Today I...
...went Downtown for lunch and a movie with my mother and my brother. As you can see above, I went through one of my favorite places in all Montreal on my way there, Central Station, which is all decked out for the holidays.
...was early for once. Well actually, no, I wasn't. Mother and Brother were late. So, I wandered around the area of Central Station with my trusty camera and snapped this photo of one of the statues in Place
du Canada, which is very nearby the station.
Yup, there's still loads of snow on the ground and more started falling just after we got to the restaurant. But, before making it to the restaurant, I snapped this photo of St. George's Anglican church, which is just across from Place
du Canada and, incidentally, Montreal's Catholic Cathedral, Marie-Reine-
du-
Monde (Mary Queen of the World).
Looks kind of like it's out int he middle of the country somewhere, doesn't it? Or at least in a small town. Well, as you can see below, it's actually right smack dab in the
middle of the business district, right next to the IBM tower.
It is right across from the old Windsor Station though, it matches perfectly with that building, far better than it does with the IBM tower and the Readers' Digest tower which is the one you can glimpse behind the church.
...we got to lunch late, then got to the theater late after making sure my mother got a good feel for the Underground City (Montreal's network of underground shopping centers and tunnels which allowed me, while I was at
McGill, to get on the train in
Pierrefonds, which is way out on the west end of the Island that is Montreal, take off my hat, coat, scarf and
mitts and not put them back on again until I was done with class on some days because once on the train I didn't have to set a tow outside again until I got home. The train station was connected by tunnel to
McGill's Language study building and oh, how I loved it.)
...saw Disney's 'A Christmas Carol' in
IMAX 3D. My brother and I loved it, but my mom found it wasn't up to snuff with her old fashioned version of the movie. She had also never seen an
IMAX movie before so I think it was a bit much for her and the scenes where Scrooge was flying around made her kind of dizzy because she took of the 3D glasses once or twice. She did find it neat though. Oh, 'A Christmas Carol' may be a Disney movie, by the way, but it is not kid friendly, Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Present and Past will scare them silly. Stick with 'The Princess and the Frog', they'll like that better.
...got a ride home from my mom in the blinding snow, it was really coming down and the scrapers and salt trucks were coming out again.
...realized too late that I had forgotten to buy dry food for my kitties, they're getting all wet food tonight, not that they'll mind one bit.
...watched 'The Little Princess' on TV, I hadn't seen it in ages, but loved it just as much as the last time I watched it. The nasty
headmistress of Sara
Crewe's boarding school reminds me immensely of my horrible 6
th grade teacher and I take great pleasure in
watching her get soot dumped all over her by Sara and Becky :o)
...taste tested my Christmas cookies and found them to be even tastier than they were yesterday. They may be prize worthy after all :o) I'll try and get a picture of them all decked out in their Christmas box when they're heading into the competition at the Christmas party on Thursday, but they're staying in their air tight containers until then so they'll stay nice and fresh.
...ate a lot, below you can see the mussel soup we had as an entrée for Christmas dinner at my aunt's. I got leftovers of this and they didn't last me any more than a day, it was amazingly good stuff.
...had some serious fun with the new Canon EOS Rebel XSi my dad got for me, check out how bright and crisp this picture came out!!!
...was spoiled, very, very spoiled. Not all those presents were for me, by the way, but it gives you an idea of how big on gift giving my family is. The stuffed dog, by the way, is named Rumples, and he belongs to my aunt and uncle, he's a quintessential part of family gatherings.
...spent lots of time with my grandparents who were visiting us for Christmas from South Carolina. They are Canadians, but have been living in the US for 13 years now and have moved from California to Florida and just this past October, from Florida to South Carolina. They spend Christmas in Montreal once every two years and the other years spend it with our family in Toronto.
The second one is under her Christmas tree. I set the figurines back upright just for this picture because since she had three German Shepherds, they very rarely stay upright for more than 30 seconds at a time. Pretty creche though, isn't it?
Yes, it was as yummy as it looks :o)
Here's a seasonal Skywatch shot for you all, just in case I don't have time to put one up for you next week :o) It's the giant LED Christmas tree that's in the plaza of Montreal's landmark and at one time tallest Skyscraper, Place Ville-Marie, with the moon behind it. Now go check out all the
Yup, there's still loads of snow on the ground and more started falling just after we got to the restaurant. But, before making it to the restaurant, I snapped this photo of St. George's Anglican church, which is just across from Place du Canada and, incidentally, Montreal's Catholic Cathedral, Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary Queen of the World).
Looks kind of like it's out int he middle of the country somewhere, doesn't it? Or at least in a small town. Well, as you can see below, it's actually right smack dab in the middle of the business district, right next to the IBM tower.
It is right across from the old Windsor Station though, it matches perfectly with that building, far better than it does with the IBM tower and the Readers' Digest tower which is the one you can glimpse behind the church.
Today I...
We had our first big snowstorm of the year here yesterday, so as my Skywatch post I decided to give you peek at what the Oratory looks like after a good dumping of snow and a beautiful blue sky above it :o)
Today I...
...also took these pictures of the huge Christmas tree at Place Montréal Trust, which also never ceases to amuse me.
...The elf holding that long Christmas list moves up and down...
...and the figures on the platforms move too.
...The size of the man standing down there puts the size of the tree into excellent perspective, doesn't it?
So that's Camera Critters for this week, have a great weekend and don't forget to go and see all the other wonderful critters out there by going here
I was originally planning on using another photo for Skywatch this week, but I was then greeted by this beautiful sky at dusk while leaving work yesterday and thought you all might enjoy it too :o)