AmeriCanadian Christmas 2011

Made it through the holidays as Americans- success! We spent Christmas eve at my parents house where my mom made a delish turkey dinner and we watched old home videos (Buddy the puppy stole the show however there were also a lot of Spice Girl songs involved...my 'choreography' has not stood the test of time...awkward). My brother and dad spent most of the afternoon/evening trying to find the funniest meme's..."highlights" were Karate Kyle, Insanity Puppy and High Expectations Asian Father. We slept in Christmas morning and took our time opening presents- we used the iPhone Face Time to see/talk to family back in the homeland (and to totally freak out all the dogs...they had no clue where the voices were coming from)...very cool to be able to see everyone. Speaking of dogs, I love this. 

AmeriCanadian Christmas family portrait

Santacon 2011

I never used to understand why people got so stressed around the holidays...thats because I was Canadian. As a canadian holidays = fun, happiness, lights, snowboarding, good food, friends, family,  gingerbread cookies, shortbread cookies, thumbprint cookies...notice a theme? 

But no, not this year...now that I'm Americanadian the full weight of the holidays has turned me into a stressed out mess. This is 80% due to work stress...why do people want to buy furniture before the holidays?!?! go buy Christmas/ Hanukkah presents and leave me alone!!

How awesome is this?!?!

Christmas decorations

Last weekend I headed home to my parents house to help set up all my mom's Christmas decorations...this is no small feat as the woman has boxes upon boxes of decorations. So many boxes of decorations that we actually lost one this year and some key decor (ahem my angel tree topper) is MIA. I'm sure that since a Christmas store has opened up in town recently, my mom will be able to replace (and then some!) her decorations in no time. 

I like to help because, to be honest, I like things done my way...some call this bossy but I like to think of it as helping people make the right decision. Anyway, here is the finished tree looking all sparkly and pretty (despite the angel at the top which I take no responsibility for...she's not my fav but I was overruled):

Patriotic Apartment

So I decided that these geese weren't really the design direction I was looking to take in the apartment so I opted to go with these:

I found these gorgeous type map prints on Etsy...the company is called Bold & Noble and you can find the Canada print here and the US print here. Frames are from Ikea and my roommate Lindsey and I killed our fingers trying to put these together but I guess thats what you get for a $15 frame.

These are going to look so good once they get on the wall...speaking of which who is going to be kind and help me hang them?? If I do it myself its going to get bad real quick...I can never manage to make things level when a hammer and nail are involved.