Christmas!

Time to catch my blog up on all my Christmastime activities!!!

I came home to Calgary for Christmas, arriving on Dec 21. It was a pretty good flight, except that it was so early in the morning that there were no busses running yet and I had to walk down to the Baden train station, weighed down with various luggage. It was a nice 4:30am stroll, especially after staying up all night packing and such. Before the first flight I took some cold medication that Richard had picked up that completly messed me up, I couldn't even sleep. So after that I opted for dealing with the cold symptoms instead. The highlight of the second flight was seeing Fantastic Four, it was pretty sweet.

I was showered with hugs and kisses from my parents and brother (not so many kisses from him) and was excited to see the house all decorated for Christmas. The next few days were filled with tree decorating, seeing friends, and various parties (and a vicious cold that I managed to kick pretty quickly, yay).

Look at our beautiful tree! Though I miss the bird-of-prey angel that's on our tree at Kehl

On Dec 22 we had our annual Christmas carolling party with some family friends. My brother and dad played the piano and guitar, and I joined in a bit to show off some of my new guitar skills. As usual my dad got completely carried away with being the center of attention and singing with over-the-top enthusiasm, haha. It was a great night, always one of my favourite holiday events. Here are some pics:

Judy singing while Alex plays the piano

Rae and Elizabeth singing carols

David and my mom enjoying the carol singing

The singers that actually have talent doing some harmonizing (it sounded awesome)

Here are some pics from Christmas day:

Christmas morning in Calgary (Fish Creek Park behind my house). Gotta love those chinooks, it was warm for my whole visit

My family being goofy with their new flashlights (Alex started it of course)

My dad, with his annual Toblerone (probably the main reason he supported me going to Switzerland, lol)

Brought my mom back an assortment of dark chocolate (her favorite)

Candy, music and duct tape, what more could you ask for in a stocking!?

Alex liked the swiss card and Checkpoint Charlie shirt I got him

Finally, my own pictonary game! If only Aimee was here in Switzerland so we could rule as champions!

Alex testing out his new amp

Daddy carving the turkey with surgical precision

Now THAT'S what gravy is supposed to look like (are you taking notes Shane?)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas again!

My dad makes a toast

On Dec 27 my grandparents (from my mom’s side) arrived from Victoria, and we had a nice secondary Christmas with them:

Yummy post-Christmas brunch!

Me with my grandparents, they loved the clock I got them from Krakow

On Dec 29 Devon had a party for all the old and current praktikants, which had a great turnout and was fun. Evan and his friend Paul brought over their music gear and played, it was kickass. I didn’t take any pics that night, but hopefully I can get some from Devon.

All in all it was a really good vacation, I won’t go into huge detail about what else I did but here are some highlights:
-Went to a Flames Game, and rocked some wicked seats (thanks Chris!). Too bad we lost that one :(
-Played music with my brother and my dad, Alex taught me how to play Float On and a bunch of other stuff
-Watched way too much TV, including a couple seasons of Arrested Development (finally!), ER, Scrubs, and a couple Buffy marathons
-Had a hardcore Mad Gab (and shuffleboard, haha) night over at Erin’s
-Went too Christine’s Christmas party (see separate post)
-Went to Vicious Circle for New Year’s (see separate post)
-Did lots of shopping
-Went skiing at Sunshine with Aimee and Alex (my brother)
-Hit up the Back Alley with Chris, Aimee and Mark
-Saw the new Harry Potter movie (again) with my family
-Finally wrote my super-late internship report #2
-Caught up on all the food I missed while being in Switzerland: steak, sushi, Thai, Viet, Mexican, slurpees, cheddar cheese, Tim Horton’s, late night Wendy’s JBC, and more importantly: my mom’s cooking

Playing some guitar with Alex