End of the semester, out on good behavior at the jail and oohhh look fluffy white stuff came from the sky.

Christmas time is upon us again, where oh where did the time go?  This time last year, I was already at home and loving the snow and the weather. I am currently writing this still in DC curled up in my chair, not loving the un-snowed winter that is happening right now.  But as of tomorrow, I will be making my journey back to Alberta to the land of snow and winter and fantabulous family!!!!

As is tradition, once we finished our last final and before we all decided to hightail it every which way throughout the country, all of us girls went out for a Christmas dinner.  The place of choice - Rosa Mexicana which is a wonderful place to eat.  We were set to toast us getting through this semester and surviving our internships when Colleen so gracefully told us that she could not drink.  Yes people, she is pregnant.  Yay!!!!  It feels like the group of people from Knocked Up the way we have all bonded this past year and whatnot.  So, along with the toast to school, we toasted Colleen for becoming a mother.  Wonderful news all around for everybody.  Supper was wonderful - just got to sit back and talk about how internships were going, what Christmas holidays people were going to have, basically talked about everything except for school.  I love nights like that when school is not on the list of topics.

After supper, Kalyn and I decided to head to the White House to check out the tree as last year I had missed it.  The tree was amazing!! So big, so colorful, so bright.  They also had a bunch of trees around the big tree for each state.  I did not get a chance to see the Capital tree or even zoo lights (but from pictures from friends, zoo lights looks the same from last year).  I am super sad though that I am not able to see the Calgary zoo lights which is Aly and our's tradition for the past three (or four?) years.  I am sad that I will not be hitting Calgary at all this trip so this is a shoutout to all my Calgary peeps in that I miss you and wish you a very merry christmas!!!!!  

IT SNOWED!!!!!!!  Not a lot mind you, not even close to what Alberta winters are like, but I saw white fluffy things come down from the sky and they were huge fluffy flakes.  The snow actually stuck around for a couple of days so I was in complete heaven.  The city, however, was not.  At the thought of there being 1 to 3" of snow falling, gasp and shock and awe in how much that is (total sarcasm), the city shut down.  Government closed.  Highways were barren. I was outside in the street, dancing in the snow.  When not dancing in the street, I was curled up in my chair, playing crib, watching curling, having tea.  It was a wonderful way to spend a winteryish day.  Heaven.  Why can't there be more days like that around here?

I got to participate in the Wreaths Across America at Arlington Cemetery and it was quite the experience.  I had no clue what to expect as I have never heard about it before and at first thought it was what I had seen at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and laying wreaths there but I was so completely wrong.  A whole bunch of students from the school went on behalf of the school and got to lay about 8 wreaths per person.  I started worrying that I was going to lay a wreath on a site that may have family coming to lay wreaths or wanted to make sure I laid wreaths on sites that had nobody and did not want them to feel left out.  So many thoughts were going through the head when it came to laying a single wreath.  Who should I lay it on?  

My thoughts were that I tried to lay wreaths on the sites that had both a wife and a husband name on it that way it was like both people got the benefit of a wreath and just in case no family would come to lay a wreath.  I also laid wreaths on sons and daughters of those people who fought in the wars to make sure they were accounted for.  Just being there was inspiring and amazing - the amount of people who showed up was massive and just watching the Cemetery start filling up with wreaths was quite the sight.  I was standing on a hill, just watching people line up for the wreaths and then weave through the grounds, to pick which gravesite was going to get their wreath.  I am so glad I was able to take part in something like this.  We were standing in line to get the wreaths and I was telling Steph that I don't think we have something like this up in Canada since we appear to be the world's designated driver and thus don't need a cemetery like this to house all the soldiers from the wars, but just to be able to be part of something like that was quite touching.  I love the fact that even though I am not from here, that I am not American, I can still be part of something that is deeply American, that affects a lot of people.  Those memories are ones that are truly touching and meaningful.  

My time at the jail has been amazing.  Providing therapy for seven individuals was such a journey, some days went better than others and some people were more apt to change than others.  At the end, before I left, three had gotten released, and I felt like a mother whose children were leaving home hahaha.  I wished them luck and told them that I never wanted to see them again so hopefully they listened and learned something from the therapy.  I also got to run an Anger Management group and a Job Readiness group and the anger management was so fun, I am definitely doing that again.  The job readiness, not so much as that was painful and was like pulling teeth.  I am hoping that in the new year, I am allowed to run a group wherein the inmates will draw to music in order to understand/talk about/get in touch with their feelings.  This type of therapy has never happened before in the jail, so I am not sure if it will fly or not.  I am so lucky to be at the jail though for my internship as the experience I am getting there is insurmountable and the atmosphere is so fun and exciting and definitely not boring. 

