Someone is getting a pretty special present from Santa this year. It was only supposed to take 2 hours to put together but it was more like 2 1/2 and that's with 2 people working on it. So many tiny pieces! So much back pain! But in the end, it does look pretty cool.

And someone else is ready to open her presents right now. 

Yesterday was the last day of work until January! And of course, we took the afternoon to celebrate with some delicious snacks and a greedy gift exchange. This year I made a little sock creature as my present. I thought he needed a scarf but didn't really have the time to knit one the usual way so I looked up a tutorial on finger knitting and I was all set. I love the internet! In the end, this guy went home with Charise who may still be deciding on a name for him.

I got to visit with one of my brothers and his family up in Whistler last week. My one suggestion would be to not go all the way to the top of the mountain when there are 100km/hr winds and hardly any visibility. And don't think that going almost to the top after lunch will avoid the wind the second time around. I was holding on to my toque and covering my face with my mitten just to keep my face from freezing off. But once we got a little bit further down the mountain the conditions were perfect - especially good news for someone who hasn't skiied in 15 years.

Here's my brother and his son heading off down the mountain. They are much better skiers than me but they were kind enough to stop and wait for me to catch up every once in awhile. 

Even though I like some holiday decorating, I don't normally do much to my apartment for Christmas. That's mostly because I don't generally spend that much time at home over the holidays. There's usually a bit of decorating at the office but this year we did it up right. There was a challenge laid down by one of the other departments and we're not one to pass up a friendly competition. This picture doesn't really do it justice because it really was a 3D, walk through experience, plus on the judging day there was a disco ball and cream puffs. Beat that!

I made a ton of these lovely 3D snowflakes courtesy of an on-line tutorial. We only wish we could keep the office like this all the time.