Holiday Tips

Since it's the holidays and all, I thought that I, a now married 20 something male, can shed some light on some tips for holiday shopping.

Tip #1: Make a list

And check it twice. Making a list of who you need to buy gifts for is always helpful, and add in the approximate amount you want to spend on that person. This will not only give you a better idea of how many items you need, but will give you a budget to work with so you're not overspending.

Tip #2: Decide what to get

If possible, while making your list, decide what you're going to get the person first, or at least have an idea. It makes it much easier to go to the store and just pick it up, rather than spending (and wasting) time looking for something. It IS the holiday season, so people are out there and it's going to be busy, which brings me to...

Tip #3: Go early

Where ever you're going, especially if it's a mall, go early. Go just after the mall opens, or go during an off peak time, because if you don't, you'll have all tons of people in your way. My favourite are groups of people who hang out in the middle of an area which blocks half the lane. I ran into a group this weekend who were standing at the top of the stairs, just hanging around.

Tip #4: Get exactly what people want

If someone requests a certain item, make sure you get details, like the item/size/colour/model/link so you can get that exact same thing, and nothing else.

Tip #5: Shop online!

I'm not a huge online shopper, but I found a lot of deals online this year. A lot of stores have online deals as well, which ends up saving you some money. The only downside to it, which deters me from it, is that you can't see or feel the product to "test" it out, especially clothes.

Happy Shopping! Only about two and a half weeks left!

- Dennis.

Addendum

Dennis, your post ties in nicely with mine which I meant to post yesterday about our weekend. The past weekend was a good one; it was filled with friends and family. We got to hang out with our friends on Saturday; Dennis and the guys playing video games and the ladies and I trekked through the One of a Kind Show; then dinner and a movie. I do apologize for my movie choice, but it was still fun to just hang out and relax.

On Sunday, I got the see my mom, grandma and Fluffy for WoofStock 2010! I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my Sunday than watching Fluffy smelling other dogs and enjoying free treats!

After moving out, I really do appreciate every moment with my family and with Dennis’ too. And it’s nice to have good friends to share stories, movie nights, and so many other moments.

~Devika

Family & Friends

(time to be sappy)

The Holiday season is near. Since Halloween ended, the holiday cheer is in full steam for about two months. I personally don't feel it starts until December 1st, but advertisement and stores beg to differ. With the holiday season closer and closer, it reminds me of how lucky Devika and I are to have such loving (and great) family and great (and loving) friends.

Your family is always there for you, no matter what. There may be some differences here and there, but at the end of the day, they're always there for you. It's the people who you grew up with, who raised you, and who helped you throughout your life. They're the ones who sees the real you, and still loves you :)

We both used to have good friends back in elementary school and high school. They came and left over time, and although we still talk to them at times, we've lost touch with them in a sense. Over the past few years, we've gotten closer to a group of friends that we met around high school. I can't really find the proper words to describe them without sounding all emotional, but all I can say is that we're happy to have them as our friends and that we see them being in our lives for a really really long time.

Although there's still a whole month left of it, 2010 has been a great year...

- Dennis.

Photo Challenge: Results

I came in third! (refer to the last post to see what I'm talking about) First time I've placed in the contest :) I technically came in second; after the final points were tallied and the results were sent out, one last vote was submitted but since it was late, it was discarded. If that vote counted, I would've been pushed up to second place!

There were six submissions. The three pictures in the last post were actually the first, second, and third winners. The picture of the tipi came in "second"...my picture was the one with the bricks...and first place was the door crack one.

Next week's theme is Christmas Lights! I think it's a little too early for that theme as there may not be a lot of lights out yet, but I guess part of the challenge is to go out and find them.

In other news, I was just reviewing our calendar, and it appears that we have something scheduled for every Saturday leading up to Christmas. Some are evening plans, some are for the entire day, and some are even on Sunday as well. Just seems like it's going to be busy from now until Christmas.

- Dennis.

Photo Challenge

I take part in a photo contest at work. Every other Thursday, we submit a picture from a chosen theme. The pictures are gathered and sent to the judges within the company. The judges vote for their favourite, the photo with the most vote, wins. Pretty basic.

This week's theme is: Doors.

So far, there are three submissions:

One of the above pics is mine..for fun, try to guess which one...or, pick one that you like the best. I'll post the results (and additional submissions) of the contest next week when I find out the winner.

Enjoy!

- Dennis.

