Christmas Vacation(s) 2006

With immediate family in both Belleville Ontario and Bonnyville Alberta, Kirsten and I got to enjoy two full Christmas celebrations. Two Christmas trees, two gift openings and two turkey dinners. How can you go wrong ;-)

First we headed out to Toronto. We flew out Dec 14. Darryl picked us up at the airport and we all drove out to Belleville. It was funny because although we knew we were a week early, it really felt like Christmas. The house was all decorated and ready to go. We had a great time. Tons of wonderful food, great desserts, and new wines to try. Good times. We were able to visit with Grandma Wilson throughout the stay. She’s hanging in there amazingly well for someone about to turn a spry 97 years old.

On the last day we drove back to Toronto and spent the day roaming the Kensington Market and U of T campus. The weather was amazing, sunny and warm. It was a strange contrast to back here in Edmonton. Instead of record snowfall, Ontario had no snow, green grass, blooming flowers and open outdoor markets. Who knows what Mother Nature is up to these days.

The next week, for actual Christmas we set out for Bonnyville. This was a bit weird because K and I felt like Christmas was already over. But, once we were there it didn’t take us long to get into things. With Megan back from Sheffield, and Nicole yet to leave for India the whole family was there, which was great. Once again, there was tons of food, amazing desserts and seemingly endless holiday treats. Yumm yumm…

We passed the time playing board games, watching movies, eating, playing in the snow, soaking in the hot tub and there was even a little Karaoke ;-) Though, I didn’t quite make it to the stage hehe… Maybe next year.

We've got lots of photos up on our Flickr site if you want to check them out.

Wedding Pics Are Up

It honestly feels like our Wedding was just last weekend, but in reality, Kirsten and I have already celebrated our one month anniversary. We decided to make good use of one of our wedding gifts, a GC from the new Ruth's Chris Steak House and go out for a nice dinner together - and it was amazing!

Also to celebrate, we have uploaded pictures from our "Big Day" into an online Flickr account. Although the majority of the professional pictures were taken in black & white and we're still waitng for those to be developed, we already have the colour ones. You can link to them right from our BLOG. If you look on the right hand side of your screen there is a list of links under the heading "Links". Just click on "Flickr Photos" and you'll be taken straight there where you can view them one at a time, or in slideshow mode. For those unfamiliar with Flickr, it's a great photos sharing database. On top of it's user friendly interface, it allows you to upload images at full resolution, so if you find a picture you like, you can easily download it at full resolution to print and keep.

It was a blast for Kirsten and I to put this together because it was compiled from several different sources, including both the professional colour photos, and all the ones emailed to us from friends. Thank you very much to all of you! Thank you too, to everyone who was able to come to the wedding. We really can't say enough about how much it means to us that we could share, what really was the greatest day of our lives, with so many close friends and family. We think these photos certainly help show that. Enjoy ;-)