Happy Holidays! (and a huge turkey)

This is usually my favorite time of year. It can be stressful, I admit that, with all the shopping and food preparing and making everything clean and nice and entertaining people.

But somehow this time of year, that has a special spirit and despite all the work, it's worth it.

This whole week was actually exiting - in both good and bad ways. It started bad with my visa complications, resulting in not sleeping for two days and a great depression.

Luckily, I've managed to solve the issue on Wednesday, so I had good day and a half to actually relax and do those last things before Christmas. Like last minute shopping and figuring what the hell are we going to eat.

With a little help aside, we decided it's going to be a turkey on Christmas eve - and don't judge - nobody eats fish around here, and even if we do, I wouldn't know how to make it.

Also, a friend of mine was working on Christmas day, so we decided to go with Christmas rituals day before, on Christmas eve.

So, while I was working for half a day and running around to get wine and other necessities, Ana came with a 10 lb turkey. She said she took the smallest one available.

It barely fit into the oven. I don't even have a proper size dish for that kind of animal.
It took it 5.5 hours to get it done.
We were starving.

In the meantime, we made mulled wine and enjoyed that for the whole afternoon. It was delicious.

So, six hours later, we had the dinner!

By that time, one of the guys ended up being on another party and another one went to bed. So Ana and I ate alone.

After we were so hungry and had a huge meal, the turkey still looked as if we just took it out of the oven.
You can't even tell someone already ate it. We're gonna be eating it til New Year's eve probably.


We opened the presents that evening too, and spend huge amount of time to get her fitness tracker working.

I got a kitchen scale, which I've been really missing, considering that I've been using my sixth sense and a feeling to measure stuff till now :)

Christmas day was quiet and relaxing, and we ended it in the theater watching the new Star Wars movie. BP8 was cute.

So all in all we had nice and relaxing Christmas. With plenty of food. And cookies I've made :)

I hope you did too! So have nice rest of the holidays and a killer New Year!

Xoxo!

Christmas Spirit and Hot, Spicy Wine

Nothing is like December! I'm not a winter person, but December brings out that holiday joy and Christmas spirit all over the place.

And I'm not viewing this from religious point of view - whatever religion you're in, or if you're not religious at all, I'm talking about the unique feeling of holiday atmosphere.

Holiday lights on the streets, ornaments on Christmas trees, the general look of the city at this time of year, everything sparkling and smelling of cider and wine - the whole Christmassy feel.

You can hear Christmas songs everywhere, see ideas for presents in every store you walk into and feel that special warmth of red, gold and silver colors, so significant for these holiday moments.



Even though the commercialization of Christmas holidays has taken it too far, with companies decorating and pushing gifts sales already in November, and people feeling pressured about the whole thing, it still doesn't diminish that very holiday sensation that's spreading like a virus as soon as you see the first holiday lights on the streets.

The best place to enjoy the atmosphere in Toronto, at this moment, is definitely the Distillery District.

With the Toronto Christmas Market that is held there every December for the whole month, up until Christmas day, Distillery District becomes a magical place (magical more than it usually is).

Various artisans and vendors are participating and there's nothing you can't buy in their little booths.

You can find hand-made ornaments, gifts, candles and other Christmas merchandise. If you're hungry, you'll be able to enjoy German sausages, roasted nuts, baked goods and plenty of other seasonal stuff.



To keep yourself warm, I strongly recommend the popular mulled wine - which was delicious! So very tasty, just like the wine from back home, which my family used to make every Christmas and which we regularly enjoyed during the whole Christmas season.  I really missed that so I made sure I got enough. Don't overstep your boundaries though - it's stronger than it tastes :)

All in all, a very nice evening out - I loved it! If you're around, make this place a number one on your visit list. Soon.  Even the holiday hater will enjoy :)

The only thing that's missing is snow, to make the whole experience more fulfilled. But, until then, this is the perfect place to hang out one of these evenings, before Christmas, while there's still mulled wine available...



Oh and yes. A huge Christmas tree :) Who doesn't love that?

Cheers! Xoxo

It's getting cold!

Yes, the winter is coming. It's not really so tough, considering we're in Canada and still haven't had a proper snow.

One would say it's unusually warm for this time of year.  I'm actually glad because for once, Croatia is full of snow, and we're not :)

Still, getting colder and colder every day.

That means my cat doesn't want to spend nights outside anymore, and wants to curl up on my bed to sleep there.

That means making tea occasionally and dishes that you eat with the spoon.

That means less walking and less nature photographing. Hence, more hamster and indoor stuff.

I was just cleaning Shelly's cage the other day, so while she was out, I decided to take a few photos again.

The only apple I had in house was huge, and she was obviously overwhelmed with the size.

I had to bite it off so she could continue nibbling it.
Surprisingly, she showed more interest towards my camera than the apple.









We also had another photo shoot in the garage, with a beautiful model and a great make-up artist. Again a great experience. Lovely girls. Had issues with the lights again though. How I wish it was summer and we can shoot outside...

The other day, it was nice and sunny, so I wanted to get some fresh air.



I took a walk, and the path that I'm usually taking surprised me with great reflections in the lake, that I haven't noticed earlier.

I have also been dealing with the domain and the website, so beachofhope exists no more. I have a new website that you can see here.

Still working on it though, don't be judgy.

Considering I have no idea what I'm doing, it getting along pretty good. :) I had some help from my hosting service agent who was kind enough to make my day. Thank you, Colton!

So, with all that was happening, between the work, photo shooting, little business I started on the side which will stay top secret (literally, it's better if you don't know), new website and all - it was a pretty busy week. 

It's time to think about Christmas holidays and presents now.

Stay warm!

XoXo