Weekend Highlights.

It was a really busy weekend. A busy and awesome weekend, to be exact. I don't know why I only have three photos to show for it. I must have been too busy having fun.

Saturday morning we checked off the first item on my winter bucket list. More on that tomorrow...

Saturday night we had a couple of birthdays to celebrate so we all went out to dinner and then to a concert. It was me, my friends and Jackson's moustache. Apparently someone is enjoying Movember a little too much.

Today I baked about eight million cookies and then went to my first ever Christmas cookie exchange. Not only did I come home with enough cookies to keep TC happy for at least a week, but I scored three new awesome recipes out of it. Even though a cookie exchange makes me feel like an old lady, it is a pretty brilliant idea. I owe many thanks to my dear friend Carla for letting me tag along.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my circle photos and I are in a bit of a cookie coma. The sofa is calling my name.

I hope your December got off to a good start this weekend!

No need to be jealous of my awesome circle photos. You can have them too! Just download the Afterglow app and choose the circle border. They've got great filters as well. From there, you can upload your photo to Facebook and Instagram. Enjoy!

Such A Good Day.

All of the sudden the holidays are upon us. Last night I had a mini-pre-Christmas anxiety attack and decided that if I didn't come up with the most amazing gifts and order them RIGHT NOW than Christmas would essentially be ruined. Alas, I was up until all hours of the night and made very little progress for all my effort.

Like everyone else, things are busy. I love the holidays so much. So much. But it is a little overwhelming if I think about it all at once. I want to make an advent calendar, bake perfect Christmas cookies, wrap all of my presents in beautiful burlap with perfect bows and then go hang a gorgeous homemade wreath on my front door for all to see.

None of that is going to happen. None of it.

I've accepted this.

What I can do, is take one day at a time and even find some time to enjoy myself. This would be the complete opposite of my usual rushing around like a mad woman. Between work and school and life, I seem to be running short of down time.

But today.

Today, I re-prioritized.

My wonderful mom called up a local salon and set up a pedicure for me. Please understand that pedicures are far and few between in these parts because they are only available at fancy salons. This was a glorious treat.

Since I was on that side of town, I even ventured over to our brand new Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up.

I didn't think the day could get better at this point. But then TC emailed me and asked if we could go out to dinner. He said that he needed something to look forward to since his day was dragging.

I wrote back and told him that I had salmon sitting in the refrigerator, so, no. However, we could eat on our fine china and sip wine from crystal stemware. We could even light candles and put on some jazz. Maybe, I said, if we squint hard enough our dining room will look like a fancy restaurant.

And you know what? It kind of did.

Who says you can't break out your fine china for no apparent reason on a random Thursday night while wearing your gym clothes?

Give it a try.

I Saw Santa! Can I Get My Tree Now?

There are several things that I love about our town. Chief among them is our Santa Parade that always falls on the weekend of American Thanksgiving. It must be Canada's way of kicking off the holiday season.





I've never lived in a town that has it's very own Santa Parade. It's such a wonderful community event. People of all ages come out to see the almost 200 floats that parade down Main Street. The floats are mostly homemade. There are decorated antique cars, horses dressed as reindeer, rescue dogs from the shelter, local businesses build floats and all the schools participate too.





I've been to the parade every year so far and always enjoy it with a nice hot cup of hot chocolate. My first year, big huge white snowflakes fell from the sky for the entire parade. Annie and I trudged home, shin deep in snow that year while we laughed as all the cars slid around the roads.

This year, even though we did see approximately seven tiny snow flurries fall, I barely had to button my fall coat. Oh, I still drank hot chocolate, but not because the temperatures required it. Now it just seems to be part of the tradition.





TC and I met Carla, Tyler and their little one down on Main Street for the beginning of the parade. While they went home early to put the little one to bed, TC and I stayed on waiting to see my favorite guy in red.





I can't help it - the atmosphere turned me into a kid again and I was beside myself with excitement as the parade got closer to the end. I knew Santa was just around the corner.





I just love how the holiday season suddenly started this past weekend - just like that, we went from Thanksgiving one night to seeing Santa and his reindeer the next night.

Christmas party invitations are rolling in and I've really got to get started on my shopping list.

The best part? This weekend TC and I are going to a farm to cut down our own tree. Like, with a real saw!