Photo(s) of the Day January 6th

Chris refills his wine glass

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It was a wonder we didn't wake Sophie up with our laughter

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His not-so-subtle hint to call off the paparazzi

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Chris and I enjoyed a simple pleasure tonight - something we haven't done in ages... we spent most of the evening sitting around the dining room table enjoying a bottle of wine and talking. It may not sound like an exciting "date" to most, but with our often different schedules, the proliferation of distractions in our lives (work, phone calls, volunteer responsibilities, time spent at the television and computer, etc) and so much of our attention focused on Sophie, we don't actually spend much uninterrupted "us" time. After Sophie went to bed this evening we opened a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape that we were given by our friend Ryan about five years ago, and enjoyed not only the well-aged wine but each others company... and quite a few laughs as well. A fun night in indeed!

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Photo of the Day January 5th

You know the old saying about buying children expensive toys only to find that they prefer playing with the box the toy came in? I've been amused by how much attention this particular non-toy item has gotten for a couple of years now... it may look like a sculpture here, but it's actually a series of hand carved wooden items that Chris and I picked up at a market in Roatan (an island just off the coast of Honduras). A set of five wine-style glasses with carrying tray, a set of six shot glasses also with its own tray, and a small bowl with its matching lid seem to hold endless stacking possibilities for Sophie, and I'm always amazed when I come across her latest tower of creativity. Perhaps we have a future architect on our hands?

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Photo of the Day January 4th

Sophie wades through the snow on her first day back at school...

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Today is the first day back to school after Christmas vacation, a day that is either celebrated or dreaded depending on who you are (or what grade you're in I suppose). Sophie was very excited to return to school - she's been asking each morning for the past three or four days "do I go to school today?", and has been disappointed when we reminded her that school didn't start again until Monday. Despite her excitement we still struggled to keep her focused on the task at hand while getting ready for school - something that's common with all four-year-olds I suspect. Eventually we herded her out the door and walked through the mountains of snow to get to Tecumseh, where she and her friends played for a few frosty minutes before the teaches started calling them inside. There's something very comforting about the return to our routines after Christmas break - we're getting back in the swing of not only school but my volunteer work and our time at the gym as well... I think by the end of two weeks off everyone in our home was looking forward to getting back to "normal" just as much as Sophie was.

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Video of the Day January 3rd

We don't post videos very often, but I know that a picture of the mountains of snow that have been falling on us wouldn't photograph very well, so this video recorded by Chris out our bedroom window seems like a good alternative. We went all the way from autumn through Christmas without having any good old Canadian winter weather, and boy are we paying for it now! The wind is blowing, the snow is falling (well, not so much "falling" as whipping past on an almost horizontal trajectory) and we're reminded once again that we live in the great white north. I spent a good part of my morning shoveling, and I must say it went well... well enough that after shoveling both the front and back walks and stairs as well as the driveway I still had the energy to shovel the foot of one neighbour's driveway and the staircase of another. I felt like I really earned the hot chocolate (with kaluha) that Chris suggested I have as a reward when I came inside all rosey-cheeked and frozen!

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Photo of the Day January 2nd

Something I neglected to mention about our anniversary two days ago were the gifts we exchanged - double-duty gifts actually, as we decided to do our Christmas and anniversary gift exchange on December 31st instead of on the 25th. Christmas is already so eventful without throwing a wedding anniversary into the mix, and we find Sophie gets a bit overwhelmed with the get togethers and gift exchanges - we've always spread her Christmas gifts from mom & dad out over at least several days after Christmas so each present has meaning because it doesn't get lost in the Christmas chaos. This year we enjoyed a smaller just-the-three-of-us Christmas gift exchange on New Year's Eve day, a nice perk of which was that we could combine those two gifts into a single larger one if desired - which Chris did (and I'm oh-so-glad he did!) I gave Chris a home-made gift certificate for the software that he's been wanting for his portable GPS unit along with a boxed set of the first three seasons of an old favourite show, Northern Exposure. And me? I'm currently sitting in bed typing this blog entry on my new anniversary/Christmas present: the lovely Acer Aspire One Netbook shown above. We've been talking about the benefits of having a netbook for quite some time now - as a single PC family with three avid computer users, competition for monitor time can be fierce, and our upcoming family vacation has inspired lots of conversation about emailing and blogging from "on the road". A netbook is the perfect solution for us - smaller and less expensive than a regular laptop, easily portable and quickly networked with our desktop PC for access to all our files, pictures and music. I'm thrilled with my gift - and the icing on the cake was that Chris was even able to get it in red, my favourite colour. I've been playing with it for a couple of days and love my new toy - thanks honey!

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Photo of the Day January 1st

Happy Anniversary from the snowy, patriotic Burton family...

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Happy Anniversary... and this time I'm not referring to yesterday's wedding anniversary! It was a year ago today that I began this blog, along with an introduction that reads in part: "Each photo represents something happening in our home or lives the day it's published - not necessarily a remarkable event, just a snapshot of what's happening with the Burtons today. We hope you enjoy it!"

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I do hope you've enjoyed it - one of my goals for starting this blog was to share our lives with the friends and family we don't have the opportunity to be with as often as we'd like. We have family from coast to coast here in Canada, and friends as far away as Australia - and with everyone's busy, busy schedules we don't speak to them (even those right here in London!) as often as we'd like. One of my other goals was to focus on appreciating the day-to-day joys in my life - to "stop and smell the roses" as it were. We're sometimes so busy that we let a million special little moments (like a hug between friends, a visit with family, or another kitchen project) slip by unnoticed or under appreciated - but that's pretty hard to do when you stop and take a photo of those moments!

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I think the project has been a success... so much so that I plan to continue it for the foreseeable future. Thank you for coming by, for checking up on us, and for letting us share part of our lives with you - please continue to visit, leave comments when you can, and know that we're glad you came! Here's to the year ahead...

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Photo of the Day December 31st

Happy New Year!

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Here we are on the last day of 2009... the end of one decade and the cusp of the next, saying some wistful (and not so wistful) goodbyes to the past and celebrating our yearly clean slate, the beginning of who-knows-what, the opening of possibilities. New Year's Eve marks not only the global celebration that we all know and love, but also our wedding anniversary... we've often said that it feels like the whole world celebrates with us when we toast our marriage! Unfortunately Chris has to work from 7pm to 7am today, which means we'll be spending our anniversary evening and the "big countdown" apart, but we made the most of our special day before Chris had to head off to be responsible. We picked up our niece Courtney and dropped both her and Sophie off at Masonville Place for a few hours, where they went for lunch at McDonald's and settled in to watch The Princess and The Frog. Chris and I headed out to do some shopping before sharing a wonderful lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Waldo's on King. It's become a bit of a tradition for us to have lunch there on our anniversary - not only because it can be challenging to find a sitter on one of the most popular "going out" nights of the year, but because I think we're both a bit past the "party 'till you puke" stage at this point. I'm not saying we're getting old, I'm just saying we've matured! We enjoyed our lunch, exchanged cards and gifts, and reminded one another how much we love and appreciate each other... something we do not only on our anniversary, but often. We're both very lucky to have found one another, and we know it - happy anniversary sweetheart!

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