Well tomorrow I get to look forward to a 12 hour travelling day, from my house to my brothers, so yay!!!!  This Christmas is the one with my sisters down so it will be pretty awesome of a time.  I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, safe and extraordinary Christmas.  And, here is a clip of my favorite Christmas moment to leave you with.  I miss everyone and love you guys to pieces!!!!

Pigeons are friendly. Canadians are colorful. Gall bladders are dependable.

Well American Thanksgiving was upon us and the wonderfully fantastic Stephanie decided to play host to us orphans who had no place to go for Thanksgiving and it was a spectacular time as it was the first time that I got to partake in American Thanksgiving.  I think last year I was partaking in being a hermit on Thanksgiving.  I was going to experience Black Friday but then I realized that being tramped and potentially having an arm ripped off for reaching for a piece of clothing or something was not high up on my list of things to experience so I kindly declined the offer.  Maybe one day I will do it.  And that one day I will have a job and can actually buy stuff on Black Friday hahaha.

So the day arrives and I meet up with Nina and Meg to walk over to Steph's and thankfully I was smart enough to ask Nina and Meg if they wanted to walk cause it is sketchville walking over to her place.  Such colorful characters (not Canadians as per title of posting and what will follow later) were wishing us a happy thanksgiving.  And pigeons.  Not friendly.  A flock of them took off/swooped down near us and I damn near jumped into oncoming traffic to avoid them.  Nothing friendly about flying things.  Get to Steph's and the smell of food is amazingly delicious.  And I got to meet Capone, who is an absolute sweetheart and Muppet, who looks exactly, identical, to Sprocket from Fraggle Rock.  Sadly, no football was on so I didn't get that American experience but the Macy's Day Parade was on so we got to watch some of that.

Supper was a lot of food.  Tons of food.  More food than was imaginable.  Steph and Lauren made poutine for an appetizer and it was amazingly delicious and then supper was served.  The dishes were, *clears throat* - stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, bean salad, pistachio salad, spinach salad, tofurkey, cranberries, rolls and broccoli salad.  For dessert we had individual pumpkin pies/souffles and truffles.  So much good food.  Definitely stuffed myself big time.  After supper was the fun times of playing Apples to Apples.  My first time playing, and Lauren's.  We kicked some ass, newbie style hahaha.  Meg and I have similar warped minds so we were laughing quite a bit when it came time for us to lay our cards.  And for dessert/a surprise, Lauren brought us Kinder Surprises from Germany!!! I didn't realize they were banned from the States and now I realize that I have not seen any while here.  Overall it was a wonderfully awesome day spent with fantabulous company.  Thank you girls for providing me with a day with no school and no jail.

I decided to keep the wonderfulness going and took a day out for myself to go do something touristy as I haven't done that in a very long time.  So on the docket was the Smithsonian American Art Museum as I wanted to feel sophisticated for one day.  Being at the art gallery was absolutely amazing in that it was so calm and peaceful.  The ability to sit in front of some paintings and just look at them and not think about anything other than the colors, what the picture was showing and how I felt about the picture (sounds very hoity toity doesn't it) was something that I definitely needed.  Some of those pictures were absolutely exquisite and I can't believe the time and imagination it took to paint them.

Art galleries, I think, are going to be some of my favorite places to go as they are very calming and peaceful and just to be able to stare at such beautiful things is a wonderful way to get through a day.  There were just too many pictures to love there.  I can't wait till I go to the other art museum as it is much bigger and it will take the whole day getting through it.  After I got home from the art museum, I kept the "me" day going and actually picked up my cross stitch.  I haven't touched it since August and it is still so very slow going.  I am hoping this winter break I can get a lot more done on it to make a dent to try to get into closer to completion hahaha.  I am starting to get antsy on starting another one but can't until this one is finally completed and hung up.

Next up is to get through this week of final exams and massive papers, then work at the jail for a couple of weeks and then off to home for a wonderful 2 weeks of family time!!!! I can't believe December is upon us already and that 2013 is almost said and done and gone.  Where oh where has the time gone???  Insanity I tell you!!!!  But the countdown is on and the stress to finish is here.  20 more days till I am home with family.  4 more days till this semester is done.  WOOOOOHOOOOOO.  Miss and love you all!!!!