First off, hello friends! Sorry I was on such a long blogcation. I really did intend to post more once the blogcation was technically over last week, but somehow the Christmas season took over and I didn’t get two seconds to breath until today!
As I previously mentioned, we packed up our apartment and sent our stuff into storage on December 15th. We stayed in Toronto on the night of the 15th and attended the hubs’ work party. It was a swanky affair and a super opportunity to say “see you later” to lots of friends.
On the 16th, we flew to Edmonton where my mom picked us up. The night of the 16th was our friends’ annual Mexican Christmas party, complete with delicious food (I spent Friday afternoon pulling a pork), margaritas, a pinata, and … mulled wine … ok, the mulled wine was for the outside part of the evening!
The 17th was full of errands, finishing up some photography work before the holidays, and spending some quality time with my parents. Then on the 18th we drove to Lloydminster, where we spent two wonderful days with one of my closest friends – and perfectly amazing new mom – and her husband and new baby Cole. Cole looks cute on me, hey?
We drove home on the evening of the 19th to dinner with another of my closest friends’ and bridesmaids, on the 20th my brother and his partner arrived from Australia, the 21st was another dinner with an old friend and the 22nd was spent scrambling to get ready for Christmas at the cabin.
Christmas at the cabin has been a Pelensky family tradition since the cabin was winterized when I was in high school. This year, there were 23 of us in attendance (including four kids). We had our “Christmas” dinner on the 23rd, a tapas party on the 24th, and Christmas morning on the 25th. I was the luckiest one and got to snuggle with my sleepy five year old niece (technically second cousin) for 10 minutes before she got to go upstairs to see what Santa brought her.
After the morning madness, we all went out for a family portrait, since my brother lives in Australia and I live in Toronto, we haven’t done that in years.
Then we got our annual family photo, the first one is cute… but boring… the second one has the “wow” factor we look for every year!
With a backdrop like that, the hubs and I needed to take our own picture, but unfortunately, it turned into somewhat of an axe fight.
And I also snapped some shots of my grandparents.
Christmas was a beautiful day this year, so before the hubs’ birthday dinner we went down to the lake to make a snowman and to play some “water” sports. Yes, that is my cousins kneeboarding behind a John Deere Gator on the frozen lake.
We had an almost delicious (but burnt) birthday dinner for the hubs, complete with a suprise DQ Skor Blizzard Cake on the 25th and the 26th was a cleaning blitz in the morning, followed by Christmas dinner with my mom’s side of the family in the evening.
Today, I spent the morning cleaning and unpacking (the hubs and I like to joke that we are living in my parents’ basement) and then my mom and I hit some after-Christmas sales for some new greige and coppery-browny glass Christmas ornaments for her home next year. I just got home and am catching
All in all a wonderful, wonderful 12 days. As you might imagine, I’m just beginning to catch my breath and hope to start a more regular posting scheudle soon.
Things might get a bit shaken up around here soon… here is my tentative schedule for the next three months:
Dec 31: Fly to Palm Springs CA
Jan 3: Fly to Buenos Aires
Jan 5 – 10: Shoot a wedding in Punta del Este, Uruguay and visit Colonia, Uruguay.
Jan 10: Move into Buenos Aires apartment
Jan 15, or so: Try to get last minute cruise (11 to 14 days) to Antarctica
Feb 13: Mom arrives for 1 week in Buenos Aires.
So, it’s going to be crazy up in here for the next little while!