12/19 Link Love

Guten Morning!

I am in a ridiculously good mood. It might have something to do with the fact that I woke up to this song playing on CBC Radio:

Or maybe it's the fact that I only have two more days of work before I take off and start living the vagabond lifestyle...until I come back to Canada for law school, of course ;)

Dinner & Wrapping

I had a great night at my Mom's bff's place in Chelsea. My phone/camera died so I wasn't able to snap any pics of the beautiful snowy scenery, and I obvi forgot my charger in Ottawa because I am the most organized person ever these days. NAWT.

Anywho, we had a wonderful curry dinner, with a crackling fire, and I helped her wrap Christmas presents. Correction: I wrapped all of her Christmas presents while we chatted because I am a big weirdo and absolutely LOVE wrapping presents!

[Source]

Seriously, its my jam. It is one of the things that I look forward to during the holidays - helping my parents, and now their friends, wrap presents. I like to get all fancy with ribbons and am very particular about the way that I fold the wrapping paper. It's the little things, amiright?!

We were planning on watching a Christmas movie, one of the classics like A White Christmas

[Source]

But then we decided that we wanted to watch more of an inspirational movie, and since Nelson Mandela passed away recently, we ended up watching Invictus

[Source]

He was such a brilliant man - the fact that he honed into rugby, the 'gentleman' sport that was seen as a symbol of Apartheid, as a method of uniting his country kind of blows my mind. It seems so simple, but it was so effective.

Also, fun fact: my Mom's friend has a signed copy of Nelson Mandela's autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom. A bit of a hefty read, it honestly took me a couple of years to get through, but his story is amazingly inspirational. Would definitely recommend it!

Or, if the size of the book seems a bit daunting, there's also the movie that just came out ;)

Link Love

Here are some links to brighten up your day :)

Get Into That Christmas Feeling

This Family's Christmas Card Makes Your Family Look Lame

Billy on the Street: Christmas Carol Ambush with Amy Poehler

'Elf' Recreated by Pugs

Warm The Heart

$40 Million Lottery Winner Says He'll Donate it All to Cancer Charities

The Problem with Celebrity Coverage? They Never Show This Type of Video

Laugh A Little

39 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Still Genius

18 Reasons Being Single During the Holidays is Pretty Great

Health Break

Why Diet Coke is Making You Fatter and Wrinklier

6 Reasons to Drink More Water

I'll be back (hopefully) later tonight with a Throwback Thursday post - stay tuned!!

Sister Spa Date

Morning friends!

It wasn't nearly as freezing cold outside or treacherous to walk down the sidewalk this morning compared to yesterday, it seems like the city of Ottawa has finally busted out the sand and salt. It's about time, really. I was starting to think that I would have to wear skates to work. Which would be kind of cool, I guess.

Breakfast

I actually managed to do groceries this weekend, so I have finally broken my oatmeal breakfast marathon - I think it ended up being over a week in a row - and had a yummy egg breakfast wrap.

Egg, lettuce and spicy salsa in a whole wheat wrap. Easy and delicious!

Sister Spa Date

So, my Mom is pretty much the cutest thing ever. If you've been following this blog for a while, you will know that she has been in Egypt with my youngest sister since August.

Lovin' life.

Anyway, it is slightly embarrassing and makes me seem like a two year old, but I have a confession: I have rarely gone for a haircut without my mother. Seriously, I can count the amount of times that I have booked myself an appointment on one hand. The same goes for my little sisters (who are also old enough to have their shtuff in order to be able to book their own hair appointments). Every once in a while, my Momster will break down and say 'I've had it! We're all going to get our hair done!'

Which is convenient since I would probs go for about a year before remembering to do so. Anyway, when my Step-dad went to go visit my Mom and little sister in Egypt over Thanksgiving, she sent him back with money for me and my little sister to go for a haircut. For serious. Her only demand was that we went together. She is amazing :)

Anyway, we thought about it for about five seconds and decided that the money would be much better spent towards a spa date for the two of us. So off we went on Saturday for a relaxing afternoon at Spa le Nordik in Chelsea.

 [Source]

 A good friend of mine and her little sister, who is on the same rugby team as my sister, ended up coming with me. It was like a sister double date. Which is pretty much the best thing ever!

 [Source]

 It was one of the first snowy days in the area (I missed the first snow storm while I was in Toronto - it all melted that time anyway) so it was absolutely beautiful with the steamy air coming off of the baths and the snow coming down - spectacular!

[Source]

I think that my favourite time of the year to go to le Nordik is during the winter. Flip-flops are DEFINITELY necessary (my sister and I forgot to bring them - I will never go without my flippy-floppies ever again) but the ambiance is ridiculously amazing. Definitely worth it!

The employees are a bit stickler about the 'no talking' rule, which is a bit tricky to follow when you are a group of ladies, but there are areas that have been designated as 'talking acceptable' so we hung around those areas quite a bit ;)

After spending about 5 hours at the spa, we made some dinner at my parents place and then went to go see Catching Fire. For the record, I have a total crush on Peeta. I guess Gayle is pretty cute too ;)


 [Source]

Pretty much the best day a girl could ask for!

Question of the Day:

• Have you been to le Nordik? Love it? 

I have been quite a few times, and I keep on going back for more :)

[Disclaimer - I paid for my experience at le Nordik myself (well, with my Momster's funds...but, you know) and all opinions are my own]