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!

Needing a Change

I was feeling a little stuck.  I was dealing with minor health issues, I was sick for weeks and I was struggling to keep up with school and then I was starting to struggle with skating.  I feel like a lot of people feel this way;  you get to the middle of the semester, you get stressed and then fight or flight kicks in.  For me the instinct to run kicks in, I want to quit, to change my whole life, to move somewhere else, just do anything to change the situation so I did the cheapest change I could and redecorated my room.

My room was an absolute disaster and I felt like it was a direct representation of how unbalanced and out of control I was feeling so the first step was cleaning up.

the before picture

I bought some new bedding for $12.99 at IKEA, new cushions, and I replaced my magazine clippings and One Direction posters with some more age appropriate decor.  Even though redecorating didn't cure me of being sick or make me caught up on homework it did make me feel better and less anxious and stressed out.

after

it's not perfect but it's more organized at least 

I put up a card my Grandma gave me to remind me what's important and a picture and old good-luck letter from one of my friends to remind me that there's people who are proud of me and who believe in me

no more 1D, I'm such a grownup

Barbecue Season

Even though I'm rather committed to a winter sport I think that summer may be my favourite season.  We've had some nice summery weather lately (even though it's dark and there's rumblings of a thunder storm outside as I write this) and nice weather means we can break out the barbecue!  Barbecue is one of my favourite things because it's relatively fast and it also creates little to no dishes (washing dishes is the worst I hate dishes).

I wrapped some sweet potatoes and onions up in foil with some garlic, olive oil, cinnamon, oregano, and shredded coconut and put all that and some pork chops (because pork is cheap and I'm a poor student) on the grill.

I multitasked and iced my knee that was sore (just from training not an injury or anything) while I cooked dinner.  I was home alone so while I was waiting for dinner I got to enjoy a couple of our new patio chairs and my book in the sunshine.

Our patio is still a work in progress, we don't even have a table right now (we're working on that) but we got some nice chairs on sale at target and some little tea light holders so fingers crossed there's some nice enough weather this summer that we can spend a lot of it outside.

My finished dinner complete with some leftover chickpea salad that was just chickpeas, veggies, onions, cilantro, red pepper flakes, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

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