Thanksgiving Round Two!

Last Thursday was American Thanksgiving. We went up to Vermont to celebrate the holiday with some friends. We stayed in two large cabins in a fairly secluded area. It was nice to get away from the city and see some country side. Vermont is beautiful...mountains, farms, quaint sleepy little towns...loved it!

We arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday and got to cooking pretty quickly. I was in charge of all things potato. I made mashed potatoes and a sweet potato casserole. I also made mini blueberry cheese cakes, which are sooooo delicious and easy to make. There were about 20 people, so there was a lot of food! Yum yum! Two thanksgivings a year is fine by me.

The Gang

Friday morning we were up bright and early. Apparently we can't sleep in anymore. After breakfast we went to Billings Farm, located in a little town called Woodstock. It was about a 45min drive from where we were staying. This farm had a bunch of horses, cows, sheep, and chickens, so it was great for the little ones. The smell was "fresh", but it was worth it because the little baby calves were so cute!

The farm also had a house that was built in 1890. The farm staff were dressed in traditional period clothing and were making a thanksgiving dinner on a wood burning stove. But, the food was for DISPLAY ONLY! What??? No food for us?? It smelled so good and we couldn't eat any of it....just look at it in all it's mouthwatering glory. TEASE! They did have sugar cookies and ginger snaps to eat and hot apple cider to drink, so I guess that partially made up for it.

We were so hungry after the farm so we went for a late lunch back in town. We ate at a restaurant called Bentley's. They had the most amazing Christmas display I've ever seen. They hung Christmas baubles of all different sizes and colours from the ceiling. After lunch we walked around town. A toy store had life size playmobil! I was like a kid again. LOVED Playmobil.

Life size Playmobil!!

Saturday morning we went to Killington for a day of boarding. The ski resort was very close to the cabin. Killington makes most of it's snow, so they opened in early November. Only 21 runs were open, but it was still pretty great considering almost all the snow was made by machines. On the way up the chairlift there was nothing but dead grass and dirt below us, but once we got up to the top there was a bunch of snow. It also starting snowing in the afternoon and I've never been so happy to see it!

That night Pat and I played with the camera outside and came up with some interesting ghost-like shots. We used a flash light and a long exposure setting to get the effects.

On Sunday it was time to leave....back to reality. After breakfast and packing we made our way back to Boston, but not without a few stops first. We stopped at the Long Trail brewery, which coincidentally just happens to be Pat's current favourite beer. We sampled six different kinds of beer. This brewery runs on Cow Power renewable energy, which I thought was pretty interesting.

After the brewery we stopped at Sugarbush Farm. They make cheese, jams, and maple syrup. Yum yum! After sampling everything in sight we purchased some raspberry rhubarb jam, extra sharp cheese, jalapeno cheese, sausage, and crackers and had a little picnic in the car.

So adorable

Clearly very impressed

These were only 4 ounces each....this angle makes them look a lot bigger

Scotch, Shoes and Sunsets

This past Saturday Pat organized a scotch tasting for his buddies. He prepared for this VERY serious event by picking up some scotch with his friend, Ranko, from this infamous liquor store in downtown Boston. Apparently it's the best place to go for scotch. I tagged along, and took the opportunity to go shoe shopping. I ended up purchasing two pairs of shoes while Pat and Ranko purchased scotch. WIN-WIN

After shopping Pat and I decided to go to East Boston to take some pictures of the downtown skyline at sunset. Pat recently upgraded our camera, so we wanted to test it out. We are now shooting with a Canon 60D and we love it.

Later that evening we went over to a friend's house for the much anticipated scotch tasting. I was the DD so I didn't drink....not that I minded. I'm not a real fan of scotch...sorry Pat. The boys and girls had a good time and the room got louder and louder as the tasting went on. We didn't take many pictures (notice hockey on the tv), but Pat did manage to take a picture of the scotch bottles amidst the fun...most important picture of course. We stayed out till 4am....so needless to say we were pretty useless the next day. In fact, we were so useless that we watched Notting Hill on tv...haha...and Pat doesn't like Hugh Grant.

Also, my replacement bag from coach arrived, nicely wrapped and everything! Isn't she pretty?

Well it's almost bedtime. I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow! Where did the week go?? Next week, three day work week and Thanksgiving, round 2!

My First Photography Course

Well my photography course is all finished. My final class was last week. I really enjoyed it, learned a lot,  and had fun taking pictures on a weekly basis. But to be honest, now that I'm working, I'm glad the class is over. For the last two weeks I've had to race home from work and then hop on the subway to get to my 6:00 class in Boston. I was late both times. Although I tried to leave work at 5, so I could get to class on time, I failed miserably. It will be nice not to have that stress on Tuesday nights anymore. I have learned my lesson...if I take another class I will make sure it starts later in the evening.

So here are the pictures from my final project. The theme was Old Architecture. These 19 pictures were narrowed down from a bunch I had taken throughout the course. These were my favourites that fit within my theme. The first 8 pictures were taken at a place called Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA. The 9th one with the blue shutters was taken near MIT.  Pictures 10-13 were taken at the Banff Springs Hotel and the last 6 were taken in Harvard Square. I could have used an extra week or two to get some more shots to choose from, but overall I am pretty pleased with the way my project turned out.

Halloween!!!

I'm going to start by saying that I LOVE Halloween! It's so fun to dress up. On Saturday Pat and I celebrated this creepy holiday by going to Salem. This is where the witch trials took place in the early 1690's. For the whole month of October Salem has a bunch of Halloween activities going on. They draw a massive crowd and it's a great place to see lots of interesting costumes.

We dressed up as Mad Men characters because we LOVE that show. Pat went as Don Draper and I went as Joan Holloway (minus her red hair). We had a lot of fun picking out our costumes, considering we left it to the last minute and did not purchase them until last week. We purchased some fake cigarettes since they smoked like chimney's back then. Pat also purchase a super skinny tie and I found a pair of sweet glasses.

(We are not promoting smoking in anyway....although it appears that way)

We had dinner and walked around town and then we went on a candlelit walking ghost tour. They also had bands playing so we stayed and watched them for a while. The temperature dropped a lot in the evening so we didn't say as long as I would have liked, but we beat the traffic out which is always a good thing.

On Sunday we had a few errands to take care of. The stitching on the strap of one of my coach bags was coming loose so I took to the store so I could have it repaired. I was afraid the strap would rip off. I thought they would just take it for a while and repair it...nope they ordered me a NEW one because my exact bag was still in stock! Saweet! It's shipping as I type this. What great service!

Well that about sums up our weekend. We did a bunch of other boring things that I won't even bother mentioning.

Happy Hump Day!