Look Out Banff Here We Come!

I'm happy to announce that our trip to Calgary/Banff is now official. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself right now...I really need out of this town as I feel like I'm suffocating. I'm also excited to drive around Calgary so that Jim and I can get to know the town, which will help Jim and I on our decision to move there or not.

We decided to stay in Banff rather then Calgary for this trip. I hear Banff is gorgeous and I'm excited to be staying in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Jim and I will be staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs...I got a great deal on this world class hotel. Not to mention, who wouldn't want to stay in a castle....wow! At this point, the only activity that Jim and I have planned is to go to a hockey game where we'll be watching the Calgary Flames take on the Nashville Predators. Jim seems to think this will be an exciting game and it will be my second NHL game to watch in person. Here's a picture I found on the web taken of The Fairmont. I plan on taking numerous pictures when I'm there as you can tell the place is awesome! I just thought I would tease everyone a bit.

The Fairmont Banff Springs after a recent snow storm.

Merry Christmas/Happy Boxing Day

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well I can't believe Christmas is now past us and I'm beginning to think ahead into the new year. Jim and I had a great day yesterday...pretty quiet, but still good. I cooked dinner Christmas Eve (Mexican...yum) and then Mom, Jim, and myself drove to Los Alamos to look at some Christmas lights followed by midnight mass. We were all pretty disappointed by the Christmas lights this year...it really was a let down. Our favorite spot to drive is Los Pueblos on Barranca Mesa where all of the residents line the sidewalks and their driveways with luminaries, your suppose to drive down the road with you headlights off. This is one of the more prominent areas in Los Alamos and typically also has really good light displays. Not this year...the lights were kind of blah. We were thinking since it was pretty late then most families had already turn their lights off...or at least we can only hope. As usual we also saw our share of Griswold homes which gave each of us a nice laugh. I would swear one house in the Denver Steel area had every imaginable inflatable Christmas decoration displayed in their front yard. Keep in mind, that the lawns in the Denver Steel area are very small...which made this look very tacky (sorry I didn't take any pictures of this).

We returned home from midnight mass just after 1am and Jim and I stayed awake drinking wine in front of the fireplace for about an hour. We went to bed just after 2am and got up at 7am to start cooking breakfast. After breakfast we opened our gifts and relaxed a bit before cooking dinner. I should have started dinner much sooner because I didn't realize the turkey I was about to cook was 23lbs and would take 7 hours to cook! Needless to say, we didn't sit down to eat dinner until 8pm. It was very tasty though, and well worth the 7 hour wait. Thank god mother was here, otherwise it would have been much later. For the most part her and I cooked everything together which made the entire process less stressful. Since it was just the three of us this year I didn't need to stress out about food being ready at certain time or making sure everyone was happy and comfortable. I have to admit, this was the least stressful Christmas I've had in memory...

Anyhow, I did take some pictures during the course of the day that I'll share with everyone.

I had to embarrass Nanook and take this picture of him with the antlers on. I think he looks cute, but judging by the look on his face...he's not very happy with me.

Here's the before photo. Our family room was overrun with gifts. Yes, I still have those ugly Motel 6 curtains that I'm hoping to replace them shortly.

Here's Momma laughing about gods know what getting ready to open a gift from Stefanie.

Here's Jim opening up his gift from me...a log splitter. Can't you tell he loves it??

And finally here's Jim testing out that log splitter by making kindling for the fireplace.

Some Christmas Fun

What a wonderful day Jim and I had together. It's the weekend before Christmas and since Jim and I are done with our Christmas shopping we decided to spend the day together. Jim thought it would be nice to spend the day in Santa Fe ice skating at the Chavez Center and I've been wanting to check out the new movie theater in Santa Fe. So, we spent a few hours at the ice rink and then went and saw 'I Am Legend'...it was kind of a weird movie but since Will Smith was in it I knew it had to be good.

Here's a picture I took of Jim today at the rink...I really like this picture.

Speaking of movies, we have a new movie being filmed right here in Los Alamos. The movie is titled 'Brothers' and I have no clue what it's about, but we have some pretty big stars in town. Apparently Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire are here in Los Alamos. It's been a long time since we've had movie stars in town so it's pretty exciting.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and now that I'm done with my shopping I can breath a sigh of relief. Although, I still haven't done my Christmas cards so if I don't get them done and in the mail by Monday I think I'll give up. It looks like Christmas will just be Jim, Mom, and myself so it should be pretty quiet. I'll cook Mexican for Christmas Eve and I'll cook a turkey Christmas Day. As usual I'll be attending midnight mass the night before and I hope to have time to drive around Los Alamos to look at all of the Christmas lights around town. All in all I'm really looking forward to Christmas and the easy week to come.

I have a few pictures to share with everyone today. This first picture was taken earlier in the week of Sasha and Corki sleeping on our bed.

The following pictures are of Corki playing with his Christmas present from my sister. She decided to make all of the animals catnip logs and she was kind enough to send one to Corki and Sasha. Corki loves his log but Sasha isn't impressed...I'm guessing there's not enough parts to interest Sasha. Anyhow, I did manage to take a few good shots of Corki playing with his log (thanks Stef).

