winter's been ok so far

this morning, on my way to work

and tonight, coming home.

winter's not my favourite season, but you can't not like december. while the year, and holidays, are not yet over, there's still something to look forward to. or there's the closure-seeking, the wrapping it up. these days it hasn't been too cold, and we've had snowfalls just enough to keep it interesting. (and one day of freezing rain, ugh). also i'm basically too busy to get bored, so it's all good.

first snow was just the pretext to try out new scarves/neckwarmers and resuscitate my old grey coat

then deeper into winter i got/bought a bunch of sweaters...lots of red things all around

also some hats...of which i think this one is the least-funny looking

days before christmas were pretty busy and stressful, but fun. here's a pic from closing the cafe right before christmas eve. (that's not me mopping for once, but my co-worker). for some reason i took it on myself to run around window-shopping and grocery-shopping, clean the house and cook lots of foods in an attempt to conjure the christmas spirit. i think it worked. 

here's a "christmas village" in my former neighbourhood (plateau-est, on chabot), where people were buying christmas trees and i got a couple of branches for free. (and then i had to walk carrying them all along mont-royal)

there were fires, photo booths, mulled wine and marshmallows, and  hay squares.

decoration-wise, i didn't work a lot to improve on last year's plan: just throw all ornaments together in a basket

special mention to melanie's small plastic trees, one of them is still alive and shining after 5 years with me

and last year i took the mandatory picture of the batch of sarmale. by this time i'm already a veteran, so i just photographed the pot and steam. there's sarmale in there, trust me.

the flaky cake is my mum's traditional christmas recipe thing. the nut cookie and cozonac were bought at the romanian store in jean talon, and well worth my trip there.

best holiday mood-setter: we have new lights!

and i tried very hard (to the point of trying-too-hard) for "family pictures", but the cat was mostly not cooperating, so we did what we could. 

also we went to church on christmas day - not pictured, because we stayed approx 10 minutes - enough for a prayer, a candle and a few carols. i spotted this nativity scene in another corner of montreal

as usual, decorations are sometimes going crazy. i'm already bored with the ones in my neighbourhood (mostly) and always happy to find new examples of extravagance somewhere else. this is at honore-beaugrand

exception: adorned tree on my street. now glowing with the new snow.

i wish i'd talked to more people this fall/end of year...but for obvious reasons i'm a bit wary of new beginnings&co. so i'm avoiding any recaps or resolution-making. i would rather see 2017 as just a continuation. not of the tragedies and political crap and social media dumpster fires (lol i said "dumpster fire"), but of the good work that's been done silently and continually. it can't not add up.