Christmas Cheer

We went away for Christmas, and I missed the last days of the December Photo Project because our "smoke-free" hotel with "free wifi" turned out to be a "wifi-free" hotel with "free smoke." We ended up being moved because smoke was pouring into our room from our next door neighbors' suite; though it was nice to breathe (eventually), neither room had any real access to the Internet.

That said, hotel aside, our Christmas getaway was fairly magnificent.

Living in the United States and without a lot of disposable funds, planning our solo Christmas escape was a little tricky. After a lot of debate, we settled on Niagara Falls. Knowing that it would be a crazy tourist destination made me nervous, but I've never seen the falls, and I. hadn't been since he was young.

After  two days with family, we drove up through Detroit and meandered across foggy Ontario. We had an adventure when searching for a bureau of exchange, but eventually ended up with Canadian currency. We pulled into our first hotel on Christmas Eve afternoon and made it to the falls around dusk.

The crowds were crazy!

We first saw the falls in daylight on Christmas Day. (These below are the American Falls, with America in the background). They were stunning!

On the 27th, we had an adventure: we walked from Canada to America and back again (this was officially my first border crossing on foot). The American side of Niagara has been turned into a state park, which means that all the Americans get a nice view of Canadian skyscrapers, while all the Canadians get a view of a very lush green park. However, getting to see the rushing water up close was amazing!

 

We were warned that Niagara would be touristy, and the warnings were wise. However, we had a pretty awesome time walking around the city, driving around Ontario, and spending hours of every day staring at the falls themselves. The highlight of the trip really was the rushing water, and walking down to watch the falls never disappointed.

 

On our final morning, we rose early and went down to the falls to watch the sun rise over Horseshoe Falls. A few moments after the sun broke through the clouds, snow began to fall. It was most certainly one of the highlights of our trip!

[Belated] DPP 22: Trees for All

We visited family this week, and were unable to get out of decorating at least one tree for the season. Here's the finished product (with thanks to my brother-in-law for asking me to take a photo of it, since I barely remembered to turn on any of my electronics on the 22nd). 

[Belated] DPP 21: Cardinal Directions

I. and I have long loved this road sign, which is on the path from Morristown to most northern places and marks the beginning of an important junction. Sometimes I don't even think that our travel has officially begun until we have passed this sign.

DPP 19: Christmas Mambo

After a hectic last week of school, I. and I escaped to the Christmas dance party held by our dance studio. We carefully avoided decorating our own tree this year, but were able to compensate by enjoying the trees at school, church, and studio (among others).

[Belated] DPP 12: Night Lights

Our school had its Christmas celebration this week (which went smoothly and was enjoyable). The calm after the flurried storm--a week of rehearsals (for I.) and half-full classes (for me)--was even more enjoyable. I. generously stopped the car on our drive home so that I could get this shot of our town centre in tungsten lighting.

[Belated] DPP 08: Light Show

One of my students decided that I was not festive enough, so he brought a string of Christmas lights to school and decorated for me! They are not your standard Christmas lights--they actually have nine or ten differing blinking patterns (most of which can be pretty distracting to the rest of my students).

DPP 06 & 07: Quiet Home Companions

The weekend was busy and filled with a lot of general laziness. I did manage to rearrange one of our work spaces by swapping I.'s desk with our spare table. I really love this table, but it is hugely impractical in our current home.

Sunday was a day of essays, and also trying (and failing) to clean out my very beloved pen. I'm coming up on my year anniversary with this very lovely pen (a birthday present from I.), which has barely left my waking side since I received it.