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well as usual my life continues to be busy. This is the first weekend in a long time that I haven't had to worry about homework. So, this post is going to be pretty lengthy as I try to catch you up (I hope I don't forget anything). First, let me tell you a little about the site. In case you haven't noticed, I've made a few subtle changes. I updated the family photo so that the site could have a holiday feel (don't get excited, that was last years photo). I've also included a site counter at the very bottom of the page, newsflash at the top of the page, a link to sign our guestbook (yes, please sign it when you get a chance), a link detailing information about "The Secret", and I've also included my favorite poem; Invictus. You should also start to see google ads somewhere on the site beginning any day now. Jim decided to add his own blog so if you want to read what's going on in his head, or read about his seemingly endless hockey stories you can do so at http://www.atomicmapleleaf.blogspot.com/. Or, you can access his site by utilizing my LibertyLinks at the right. While I was in the process of making all of these changes, I managed to lose my LibertyTracks map, which had to be cleared and reset in order to get the map back on the site. Anyway, I've gotten kind of bored with the actual page so I've been researching some other blog templates to give the site a "face lift". I'm hoping to have the entire site revamped after the first of the year...I can't wait to see the final product!

So like I said, this is the first weekend in a while that I'm not stressing out about homework. Last Monday I took my final so I'm now officially on my winter break. Classes will begin again on January 22 and I've already registered for the next semester. Apparently I'm closer to completing my degree then I thought...I just have English and Math left. I think if I bust my butt then I should be able to graduate in May 2009. After I graduate I have no idea what I plan on doing. I'm pretty positive this will be the end of accounting but I'm still really interested in reproductive research. However, I also know I can't pursue reproductive research here in Los Alamos. Which brings me to my next topic...

It's no secret that Jim and I hope to leave Los Alamos once Jimmy turns 18. We haven't officially decided where we would like to move to but we've been talking about either North Carolina or moving to Canada. For those of you that don't know, Jim is originally from Toronto and he would love to move back to Canada. Earlier this year we spent time in Toronto but I wasn't particularly impressed, then one of us mentioned Calgary. I was intrigued and quickly became interested in Calgary after doing numerous internet searches. I also immediately felt a sense of urgency to go to Calgary to check it out for myself. So, Jim and I are in the process of booking a trip to the Calgary/Banff area to take a look around. The trip is scheduled for the first weekend in March and I am beyond excited. We'll be staying in Banff but also spending time in Calgary and I think I'm more excited about Banff then anything else. Banff just seems like such a beautiful mountain town that I know I'm going to enjoy.

In other news I've been trying to get ready for Christmas. I started to get into the holiday spirit once the weather turned cold and the snow rolled in. Since then, I've been on a roll and I've gotten about half of my shopping done. I hope to finish my shopping by the end of next week. Today I wrapped what gifts I do have and I hope to bake my holiday cookies tomorrow. I still have my Christmas cards though...I haven't even started but I suspect they will not take me long.

Neither Jim or I really have any plans for Christmas day. In fact, Christmas will just consist of Jim, my Mom, and myself. This is the first year in memory that I really haven't had any plans. I normally don't even work during Christmas, but since we're not doing anything I decided to work. Honestly, I'm kind of bummed...what a boring Christmas...no traveling, no family, no nothing..ugh.

After Christmas Jim and I will be working hard on Jimmy's bedroom. We decided to switch his bedroom and with the office, which will give him a bigger room. But before we move him, we decided to do some mild remodeling...nothing major, just some paint, a ceiling fan, new blinds and a new bed. I really think it will look nice once we are done. I'll be sure to take before and after photos for your viewing pleasure.

I have a few other topics that I thought I would update everyone on but I think I'll do it during the week. This way I don't bore you with a never ending post.

And The Winning Name Is...

Well after much debate Jim and I finally decided on a name for our new little puppy. We decided on Tundra for the call name and the AKC registered name will be El Norte Tundra del Jemez...providing my translation is correct. I'll have a friend at work check the translation for me but in English it would be, The Northern Tundra of the Jemez. I can't believe how excited we are for this puppy and he's not even born yet.

Anyway, it's Saturday night and so far Jim and I have had a wonderful weekend (we don't have Jimmy this weekend so its been really quiet). We got up early and went to Albuquerque to try and find a new bed for Jimmy. We found a great bed and I hope that Jimmy really likes it. We also went to Lowe's and I picked out some paint for his bedroom. I'm pretty sure I grabbed five different choices and slowly I'll eliminate a few of them and I might be daring enough to allow Jimmy to have the final choice. I'll be done with school December 10th and Jim and I will be spending the next several weekends getting everything cleaned up. I would like to start painting shortly after Christmas and his bed should be delivered either the second or third week of January.

I'll be going into work tomorrow morning and I hope to spend the rest of the day baking some cookies. Jim will spend most of tomorrow working on some computers (I think he has four to do). So that's pretty our weekend....