Last week we finally got two of the items we ordered for our entrance! We ordered them before christmas by Pier1 and Crate & Barel. Leigh the coat tree was easy to set up and was mounted in 5 minutes, the unpacking took longer. But the mirror was a bit more difficult since it’s a really heavy mirror. But I also mentioned to hook it up to our dry wall, I’m surprised how much these walls can hold.

I also got a very nice present form Danielle, our 8th Monopoly set. This time it’s a special 80th anniversary edition which she found at the Toys “R” Us across the street.

After enhancing our home on Friday night we decided to do something active to start the weekend. We started with a visit to another Dutch Store/lunchroom on Holland Street East in Bradford. It’s called Dutch Treats and here we had some Frikandellen and Kroketten.

Early afternoon we continued our way to Barrie. Barrie is located on the Kempfenbelt Bay from Lake Simcoe. We wandered through Heritage Park, got some Hot Chocolate before we decided to take a closer look at the ice-fishing which took place in the bay. It was extremely cold due to the wind and the ice but it was well worth it. We stood on the lake for about an hour before we decided to go back to our car and drive home.

Sunday we relaxed a bit and Danielle baked some delicious cupcakes. I’ve to say the Red Velvet’s are getting better and better each time she bakes them and I’m officially addicted. The other ones are the Pim’s editions which is a chocolate-orange cupcake with orange frosting, also delicious.

We also started working our again, but due to the cold weather this is not possible outside. Lucky for us our condominium has a fitness center included. We both started last week for the first time. In the evenings it’s quite busy but so far I’ve been lucky 3 times and found a free treadmill. The first time was quite difficult it was warm there was no air to cool and I was sweating extremely. But after a couple of times you seem to get used to it. Let’s hope my knee holds out a long time this year.

During the week we visited Absolute Comedy together, every Wednesday it’s the so-called Am/Pro night which means that there 5 Amateurs, 1 Professional MC and a Professional. This time 2 of the Amateurs’ performances were funnier as the professional. Overall it was a bit less than the other couple times we went but we still ad a great evening.

And finally Amazon.ca got the stock problems sorted out and we were able to finish our big project related to our movie collections. We collected about 860 different DVD and Blu-Ray boxes (over 1000 discs) over the last 10 years and we always had these sorted in some kind of library. Unfortunately this is very space consuming and in our Condo there is just not enough wall space. So we have decided to change the storage concept from this (12 Ikea Benny’s:

Into 5 Media Binders:

It was a lot of work but it saved so much space, we’ve still enough place in the binders since every binder holds up to 272 discs and we’ve a 6th binder as spare. And now I feel like getting a coffee…

For the last time this year and for the last time for Martin & Sabrina we went to Absolute Comedy, tonight was the best show so far. Maybe it’s because of us starting to think in English instead of German or maybe the comics get better I don’t know but fact is it’s getting better and better every time.

For the weekend we decided to visit the Christmas Market in the Toronto Distillery district. We (Martin and I) had the best idea possible to combine the christmas-market with a beer tour at the Mill Street Brewery. After having a late start on that Saturday the day and night became awesome.

We started with a lunch at the brewery and then booked the tour at the brewery. In between we got some shots and after the beer we got to taste four different beers and a beer schnaps. They al tasted great. From there we left and had some more warm drinks at the market before we left by foot towards Union Station. From here we took the subway towards Yonge and Eglinton.

At Yonge and Eglinton we all agreed that we should visit the Unicorn, a local pub just around the corner from our buildings. And here we had some food and a lot of beer. Maybe a little bit to much…but one thing for sure we had a lot of fun until we left the pub around 1 o’clock to go back home.

The Sunday was less fun as you can imagine. But Danielle still was fit enough to prepare my favourite cupcakes for the last day in the office because that Monday I went to the office for the last day this calendar year and for Martin this was his farewell day since they will move back to Germany soon.

The Tuesday we went grocery shopping for christmas to prepare for our christmas breakfast and Martin to prepare for the dinner at the first day of christmas. After the groceries we went back home and Danielle and I decided to check out a Dutch Store we found out about on the Christmas Market. And I have to say I”m happy to live within 20 minutes driving for a nice Dutch Kroketje.

After using our Sonos Playbar for about 2 months now we decided that it was time to extend Sonos to our bedroom with the Sonos Play:1 and it’s nice to go to bed with some easy listening and waking up with some great music too.

Let’s prepare for christmas…