Well, I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving break!

My week went by so quickly and so much has happened since my last post. Our Concert Choir Party went so well and it was great to see some of my close friends from High School. We took so many pictures, and videotaped the choir sing-along, so once I’ve gotten all the photos off all our cameras, I’ll put together a little blog montage.

The holiday weekend wouldn’t have been complete without a family dinner with the Waxman-Corradetti-Cook clan. It was so exciting to have Rachel Waxman and Danielle Cook home from college and joining us for a King of Prussia evening. The funniest part of the evening was definitely when we decided to play FAST COOKIE during dinner. Who knows what’ll happen when we’re together.

As promised, here’s a video montage of our trip to NYC:

*Edit: There was a sound problem, but I fixed it!

Once again, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families. I had such a busy weekend, with no time to update the blog, but I hope to make up for it with today’s post!

Robin, the girls Head Counselor or my fiancee (whichever you prefer), flew in Thursday morning to spend some time with my family for the holiday. We went to my cousins house in NJ for the day and had a blast! My cousin is a pilot for Jet Blue, so I love talking about airplanes with him, while his wife did an amazing job cooking and preparing a feast for 25. For a change this year, the meal started out with lasagna, and it was the best I have ever tasted- good job Kelly! Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner followed with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. but the best part was the dessert (DUH!). My cousins and my mom both had cakes that said Congratulations to me and Robin, which was really nice. But the highlight were the CRUMBS cupcakes that my cousin Lindsay brought in from Hoboken! The favorites were the Dutch Apple Pie, Reese’s, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake. We cut them all into quarters and I must have had 8 quarters (so that means 2 huge cupcakes- AAHHH!). The whole family had an awesome time and there were some little kids around which kept us all occupied and playing games- invisible ink, my little pony, spongebob stuff, etc.

Friday morning was “Meet the Parents” Forti style at the Forti household! My mom invited Robin’s immediate and extended family over to meet my family. Our parents had already met at camp (many of you will recall that), but now the extended family’s had the opportunity to meet. My mom cooked tons of things- my favorite spinach quiche, french toast, blintze souffle, etc. It was all delicious and yes again there was dessert with yummy things. The highlight today was “David’s Cookies”. If you recall, these are the cookies we have at camp sometimes (Chocolate Chunk) when the baker is on a day off (Open House comes to mind). Anyway, it was all delicious.

Friday afternoon/evening was devoted to SHOPPING with the moms. Robin, myself, and the moms spent over 4 hours at Bed, Bath, and Beyond scanning things, deleting things, adding them back on to the registry, etc. All I can say is GRRRR. Shopping with ladies is hard enough, but on Black Friday…not an easy task. In the end, I was told that I am a good fiance and did a good job keeping cool (for the most part) and allowing Robin to choose what she wanted. Yes, there were a few items I put my foot down on (like the 48 everyday drinking glasses she wanted to order), but in the end we agreed on everything!

Our new flatware- exciting isn't it? HAHA

Saturday morning was spent at temple in honor of Lauren Gadol’s Bat Mitzvah. Mazel Tov Lauren! You did a wonderful job reading from the Torah and your always present huge smile was great up on the Bimah! The luncheon Kiddush following the services was wonderful (and yes there were desserts there too- see the theme of the weekend?)

Saturday afternoon Robin and I went to Macy’s to continue on our Registry Shopping saga. We picked out a few “must-haves” including a waffle maker, George Foreman Grill, and “pretty” (or not so pretty to a guy) vases.

Saturday night was our second Bat Mitzvah of the weekend- Alix Steerman. Alix looked so beautiful and we had such a fun time. The food was amazing (the Kung Pao chicken bites during the cocktail hour, Pad Thai, etc.) and the band was so lively and entertaining. It was so awesome to see so many of the girls and a few boys from camp. Everyone looked like they were having a blast and I even used the excuse of “checking on the campers” to eat some of the food from the kids station! Here are a few pics from the Bat Mitzvah.

The boys and Alix Steerman at her Bat Mitzvah!

The girls at the Bat Mitzvah!

Robin and I with Allie Ernst

My favorite picture of the night...Neil Sukonik and me!

Sunday was a final registry stop at Crate & Barrel and then a quick drive to Atlantic City Airport to drop Robin off for her flight home to Ft. Lauderdale.

Sunday night, I spoke to Alex Dean on skype. The good news- Alex will be returning for his 3rd summer working in our Hondas department! He is up in Canada working on landscaping and he decided that how could he miss camp this summer (especially compared to landscaping!). Alex, we are really excited that you will be back.

Alex Dean on Skype from Canada!

As you can see, a very busy weekend for us but it was a blast and thanks again to all of the Canadensis campers we saw at the Bat Mitzvahs- we had such a fun time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s a little Thanksgiving fun featuring myself, Brian, Aunt Terri and Pam! Enjoy!!

I have a feeling you’re all full of excitement for this week of holiday fun… nothing could be better than a few days off of school!

Rebecca Waxman and I were already getting the holiday butterflies on Friday afternoon, as we spent some time on AIM chatting about how badly we wanted to make a trip up to NYC. We’re always trying to find some time to go on weekend adventures, and I’m sure everyone can relate to how difficult it can be to coordinate so many people’s schedules. So when Rebecca and I realized that we both had a clear schedule this weekend, and checked with Dani Corradetti and Jess Cook to make sure they were available, we knew the time was right for an impromptu trip to the city!

