on christmas day in the morning

Gracie vs the tripod
Originally uploaded by Julep67

So far this morning, I have not seen any ships come sailing in. Our neighbourhood seems very quiet and dark. We are up early by some standards but actually slept in this morning (for us anyway). The dogs are having some kibble as I type this and I think Mark is in his office checking his mail.

In a little while, we'll take our cups of coffee into the living room and watch our DVD of the Pee Wee Herman Christmas special. It's a little tradition we have, it doesn't feel like Christmas unless I've seen Grace Jones perform the little drummer boy!

Later today, we'll head to the train station to collect my brother and then go to my mum & dad's for a holiday dinner. It'll be nice to see everyone and have a visit and eat too much.

On Monday, I got the bulk of my baking done. Did it all in one morning, well most if it anyway. I did one more batch of cookies on Tuesday morning and it all went well. I am either getting better and being organized or am a better baker or something because this year it seemed a lot less chaotic than other years.

Wednesday, my mum and I took a road trip to her home town so we could deliver cookies and have little pre-Christmas visits with her siblings. It was really nice, despite driving through a blizzard on the way there, to have a little girls only road trip day. Normally, we see my mum's family on Boxing Day at a party my Aunt has. This year, she's not having the party so I wanted to be sure to get the cookies to everyone, hence the road trip.

When we got back into town, I had to pick Mark up after he finished work. We needed a few groceries so we bit the bullet and went to the store. It was a nice feeling, not having any pressure or time constraints on us while we shopped. Everyone around us seemed to be panicking, really frantic and frustrated. We were basically shopping like a normal shop, getting enough stuff to keep us away from the stores until at least Monday. Again, being organized this year (and not doing too much) made me feel really liberated from all of the holiday hysterics.

Just peeked out the window, it's still very quiet and dark out there. You can tell that there aren't a lot of little kids in our neighbourhood - I remember when we were kids, the houses with children in them would be all lit up at 5 a.m. on Christmas day.

I hope that however much sleep you go last night, and whatever you do today, if you celebrate, have a wonderful holiday. If you don't, I hope you have an awesome long weekend!!

holiday stuff

So, I'm on holidays/vacation. Today is day 3. I don't have to go back to the office until January 4. Feels a little strange but I'm enjoying it.

The first day (Tuesday), I stayed home and puttered around the house. I had a tonne of laundry to do so I got through that and hung out with the dogs (who still haven't quite figured out what's going on with the holidays and stuff). I still haven't decided if I'm putting up the tree or not. I got my lights up in our front windows, I hung my pretty, lighted garland but the tree is still in the box. The only part of me that wants to do it, only wants to do it so she can go through all the ornaments and get rid of what I'm not using anymore. Mostly, our ornaments and decorations are snowmen, Simpsons stuff or Sponge Bob. I have a tonne of Sponge Bob stuff, glass ornaments, snowglobes, stockings, I can turn my living room into a Springfield meets Bikini Bottom winter wonderland very easily. Part of me wants to keep things simple though so, I'm still on the fence about the tree. Maybe once I have finished cleaning the house (it's still pretty grubby at the moment - I'll finish it up when I have all of my errands done) I'll feel more like putting it up. We'll see.

Mark woke up with a migraine yesterday so we both went back to sleep for a couple of hours after the alarm went off. I probably should have gotten up at our normal time because I remember feeling just fine when I got up to let the dogs out at 4:30 a.m. When I got up again at 6:45 a.m., I felt all full of the cold and my sinuses were batty all morning.

While we're not traditional holiday celebration folks, I did have a bunch of errands to do yesterday and I found the whole experience to be absolutely exhausting. I probably tried to do too much with a full head but I really wanted to get some of this stuff done. Much of what I needed to do yesterday was stuff I'd put off doing until I on holidays. I always do this and then I forget how stupid people get at this time of the year. I swear everyone forgets how to drive and how to park or even how to behave in the stores. They wander around with a buggy and a look on their faces which screams to me "hello, I've lost my mind!" I sure hope I don't look like that, I'm pretty sure I don't.

