Family Christmas x3

I'm sitting here in Whistler with Mom and Dad Funk working on a puzzle, Carl watching hockey, Alanna reading a book, Cody outside playing in the snow, Christmas lights on the big 12 foot tree and a fire burning...Ahhh relaxation! Even though we've technically been on vacation for over a week now, I am feeling somewhat relaxed for the first time. The past few days have been full of family fun! On Christmas day we headed to Carl's Oma and Opa's house for a lovely feast and visit with the family!

I think I caught Oma and Opa off guard here because I know they were having more fun than this picture portrays :)

Girl talk

I am not used to having so many young family members running around so I found them all quite entertaining :)

Our nephew, Cody

Some of the family

Me and cousin Bryn

More family

On boxing day we had to split our time between the Funk and the McMeekan clans. We first headed to Grandma and Grandpa Funk's...

Cousin Andrea, Grandma Funk and Aunt Irene

Handing out the Gifts

Uncle Brad and Ryan deep in debate

Nick explaining something really interesting to the cousins!

Brittany and Colin

Ryan, Alanna and Cody

After a nice dinner and visit, it was off to Grandpa Joe's...

Grandpa Joe with all his kids

Carl, Dan and Chantel

Auntie Tonya with cousins Connor and Kohl

Carl, me, Miranda, Uncle Stu and Terri

Overall, we had a fun time at each family function! It was our first year going to all the family Christams's on both sides and we loved each one! It's neat to see how each family celebrates in a different way. We feel so blessed to have so much family and to be able to celebrate with everyone. Now, off to do more relaxing!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well we've had a busy visit at home so far and today, Christmas day is the first chance I've had to sit down and catch up! After a long overnight journey, I made it to Vancouver on the 16th! I had a few days to visit with friends and family before Carl took his even longer journey home on the 21st! We booked our flights without prior knowledge on how and when to get to the airports. Luckily for me, getting to Toronto via bus at the perfect time, worked out. As for Carl, the best we could do was book a bus to Ottawa with him arriving at 4pm....And his flight not leaving until 7am the next morning! After getting a few hours sleep in the airport, his flight finally took off...And landed in Calgary where he had a few hours to kill in another airport before his final flight to Abbotsford! He arrived a little tired and exhausted but happy to be home! Since then like I mentioned, it's been busy! We had the Balback family Christmas dinner on the 23rd....

Dad, cutting the turkey!

Mom, making the gravy (on top of everything else!)

Visiting with the family

Grandma and brother

You know these people!

Brothers, David and Daniel, Dad and Uncle Larry

Me and my Uncle Dave

My brothers and their significant others, along with my uncle, myself and Carl spent the night at my parents and had Santa come a day early! We had breakfast and exchanged gifts in the morning!

The siblings have since left and my parents are headed up to Manning Park to visit with my younger brother, leaving Carl and I with a few hours to relax before heading to Carl's Oma and Opa's for our next family visit!

Overall, we are loving being home and are looking forward to more visits with family and friends!

We hope that you to, are having a very Merry Christmas and have the opportunity to reflect on the true meaning of today!

Santa came early in Ontario!

Hello and Merry early Christmas! Since I am leaving in just a short few days, Carl and I decided to have our Christmas a little early! We spoke to Santa a few days back and he agreed that he would stop by our place and fill up or stockings on the 11th! So yesterday, we awoke to our stockings full of goodies!

Carl made us a yummy french toast breakfast and then we opened our presents!

Before heading out for the day, Carl decided to make use of one of his gifts!

And then we saw an Ontario squirrel outside our window - We think it was albino maybe???

During the past week it has been snowing off and on and it's been cold enough for one of the three outdoor rinks (that we know about) to open! So we headed out to a couple second hand stores and bought each of us our first pair of skates! Before heading to the rink, we rented three Christmas movies and watched one...Well, Carl watched it, I fell asleep! Then it was time to get ready to go downtown!

We dressed up, grabbed our skates and headed to the town square! We tried to get several pictures to give you guys an idea of what it looks like down there - it's pretty neat!

After about an hour of skating, it was time to head to dinner! We had made dinner reservations at a well known restaurant called "Chez Piggy" where we each had a three course meal and a glass of wine! To top off the night, we watched the original "Miracle on 34th Street" which was really good (at least the parts I was awake for...Oooops!). Overall, we had a nice "Christmas" and are looking forward to spending the next one with our families!

As I mentioned, I am heading home on Thursday! I am taking a bus at 2am from Kingston to the Toronto airport where my flight leaves at 7am and I should be in Vancouver by 9am! Prayers for good weather and safe travels are appreciated! Carl writes his only exam tomorrow so I am sure he would appreciate prayers for that as well! Looking forward to seeing you at all home very soon!

Short But Sweet

The snow is finally falling! I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing...As long as it doesn't stop my plane from leaving in 11 days or Carl's in 16 days, then I suppose it could be a good thing - looks pretty anyways, we'll see if it sticks around! We just got in from visiting my great great aunt in Tweed for the last time before we head home for Christmas! She made us a feast, complete with a massive piece of some delicious dessert! I can already feel those holiday pounds packing on! We had a nice visit and besides Carl finishing his classes, it's our most exciting news from the past two weeks!