After a Saturday Sleepover, we woke up early Sunday morning and hopped a train to the city.  We spent most of the morning downtown in the West Village at the World’s largest FREE PEOPLE store, a favorite among the four of us. We met up with CIT 2008 Dave Yedid, and hopped the subway back to midtown. We had some trouble deciding where to eat lunch, and finally agreed on the tried and true Stardust Diner, home of the singing waitstaff. Although the food is nothing special, it’s the constant opportunity to sing along that keeps us coming back, and we are consistently the most enthusiastic table in the restaurant!

After lunch we did some more browsing, made a stop at Crumbs Bakery for some famous cupcakes, and enjoyed the holiday shops at Bryant Park. While we were walking we passed by actor Chris Noth, and it was so neat to see him in person! At the end of the day we hopped a train home and enjoyed our cupcakes while planning our next big adventure.

I’ll post a video of our musical lunch later this week, but for now here are a few photos from our weekend excursion:

Shopping in the West Village

Dave Yedid makes a guest appearance!

You meet some crazy people in the city!

A Journey for Delicious Cupcakes!

Our Holiday Card!

A cupcake for the train ride home...

Jess and Bec love that cupcake!

We’ll be planning our next Manhattan weekend in the spring (once the cold weather passes) and plan to expand our activities to include the art museums anda Broadway show… or two.  Last time we saw a show together we ended up backstage, so who knows what our next great adventure holds! Maybe next time we’ll find even more camp friends to join us!

I hope everyone enjoys this holiday week! We’re in the final stages of getting ready for our big Wednesday night Concert Choir party, and I will definitely post pictures and video over the weekend. Until then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Have you seen the new Camp Canadensis Twitter!

Follow us @ www.twitter.com/Canadensis

It’s Noah and Ben Rubin.  Thanks for asking us to guest blog!

We have been busy since school started. We both play on a football teams, and Ben also plays basketball. Between homework, Hebrew School, and sports, we are always on the go!

Over Columbus Day weekend, Noah Zaslow came over and spent the night. We had so much fun….we went to the movies, went out for dinner and hung out and talked. It was so great seeing him.

Ben’s birthday was September 22nd and he had a gym party. A ton of friends came, some special ones too……Max Rapoport, Joey Rush and Ian Gocial were there!

Noah had an awesome surprise in school last Friday, Freshman Counselor, Pete Tarnoff came to visit!!!! His mom works at my school and she arranged for Pete to come in to see me. I was so surprised to see him! I got to spend my first two periods with him, missing reading and math, which was cool!

We are really looking forward to the reunion in January. We can’t wait to see everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving (we are going to see our family in sunny Arizona!) and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Thanks again for letting us guest blog!

See you soon, Noah

Peace out, Ben

Hopefully by now you have all enjoyed the Canadensis Today show from up at camp on Monday. Sonic is such an exciting place to go- old school drive-in fast food where they roller skate to the car! Sorry that the video was so poor, but Matt Unger couldn’t get it to zoom in so he was running around the parking lot while I was trying to film moving the camera in and out manually!

Anyway, the point is that camp looks great. The warmer than average weather has certainly helped us get more work done before the snow arrives, which I am guessing will be coming to the mountains soon. There are many more exciting projects that we are doing up at camp, but we aren’t quite ready to announce them just yet. I promise to let you all know before the “general public” finds out in the newsletter!

This week the office has been a bit calmer for me, because for the first time since camp, I am here 4-days in a row! The only problem is that the Payroll software I use has been so buggy. For the last 2 weeks, it wouldn’t download an update that is required every 2 weeks. After an hour of phone troubleshooting, they sent someone out to fix it, which he supposedly “did”. Well today, the same problem occurred and again they can’t fix it. Seems like maybe it’s time to change payroll companies!

Problems aside, I had an awesome time last night at the Center’s! Matthew and Adam are doing really well it seems. School is going well, they are busy with their team sports (soccer just ended and Adam’s team did really well) and basketball is beginning. We talked about some of the counselors who are returning, their camper friends, and of course the corn man was discussed! Rumor is their dad ate something like 6 ears of corn on visiting day. They also invited over a new camper- David Brucker and his family to meet me. David is awesome! Pretty much into a little bit of everything camp has to offer. He is going to try waterskiing, mentioned liking the arts center and all that has to offer, the high ropes course/zip line/climbing wall, and general sports. David’s sister was also great and she will be at camp within the next few years, although secretly she said she is ready to come to camp this summer! The Centers brought in dinner for me and it ended with a warm apple pie! After 2.5 hours (you read that correct) it was 8:30PM and time for the kids to get to sleep (although they were definitely wound up with the sugar in the pie!) and me to drive home to Philly. Thanks again for a wonderful night guys.

Adam and Matthew Center on the left and David Brucker on the right!

Tonight I am headed to Cherry Hill with Pam (our new assistant director) to meet the Liebman Family (new campers) with a stop at Scott Brown’s house to say hello!

Hope everyone is doing well and busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, whatever that means, but it sounded good!