And, just like that, it's all over, and I'm back in Toronto. :-(
It's 7:00 p.m. now, and I actually just woke up. :-) My flight back to Toronto was bumped back from midnight last night to 6 a.m. this morning, so I stayed at my sister's new house, and had to get up at 4:15 to get out to the airport on time. I was super tired. I was going to go to work when I got here (it was about 2 p.m. when I arrived at my apartment), but there was a wonderful message from Susan telling me I didn't have to! So I went to bed instead. :-) Now I am sort of awake, and should probably try to stay that way for a while so that I'm able to actually sleep when night comes.
Tiger was thrilled to see me, and is sleeping happily at the moment. I missed him a lot!
I last wrote on Christmas Eve, which ended up being a pretty hectic but fun day. Mom and I did lots of prep for Christmas dinner and the fondue, plus Aubrey and I made chocolates. Everyone arrived home and we all walked across the street to the church (Mom's new house is pretty conveniently located :-). We got back about 8:30, and had supper, which didn't finish until after 10. Our fondue is always lots of fun, and this was no exception!
Christmas day was lovely. We got everyone up at 9:00 to open gifts, which took us until about 11. Most importantly, everyone liked the things I got them. My older brother and I were supposed to be buying a Nintendo Game Cube for my little brother, but my older brother decided he needed an X-Box instead, so that's what he bought. So Brett was thrilled (as much as Brett can be thrilled). I received many nice things, including some clothes, a cordless phone, a chocolate fondue pot, a candy shop for my Christmas town, a whole "Anne of Green Gables" porcelain house set, some Christmas decorations, and some money (always helpful!). Getting it all packed into my bags was an interesting exercise.
My grandfather, his girlfriend, and my great-uncle came for Christmas dinner, where we had turkey and ham (large amounts of both), potatoes, gravy, dressing, cranberries, corn, asparagus, three kinds of salad, home-made buns, and my dessert, a chocolate-banana trifle. It went very well after all the work on it, and everyone enjoyed the visiting time too.
On Boxing Day my grandmother came down from Saskatoon and stayed until we left. I hadn't seen her for a couple of years, so that was very nice. We spent the rest of the time just hanging out, looking at pictures, playing games, playing my brother's new X-Box, and (for me at least) watching figure skating.
So that was my Christmas holiday! Now I am back here, and have to get back to work tomorrow, with no planned vacation until August! Oh no!
Share your Christmas traditions with me!
December 24, 2003
1 more day until Christmas! :-)
I'm at home right now! It's been pretty busy since I got here, but a lot of fun too, of course. I flew in on Friday, with a stop in Calgary, so the flight took 6 hours (not direct, as I'd thought). My mom picked me up and we went to my sister's new house! It's really nice. On Saturday we finished packing up the old house and cleaning it from top to bottom. I packed up the basement, which meant a lot of walking up and down the stairs...which has meant that I've been hardly able to walk for the past 3 days! You'd think my legs had never seen stairs before!
Saturday night we went to watch my younger brother play hockey, and he got slashed on the wrist, and they thought it might be broken, so then we had to take him to the hospital. Turns out it's not broken though, so that's good - he can still open presents with it!
We got back to my mom's new house on Saturday night, and I really like it! It's just perfect for her, I think. And it looks so nice all decorated for Christmas. On Sunday we went to Mass, then to the rink for some skating, and then came back and made chocolate covered pretzels and dinner for me, Mom, Aubrey, Brett and Brett's girlfriend. After dinner, Aubrey's boyfriend came over and we played a game (called "Scene It", a really fun DVD-based movie game!).
On Monday, we went grocery shopping, and then made scuffles, tarts and a chocolate marshmallow square. I went over to a friend from high school's house to visit her and her two-year-old son, who is adorable! I made dinner when I got back, and then we watched some VeggieTales, and played the movie game again. :-) Then yesterday we went uptown and did quite a bit of shopping, came back and made sugar cookies and popcorn balls, then mom and I went to see "Elf" at the theatre, and went on a tour of town to see all the Christmas lights.
So far, a pretty typical Christmas in Alberta!
Today the rest of my siblings are arriving at home, and we're making chocolates, and going to midnight Mass (which is actually at 7:30!), and then having our big Christmas Eve fondue. Should be fun!!
I hope you're all having a great holiday season, wherever you are! I'll write again when I'm back in Toronto!
(this computer is too slow! :-)
December 18, 2003
I am soooo tired. I am going to bed now. Well, not *right* now. As soon as I'm done writing this. :-)
My flight home is tomorrow morning, so I was running around at work all day trying to get things finished before I left, and then I've been running around here at home trying to get everything together, all the packing and cleaning and arrangements for Tiger. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I had a Christmas lunch, a meeting at the rink for my skating job, and a Christmas party after work. I am ready to drop!
This week has gone by really quickly! I think my shopping is all done, except perhaps for the gift for my younger brother, which my older brother was supposed to buy, and hasn't done it yet. But everything else is taken care of. I have been given some really wonderful gifts from lots of friends, which is so sweet! And on Monday we had another Christmas lunch, and Tuesday we had a Christmas breakfast, plus there has been various chocolate/sweet things sent into the office, so I've generally been making a pig of myself! Time to go home now...except there I'm supposed to do a bunch of baking!
I scanned some pictures of this year's gingerbread house ... the pictures never really do them justice, but you can get some idea of what it looks like!
Anyway, I'm too tired to think properly, so I'll just wish you all a Merry Christmas now! I may write an entry or two from home, we'll see how it goes. If I don't, I'll still be back before the New Year!
December 13, 2003 - later
Okay, this *really* bothers me. Click on the link, then click on "Musicals", and choose one - look familiar? If anyone
can find an email on the website to contact the owner, let me know. I've got a word or two for this twerp.