A couple of hours ago, I bundled up and drove Mark to work so I could have the van for errands today. The folks on the weather channel told us that it was wicked cold out. Honestly, I think it felt colder out yesterday around here. There was a dampness that got into my bones yesterday and I couldn't warm up. Might have not been the weather though. Might have been the full head thing. Today, I have a few more errands to do but I'm being smarter about it. I'm meeting a friend for coffee before I start and then she's going with me for some of them so we can at least make fun of the situation together.

The only big holiday type of thing I do is bake. Either tomorrow or Saturday, I'll convert my kitchen into "holiday baking central" (name stolen from Rita - thanks chickie!). On Wednesday, my mum and I are tentatively scheduled to make a road trip to her home town for cookie deliveries. Normally I do them on boxing day when my Aunt Mary traditionally holds an open house. This year she's not doing that so we'll do a pre-Christmas quick tour and visit my Aunts & Uncles and drop off cookies for them.

So yeah, nothing terribly exciting is happening around here right now but I am kind of liking it that way.

starting to think about getting ready

It's been a while since I've posted and I wish I could say that the delay is because of some really exciting stuff but honestly, it's just been sort of busy at work (where I usually post from) lately and when I do have a spare moment for farting around, I'm playing Farmville. Yep, Farmville.

My cousin's 10 year old son invited me to play it with him during the summer and I said yes. At first, I had my doubts about it but the more I played and the more weird little reward things I got, the more I got into it. He, of course, like most 10 year olds, moved on to other facebook games but I stuck it out with Farmville. Now I play with a bunch of my friend each day, we send each other animals and (this week anyway) christmas gifts. It's all very silly but in a way, the silly aspects of it distract me when I'm getting stressed about things so it can't be all bad.

Not sure what the weather is doing in your part of the world but 'round here, we're having an unseasonably beautiful fall. Except for a few flakes the other morning which didn't amount to anything, we've had no snow and the temperatures have been very mild. I'm not complaining but it is weird. What is also weird for me is the fact that I only have 5.5 days left in the office this year. I start my winter vacation on December 14 at around 2 p.m. Nice huh?? I had a bunch of vacation days leftover at the end of the year (I usually do) and I like to add them to the already generous holiday break we get where I work. I'll be off work for almost 3 weeks. Nice huh?

Last year, I didn't start to decorate until I was already off work (around the 16th) but we've started the process of moving stuff up from the basement. I always forget how many bins of stuff I have. It never looks like that much when I get it all out but boy, there are a lot of boxes. Boxes of lights, boxes of Spongebob decorations, my Simpsons Christmas village, all of my cool/funky snowmen. We're not traditional christmas folks so our decorations are more fun and silly than some folks would care for. Of course, our big December 25 tradition is to get up, drink coffee and watch our well used DVD copy of "Pee Wee's Christmas Special." For me, it's not really Christmas until you've heard Grace Jones sing the Little Drummer Boy or k.d. lang do Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

In other news, we've been dog sitting for the beautiful Bella for the past two weeks. Her humans are expected to be back in town tomorrow and I'm sure she'll be glad to get home. I think she has a lot of fun here with our dogs and we treat her like she's one of ours but I'm sure she'd prefer to be at home with her own people.

The three dog dynamic is very different than two dogs and I think Gracie has been most bothered by it. She has a tendency to be a little jealous so having another girl dog in the house kind of gets up her nose. The other weird thing is that Bella cannot figure out the doggie door. She has gone out on her own a couple of times while Mark was standing by the door but she won't come in on her own. She'll go through the flap but won't push on it with her nose. I know she can do it but she won't. Having to let a dog in and out for 2 weeks makes me really appreciate how lucky we are that Sam and Gracie are clever enough to come and go as they please.

On that note, things seem a little too quiet in the kitchen (where the dogs currently are) to me. I had better go make sure that they haven't figured out how get into the pantry on their own.

happy new year

gracie models
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Is everyone having an excellent 2009 so far?

