Christmas in Canada

I'm still playing catch up with sharing about our Christmas!  January isn't over yet, so I hope it's not too late to continue sharing about our holidays.  I've had trouble uploading pictures lately, it will appear like the pictures are uploading but once they're all done, they disappear!  I tried uploading about 10 pictures for my next post and poof!  all gone :(

Anyway, as I shared earlier, we got to go to Canada for our family Christmas party this year.  We spent Friday in Toronto, and then Saturday the whole family came to my Grandma's house for the party.  After enjoying some snacks, we started in on the gifts. 

Grandma's mailbox has been in need of serious repair for years.  My Uncle and his family made this beautiful new mailbox for her.  She was so thrilled!

These gifts were for the adult gift exchange we do.  We draw numbers to choose a gift and then someone can steal that gift from you.  We always have a lot of fun playing it and it's interesting to see which gifts get stolen a lot!

After gifts we all headed downstairs for dinner.  Everyone brought something and we had lots of food!  We ended the evening by singing Christmas Carols around the table (our family tradition).

We had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to go see everyone!

My Heart

Will beat 110,972 times, pump 1,628 gallons of blood, and push that blood nearly 10,311 miles throughout my body!
Created by MyFitnessPal.com

Created by MyFitnessPal.com

I calculated this by entering my personal info (height, weight, and exercise) into a calculator.  Give it a try!

Today, my heart will pump around 1,628 gallons (6,154 liters) of blood

In my lifetime, my heart will pump 1.2 million barrels of blood

(that's the equivalent of 3 supertankers)

My body contains about 2 gallons (7 liters) of blood

This blood circulates through my body 3 times a minute

My blood travels around 10,311 miles a day (16,590 km)

(roughly halfway around the circumference of the earth)

If I make a fist with my hand, my heart is about this size

(A whale's heart is roughly 400 times this size)

My entire cardiovascular system, if laid from end to end, is over 38,667 miles (62,215 km) long!

(that's long enough to wrap around the world more than twice)

My heart beats approximately 110,972 times a day

(by the time I die, my heart will have beat more than 2.5 billion times)

Friend Makin' Mondays: Getting to Know You

Can you believe it's Monday already? This weekend seemed to just fly by!  And now it's back to the daily grind...and regular work weeks.  And of course it's Monday, so that means Friend Makin' Monday!  (I haven't participated for the past few weeks, but hopefully I'm back at it now!)

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Getting To Know You

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday? I would love to have a Saturday that I could stay in my PJ's and do whatever sounded good all day.  Nothing to be done, just relaxing and spending time with Mike.  It's been a long time since we've done that!

2) List your top three favorite TV shows. NCIS, Criminal Minds, White Collar.

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them? I love taking pictures!

4) Why do you blog? I blog as a journal.  I don't keep a normal journal, so anything interesting goes on my blog.  I'd like to get it printed out by the year, so I have a scrapbook of sorts to look back on!

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly…
~ Facebook
~ Twitter
~ Pinterest
~ Google Reader
~ Hotmail
6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be? Karen Kingsbury!
7) List a few of your favorite snacks. Right now I'm absolutely loving "ants on a log" (celery with peanut butter and raisins), but I also like graham crackers with peanut butter, apples, and clementines.

8 ) Do you have a pet? Yes!  My puppy Champ, he's a Labrador Retriever/Husky.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without? phone, computer, work-out clothes...wow, I depend way too much on technology!

10) What’s your favorite drink? Peach nectar

11) Do you enjoy cooking? I love cooking!  That's why I have a food blog :)

12) Do you have children? No, but someday!

13) What are your favorite hobbies? Cooking, baking, reading, painting
14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing? It really depends on who I'm with, but I'm probably more outgoing than shy.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?  My splotchy skin lol

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress? I like Reese Witherspoon and Jason Statham.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week? Considering that it's Monday, I suppose working out was the highlight of my day!

18) Do you live near your family or far from them? Near my immediate family and Mike's (and his extended). Far from my extended family.
19) List three of your talents. Cooking, baking, leadership
20) What is your greatest attribute? If I say I'm going to accomplish something, I do it!  (With the exception of cleaning lol...ask Mike!)

Now it’s your turn to share your answers. Don’t forget to go link up in the comments! Happy Monday!

