Looking Back on 2012

It's that time of the year again.  Time to think back on what we have accomplished in the past year.  In 2011, I got engaged, married, bought and moved into a house and went on an awesome honeymoon to Jamaica.  2012 didn't stand a chance.  But none the less, it was a great year!

January

We renovated the entire house.  And when I say we, I really mean Ryan.  I didn't do much and he did a fantastic job.

February

We moved upstairs (after living in the basement during renovations for over a month).  We also had the annual plunger plop.

March
I turned 25.  My sister and Ryan threw me a surprise party. 

April

Ryan and I went to New York City.

May

Pipsi joined the family. 

Our family dog Opie passed away. 

June

Oliver joined the family.  He didn't replace Opie, but he helped us move on.

July

Ryan's sister Amy got married.  We were both in the wedding party.

August

My good friend Michaela got married.

September

Not much happened this month.  Looking back at my calendar all I see is that we babysat Oliver for a week and a lot of TV shows had their season premier.

October
Thanksgiving!  My favourite holiday!

November

Our friends Adam and Meaghan had their baby boy. 

Oh we also celebrated our first anniversary.

December

My sister got a boyfriend.  Big news people, big news!

That would be the cute couple on the left.

We also completed the upstairs renovations by finishing the bathroom.  Pictures of that to come in the new year!

Overall it was a pretty good year.  I don't have much to complain about!  Let's hope that 2013 is just as good.  Happy New Year everyone!

What Christmas Means to Me

I can't believe that another Christmas has come and gone.  I also can't believe that I'm testing out whether blogging on my  new blackberry playbook is possible.  It's kind of painful.  Moving on.  We had a lot of Christmases to go to but we are lucky that they all work out and we don't have to rush from one to another.

We started out at Ryan's parent's house on Christmas Eve.  It's just the six of us and Willis, which is nice.  We went on our traditional walk, took our family photo, watched Garfield Christmas and of course ate and exchanged gifts.



Very serious

Of course we took a family pic in front of the tree on Christmas Eve!  I was so excited that I woke up multiple times throughout the night.  We finally got out of bed at 6:30.  

Pipsi loved Christmas.  She thought all of the activity was pretty fun.  She got lots of toys and treats too, so that's never a bad thing.

We opened gifts from each other and then headed down to my parents house.  My brother and sister still live at home so we still do a full Christmas there.  My mom got my brother and I these awesome shirts.  Mine says Keep Calm and Ginger On and my brother's says I Got 99 problems but a soul ain't one.  Ginger humour.

We alternate Christmas Day and Boxing Day between my mom and dad's families.  This year Christmas Day was at my mom's mom's house.  (That seems grammatically incorrect...)  It was also this little guy's first Christmas!  He was born on December 21 so I'm pretty sure he didn't get much out of the occasion!

Because the other side of the family was meeting up on boxing day, we went up to the cottage.  We do this every other year.  We also actually had the entire family up there!  It's not very often that there isn't anybody missing. 



Grandchildren (and great-grandchildren) pic!

For the first year we did the Secret Santa present stealing game.  It worked out pretty well and I think that everybody had a good time doing it.  This family is getting pretty big.  A few of us are married, a few have kids, and it's getting difficult to get us all together.  So we have to enjoy these Christmases while we can.

Oliver liked when Grandpa stood up and he snatched his chair.  What a guy. 

This Christmas made me wish I was in University again.  Those university kids get like two weeks off!  I had to go back to work yesterday.  Let me tell you, getting out of bed was not fun.  It didn't help that we had a snow storm and the roads were awful. 

I really thought about how blessed I was this Christmas.  I sometimes forget that some people don't have 3 days worth of family Christmas to attend, and that I should be thankful for that.  Another one bites the dust.  See you next year Christmas!

P.S.  The playbook didn't last this time around...I will have to keep practicing. 

Ugly Sweaters or Sweet Sweaters?

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  Today we are heading out to Ryan's parents house to celebrate Christmas with his parents and sister.  But first, I have to share yesterday's festivities.

Our small town Santa Clause parade is always the last Sunday before Christmas, which made it December 23 this year.  As our new house is right on the parade route, we decided to have a little party.  Somehow it turned into an ugly Christmas sweater party.

Is this a good looking group or what?

 That is me in a vest.  People said that it suited me, and I was slightly concerned.  The winner was between my sister's boyfriend in the green sweater with the light up snow man, and my cousin with that lovely penguin vest and turtleneck.  There were no prizes, so they both can win.

 Our parade doesn't have much to it.  It's mostly just farm equipment with tinsel on it.  That's why we were so excited about this robot that said Merry Christmas and blew smoke.

Of course our favourite float is the family business float. 