We have been having a great day here. I finally took down the Christmas tree this morning while we watched the Tournament of Roses parade on the tv machine. Over the past few days, I'd taken down almost all of the decorations, except the tree. It feels good to have it down and packed away. I was able to clean the living room and rearrange the furniture again so that's kind of nice. I still have a bunch of ornaments in one of our spare bedrooms which need to be packed away but I think I'll do that tomorrow. I want to sort through stuff this year and maybe give some of my old ornaments to someone who is crafty and can do something with them.

Last night was a quiet evening for us. We had a nice dinner together and then just watched some tv. I know that we were up later than normal but we didn't make it to midnight. New Years isn't a massive deal for us so we don't usually make a big thing of being awake at midnight.

One thing I did do yesterday was go to the grocery store for the first time in over a week. It was kind of snowy and bitterly cold (and it was early in the morning) so it wasn't busy when I got there. As I was leaving it was filling up though so I'm glad I got it done when I did. I'd been advised by one of the ladies at our local pet store to go in after Christmas for discounted rawhide treats for the dogs. While I was there buying candy cane shaped rawhides at half price, I picked up a little sweat shirt for Gracie. She's really sensitive to the cold so I thought I'd find a sweater for her. I picked up a little pink "Roots" hoodie for her. I'm not much about labels so the Roots thing didn't matter to me as much as the price and the quality of it. It was on sale and it is really well made. She looks absolutely adorable in it. Fortunately, she doesn't mind wearing it which is great because it's been quite cold here for the past couple of days.

So yeah, the new year is off to a quiet, peaceful, productive-ish start in our house. I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be a good one for us, I hope it's good for all of you too!

waiting for the dough to drop

waiting for the dough to drop
Originally uploaded by Julep67

enjoying a sociable holiday season = not a lot of time in front of the computer

I'm not complaining though, I'd rather be seeing people and laughing and having conversations than sitting in front of the computer, if I'm honest.

Over the past week or so, we've had a few more people 'round the house than we normally would. Gracie has been taking it all in stride but Sam's been doing his typically Eskie thing and barking like mad at folks. With each new visitor, the outbursts are shorter but it's a little embarrassing.

In a way, he's a little bit like a goldfish. He'll meet a guest, bark and bark, and eventually chill out. When he comes around the corner again and sees them again, it starts all over again. Fortunately, the barking jag is not long but it's still sort of funny, in a loud barking kind of way.

Mark's been back to work the past couple of days but I'm still off. I go back on Monday. It's been a great break for me and he's been able to take a few days off here and there so he's a break as well. I think I'll start to pack up Christmas tomorrow. I put our gifts away on Sunday evening but the tree and the decorations are still up for the moment. They are pretty and I love them but it's almost time and goodness knows it'll be easier clean once everything is put away!

snow wrestling

snow wrestling
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you've been having as good a day as we've been having 'round here.

We were up sort of around our normal time this morning. We don't get to sleep in much with the dogs around to wake us up. It was nice all the same though. After the coffee was ready, we just had a lazy morning with the dogs. We opened some presents, they played with their new toys and it was very relaxing and nice.

The afternoon was spent with my parents and brother. My mum made us a delicious Christmas lunch and we got properly spoiled rotten, which is always fun!

At the moment, we're home again and hanging out with the puppies. We have a bunch of new DVD's and some stuff in the DVR so we may just get back into our jammies and veg out on the sofa this evening. I've been thinking that we may make some festive cocktails too, after all, it is Christmas!!

totally baked

smarties cookies
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I got my baking done!

Yesterday, I started baking at 5:30 a.m. and was finished by 7 p.m. I did take a break for lunch, and a couple of small tv breaks (and doggie play breaks) and it felt great to get it all done. I usually leave it all to the end like that because then my stuff is very fresh for Christmas.

Today I need to do some housework, get the cookie trays together, wrap a few gifts and that's it. I'll be ready for Santa after that!

How's your holiday stuff going?

toasty

kitchen window
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Not that he needed much of it but I convinced Mark to stay home from work today. He was going to work a short shift but when we got up this morning the roads (well, our street) looked pretty bad. Given that we're due for another 15 to 20 cm of snow tomorrow, I would imagine that the city avoided some of the side streets because they'll just have to do them again on Sunday (you have to love city logic).

