On being a doctor's wife.

More than halfway through January, and I've finally snagged Nolan's phone and camera to get some Christmas/winter pics off of it. So let's go back:

The day we arrived for our Christmas break, my aunt and uncle and grandparents came over for the day and for some food and fun. We spent a lot of time listening to Opa and Michael reciting "The Cremation of Sam McGee". If you haven't heard that poem before, not only is it wildly dark and twisted, but it's also extremely long. But it was the beginning of a new Akin tradition - one we hope will stick around!



Mom listening to the poem with the dogs.





Most of the party, listening.

Opa and Michael taking turns with stanzas, while Aunt Trish does fact-checking :)



It was already past my bedtime here...can you tell?



Then of course we were joined by Nolan's family a couple days later, and I do happen to have some more pics of that! Like this sweet one of Nolan and his mom and sister.

And of COURSE our adorable nephew...who Nolan thought would like playing in the cat tree.

He wasn't amused (the next picture in the series is him crying).

We had our annual silly string fight before opening presents (one of my favourite traditions!). Nate got pwned.

The general damage.

The gang on Christmas Day! Minus my dad, who was taking the picture. Note the crowns! Another tradition is the English popper that we each get after dinner. They always have crowns inside among other random stuff.

At some point, the boys (and Summer!) went shooting out by the pond. I think this pic is Rory.

But Nolan also happened to have a very short video of my dad in action!

When we went back up the hill a week later for skiing and vacation, I found these few pictures:



Nolan on the mountain!



This was towards the end of the day, when we were painfully cold.



Nolan with his new cork project. I can't wait to see the finished product!



I have to throw a little note in here too about this, because I was thinking about the funny norms I've gotten used to. I've learned over the past several years, that I have to expect certain things, and consider others as normal, that your general wife would not.

Example 1: Husband walking in the house smelling of urine with blood spattered on his clothes.

Normal response: OMG/What happened?!?/What is that SMELL?!

Physician's wife's response: Ugh, take that off before hugging me please.

Example 2: After asking how his day at work was, immediately pulls out iPhone and adds colourful commentary to a video he took of a man's leg being consumed by maggots a couple hours ago.

Normal response: *blank stare*/*retching*

My response: Awesome! But show me after dinner, please.

Example 3: Not seeing husband for days on end, and then he finally stumbles in, acting intoxicated, around 3am and wants to cuddle.

Normal response: Where the hell have you been? What's the matter with you? Don't touch me!

My response: Reciprocate cuddle because this is normal and will most likely be repeated many times over.

Example 4: Instead of flowers or swag from the office, husband brings home free pregnancy tests from work. (Hey-o free stuff!)

Normal response: What the...

My response: Cool, thanks!

*parents: don't read into this one.*