I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving Break! Holiday breaks are always my favorite times to see camp friends, so I will now share with you a collection of photos taken at our Thanksgiving Camp Dinner:

It was a fun night full of delightful Italian food (yes, home of the Parm!), good friends, camp stories, and the usual silliness. After dinner we stopped by the Faden home for some more camp love and a brief jump in the leaves (as seen above with Becky J). I must say of all the things I’m thankful for this year, having an amazing camp family definitely ranks up there at the top of my list.

Now with Winter Break only weeks away I’m gearing up for even more nights of camp friends and fun! What do you do with your camp friends over the holiday breaks?

Hi Everyone!

Over the last few weeks we’ve been on the road meeting up with our camp friends and enjoying some ice cream during our annual Canteen on the Fly! Here are some of the glorious pictures I took:

I loved it! Who watched Once Upon a Time on Sunday?!?!?!

After a crazy camp wedding weekend you didn’t really think we could all just return to business as usual, right? Of course not! Instead of our typical Monday in the office, the Canadensis winter staff met in Philadelphia at the WHYY studios to volunteer and lend our support to public broadcasting. Here’s the photo diary:

It wouldn’t be a Canadensis event if we didn’t go out to FroYo afterwards!!!

As always we had a great time just being together, and it was made all the better knowing we were supporting public radio and television! Since we haven’t had enough yet, next weekend we’ll be hitting the road for TWO DAYS of Canteen on the Fly! Hope to see you there!

It was the weekend we’ve all been waiting for! Head Counselors Mike and Alyssa are FINALLY married! It was an absolutely wonderful weekend filled with the most amazing friends, and we were all so happy to see Mike and Alyssa officially become Husband and Wife. There’s SO much I could write about the wedding and so many great stories to tell, but instead I’ll do as I always do and let the pictures say 1,000 words!

These are only a few of the 600+ photos I took this weekend (yea, we got a little bit carried away!), but you can tell an amazing time was had by all. We danced late into the night until the DJ finally played the infamous “Hey Hey Goodbye”. Even though it was well into the wee hours of the morning, we couldn’t bear to be separated yet; everyone returned to the same hotel to sit and talk and catch up. When we were finally falling asleep in our seats, we all hopped cabs or in cars and made the journey to our hotels. The next morning we met for some brunch before hopping planes or trains or loading up cars for long road trips home…

It was the most magical weekend with some of my favorite people! A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Mike and Alyssa- I know your life together is going to be beautiful, and I’m so glad we are all a part of this big, loving, hilarious, crazy, silly, beautiful camp family 🙂

We all know Brian has a certain affinity for concerts; I think I’ve taken a page out of his book and started a little trend of my own. October has been concert month among my friends and I, and it’s been a lot of fun! It started with Vanessa Carlton and Matt Nathanson the first week of the month, and this week I’ve added two more ticket stubs to my collection. Monday night we had a table at World Cafe Live for the Kate Voegele concert (you may know her from One Tree Hill), and last night we saw the Indigo Girls at the Keswick Theatre!

The Indigo Girls may be one of my all time favorite concerts, primarily because we were obsessed with their songs when I was a camper; they’re perfect for around a campfire! With me at the concert were two of my campiest friends- Kate (yes, as in super theatre director 2011!) and Cayla, who spent her whole life going to sleepaway camp. At the end of the encore they played “Closer to Fine” and everyone was on their feet singing along. I taught the song to CITs 2008; maybe it’ll make a comeback this year…

Next week I’ll be making Krug extra jealous as I watch Hanson play in Philly! They’re letting fans vote for which album they should play, and right now Middle of Nowhere is winning! That means I’ll be mmmmmmbopping all night long! For those of you who don’t already know (or haven’t already seen the behind the scene videos) Brian loves to rock out to Hanson in the summer office.

I’m getting so excited to see camp friends this weekend at Mike and Alyssa’s wedding! I’ll be sure to post plenty of pictures 😉

Last night I got to see our super fabulous theatre director Kate at our annual sorority potluck dinner! We talked about camp as we helped ourselves to some delicious dishes made by our friends, and tried not to totally overwhelm everyone with stories of camp… you all know how that is 😉

Good news campers- I’m an official sushi roller! Over the weekend my sorority hosted a private sushi class at Pod in Philadelphia. I’m sure all my Philly campers can back me up in saying it’s one of the best restaurants in town! We may have even taken a quick lunch break at Pod during the college tour…

Since Pod doesn’t open until 5 for dinner on Saturdays we had the whole place to ourselves! Once all the girls and guests (I brought my mom and my aunt!) arrived, it was time to get down to business. The chef taught us how to make maki sushi (that’s the kind most of you loooove to eat) and hand rolls. He taught us about the ingredients, the process, the different types of fish, EVERYTHING you could ever want to know and more.

After his class it was our turn to give it a try! Everyone put on gloves and got a tray full of all we’d need to make a spicy salmon roll and a California roll. It wasn’t easy at the beginning, but once I got the hang of it I was a pro! When we all finished it was time for the main event- lunch! Everyone sat down to enjoy their creations… I’m pretty sure it tasted even better because of all the hardwork we put in! Here are some pictures from Pod:

After we were full of Sushi we stayed in town for some shopping and the Vanessa Carlton and Matt Nathanson concert… YES CITs 2008, she played White Houses! And YES future CITs of 2012, she played 1,000 Miles! She even started the whole thing off with her newest song, Carousel, which I used on the end of year movie for the CIT Girls 2011! What a campy night!

The next day I decided to put my sushi expertise to the test…

Delighted with my work, I decided to pack my sushi for lunch today at the camp office! I think I may have a new hobby. Back on an old blog post I’d talked about Lauren Berry and I having a dream to own a sushi restaurant… I think we’re on our way! Best of all, this is easier than you’d think! I’m thinking iCan Roll Sushi sounds like a great idea for summer 2012…

I love finding Canadensis car magnets around town! This car was spotted in Blue Bell, PA on September 27th… who wants to claim their car?!

Here I am again in the winter office, summer 2011 still fresh in my mind and real as can be. I’m still not 100% back in the “off-season” mode yet- it’s still warm outside and feels like we should all be running around camp, wondering what was in the box! As I do every year, my first blog post after camp is always a collection of some of my favorite summer pictures! So, without further ado…

Well, that’s a pretty good representation of my summer in pictures. Stay tuned for updates about life in the off season, and a very special welcome from those CITs 2012!