Because of the way the snow was drifting, when we were out in the back yard with the dogs ,it didn't seem like we got much but boy, the front porch was really filled in and so was the driveway. Lucky for us, our amazing neighbour Tommy cleaned it up for us. I have said it before but it bears repeating, we have the best neighbours in town. When we lived around the corner, our neighbours barely waved to each other. 'Round here (which is literally one stop sign away from our old house), folk actually help each other out. People also respect each other's privacy and maintain a certain distance but it's the type of place where you know if someone pulled a truck up into your driveway in the middle of the week and started unloading your house while you were at work, a neighbour would call the cops.

Today we were happy to stay home. Mark did some shoveling and I did laundry. Lots of laundry. I've been doing some housework and getting through my chore list so there were lots of things to wash that you don't have to do all of the time. It went really quickly for some odd reason (and I'm not complaining). We also snuck in a mini-marathon of Coronation Street episodes and a nap.

It's been a great day. Tomorrow I think I'll start my baking. I'd thought about doing it today but couldn't get into it. I'm trying a couple of new recipes this year and will definitely post photos of my attempts, if they turn out.

please may I have some salad

please may I have some salad
Originally uploaded by Julep67

So far, my vacation has been really lovely.

We had our office do on Tuesday afternoon. It was just my immediate team (and a couple of ladies who left the team this year) and we had a good laugh. My supervisor ordered a tonne of greek take out and we had a huge feast. I was able to bring home an entire salad and some chicken for Mark so he didn't have to cook that night (which he was happy about because I got home from work so late).

I really love the ladies I work with. I think a couple of times, I laughed so hard that I had actual tears running down my face. It was a good time.

On Wednesday morning, I made myself a little to do list. The list had less to do with the holidays and more about decontaminating the house. We've basically done very little around the house, just the bare minimum, all fall. Between us being sick and having a new dog, and then having a third dog for 2 weeks, the place was pretty grimy. I've checked a few things off the list and am slowly getting through it. It feels pretty good and the house is starting to look a lot less disgusting than it was.

Over the past couple of days, we've managed to get our holiday shopping done. We didn't have a lot to do which was nice. Over the weekend, I need to sort it out and get it wrapped up but I think we have everything we need. If we don't, I can always do another trip to the shoppes on Monday.

As I type this, it's snowing and blowing outside. We heard about the storm yesterday so we got out last night and stocked up on groceries. I'm really glad that we did that because it's looking quite nasty outside. Mark called home a little while ago and said that the visibility was really poor and that the roads were getting bad too. He's going to pack it in early if it gets too rough out there.

It's hard to believe that I've been off for 3 days already but I do love this time of the year. I like being home, in a nice warm house. I got the tree up yesterday so the house is all festive-ized. I'll start my baking on the weekend I think. Today, I have a couple of little things to get crossed off my chore list and I may get a nap with the puppies in at some point too.

It's a rough life for me, isn't it!?

festivus for the rest of us

doing errands
Originally uploaded by Julep67

So, the big day is now just 2 weeks away. The holiday season feels a little different for us this year because we're doing very little "shopping." I'm not missing it at all but it does feel a little odd.

In an effort to 1) save some $$ and 2) be kinder to the environment, there are a few things that we're doing differently this year. The first thing is about the gifts. We've discussed it with the folks we usually exchange gifts with and have all agreed to do almost nothing. I'm still going to bake so there will be gifts of cookies for everyone on our list but that will be about it. For our immediate family, we're going to do a little bit of fun shopping at our local dollar store but I've put myself on a really tight budget for it.

The second big thing we're doing this year is not sending out a traditional holiday greeting card. In an effort to save some trees (and some postage!), we're doing an e-card (if you'd like one, send me a msg with your e-dress and I'll add you to my list). The money we would have spent on cards and postage will be donated to our local Humane Society.

I'm actually enjoying not getting caught up in the commercial elements of the holiday season. I think it'll be much more restful and sane than it normally is and really, that's what it's supposed to be about, right? ...less about the shopping and more about spending time with the folks you care about.

smooch

smooch
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I have only one more sleep until my vacation begins.

