Moose Jaw Minute #72: Bonne Année!

Bonne Année!  Another year has come and gone and I, for one, cannot believe it.  It's been an awesome year that started with Screech in Moose Jaw and will end with tapas in Chicago.  We've been incredibly fortunate this year with people and places and are really looking forward to what 2012 has in store.

BUT, before we move on to 2012, I should give a little update on the past two weeks!  Dave has come back to the city to spend some time with me over the holidays and we've had a blast.  He enjoyed sleeping in, I enjoyed a couple of days off work.  We ate great food, spent time with good friends, and put together our little abode in the city.  We finished a monster puzzle, made and ate lots of cookies, decorated our "tree," and spent some time reflecting and appreciating the goodness that 2011 was.

Not one, but TWO trees!

Lovely Christmas Market...

As I think back on this year, there are so many things we were able to accomplish...among them - a wedding, two fantastic hiking trips, seeing my parents renew their vows in April, a new job, and yet another notch in the old moving-from-one-place-to-another belt.  In short, it's been a great year!

Best wishes for 2012!

Moose Jaw Minute #71: And to All a Good Night

My apologies for not hanging around the blogosphere lately.  It's just, well, a certain guy from a certain Canadian town came to a certain U.S. city to visit a certain gal.  We are grateful for so much this year and just wanted to say to everyone...

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Cheers!

Moose Jaw Minute #70: Happy Holidays, Love Chicago

The Chriskindlmarket in Chicago is everything good about the holidays.  There are twinkling lights, a giant tree, mulled wine, hot chocolate, awesome German goodies like pretzels, and a sweet castle chock full of every sweet thing you can imagine.  There are vendors from all over the globe selling their wares -- from hand-blown glass ornaments to wooden toys.  It takes me back to high school in Germany when the holidays would come to life in each village square in the form of a market that my family could enjoy together.

That Chicago has a Christkindlmarket makes it that much more of an awesome city to be back in...there is nothing more magical to me than a city during the holidays!

I'll be posting more holiday pics later...have a great week!

Moose Jaw Minute #69: Weekend Rewind

This was the weekend wintry dreams are made of...

A mattress to sleep on (finally!)
Brunch with friends
Episodes of Dexter
A Skype date (or two!) with Canada
A run along the lakefront with an awesome friend
A slowly-coming-together apartment

And, views like this....

Who can resist this?!  The city at its finest!

Dave and I are eagerly planning our time together at the end of this month...the countdown has begun until we see each other again!  It will be our first Christmas together alone and we will be spending it among the twinkling lights of the city...

hmmmm...maybe a Christmas tree is in order this year...

Moose Jaw Minute #68: Very Merry Weekend

These are the weekends I dream of...a chill in the air, good friends, awesome runs outside, and a general overall feeling of weekend-y-ness.  In short, it's been fabulous.  I had the chance on Saturday to catch up on writing my holiday cards while downing some good tea and listening to Christmas tunes.  Following that, I got to spend some quality time (re)watching the first season of The Walking Dead (I am in LOVE with this show!) with some good friends of mine.  The weather was just right for us to go for a run in the middle of the zombie marathon and gave us an excuse to return home and down some good veggie lasagna.

Today, I had the good fortune to be invited to one of my close friend's homes for a holiday brunch.   Maureen, founder of the Global Women's Leadership Forum, holds a brunch each year to thank the women in her life that have impacted her during the year.  It was a morning of inspiration, reflection, and sisterhood and I was grateful to be included.

A chat with my family and one of my best friends to close it all out.  It's been a lovely weekend of weekends and I am grateful for it.

Christkindlmarket and a Picasso

Holiday cards

Winter Bird

The city has decked their halls

Moose Jaw Minute #67: Images from Home

Dave and I took some time when I was home to go for a lovely walk in Regina.  It was crisp out with a bright blue sky...just the way I like it...

In addition to our walk, we may have sampled the Christmas cake I baked back during Canadian Thanksgiving in October.  Just saying.  What?  I can't help it that it contains some of my most favorite things like raisins, prunes, molasses, and some good dousing of alcohol!  It's just so tasty...

And, yes...I like prunes...is there something wrong with that?!?!

Happy Weekend, everyone....