December 13, 2003
12 days until Christmas!!!
Well, this week has been pretty eventful!
Tuesday after work I went to Thornhill for a CPR course, as part of my first aid training. On Wednesday, I spent most of the evening cleaning the apartment, which *really* needed to be done, and putting up more decorations (new ones!). Then on Thursday, Jen and Susan came over after work and we ordered pizza and had all our treats and everything, and Jen and I subjected Susan to way more Elisabeth and "Sisi" info than she ever wanted to know. :-) Yesterday was supposed to be quiet, but I got last-minute tickets for the dress rehearsal for the National Ballet's Nutcracker, so Karen (from work), Ian (her fiancé) and I went to that. It was really good! And I got to see Sonja Rodriguez dance! (Although you would never believe she just had a baby this summer! Not fair!)
This weekend is the Grand Prix final of figure skating, and I was so excited to see how Jeff Buttle would do, and he had to withdraw! :-( So disappointing. But Tanith and Ben are SECOND after the original dance - oh my!! That's amazing!! I don't think they'll stay ahead of Denkova/Staviyski (in truth, I would be disappointed if they did, 'cause I *love* Albena and Maxim's free dance), but they should still finish with a medal, which definitely puts them in good standing for Worlds!
So anyway, all this activity has made me a little less mopey that I can't be enjoying all the fun things that I wanted to do in Europe this week, like Jesper's concert last night, the 'Musical Christmas in Vienna' concert tonight, and the Uwe Kröger & Friends Christmas concert on Monday. :-( Is it wrong that I actually want a Jesper calendar? Yeah, I thought so. Still, if anyone wants to get me a Christmas gift... ;-)
Today I am baking cookies (which I really need to get started on), going downtown to go skating, and then going to the ING Christmas party at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom. Tomorrow is more cookies and other goodies for my co-workers, and watching more skating on TV.
I got a call from Air Canada yesterday to let me know that they switched my flight home on Friday to a direct flight, which is good, except that I had already made plans to visit my aunt and cousin in Regina during my layover there, so that's a little disappointing as well. Still, it will be nice to make it to Edmonton in 4 hours instead of 13!!
I added a new survey to the About Me page!
December 9, 2003
16 days until Christmas!!
Wow, nothing in here for a week - doesn't seem like it was that long ago! The past week has gone very quickly, and yet, it doesn't really seem like much has been going on. I've been very tired lately, so maybe it's because I've slept most of the week away!
Anyway, last Wednesday was the Christmas party with the crabcakes, which was okay, but they definitely didn't have enough food! Then on Friday, Susan and I went over to Karen's and played some Christmas songs (me on the piano, Susan on the flute, Karen's fiance's sister on the guitar/violin and Karen singing), which was very fun! We then went out to a country bar where we did some line dancing, played some pool, danced to some Michael Jackson, and generally had a good time although we were pretty much the only people there.
On the weekend I was supposed to be reading this First Aid book, but I didn't get very far into it. :-/ I have to get my first aid certification for this skating job that starts in a few weeks, so I better get a move on! And I didn't even get the updates for my musical site done. All I really accomplished this weekend was watching some skating on TV, and watching Alias, which is now on hiatus until January. :-(
What's up this week? Well, last night I made a Linzer tart for Thursday night, when Susan, Karen and Jennifer are coming over for some pre-Christmas and Elisabeth goodness. :-) Susan has also made coconut rum balls, and Jen is bringing cranberry champagne, so it should be fun! Plus, other people will finally get to see my gingerbread house!
Saturday night is our work Christmas party (the one actually put on by our company), so I'm thinking I might spend the day downtown doing some shopping/skating, and just go from there. Oh, and taking in Tom Cruise's latest movie, of course.
But, there's still 4 more days of work to get through before then, and I ought to be going there now!
December 2, 2003
23 days until Christmas!
We had a weird day at work today - two different people had to go to the hospital, and it was just strangely quiet all day. Not that that inhibits me and Susan. Or should I say, me and the "Christmas-hating, monkey-eating freak". ;-)
Tomorrow we get to go eat crabcakes at the expense of a law firm! Yay!
I forgot in my last entry, I was going to go on a mini-rant about something. So I will do it now. :-) Last week, outside our office building, this huge truck pulled up and started giving out free frozen pizzas. So we went down to check it out. Well, you'd have thought it was war-time and we were fighting for rations. The general audacity and complete disregard for anyone else exhibited by the people in this mob was unbelievable. The people handing out the pizzas repeatedly asked people to get off the street, to form an orderly line, to move back from the truck, etc. Me, being the naive prairie girl that I am, actually followed these instructions. The ill-bred, greedy inhabitants of this city did not. It took me FORTY-FIVE minutes to finally get a pizza, when some people were making off with 4, 5 or even full boxes of 12 pizzas!!
This wouldn't bother me sooooo much, if it weren't just another example of the general selfishness of people in this city. I get to see this on the subway every day. I have been on public transportation in some pretty major cities of the world - London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Sydney, Washington, etc - and nothing compares to the insensitivity of people here. Nothing seems to matter more than that they get to that seat, or that they get off the train that 0.1 seconds ahead of everyone else. It's gotten to the point that when someone pushed me yesterday and then actually apologized, I was shocked. That shouldn't be how it is. That's not how I believe Canada to be. I'm beginning to think that Toronto is really the least "Canadian" of all the places I've lived (well, excluding New York, naturally!).
Alright, enough complaining for now! I should mention that my gingerbread house is complete, and with far less stress than usual!! It is quite cute, I'm satisfied with it. I'll post a picture as soon as I get them developed! I also put up most of my decorations, and sent my Christmas cards this afternoon. Now if I could only get started on my shopping, I'd feel like I was getting somewhere!
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