Toronto

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebration. Mike and I were blessed to be able to spend time with both of our families, and our extended families.  Our Christmas celebration kicked off with a trip to Canada for the Christmas party on my mom's side.  We were able to go a day early and decided it would be fun to go downtown Toronto (Mike had never been!).  We convinced my Grandma to join us, so my parents, brother, Grandma, and Mike and I enjoyed a fabulous day downtown. 

We took the GO Train from Whitby to Toronto.  From there we decided to walk around a bit.  We went to the CN tower (below) as well as a stadium.

Walking around caused us to work up an appetite so we had to find a place to go for lunch.  We all voted to try something new, so we went to an Arab restaurant.  It was absolutely delicious!  We got a fabulous deal (sandwich and salad for like $5.99!)





I started with a tabouli salad.  I'd never had tabouli before and I was impressed. 

The star of the show was the Shawarma I ordered.  It was out of this world delicious!

Mike also had a salad...tomatoes with cabbage and tabouli.

After lunch, we continued our tour.  We ventured over to the city center and saw this beautiful Christmas tree.  We had to have our picture taken of course!

The next stop was the Eaton center.  I wanted to go to Lululemon and H&M since we don't have those stores close to us.  It was fun to be part of all the excitement in the mall.

Our last event of the day was a subway ride.  We had no destination, just wanted the experience.  Of course it just happened to be the busy part of the day, but that just added to the fun.

We had a ton of fun in Toronto.  I have pictures of our family party to share later--don't want to go into picture overload!

Merry Christmas to me!

I've been saving up for a few months, and I was finally able to purchase something I've been wanting for a long time!  A DSLR camera!!!

I've had it since we got home from Canada and I've had a lot of fun learning how to use it.  I know I still have SO much to learn, but I'm really hoping this will be key to improving my photography!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours,

We wish you a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate

the birth of our Savior!

Merry Christmas and blessings for the New Year!

Melissa, Mike, and Champ ;)

Christmas Around Our House

Merry Christmas and welcome to my house! C'mon in and I'll show you around!

Here you can see my Christmas card display.  I made it myself--a piece of festive ribbon with a bow on top.  Then I bought some tiny clothespins to attach the cards to the ribbon.  We don't have too many cards, but I wanted a fun way to display them!

I love this Christmas puppy--he looks a lot like Champ did when he was younger!

Here's my little Christmas centerpiece for our dining room table.  Feel free to grab some candies as I show you to the living room.

Come with me to our living room, I'd love to show you our tree! We have lots of ornaments on it that have special meanings for us.  And of course, under the tree you can see presents for our family members!

Here's a fun ornament to celebrate of first Christmas together as a married couple!

I wish you could see it better in this picture, but because of the flash, you can't see the words. It says "New Home 2010"

We started a tradition last year that Mike and I buy each other a Christmas ornament.  This is the one he got me last Christmas.

My SEM student made me this ornament this year!

This is the ornament I bought Mike last year

Mike and I both got one of these for Christmas last year from the SEM leaders.

This is an ornament that I have had for as long as I can remember!  When you push it, it plays We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Of course, I can't forget to introduce you to Tyler, our talking snowman.  He always has a friendly greeting as you enter our living room!

I love this little Christmas tree--it looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss movie! 

Mike's favorite artist is Thomas Kinkade.  For his birthday this year, my parents gave him this fiber optic wall hanging.  You can't see it in the picture, but the lights on the house and the Christmas tree change colors.  It's beautiful in the dark!

Let's head into the kitchen and we can enjoy some cookies and hot chocolate!  I'm so glad you stopped by!

A Christmas Survey

I saw this survey over at Lindsay's blog, and I thought it would be fun to play along!  Only 3 days until Christmas!!!  Are you ready?  I think I am, just 1 more gift to wrap.  Oh, and lots of baking to do tomorrow :)

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?? Definitely hot chocolate.  I had egg nog for the first time earlier this month and it wasn't my favorite.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? We rarely did "Santa" gifts growing up, but when we did, they were wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I love colored lights, that's what we have on our tree.  I think it looks so festive.  But, I also think white lights on a tree with some fancy decorations is stunning as well!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, I don't think I ever have!

5. When do you hang your decorations up? We usually put up our decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving.  This year, I had everything up then except for my village set (which may or may not get set up tomorrow!)