1M

It's been exactly one calendar month since our ceremony back in October. For some reason, it feels so long ago, but at the same time, it's fresh in our minds. Each time we look at a picture taken that weekend, it reminds us of that very moment. We're glad to have so many pictures and a video of our weekend. So many things happened that weekend that we weren't aware of, so we're glad to we have pictures or footage. Thanks once again to everyone who helped out that weekend and even just physically being there was a treat.

For those who are wondering, we haven't received the pictures from our photographer yet. She said it's almost ready, so I'm guessing within the next week or so. Since there will probably be over a thousand pictures, we'll make sure to post some separately.

Thursdays are not Fridays

Is it me, or do Thursdays feel like Fridays?

Whether it's the morning, afternoon, or after work, Thursdays feel like Fridays. I get that feeling of it's the weekend! but then it's not. And this isn't the post-wedding effect, I've had this feeling for a few months now. It just feels like winding down to the last bits of the work week.

Keeping busy: as a team, we're still in the processing of writing our thank you cards. We don't want to do generic thank you cards that all say the same, so we're taking our time and writing something geared to each person/couple/family. We neatly put away wedding related items in certain containers, but we're still looking for something to put everything in one box...THEN we can put the lock on it :)

Keeping busy: as an individual, a few things sort of got me going 1) photography; we've owned the DSLR for almost a year now and I don't have more than five pictures that I can proudly say "I took"...so hopefully I can shoot some more pics that I can be proud of. To do that, I have to actually go places with the camera, rather than what I do now, which is not go anywhere with the camera 2) iPod app; I have an idea for an iPod app that I want to either create myself, or hire someone to do it. The first option would require me to learn the programming language, which requires time. The second option would require the process of hiring someone, which requires time, and money. I'll go with the first option to start, and we'll see how far that goes 3) school/courses; I'm doing some research to see what kind of courses are available/interesting to me to advance my current career.

Lunch is now over...four more hours until the weekend! Wait -- it's Thursday...which means it's not Friday.

- Dennis.

Diwali

On Friday we celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights. It was such a nice change from a busy week at work to be surrounded by my three little nieces. Kayla napped through the service, while Kaylin and Kiera were wide awake. Then came the sparklers and fireworks:

It was nice a way to end the work week!

~Devika

Roles

The wedding is now over and as I said in my last post, we're wondering what to do now. We're grateful to both have full time jobs, so it appears that we're going to put effort into those jobs for the next couple of months -- not that we haven't been putting our effort before.

Devika said it best about a month ago: "It seems our roles have changed". To explain, going back about a year or so ago, my job at that time had me going pretty much non stop throughout the day and usually into the evening. I'd have my Blackberry and constantly checking it. Devika on the other hand worked from 9-5 each day, didn't have a smartphone, and enjoyed her evenings, which absolutely should be the way to go. About six months ago, I started a new job; no Blackberry, 9-5 days, the occasional evening shift. Devika on the other hand is at her current job but the amount of work has drastically increased and is now, essentially, "me".

Nothing wrong with either scenario, but it's funny how, in terms of work, our roles changed. It's a good balance. The ultimate goal is for the both of us to have 9-5 jobs, and once we leave the office, no work is done until we get back into the office the next day. Actually, the ultimate goal is laying on the beach with money growing in the bank...but that's a different post.

What's the point of this post? Not sure, really.

Balance, is a good point of this post. Although each of us have busy work lives, we appear to still had time to plan a wedding, plan a trip or events, or spend time with our family and friends. And now that the wedding is over, we won't have an excuse on not pursuing the things we wanted to do before. We have many things in mind, like travelling or learning a new hobby.

And I will end it here, since it appears I'm babbling on about a topic that's not leading anywhere. Hopefully it somehow made sense.

- Dennis.

Post-Wedding

It's no longer a "road to October 2010"...it's now the road after October 2010.

The big weekend was about two weeks ago, but it's still fresh in our minds. We still can't forget each feeling we felt, the amount of support from our family and friends, and just how happy we were the entire weekend. Every ounce of planning over the past year was well worth it.

What now? We asked ourselves that same question afterwards. We really don't know. We don't know what to do with ourselves anymore as there's no more planning left to do! Well, obviously there is planning...there's planning for what's next, and exactly what is still unknown.

Maybe we'll go back to school for something, or take some classes...travel...no babies yet, though.

Depending on the responses we get back, maybe we'll keep on blogging and change the title to something new.

In the meantime, if you haven't already seen the preview pictures, here's a link to our photographer's blog:

http://www.documentographer.com/blog/?p=2080

- Dennis.