Merry, Holy Cr@p, It's 2011 Already!

Before I completely leave Christmas behind me and dive into the new year, I figure a few photos are in order.

Baking Grandma's Cookies means we drink tea from Grandma's Silver Tea Pot. It just makes good sense.

Lemon Meringue Pie. The official dessert of Christmas in our house.

There were never religious icons in my mom's house until they bought this carved nativity scene in Mexico a few years ago. It was more for the carving and less for the religious aspect that they bought it.  It will never be as awesome as my dad's nativity scene however. Scared he was going to lose the baby Jesus on one of his moves (as he has all the wise men and the angel), he decided to affix the figurine by nailing it to the manger! The mileage I have gotten out of that story, let me tell you!

My mom, Big Bro and I made these when I was about seven. Twenty-three years later, they're still looking pretty good

The thing I miss most about growing up now that I'm living in my apartment is having a fireplace. There's a warmth and comfort from a fire you just don't get from central heating. I also don't think you get it from a gas fireplace but that could just be a prejudice I have against anything that replaces memories from my childhood.

This is proof that my Baby Bro actually stopped playing FIFA 11 long enough to do dishes. Years from now, historians writing his biography will look at this picture and gasp. Debates will rage about whether or not it is photoshopped. I am here to settle the score: this picture is not photoshopped, he is actually doing the dishes!

During the summer we could never figure out the point of the man-made gully in my stepmom's backyard. Then the rains came. This mini-river leads to a pond which was empty this summer. The pond is currently overflowing and the backyard is still a little soft. I'd hate to think what the backyard must have been like before they dug the gully!

Before driving me and Baby Bro down to Victoria on the Tuesday, my stepmom treated us to lunch at the Dinghy Dock Pub on Protection Island (off Nanaimo). I was glad our original plan of going on Monday was thwarted by it not being open. Monday was bucketing down with rain, Tuesday was gorgeous and sunny. The food was decent although the service was a little slow, but on a sunny summer's day I'd go back in a heartbeat. Having a beer while looking out over the harbour really can't be beat!

This is the best completely-useless-but-it-looks-pretty present ever! It's a marionette cat in fancy dress. My stepmom and Baby Bro met up in Italy last November (he had been backpacking for eight months). When they found this in Venice, they agreed it must be mine. Useless and feline. Yup, that sounds exactly like something I would covet! Now, to find a permanent place where the living, useless felines can't get to it.











The first day of 2011 was fabulous. It was gloriously sunny all day although still very cold, I had a fabulous brunch with a fabulous lady at a place I had never been to before but would definitely go to again, and I wrote up and planned out all my resolutions and will be discussing them on here very soon but for now, it's getting late and I want to read before bed.

I hope you are all having a fabulous start to 2011!