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? My mom and Grandma's homemade stuffing. Nothing beats that!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Oh my, I don't think I could pick just one.  I loved when my parents would send us on a scavenger hunt for our "big" present, hiding clues around the house.  I also like getting wooden shoes with goodies in them from my mom on Sinterklaas Dag.

8. What is on your Christmas Wishlist? A lot!  Some things I asked for included:  a BOSU ball, a foam roller, a heart rate monitor, running socks, a jump rope (notice a trend here?)

9. Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve? Yes!  Growing up, my family always did presents on Christmas Eve, right after the church service.   It's perfect because Mike's family always celebrates on Christmas Day, so we can celebrate with both our families.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? This year we have a new tree which has pinecones in it, plus we put some colored lights on it.  We have a colored star on top and all kinds of ornaments.  We both have ornaments from our childhood as well as the ones we gave eachother last year.  I have a few colored balls, but it's mostly special ornaments.

11. Snow? Love it or dread it? I love snow for Christmas and about a week afterward.  After that, I'm ready for summer!

12. Real tree or fake tree? We have a fake tree now.  Growing up we typically had a real tree, so I miss the evergreen scent!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I have received so many incredible gifts, I can't choose just one!

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? Celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends!

15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert? I have to choose just one?  I really don't know...I can't think of a dessert that we only get around the holidays!

16. What is your favorite tradition? The candle-light service (now just the last song) at church on Christmas Eve, followed by going to my parents' and preparing a feast of appetizers and dessert-type foods.  Then we read the Christmas story and open gifts.

17. What tops your tree? A colorful star...I took it from my parents :)

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving!  I love picking out gifts for people and seeing their reactions when they receive them!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? A tie between Christmas Shoes and Breathe of Heaven.

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum? Peppermint--yuck!  Fruity--yum!

21. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have so many: Elf, Mary Christmas, Polar Express, The Santa Claus (all of them!), How the Grinch Stole Christmas...

22. What do you leave for Santa? Nothing...lame, I know!

23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition? Usually cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

24. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall? Both!  They both have advantages, but I did the majority of my shopping online this year!

25. Christmas letter or Christmas card? Card...I should probably get them in the mail...

Champ Update

Has it really been 15 days since my last post?  Why, yes, it has...shame on me!  It's hard to believe it is already December 20th.  This month has been so incredibly busy, it's just flown by!  We've had Christmas parties for SEM, Youth Group, Work, and of course family!  I also did my very first Craft Show earlier this month and it went well!  We were in Canada last Thursday through Sunday and had a fabulous time with our family, I'll upload pictures soon to share them!  For now, here's some pictures of our adorable growing puppy!


Just to remind you, this was how big he was when we got him!  I think he weighed between 16 and 20 pounds.




We gave him a bath a few weeks ago.  Not surprisingly (since he is part Labrador Retriever), he loves water and bath time.  Afterwards, I wrapped him in a towel to dry him off and prevent him from shaking everywhere!




The day after Thanksgiving, we bought him this huge (24") rawhide bone and a dog bed.  It's been less than a month and there is about a 3" section of the very end of the bone left.  He likes to lay on his bed and play with his toys.



See how much he's grown?  I took this picture last week, and Champ is now 6 months old (on Dec. 16).  I weighed him on Monday and he was up to 44.4 pounds!  He's just a big soft furball :)

Champ and Daddy

This is quite a common sight in our house.  The two "men" taking a nap on the floor.  Last night they were laying face to face, but I'm not supposed to post that picture :)

Champ is fully house-trained (and has been for a while).  He knows some basic commands, but is best at "sit".  We are still working on "stay" and "come".  He's a very smart dog, and we love having him around!

Friend Makin' Mondays--I am...

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!


FMM: I am…

1. I am good at…baking, cooking, leading others.
2. I am happy when…I am with my friends and family.

3. I am working on…keeping my house clean!  It's hard, but I'm learning!
4. I am interested in…fitness and healthy living.
5. I am always…smiling :)
6. I am enjoying…the Christmas season!

7. I am in…love with my husband! ;)
8. I am reading…through my constantly growing stack of magazines. I think I'm reading either Shape or Fitness right now.

9. I am concerned about…nothing that I can think of!

10. I am looking forward to…upcoming Christmas parties!