Holiday Time Begins

Let the Christmas celebrations begin!

This morning we worked our mad packing and cleaning skills to the tee and managed to get everything done and be on the road before noon. With some delicious Great Canadian Bagel breakfasts in our stomaches (one of our favourite places to go out for a quick bit), we were off to Kitchener-Waterloo to visit Tamara. Tamara and Len worked together at the university for many years but now she's doing her masters in something close to international policy and conflict in Waterloo (T, can you correct me if this isn't what you're studying?). We met up at the Huether for some good eats and catching up. It's always a great feeling when you get together with someone that you haven't been able to see in a while and the conversation just flows with funny inside jokes and the like. Hopefully Tamara will be in London to do our PhD so we can spend more time with her! Here are some pics with me & T and Lenny & T.Just before we went into the Huether, I decided to give Lenny part of his Christmas gift as it would be useful during our long drive(s). This is his reaction:

This guy just loves gadgets. I picked him up an FM transmitter for his iPod as he said he wanted one back in August. If you're not familiar with them, FM transmitters are little adapters you can plug into the bottom of your iPod, set a radio frequency dial for it, and then proceed to listen to your iPod over the radio. Why, you may ask, is this necessary? Well our tape deck thinger that does the same thing really is dying a slow death and the quality is pretty poor. It's also really useful for situations when you can't or don't want to be close to your iPod, say like when you're on a boat (the transmitter comes with a remote). Anyhoo, this is one part of four for his gifts so stay tuned for more.

Once we arrived in Toronto we stopped at the Running Room as I realized I had forgot my running pants in London. Silly me had left them hanging in the closet after shoveling the other day and didn't think to pack them. Anyhoo I got some nice new winter running pants, bringing the count to two, and took them out for a 4k test run tonight with Len & Dakota (the family dog). Here is Dakota all happy and tuckered out post-run. Isn't here reflective vest sooo cute?!

Len's family did an awesome job of getting home-made mini pizza supplies together for dinner. Bocconcini, ham, pepperoni, prosciutto, olives, mushrooms, toppings galore! It was quite tasty. Even Dakota got to partake in the delicious treats with her own mini pizza:
We decided to exchange a few time-sensitive gifts after dinner. We got Len's step-dad Mark some fleece-lined jeans for Christmas and wanted him to have a chance to wear them before the construction season ends on Wednesday. We also got him a pickle ornament as a highlight to his German heritage (although Google suggests this is all phooey), and some warm socks to go with the pants.

We got his mom a coffee table book of the Niagara region as this is somewhere they went often as a kid and a lot of the artwork is by one of his mom's favourite artists. We also got her a cute Pug Therapy book that has different dogs dressed up in funny costumes. They look so much like Dakota and bring a big smile to your face as you read it. Here's a pic of Mark and Silvana reviewing the book:

I got a fantastic assortment of shea butter products from The Body Shop. I absolutely adore these products because they smell soooo yummy and really do moisturize and work well.

Lenny got some kick-ass gloves by Ralph Lauren that allow him to use touch-screen technologies like his phone. What a great idea!

He also got a really nice sweater (which he needs more of). Modelled here:

The final gift, which I'm sure Lenny will enjoy for years to come, was a phenomenal corkscrew/wine set from Henckels. The corkscrew part ways a tonne, but it's one of those wonderfully-designed things that you only have to push down and not actually twist. I'm quite excited to test it out and finally be able to open a wine bottle without pain (twisty things still inflame my wrists a lot).

Here's the final pic for the evening. We're cuddled downstairs by the wood-burning fire (Awesome) watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation followed by Meet the Parents. Lenny's curled up with Dakota, a rarity, thanks to both of them being a little pooped out from the day.

Time to go enjoy myself. Ahhhh vacation :D

Next up: Brockvegas tomorrow!