Let's not forget about Santa!  Santa always rides on something different, hence the gator.  Don't be judging, it's a very very small town!  But Santa knows our names, so that's always exciting.

After the parade, everyone enjoyed some Christmas beverages.  Which of course resulted in a few people playing PlayStation Everybody Dance.  Here is my sister party rocking. 

I can't believe that Christmas Eve is finally here!  Ok now I'm off to eat my first round of turkey.

Santa's Coming!



swiped from Valerie



I thought that the movie The Santa Claus explained everything, but now I think that this makes even more sense.  I'm such a Harry Potter nerd.

I have a lot to get done on my last free day before Christmas festivities begin.  So I should probably put down my fourth cup of coffee and stop reading blogs.  Yup, good plan Kaileigh.

Apocalypse Now

So I'm still here this morning.  Does that mean that the end of the world didn't happen?  Or are the fire balls gonna come later in the day?  Actually, since it's winter, I feel like the end of the world is gonna be more The Day After Tomorrow Style.

You know, all snow storms and rushing water.  Yikes.  I hope not, I have an hour commute.

This is where being a Christian comes in handy.  I'm gonna get all religious here, which is something that I don't usually do on the blog, but I'm pretty sure that Jesus said he would come back when we are least expecting it.  Well everyone is expecting the world to end today, so I'm pretty sure this won't be the day.  Maybe we all ruined his plans by figuring out the Mayan calendar and then he had to pick a new date? 

I absolutely believe the end of the world is coming.  Every day we are closer.  Look at the storms and earthquakes and tsunamis that we have had lately.  I feel like they are an indication that it is coming.  But for all I know it could still be 1000 years away.  So with that said, I guess I better not call in sick today right? 

As Britney says, "keep on dancing til the world ends"



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It's gonna be a party in my cubicle today.  Haha, let's be real, I'm an accountant, no it won't be.

Hot Chocolate and Toast

Am I the only person who does this?  One of my favourite winter treats is hot chocolate with toast fingers.  It's been something I have been doing since I was a kid.  I think my grandma started it.  Last night, I got home from yoga at 8:30 and didn't feel like making more or eating more than hot chocolate and toast.  So that's what I had.  Part of a well balanced diet right?

In other news, my Christmas shopping is done!  I got my last few gifts last night and I'm done.  Now I just have a lot of wrapping to do....that's Saturday's activity.

I Read Crap Books

When I was in Elementary school, I was a pretty advanced reader.  I don't want to brag or anything, but apparently I was at a grade 5 level in grade 1.  And I loved to read.  But sometimes, you just want to read what you enjoy.  (Most times these days).  Every book that you read isn't about the challenge, it's about the content and how it makes you feel.  So in Grade 4, I was reading Sweet Valley High.  Yes, it was definitely a crap book.  And my teacher told me so.  "Kaileigh that's a crap book, you should be reading something more challenging."  I didn't appreciate that comment and it's something that has always stuck with me.  It didn't change my opinion of the teacher though because I didn't really like her anyways.

I'm still reading crap books sometimes, but I'm ok with that.  Reading is an escape, and if I want to escape to Sweet Valley High, I will!

So that leads me into this months Literary Junkies linkup with By the Porchlight. Here are this months questions:

1. What are you currently reading?  Tell us about it.
I'm still on my Harry Potter kick and am currently on The Prisoner of Azkaban.  It was originally my favourite book, so we will see if it still is.  I'm not going to tell you about it, because if you don't already know what Harry Potter is about, you obviously don't care to know!

2.  If you could choose any author in the world to write a story based on your life, who would you choose to be the author and why?
Let's get random, Bethenny Frankel, just because I want to meet her.  I don't know that I would want to hear her opinions on me though.  She's kinda brutally honest.

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3.Tell us about your favourite place to read.
The Beach.  Nothing is better than sitting on the beach all day reading a good book.  Unfortunately most of the time the beach isn't available.  The most common place I read is in bed.

4.  What books would you buy for lovers of:
a) Suspense/Mystery  - Anything by Mary Higgins Clark
b) Chicklit - Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
c) Literary Fiction - I'm not entirely sure what this means, I think it means a "non-crap" book.  I really enjoyed Stephen King's 11/22/63, let's go with that.
d) Nonfiction - I'm gonna throw a few out here.  Michael J Fox's books were great.  Columbine by Dave Cullen was fantastic.  It might be a difficult read for many at the moment given the current situation, but it is a very well done book.  I also read this book called The Accountant's Story by Roberto Escobar.  It's about the drug cartel that was run by Pablo Escobar in Columbia and it was really good.

e) Classics - I'm not really one for classics.  Anne of Green Gables is always a good one though.  Or watch the movie.

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