Christmas Decorations

I enjoyed seeing the decorations in Staunton and Bruce on everyone else's blog so decided to post ours.

An overview of the tree with the presents so far. I say so far because none of these are for me so I'm hoping some more are added before its time to open gifts!

A detail of the new golden glass bird ornaments I bought myself as a present this year:

Also new this year - a garland with lights I added to the top of the book case to display Christmas cards received.

And our stockings - Azra's is also new this year as she wasn't able to go to Bosnia this year and will be with us for Christmas, her birthday and New Years! I know she'd rather be home, but I'm excited she's here!

Miran, the Actor!

Miran and I went to a holiday play at the Actors' Theatre of Charlotte. Miran ended up being the star of the show after being pulled up on stage. He was absolutely thrilled and on the drive home suggested we should go again and sit in the same seats because he wanted to do it again and felt he could do better if he was prepared.

Thanksgiving!

Here are a few pictures from our company last week for Thanksgiving. I seem to disproportionately feature Maggie this time, but I didn't take too many pictures so this is what I've got.

Vancouver New York Trip

Two weeks ago I went to conferences in Vancouver and then New York. Here are some pictures from that trip.

The conference was at the Museum of Vancouver, which was a fun space age building:

I walked around the city a lot, and checked out Canada Place - a big convention center on a pier near the port. 

Here is me reflected in the glass facade of Canada Place with the amazing bay and mountains behind me.

Apparently the War of 1812 is a big deal in Canada, here is a little anti-american propaganda about when we attacked them and tried to incorporate Canada into the United States!

The conference in New York was at Columbia, so I had fun exploring my old hunting grounds. Here is a campus view:

And my 1st and 2nd apartments in New York:

I also went to check out the World Trade Center memorial (the building behind is the museum, which is still under construction):

Here is me in front of the memorial reflected in the glass of the museum's facade:

And I also walked the high line - which was pretty amazing:

Topsail Beach

Thanks to my parents, last week we spent a wonderful five days on Topsail Island on the North Carolina coast. In addition to my parents and us, Aunt Maggie and the Anderson family were also there. We were sorry that Aunt Lee, Uncle Jim, Megan and John couldn't be there - especially because the reason was Mrs. DeRoche's passing.

But we had a good time celebrating mom's birthday and escaping from real life for awhile. We were supposed to come home Tuesday, but then stayed until Wednesday, and then decided to stay until Thursday. Miran had a lot of fun playing with the girls and they seem to really enjoy Uncle Miran.

And a couple of videos of beach fun (sorry the surf is so loud, just turn the sound down, you can't hear anyone talking on any of these).

The Andersons were looking so cute and like a perfect family during their bedtime ritual story time that I had to take a picture.