Mark is taking a week off with me so I'm very excited about that. Ordinarily, he can't take that much time off with me but, given that there is a holiday on Monday and we have to go out of town one other day, we just thought that he may as well take the whole week off so, yay! A week off for him and two weeks off for me.

One of the things we'll be doing during our vacation is going to the passport office in Whitby. A friend of ours is going on a course in Florida for a month (in September) so he needs to get a passport and we offered to run his application up there. From all I've heard, it's much faster to get it done there than it is to do it in Ottawa. We thought we'd get ours done at the same time because neither of us has a valid passport and it looks like we'll be needing one next year if we want to do any cross border shopping (thanks to that asshat Bush).

We have a couple of other little day trips planned but other than that, not much else. I'm kind of glad. I think we can both just use a break to chill out around town, hang out with Sam and just enjoy the summer weather while it lasts.

etouffee

etouffee
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Oh, by the way, did I mention that Mark cooked up an amazing Mardi Gras dinner last night?

It was so yummy. He made etouffee with shrimp and chicken. It was just amazing, very tasty. It was a perfect meal to warm us right up after a cold yucky day.

We'd both almost forgotten that it was Fat Tuesday yesterday because it's happening so early this year.

I have to say, we joked about pancakes last night but this was just so much better than a pancake could have ever been!!

boxing week traffic insanity

boxing week traffic insanity
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I began to take apart the christmas decorations today. For now, our tree is still up and the lights in our living room window are too. I put the tree up so late this year that I just don't want to take it down quite yet. I'm thinking that it might be a Monday project.

As much as I love putting everything up, it's been nice to see it go away all the same. My hallway seems much larger since I took the garland down. Once everything is packed and put away in the basement, I'll do a really good clean. It'll be a nice way to start the new year.

fun times huh? It's boring, I know, but it is the holidays and I'm supposed to be resting up, getting rid of the last little bits of the this cold. so there!

kerplunk!

kerplunk!
Originally uploaded by Julep67

On Christmas Day I took a lot of photos. When you take a lot of photos (well, when I take a lot of photos anyway), it takes a while to sort through them all. I've posted some of them on flickr already but probably won't have the rest of them up much before the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, when the holiday falls in the middle of the week, doesn't it feel like it's constantly the weekend? No!? Maybe it's just me. I feel really lucky to have all of this time off during the holidays too. 3 weeks is a pretty nice break at any time of year but at this time of year, it's particularly decadent feeling.

I am happy to say that at this moment, my cold is feeling like it's going away. We had a pretty spicy curry for dinner tonight and that seems to have really loosened things up. The pain in my neck and shoulders has faded to a little bit of a dull roar so I should be able to sleep a little better tonight than I did last night. I also did not have a nap today so I should be really tuckered out when we do go to bed tonight.

I think that the germs have not really dug in because I've done very little else but veg around the house for the past couple of days. Mark gave me a MP3 player for Christmas which I have been having fun playing with. It's a Sansa and it does video too which is cool. I found a bunch of really discounted accessories for it on eBay yesterday and am looking forward to receiving them. I ordered a little FM transmitter thing for the car (apparently it plugs into the lighter and I can broadcast what I'm listening to on the car radio). We don't have a CD player in our van so this will be very cool when we have roadtrips.

The next thing I need to do is deconstruct christmas. I'm not sure exactly when that will happen, maybe over the weekend. I really love having the tree up and I do like it when everything gets packed away... it's the packing away that I don't like so much!

all over for another year

all over for another year
Originally uploaded by Julep67

did you have a nice holiday yesterday?

we had a lovely day. we spent the afternoon and early evening with my family and enjoyed a terrific meal and lots of laughs.

Mark worked today so we cut the evening short. I actually was feeling really lousy too. My neck and shoulders were burning I was so stiff and sore. Not good. We took a long route home so that we could see some of the lights displays and I was really happy to return home when we finally got here.

This morning I woke up with a full blown head cold. This explains so much of what I've been experiencing since Saturday evening. I got a really good nap in this afternoon and just had a little bit to eat and am feeling marginally better. I'm planning to take a bunch of drugs now and hit the sack again. Sleep seems to help this thing. I want it gone soon.

christmas tree

christmas tree
Originally uploaded by Julep67

merry merry everyone!

