Ironically, the last week of 2007 has had nothing in common with the rest of the year.

Colin and I have been quietly hanging around the apartment with nothing much to do. It's hard to believe we spent most of the year in transit. Washington, Philadelphia, Portland, New York, Halifax, Victoria, Cozumel, New Haven.... I remember a time in the spring when I woke up in a hotel room and had no idea where I was (never a good sign).

There were some amazing highlights: snorkeling with a school of giant angel fish at Chankanaab; arriving to New Haven to find our newly rented (sight unseen) apartment was gorgeous; seeing Gutenberg bibles at both the Library of Congress AND Yale; celebrating Mitz and Mat's wedding at the Halifax Citadel; seeing my parents settled in their new house in Cobble Hill... The list goes on and on.

There have been some tough times too. For example, at the moment Colin's face is all swollen because of a popcorn-inducing toothache (see visual below). But, I certainly feel that 2007 was a good year for us.
So, in this reflective mood, I'll wish everyone a happy new year and leave you with a quote that seems appropriate given our plans to spend new year's on the Lower East Side:

Don Corleone: I like to drink wine more than I used to.
Michael: It's good for ya, Pop.
Don Corleone: Anyway I'm drinkin' more.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of Walsherstonia

Celebrating our first Christmas in New Haven, Connecticut, Colin and I are happy to report that 2007 was a wonderful, travel-filled, adventure for us. But, having enjoyed a generous helping of North America -- by sea, land and air -- I am convinced that there's no place like home. And home for us will always be with our family and friends.

We wish all of our loved ones a joyous, merry-making holiday season.

See you in 2008!

Operation X-Mas. Stage 1. Lights. We've gone for cheap-o glittering white lights, and a couple purples in between. Festive is on the horizon.

We're Home.

***edit*** Here's a few pictures from our trip with some descriptions. I promised Robin she could chose some pictures for the blog, and just put some random ones in my facebook photos.

Well, the vacation went perfectly, and a lot of that success can be attributed to where we stayed, the Inter Continental El Presidente Hotel, in Cozumel. We'd booked the prefect dates for us, as it turns out that from December 12th to the 19th is the quietest time of year for this resort, meaning that we often had full stretches of beach or the entire pool to ourselves, which was glorious. The staff were all incredible, both friendly and professional, and were able to offer us some valuable suggestions as to what was worth seeing, and what was worth skipping. All of the people we encountered in Cozumel were friendly actually.
The sun shone for most of our trip, and the weather was always warm. We did have a short burst of rain that was a storm that never really materialized. The water was amazingly warm the entire time. We'll post more a little later, as we're still getting caught up and settling in. I'm trying to post a couple videos, let me know if any problems...

...this particular video is my favourite on account of the commentary.

Well, just a few more hours 'till we're off for warmer climes on our first vacation ever. Needless to say, we're pretty excited, and we're really looking forward to getting away from the freezing rain and temperatures. The picture above is just a stones throw from where we're staying, but we'll post some of our own pictures once we get back =)

Well, about four or five days to go before we find our pasty butts toasting comfortably on the beaches of Cozumel, and we're both just kinda hanging on until then. It's been a pretty frantic week, and we're both a tad burnt. Robin got home from work and her "nap" will likely end sometime tomorrow morning. At least the weather is actually nice, in a Holiday sort of way. We got a full inch or two of snow, and just when it bordered on inconvenience, it had the good sense to let up. As with every year come holiday time, the epic battle of Christmas Kitch has begun. One of us is particularly hoaky when it comes to holidays, and is quite fond of Christmas music and the related ephemera. The other person, well, not so much. I keep trying to sneak some Christmas music onto iTunes, but she seems to be able to smell when I'm about to do it and stops me in my tracks. As god is my witness, there will be Christmas music in this house somehow. I had my job interview today, and I'd be lying if I pretended to have a clue as to how it went, but it's done, and now there's nothing to do but sit and wait (which is good, actually, as I'm hoping for my DHS authorization to arrive in time). I figure by the time we get back from Cozumel, they should have had enough time to do a background check, contact my references, and hopefully I'll be authorized to accept work by then.
Here's some christmas wallpaper for your desktops from vladstudio.com I like their stuff, and it's free =)

All I wanted for my birthday...

Was to see Henri Rousseau's painting, "The Sleeping Gypsy." And I got my wish.

And thanks to everyone who sent cards and emails and posts on my Facebook page. And big thanks to my friends at work who got me a cake and threw a little surprise party in the Technical Services Department.

What a great birthday!