Christmas with the Morrisons

This is only my second Christmas since my parents moved so things are a little different still from past years and we're still getting into the groove of what our traditions are now that we've moved house and we are no longer near a lot of our family.

Christmas means food and snacks all day

It was really nice to see my parents and to have some time away from training and Calgary and to have some time to relax.  Obviously I still had to train while I was away but I got to take a break from actually skating and it was oh so nice to sleep in and watch TV and read books that weren't for school guilt free.

with my mommy on Christmas day

Christmas day for us is always stockings and then pancakes followed by gifts and then enjoying those gifts whether they be movies, books, etc. This year my sister got How to Train Your Dragon 2 so we watched that (it was great).

And at the end of the day turkey of course!

she pretends to like me on Christmas

How was your Christmas? Any crazy traditions? Let me know!

National Qualifier 2014

The first competition that actually counted for something this season happened at the beginning of December.  I know that it’s the end of December now but after I got back from racing my life has been a whirlwind of training exams and practice races; this is the first chance I’ve had to breathe and it’s because I’m currently sitting in an airport waiting for my flight home for Christmas.

Pictures courtesy of my aunt who came to watch some races

If you’ve read my previous National Qualifier post you’ll know that it’s important for me to do well at that competition so that I can qualify for National Team Trials and the Canadian Open completion.  I’ve skated Canadian Open the past two years and have previously managed to qualify for it without too much trouble.  This year however, everything did not go as planned.  Qualifier wasn’t a terrible competition; I had some good races, and some not so good races, and a little bad luck like with any meet but unfortunately this time the best that I could do wasn’t good enough to qualify me for the next competition.  Obviously I’m disappointed because I want to keep working my way up the ranking lists instead of down them but I’m using this small setback to re-evaluate some things and to consider my options moving forward.

big outside pass

On a happier note I’m going to be taking a bit more time for myself over the next few weeks so hopefully I can try to get back into a routine of writing a blog post once a week!  Mostly I’m just excited to get a bit of a break from skating and school and spend some time with my famjam over Christmas (even if it’s only for a week).

Holiday Hike?

I'm used to spending Christmas under a few feet of snow so you can imagine how weird it was for me to be somewhere that there was no snow and it was also green in the middle of winter.  Since my parents have moved they've become super outdoorsy so on Christmas Eve we decided to go on a little hike and I brought my big girl camera with me to snap a few photos.

So mossy and green! Are we sure it's December?

Looks like a jungle or something

I'm getting really artsy now

My mom and my sister

My dad snapping some pictures of his own

Bit of a different Christmas for my famjam this year but still nice and I love an excuse to break out my camera.  Hope you all had lovely holidays too!  (Slightly different kind of post but I wanted an excuse to post some of my pictures.)

Home for the Holidays

Training has been going a bit better lately but since we were reaching the end of another four week build I was looking forward to getting a bit of a break and seeing my parents for more than a few days at a time.  This year is the first Christmas that we're spending at our Parents' new house which is a little different but also meant that we only had about a one hour flight from Calgary to Vancouver instead of the five hour flight to Ottawa.

Thinking that this would be an easy trip we got to the airport early only to find out that our flight had been cancelled for no reason, none that they told us anyways, and so we had to cab all the way back home and then try to travel again the next day (luckily being the emotional wreck that I am I cried so they gave us vouchers for free cab rides).  The next day after being put on standby and delayed we finally got on a plane and made it to the Vancouver airport.

I was expecting rain and warm (compared to Calgary) weather but it actually snowed after we arrived! Although it's mostly gone now since it rained today.

Almost looks like Calgary (although significantly warmer)

We went to the Vancouver Symphony's Christmas concert which was good and also served to remind me that I wasted my musical talent by not doing anything musical since high school.

Sneaky crooked, blurry picture from the balcony

Selfie because I got to try out my new Revlon lip balm stain (in Crush)
(Don't get to wear makeup much when you train six times a week so I had to document the moment)

Even though I'm technically on holiday I still have training to do so of course I had to travel to the Richmond Olympic Oval to get some weights done.  I feel like I'm just travelling from one Olympic Oval to another.

Don't actually get to skate but kind of cool seeing all the banners from the last Olympics when the next ones are just around the corner

Stay tuned for more Christmas-y posts or about how I manage training away from the training centre (because I still don't know how that's going to go) or maybe something completely different, anything could happen.

Christmas Decorating! (Part One)

Today's post was supposed to be "November in Pictures" but with competing and school the only pictures I took this month were a selfie and a picture of a box of holiday Rice Krispies.

Since it's December 1st today me and the roomies decorated our condo for the holidays before we all go our separate ways (one of us to FISU games next week, the rest of us home to our families soon after).  It's hard being in Calgary sometimes, being away from family and friends, especially around holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving so this year our Black Friday shopping consisted of decorations to make our place more home-y.  If you're away from home, stressed about exams, and feeling a little lonely a few little things can make everything better (well almost everything).

We bought a teeny tiny Christmas tree and some cheap ornaments at Target

A short string of lights and some seasonal foliage in a vase, ooh so fancy

Splurging on a nice smelling candle can make even the dingiest dorm room feel warm and cozy (also great when studying)

We also have one fancy wreath from HomeSense because we're classy like that

And with just a few cheap festive things that were (mostly) on sale we were able to Christmas-fy our little town house so obviously we had to have a little holiday photoshoot.

Aw look how much we love each other

Gazing at Herb the lovely picture we were gifted when we moved in

Christmas card worthy

The most adorable picture ever taken, we should probably have this framed