I hope that your christmas day or, for those of you who don't celebrate a holiday today, tuesday, is going well so far.

Things are pretty chilled around our house today. We slept in a little bit which was good. Yesterday, about mid-morning, I developed some flu-like symptoms which knocked me on my ass for most of the day. Mark went out and did our cookie tray deliveries all alone while I stayed home and felt crummy.

Today is marginally better than yesterday although a lingering headache and dull muscle ache (mostly in my back and shoulders) remains. At the moment, we've got all of our parcels assembled and lined up by the door, ready to go into the van when we are ready to leave the house.

We're still schlepping around in our jammies at the moment though so I don't expect we'll be going anywhere for a couple of hours. Later today, we'll be seeing my family and we'll make a quick stop en route, to drop some gifts off to my godson and his family.

I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun once we get where we are going. On Christmas Day I'm always glad that we don't have far to travel because really, no matter what the weather, we could always make the trip.

To you and yours, all the very best for the holiday seasons, whichever way you celebrate, or don't, no pressure!

dumped!

christmas eve
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I was actually stunned for a couple of seconds this morning when I looked outside and saw all of the snow on the ground. I peeked out our bedroom window (which faces our neighbour's driveway) and was really surprised to see that his car was completely covered with several inches of the white stuff.

It was really mild yesterday and they were calling for flash freezing (the temperature was dropping and all of the puddles were expected to freeze) but I hadn't heard anything about so much snow accummulation.

Crazy!

It's looking like it will be a white christmas afterall I guess.

Mark was planning to work today but I don't know if he'll bother. You can tell that the plow has not been anywhere near us yet and the neighbourhood seems really quiet. I'm not sure that it would be worth his while to go out.

Later on today we're doing cookie deliveries but fortunately, they are pretty much contained to within the neighbourhood so we don't have too far to go and can do most of what we need to, on foot.

I must say, the snow has certainly helped me stay in a holiday mood this year. I hope it hangs around for a couple more days at least!

kitchen love

Yesterday our kitchen had quite a workout. I finished up my baking with a large batch of shortbread cookies. Mark put the finishing touches on some candy he's been working on. I baked bread and Marked cooked up an awesome meal which we shared with friends last night.

For dessert, I put out a huge plate of cookies which disappeared very quickly so I'm guessing everything turned out well. It's funny, when I'm baking, I don't eat what I make. After it's all done, I'll have a couple of cookies but when I'm in the middle of it, I don't sample at all.

I have to say, the kitchen in this house is so much better than our old kitchen. The layout is better, our oven is amazing (it's gas - our old one was electric and second (third?) hand and never baked anything evenly) and we have enough room that we can be both doing stuff at the same time without being in each other's way.

I don't have a whole heck of a lot to do over the next couple of days which is nice. Typical weekend stuff needs finished, like laundry. I think I may do one more batch of coconut cookies because they seem to be disappearing quickly.

Right now, I'm just on the other side (barely) of a weather-induced headache. I had a bit of one last night and it came back this morning. Once it started pounding, I looked at the forecast and discovered that there is a snow squall warning for our area so that definitely explained the pressure I was feeling around my eyes and sinuses. Yesterday I thought I might be getting a cold but I think it's just the weather.

So, that's about all that is happening around here today. It's not overly exciting I know but I'm enjoying it so I guess that's all that really matters (to me anyway!).

spongebob on the tree

spongebob on the tree
Originally uploaded by Julep67

when Mark got home from work this afternoon, we decided to take a quick spin out for our last grocery shop before Christmas.

I had planned to go out tomorrow morning, early, and do the shop but I liked his suggestion of us doing it together so out we went. It's funny, traffic was a little heavy, the stores were kind of busy (not nuts, just full of really dopey-acting people) but it was amusing and fun.

When you have your shopping all done and wrapped and you're well underway to being ready for the holidays, your perspective changes. We sat at Costco and had a soda after we shopped and watched folks checking out. Some people seemed like us, relaxed and happy, amused. Other folks seemed foul tempered, angry, confused, generally freaked. Not good.

