had a great fire going and a glorious feast.

It was also Mike's parents' 40th wedding anniversary so we had planned a little surprise for them (cake, balloons, and a photobook of their 40 years together) which went over very well. Here's a picture of Cathy & Allan cutting their anniversary cake.



Quality time with Cousin Jack
The last time I saw my cousin Jack was in 1995 when we stayed over at their house in Vancouver en route to Kingston as brand new Canadian immigrants. Jack was 6 years old then. Now he's 21 and it was a difficult concept for me to grasp. He's doing a co-op term at IBM in Markham through his engineering program at UBC this fall so we've been able to catch up a bit (by this I mean me asking a million questions and him coping with that).

We gave Jack a tour of Kingston (Queen's, Fort Henry, City Hall and the waterfront) and took him to the cottage with us which he seemed to enjoy. We're gonna see him again Thursday night for all-you-can-eat hot pot up the street before he returns to the mild winters he's accustomed to on the west coast. (mmmmm, hot pot.)


Ottawa Trip
It had probably been more than six years since we were in Ottawa last and we'd been meaning to go visit Mike's sister Steph who'd just moved in to a new apartment with her boyfriend Michel (yes, it is rather confusing to have two Mike's in the family, but Michel's cool, we like him).

We were given free tickets to the Sens vs. Canucks game on Remembrance Day by Mike's awesome friend Joe so we decided to make a long weekend out of it and check out our capital.

It was a bit cold but the sun was shining beautifully. We cycled along the canal from Steph & Michel's all the way downtown to parliament and it was so lovely. We had really missed the whole cycling-along-a-river bit in Oxford and this convinced us that we really want to eventually end up living somewhere where we can go cycling along a river, though I suppose an ocean would do too! ;)

We took the free tour of the Parliament and saw where the government does its thing. Then we had lunch in Byward Market and went to the National Gallery which is definitely one of our favourite museums of all time. The gallery, designed by Moshe Safdie, has amazing spaces filled with light including two gorgeous interior court yards. We also enjoyed the use of bold colours in the galleries which really added to the mood of each exhibit. It's funny that we visit museums more for their architecture and interior design than the art... although in this case we did quite like the Group of Seven collection, especially the Canadian-ness of paintings of trees and lakes and snowy scenes. :o)

Jamie Oliver
Mom and I went to see Jamie Oliver at the taping of the "Steven & Chris Show" at the CBC studio. Yvonne adores Jamie and gave me a bouquet all made up of "foodstuffs" (kale, beans, berries) to give to him. Jamie made "huevos rancheros" (Mexican scrambled eggs) and told stories about his family -- he was so cute. I even got a few seconds of cheek time when I handed him the flowers, hehehe. (Funny we used to think the British accent was "posh" before we lived in England. I do miss the accents, even the chavvy ones.)

Terrible cough
Mike caught a cold and as per usual, passed it to me just as he was starting to get better. It had been a while since I'd had a proper cold -- the kind that really knocked you out. Well, this one was no fun. I had the worse cough ever -- the phlegmy, chest-hurting, lung-collapsing kind. For a week and a half ish, I couldn't sleep because I would wake up coughing in the middle of the night. People on the subway looked at me as if I had SARS. It was awful. The cough's finally gone away now but I am left with a super sore ribcage. Mike had a similar thing last year after he developed a case of pericarditis (inflammation of the muscles around the heart) from a bad chest cold and we had to hit up the ER a couple of times. So I guess what mine is is the tissues around my ribs are swollen from all the hard coughing and they're rubbing against my ribs and hurting me. It sucks. Oh and just before this I had sprained my left wrist somehow and had to wear a support. I'm normally pretty healthy but I've felt totally gimpy these past couple of months. As soon as I get back to operating at 100%, I am going to go out for a run. OK, maybe not outside out, it's far too cold for that.

Baby Alex James Wagar
The whole family is sooo excited for the imminent arrival of Baby Alex James Wagar, our little tiny nephew and the first baby in the Wagar clan.

Karina is technically due on Boxing Day but I think she's about ready to have him come out anytime now. We are sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for the phone call to take us to the hospital where we can sit on the edge of our seats some more waiting to hold a newborn little one. It never ceases to amaze me that a minuscule human creature can be growing inside someone's belly... Seems so kangaroo-like. I love it.

Here's a beautiful picture of Derek & Karina, the happy parents-to-be.

Toronto Christmas Market at the Distillery District
I love Christmas markets. I still remember the ones in the cute little villages all over Alsace: mulled wine, wooden huts selling crafts and homemade treats, carol singers, strings of Christmas lights lining the cobbled streets... To quote from the Sound of Music, "these are a few of my favourite things" and they certainly put me in a festive mood ten times more than walking through a crammed shopping mall listening to "Jingle Bells" with sales signs shoved in my face.

This was the first year that they'd run a European-style Christmas market in Toronto and it was held at the Distillery District. We went on opening night since I scored free tickets for one-litre beer steins at the Sleeman's reception--I had 1L, Mike had 5L and proceeded to puke on the subway home, hahaha, although to be fair he also hadn't had anything to eat because the lineup for the Oktoberfest sausages was humongous--then went back again during the day with Derek & Karina (hence the two photos below where we are wearing different outfits). It was lovely, actually, except it's a bit harder to enjoy mulled wine while sitting outside in the bitter cold within the confines of an alcohol-licensed area. But they did the best they could and set up fire pits and outdoor lounges and we had a nice time complaining about how cold it has been lately and how much colder it's about to get.

 

And that brings us up to date so I suppose I should wrap it up here. I can't believe it is Christmas next week. I keep remembering that that was the case then keep forgetting it immediately after. I was supposed to finish up the rest of my Christmas cards and post them out tomorrow but somehow I started writing this instead and now that it's two hours later, I think I will just go to bed. Next year I'll get the Christmas cards out way ahead of time. For sure. Maybe.

In the meantime, I wish all of you a very merry Christmas with everyone you love, and a wonderfully happy new year filled with lots and lots of good things! :o)