Merry Christmas!

I'm really looking forward to a full week of relaxing, eating, and drinking! As much as it saddens me not to be back in Canada this year, I just need to think of all of the poor people stuck in Heathrow waiting for a flight that may be cancelled and I feel a bit better about our decision not to fly home.

Our little fridge is full to the brim with the turkey, lots of smoked salmon (my fave) and all of the trimmings.



We even have a little brussel sprouts tree!



I was ecstatic to find some egg nog at TK Maxx last night (obscenely priced at £4.99), so we'll be enjoying a bit of rum and nog over the next few nights...



Lee is on nights tonight and tomorrow, which is a bit of a bummer, but at least we have all next week to look forward to. We plan to do a fair bit of walking and just enjoy the winter weather.

Apparently this past Sunday was Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before the start of the Advent season. It is also traditionally the day to make the Christmas pudding, with each family member having a stir while making a wish. I don't have a Christmas pudding to stir, but I do love Christmas pudding decorations.

I wish our niece and nephew were still small enough to wear this little hat and mitten set from John Lewis.



I also love this decoration and pillow from Laura Ashley.





These bin bags are slightly naff but will support Oxfam.


I also love this year's Christmas stamps. All of my North American-bound Christmas cards will be sporting the 96p stamp!



As the Laura Ashley decorations were too expensive, I decided to have a go at making me own, using the tutorial posted by Bugs and Fishes. As a non-sewer, making these bad boys is quite an achievement.

I've been bad. I've bought myself, yes myself, not anyone from my Christmas list, something for Christmas.

I bought these snowflake stickers to pretty up our windows.


I also bought these snowflake cookie cutters. I think I'll try to use them with either a shortbread or gingerbread cookie recipe.


Speaking of baking, I'd like to also try to make these shortbread buttons, from the beautiful blog Forty-sixth at grace.

{via forty-six at grace}

I downloaded a copy of the very pretty recipe here, which I think would look lovely framed in our kitchen. The recipe was illustrated by etsy seller evajuliet, who creates beautiful things in Montreal.

Lee and I picked Barry's Bay as our group's next stop as it was pretty much exactly half way between Montreal and Collingwood - our final destination of the trip.

We wanted to have a taste of a Canadian cottage and started to look for some cottage rentals. Unfortunately the majority of places were (1) not open; (2) required a one-week rental period; or (3) required that we brought our own linens and towels. Luckily we happened across Barry's Bay cottages, which allowed us to have a cottage experience for 2 days and nights without having to drag our duvet covers around on the holiday. The cottage was nice and clean and had pretty much every thing that we needed for the time we were there.







The hot tub went down a treat, although the boys made the fatal mistake of sitting in there for over an hour and drinking beers. Lee had to stand outside in the cold in order to start feeling better and not quite so light-headed.





Even though it was a bit choppy on the water, Lee channeled his inner Ray Mears and took a few of us out canoeing. Even the youngest member of our tour group (2-year-old Ollie) accompanied his Dad on the canoe, encouraging him to 'go faster'.





Four of us took advantage of the numerous hiking trails in the area, although the boys (yes, it was the boys) did take us on a rather longer detour due to some poor map reading.







The hike up to the lookout point was hard work but definitely worth it.











Although it was just a short stay, I think we managed to enjoy the best of cottaging: some canoeing, some fire-making, some hot-tubbing, some drinking, and lots and lots of eating!

After Kingston, we headed east towards Montreal. On the afternoon of our arrival Lee and I did a little exploring on our own. McGill has a lovely campus and I often wonder what my undergraduate days would have been like if I'd chosen to go there instead...





It started raining so we wimped out and headed indoors for some drinks. Apparently it was happy hour so we were pleasantly surprised when the waitress brought us an extra beer each.





Unfortunately the rain didn't stop for the next two days! I don't usually mind the rain, but consistent, pouring down, soak your shoes rain when you're on holiday is a bit of a pain.



We stayed dry in Notre Dame cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous.





As it was noon (somewhere) we decided to hide out from the rain some more in a nice cafe in old Montreal.







The thought of smoked meat cheered us a little as we trudged through the rain towards Schwartz's. We had to queue for 15 minutes or so but it was definitely worth the wait! I was also pleasantly surprised with how friendly our waiter was as I've heard that they can be rather crusty and rude.





Our original plan was to visit Schwartz's and then climb Mount Royal, but the rain clouds didn't co-operate.



Once we had warmed up and dried off, we went to see the Montreal Canadiens play the Buffalo Sabres in a pre-season game. None of the Brits had ever seen a hockey game but seemed to enjoy it. I'm not a hockey expert in the least but I hope I was able to explain the concepts of icing and offside.

We had a bit of a stress trying to find somewhere to eat before the game (we didn't), so this $9.00 foam finger was my way of cheering up my husband. (Sally bought one too for Dean) :)





we didn't really have enough time to see even a small amount of what Montreal has to offer. But I did manage to enjoy two Montreal bagels while we were in the city! They were as delicious as I remember. Unfortunately we ran out of time to get to either Fairmount or St Viateur bagels to buy a few dozen as I had planned. We were in a bit of a rush to get to our next destination and I didn't feel right asking the entire group to make a detour just for me. Travelling with a group has its rewards but it can be hard too sometimes...