Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season. I've been having a great week, despite spending a bunch of it at work. Working over the holidays is actually quite lovely; the cancer centre is especially warm and welcoming with Christmas garland, treats from patients and staff, and elves handing out candy canes (we have some amazing volunteers).

brightening up the basement

This week has been fun and festive. On Thursday instead of our usual lunchtime resident rounds we got to host Christmas rounds. We got sandwiches, veggies, fruit, and snacks, and set up a Jeopardy game. I hadn't had any luck at finding bells/buzzers/squeaky toys at the dollar store, so between patients in that morning's clinic I hunted down chrome reception bells to borrow. It was totally worth the effort; the rad oncs went from quietly eating their sandwiches to rowdy competitors in no time. They were so enthusiastic with (wrong) guesses that three of the four teams ended up in the red by the time the game was over. But everyone had a good time. We'll have to do this sort of thing more often; it's pretty easy to organize and really brings everyone together.

no one got this one right!

On Friday after work (Christmas eve eve) the residents in my program got together for chili and board games. We played 7 Wonders and had rum and eggnog. Such a fun time.

Moroccan chili -- sweet from raisins and apricots -- delish

By the time we headed outside on Friday night the world was blanketed in a glittering inch of powdery fresh snow. The snow continued gently into the 25th, so we had a lovely white Christmas.

On Saturday (Christmas eve) I headed into the cancer centre for half a day to round on the inpatients, then relaxed at home, watched the snow fall, finished Planet Earth II (recommend!), and read more of Wild.

Today (Christmas) was beautifully sunny and snowy. After rounding on the inpatients I got to join the patients, their families, and the staff in the cafeteria for a turkey lunch, which was a really special experience. One of the rad oncs came in with his wife and children to serve sparkling wine and desserts to everyone -- which has apparently been a tradition in their family since 1989! Everyone was so kind and friendly, and it was really nice to take a break out of the day to sit down to share a meal together.

After lunch I saw a couple of consults, finished up some ward stuff, and ate a ton of chocolate. Christmas call is honestly the best kept secret when you're away from your own family/friends (and not to worry, I'm headed home for New Year's).