So yes, Carl is officially done his classes and only has to worry about one more presentation, 2 more papers and 1 exam! The end is near! For me, today is my first day off in 21 days of work! It feels good! We have lots planned for this upcoming week, including 2 Christmas parties and our own Christmas that we are going to have on Saturday! Hopefully the outdoor ice rinks will be ready for then!

Because this is a short update, I've added some fun links below for your entertainment! If clicking on them doesn't open them, you can copy and paste it to your browser. It takes a second to open up but it's worth the wait! If it still doesn't work, let me know and I'll email you the fun!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/tF5AlBGwNTS9G8boYugE

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/77ri3JhAuLJezMchh3wA

Exhausted...

As I write this, I am wondering if my time would be better spent taking a quick nap before day #8 out of 20 days and potentially more of work! I started my full time job at the bank which is 37.5 hours a week and although I told Starbucks I only wanted limited hours, last week I worked a total of 54.5 hours and this coming week will be 58.5...On top of all that, I really need to start studying my mutual funds....I will keep going, I get a nice 3 week break in just 25 days when I am on my way home for the holidays! Starbucks has been a lot of fun and even though I usually go into work feeling tired, I am full of energy by the time I leave (which most of the time isn't great right before going to bed!). My new job is going well! So far it's just been a lot of reading on the computer but I have made contact with another girl in the area who is doing the same program which makes things a little more exciting! On Wednesday night our branch went to our annual fiscal year end party where we had to dress up as something from the 50's. Our branch chose the Mickey Mouse Club!

My Branch

Me and my friend Julie

Carl has been working just as hard on projects and papers! His last day of class is nearing and deadlines are approaching! To lighten the load, we decided to put up our Christmas tree on Thursday night! We put on our Christmas sweaters, let the Christmas music play, pulled out the eggnog...

Painted our names on our stockings...

Put the lights on the tree...

Decorated and put the star on...

And took some cheesy pictures!

It kinda feels like our first Christmas together seeing how last year we didn't get to do any of this! It was fun and some much needed relief!

Saturday night was the big Santa Parade in Kingston which ended in the town centre where they had their annual tree lighting ceremony. There were tons of people and before the tree was lit, we all sung Christmas carols together - it was magical!

It has definately been chilly these last couple of days but the forecast is calling for a highs of 12 and 13 this next week. I cannot believe you guys at home beat us in getting snow! Here we are telling everyone here that we don't get much snow at home and are nervous about the winters in Kingston and look who goes and gets snow first?! Hope you are all handling it well!

Lotsa love! xoxoxo

A Gleeful Day in Toronto!

Originally we had planned to take advantage of a free weekend and spend it all in Toronto but then more school work came up for Carl, I got booked to work and we remembered we had no money...So we decided to make it into a day trip! We awoke at 6am on Saturday morning to take advantage of a full day in Toronto! After about a 3 hour drive, we entered Toronto and went straight to our first destination, the Hockey Hall of Fame! My friend was able to get us free tickets to the venue which made it that much more enjoyable!

We paid tribute to our favorite players...

And we got to see the Stanley Cup! Apparently there are two Stanley Cups - this one stays at the Hall of Fame while the other one travels around!

The whole Hall is basically designed like any other museum. It displays memorablea, has some interactive areas and then you get to the place where the Stanley Cup is kept and it's like entering an old sacred church! I swear I could hear whispers of angels singing Hallelujah!

Outside the Hall of Fame were some typical hockey players gawking at every girl that walked by :)

We walked around, the whole day, checking out things such as...

The city and all it's buildings! I think thats mostly the Financial District behind me

The Distillery District - an area that used to be more industrial but has been recently changed into a Yale Town, Granville Island kinda feeling area.

More views, this one with the CN Tower in the background!

Dundas Square, the downtown shopping area designed to somewhat replicate Times Square in New York

The odd looking New City Hall

The cool looking Old City Hall

Some Cows

The CN Tower! We didn't go up it - thought we'd save that for when you come visit!

And THEN...As we were walking down Yonge Street, we noticed part of the road blocked off and a crowd gathering. We discovered that that night the Canadian Gemini Awards was happening. Although we didn't know what that was, I told Carl that we should walk by again that night to see if we can see anyone famous. Before finding a restraunt for dinner, we walked past the same area again and sure enough, there he was in all his glory, Finn from my favorite TV show "Glee"!

I never thought I would go star crazy if I saw someone famous that I liked, but I joined all those adolescent girls and pushed and shoved my way to the front to get a better glimpse!

I mean, what are the chances?! Carl and I randomly chose this day of all days to go to Toronto! We don't have cable so we don't watch TV, BUT once a week we sit in front of the computer to watch Glee - the only show we watch and Finn just happens to be there?! It was meant to be!

I was excited! Carl on the other hand...Well he was a good husband and held my purse :)

From there, we headed to Milestones where we had a view of Dundas Square, had some dinner and watched the Canucks beat the Maple Leaves 5 to 3 in Toronto! It was as close as we could get to the real thing!

After a full fun-filled day, we headed on back to Kingston!