I don't ever want to find myself in that position - desperate looking. Many people seemed to be wandering around without a clue of what they were doing, desperate to buy something. How that can be fun I ask?

I'm so glad that we don't have to go near the shoppes this weekend. I'm happy to stick close to home, finishing up my baking and hanging out with friends. Hope you get to do some of that too.

bizee day

Since my vacation started, I've been getting a lot of stuff done around the house. It feels really good and the house is looking great. For the first time in ages, I'm feeling organized.

Today, I got the last of my gift wrapping done and I started my holiday baking. I got another big dent made into the house cleaning project I've started and we had friends over for dinner tonight.

It was so much fun. Mark cooked and I had made dessert. We had a terrific visit. I'm up a little later than normal for a Wednesday night but it's okay. I can take a cat nap tomorrow if I'm so inclined!

I am really loving the holidays so far this year. I'm not even all that bothered that we had to spend $1350 on our van today (and that's saying something!). The repairs were all good things that shouldn't have to be done again for a really long time. It's been a good vehicle to us and the stuff we had to have done should extend the life of the van for us. The timing was sort of crappy but then the timing is always kind of crappy (I remember last christmas - we had to put new tires on).

Either way, I'm still feeling good. I decided that this year, I wouldn't let the holidays stress me out. Instead, I'm making plans to see lots of friends and just enjoy myself. If I don't get everything done that is on my list, it really doesn't matter as long we are having fun.

redirected traffic

redirected traffic
Originally uploaded by Julep67

If you are in the "storm zone" I'm sure you faced a lot of delays today. This morning I was happy to not have to rush out to work.

Mark stayed home until the sun was up and we'd had a chance to finish cleaning up the driveway and the steps. Neither of us felt great about him being out on the roads if they weren't safe to travel, at least not in the dark. Fortunately for us, our driveway was pretty good when we went outside this morning. Our neighbour had cleaned a chunk of it up last night so we just had 4 or 5 inches to do. The snow was light and fluffy this morning so I was glad to get it done early.

About mid-morning, our neighbour came back and widened the driveway and cleaned up the top of the drive (around where the van was - between our house and the neighbours). It looks great now. This is the time I love winter. When the weather is really cold and sunny and the ground is covered with snow but everything is accessible - that's a perfect wintery day for me. Technically I know it's not yet winter but it sure looks pretty out there.

Mark packed work in early this afternoon (at my urging) and we went out and finished our shopping for the holidays. We even got the last bits and pieces of what we need for our baking. The worst lineup I saw was at the post office (I had two parcels to send) and that didn't take longer than 20 minutes so I'm not complaining. There is something nice about being done with the mad rush stuff a whole week early.

We'll probably make a couple of grocery runs between now and the end of the year but at least we don't have any more holiday shopping to do - I don't anyway - not sure about Mark.

Traffic wasn't too bad but there were a lot of stupid folks out there. They seemed to be just not paying attention. We saw a lot of transport trucks in town too. The 401 is closed so traffic was being re-routed through town. At one point, looking west along highway 2, all I could see what transports, bumper to bumper. It was pretty funny actually. A sense of humour is easy to retain when you're not in a hurry!

At the moment, I'm happy to be home. I can take my time and putter away and get what I need to, done, at any old pace I choose. happy holidays indeed!

you are what you eat

I have been to a breakfast and two holiday luncheon's this week. If it is true that you are what you eat then I am a combination of bad coffee and slices of turkey with a smidgen too much chocolate thrown in for good measure.

What's not to love about the holiday season huh?

making something bright

the last 3 evenings have been spent in a blur of "getting stuff done."

indeed, stuff has been done.

good stuff, holiday type stuff.

all of the gifts I was making for my coworkers are completed, ready to go, wrapped up, tied with ribbon, in a big bag, cards written too. items of the baked nature are cooling on the table in the kitchen, ready to go into funky little bags which will be tied up with more ribbon.

I'm tired but it's all done, well this week's stuff anyway.

at work, my desk is almost empty too. I'm almost ready to pack up my old job. almost.

2 more days...