Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

A very belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Apologies that the posts have been few and far between lately, I've been having a bit too much fun to write.

Christmas is such a lovely time in Toronto; the tree-lined streets twinkle with fairy lights, festive decorations adorn shop windows and the minus temperatures bring a gentle flurry of snowflakes over the city. We got into the spirit of the season at home by decorating a gingerbread house with friends one afternoon.

In mid-December we visited the Distillery District's Christmas Market at night. The beautiful Christmas lights and jovial atmosphere made the freezing temperatures a little more bearable. The cobblestone alleys were lined with wooden carts selling Christmas gifts, ornaments, mulled wine, apple cider, wurst and pretzels. Christmas carolers braved the minus temperatures to sing and children had fun playing in the gingerbread house and mini hedge maze.

For Christmas and Boxing Day we flew to New York. It was lovely to stroll around the city amidst cheerful crowds of people stopping to look at the pretty Christmas decorations. Ice skating at the Rockefeller Centre looked like fun, but it was incredibly busy so we decided to pass it up. In Times Square we saw the New Year's Eve ball ready to drop in a week's time. We went to the Top of the Rock to take in a spectacular view of the city and enjoyed a relaxing Christmas dinner for two.

While it wasn't exactly a white Christmas in Toronto, we arrived on Wednesday night to a steady snowfall and awoke the next morning to find 15cm of fresh white powdery loveliness! But more on that next time. New Years' Eve was celebrated with good friends, good food, good music and above average dancing. I have a feeling 2013 is going to be a wonderful year!