Finally - no more finals

Jamms and jess kless, there will be no more finals this year. Aren't we all glad? Especially considering that there are only so many... so few days left of the year. I, for one, am.

But let's not talk to much about the finals. They are finally over and let's leave it at that.

Christmas is coming and this year it's coming with a vengeance. The other day, Shan and I and our friend Darren went Christmas tree shopping, looking for a small, well behaved conifer that would fit unobtrusively on the 1.5 square-foot table in our living room (in our apartment which is the size of a shoe-box, remember?). We drove away with a 10 foot (3ja metra) humongous tree that required the rearrangement of furniture in the livingroom (and we almost had to move in with the neighbours). The new family member (for the tree does remind me of some big, burly great granduncle I never had) now towers over the home and I have to say I like its presence a lot. Every time we come home these days it's like walking straight into a forest. That's good! I have to say that even if I didn't understand Shan's choice of tree one hundred percent at the time it was bought, I am most happy with his choice now.

The snow has arrived too and not a minute too early for my taste. The first few flakes fell around Thanksgiving, just in time to allow everyone travelling over that big travelling weekend to get caught somewhere on their way, either in a snow drift or behind an obnoxiously slow driver. That snow all melted away, though, and it wasn't until the morning of my flight to San Francisco that we got some more (which made me all but miss my flight out to the West Coast). By the time I got back to the East the snow was disappearing, but in the past week we have gotten about 5-10 inches more (that's 10-25 cm, for the Europeans in the crowd). This morning we then woke to a fanczy schmanzy Winter Wonderland and I nearly hopped my own height with joy. Because.... because.... because....

WE ARE GOING SKIING!!!!!!

Yay! (This is where all sensibility is thrown to the wind..). I got myself new skis early this summer, fantastic twin-tip Kahru telly-skis... and the über-fantastic Hammerhead-bindings (which Shan had the foresight to order for me - I can't think that far ahead) arrived last Monday and they have been mounted and we have the ski passes and YAY!!!! we are going skiing tomorrow!!! What more can a woman ask for?!?!?!