What Christmas brings in CT

December was upon us immediately following our trip back to the UK. Although it is typically a quieter month for Annalie at work, there was still a lot going on. First and foremost was the IAE Holiday Party. After plenty of searching, Annalie finally found herself a dress which she was willing willing to make do with. She'd been determined not to wear black, but she did in the end! But she decided to accessorise it instead to liven up the outfit, opting for red hangbag and shoes. The only photo we have is the official one, and we must get that electronically to show you! Of the photos that we took, Annalie is in none of them, mainly because she had the camera all night!

There were plenty more festivities including team dinner, lunch with Annalie's ad agency, a departmental lunch, and more and more eating. But finally work came to an end for the Holidays and the festivities began. Firstly, on Christmas Eve, everyone was invited to Kate and Jason's for a few drinks. Then on Christmas day we went over to Chris and Wendu's for a scrumptious dinner of beef and yorkie puds :) followed by some fun and games on Bop-it and Uno Extreme once Suzanne had arrived. On Boxing Day it was over to Hazel and Wayne's for yet more drinks and then the calm descended.

Annalie had made a comment a few weeks' earlier about wanted a real Christmas tree for the first time ever. As neither of us have had one before, and because we were spending Christmas here in CT, it seemed that it should be a case of when in Rome. The farm stores around here are abundant with trees throughout December, but Ian left it until just over a week before Christmas to pick one up and surprise Annalie with it when she got home that night :)

After a couple of days to ourselves, we had booked ourselves a couple of days away in Washington DC to go and be proper tourists for a change. We got Southwest flights into Baltimore, which is just a 30-minute train ride to DC, and booked ourselves a hotel for less than $100 a night. Over New Year as well! The hotel wasn't amazing but it was really well located for all of the major attractions, including a pub that we'd seen that we fancied spending New Year's Eve in.

So we hit all of the major attractions - the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Memorials on the Mall, the White House, the Newseum etc. We killed more time than we thought possible! But my was it cold?! We had queued up for Washington Monument tickets early in the morning and got some for 12pm. We turned up at the site at 11.30 thinking we'd have to stand outside for half an hour, only to find that they were running about 30 minutes behind schedule as it was. By the time we finally got inside, our noses and hands had lost their feeling! The view from the top gave us something to take our minds of the numbness, and Annalie also found a fan heater to stand in front of!

Despite the cold we really enjoyed our short visit. New Year's Eve was spent in Fado's Irish Pub, just a stone's throw from our hotel. They did a very good offer for dinner and included a glass of champagne for starters and also at midnight. We went for a late booking so that we could drag dinner out to near enough midnight, but we gave up in the end and saw in the New Year with a coffee in our hotel room - we must be getting old!!

We were back in CT late on New Year's day, for a relaxing weekend before work started for Annalie again.

December was not the end of our Christmas celebrations. The Fire Department had failed to find a date suitable to everyone in December so they settled for a Holiday Dinner in January instead. They chose 2 Hopewell, conveniently located opposite the Fire House! Strangely the spouses were free but all the guys had to pay. Not that we're complaining, at least it's something for free!

Speaking of the Fire Department, Ian had his first real fire call over the Holidays as a two-car garage went up in flames. The owner had installed some expanding foam insulation earlier in the day and something had caused it to ignite. So finally Ian got his first fire under his belt. This was followed by a second fire call a few weeks later as a house sun room somehow ignited in the early hours of the morning. He returned home just in time to bid farewell to Annalie as she was about to be picked up for a flight to Singapore.

Maddy has been growing in confidence and cheekiness daily! She's nothing like the dog that arrived with us six months ago. Although she has a great disposition and is pretty well behaved, we decided early on that we would put her through obedience training, as much for us as for her. So far she's been the star pupil and has been defined as "super demo dog" as they use her the most to demonstrate drills. It's a reward-based training programme, which equals lots of food/treats. She's a beagle. It's a match made in heaven! As usual, everybody there loves her and she does such a good job. She's very trusting of people so she will go easily with the trainers and they lavish her with attention (which she also loves!).

We've also been frequenting the dog park more and Maddy is becoming a lot more playful now. It is still a bit of a people park (as opposed to a dog park) to her, but her behaviour is significantly more dog-like now! She's confident around other dogs and lets them know when she's not happy (the good old beagle "bay" comes out) but equally she picks her play buddies and gets on with it. We've also used a local "pet hotel" at PetSmart while we've been away and put her in doggie day camp while she's been there. The report cards we get when we pick her up show she enjoys her social time.

And we've finally got round to ticking another item off the "US Bucket List" when we took a drive out to Cape Cod. It was very much out of season so very quiet in many areas. But we thought we'd introcude Maddy to the sea and beach. We found a dog beach in Provincetown (P'town) and took her down ot the water's edge. At first she confidently approached the water, then she decided to drink it! That didn't go too well (obviously!) and she didn't like the water after that! But she did like some play time in the sand!

Well, we think that's enough for now. Sorry we couldn't be more detailed about some aspects and we promise not to leave it so long in future.