Unnnngh...

You know what they say about the best-laid plans. I'm sick. I've made the necessary phone calls to get myself off Sunday school duty and to give my regrets that I won't be going to the New Year's get-together at Amy and Irek's (but I still think Martin should go, and so far he is planning on doing so; like the rest of us, he doesn't spend nearly enough time with his friends, partly because everyone is so busy) so I don't make everyone at church and everyone at Amy and Irek's sick. I still need to get presents for my brother and sister-in-law (and to fill out my gifts to my parents a little more) and I still need to get cookies baked for Monday and to get pop for Martin to take to Amy and Irek's. I also still need to go to the Christmas gatherings at my father-in-law's and my parents' places. I am going to try to delegate the cookie-making to Martin, but as I am the driver in the family I still need to go out today to get those presents and the pop, but I'm going the gift certificate route for the presents so it shouldn't be too big a deal so long as everyone knows how to drive out there today (being sick doesn't make for great reaction times :-P).

Oh, look, there is snow outside! That's pretty. I hope that doesn't cause any problems on the roads; it's late enough in the day that everything should be cleaned up by now. Wish me luck with my errands and at my father-in-law's tonight...

Christmas is *not* over.

I actually already listed my plans to continue Christmas in a comment on Mira's blog already, but for the sake of recording them in my own blog...

Today (Friday, Dec. 29): start the process of baking Christmas cookies (from Mira's gingerbread recipe)
Tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 30): finish baking cookies; have Christmas dinner with father-in-law and stepmother-in-law and hubby's siblings
Sunday, Dec. 31: teach Sunday school at church in morning; go to Amy and Irek's for some ice skating and other New Year's stuff and stay overnight
Monday, Jan. 1: return from Amy and Irek's; go to my parent's place with the cookies I made to celebrate Christmas with my family.

After that I guess I have to start marking again and otherwise getting ready to resume classes and such, including working on my cover letter, resume and portfolio as interviews with school boards will be starting fairly soon (January, maybe, and definitely February). Vacation was nice while it lasted but I guess I wouldn't want to be lazy all the time :).

Merry Christmas!

Hubby and I have opened our stockings and presents already. Hubby is playing WoW using the new 19" flatscreen monitor I got him (with his money...but s'ok :)). I am about to install the software that I can use to transfer music and phone contacts and so on to my new Sony Ericsson Walkman cell phone that hubby got me. In a while we'll go upstairs to exchange presents with at least my mother-in-law and the sister-in-law who still lives here...hopefully my brother-in-law and other sister-in-law will come over, too, so that we can do our exchange with them at the same time. Then we will trek off to Nana's to see my father-in-law's family. Not sure if we will also be popping by my father-in-law's house or not, but at some point we'll come back here before we head off to dinner at my hubby's uncle's place with my mother-in-law's family. Then we will come back here and I will fall into bed exhausted...but hopefully happy :). Yes, the day has become highly commercialized and I have to admit that my mind is much more on the presents and the busyness than on the Christchild. Hopefully next year school won't go so late and I will have time to put myself in the proper mindset :(.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Another one of those "get to know you" forward things

I've been tagged with a "getting to know you" forward again, so here goes...
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Just a little something to help begin to get you in the holiday spirit!!

Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of 'Getting to Know Your Friends'!
Everyone has time for a few moments of fun! It's only 20 questions so don't
be a scrooge!!! You know the drill. Forward, copy & paste, change answers
and be sure to send back to me. Enjoy!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate...partly because of my chocolate addiction, partly because the thought of drinking eggs just grosses me out (I also avoid raw cookie dough because the thought of eating anything with raw eggs in it scares me). Plus the After Eight hot chocolate is heavenly.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? If Santa Claus existed, the elves would do the wrapping for him. But he doesn't, and I do all the work except for the presents Martin buys me unless I conscript him to wrap others.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I think I would like coloured better if a lot of people didn't seem to be colorblind when it comes to putting together their coloured light strings. When people pick one or two colours, colours are fine...so long as you don't, say, go with a red-and-green scheme but then decide that substituting that one missing red with a pink is "good enough." No, it's not, sorry. But it's harder to screw up an all-white lighting scheme.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Hubby's birthday is Dec. 1 and sister-in-law-who-lives-upstairs has a b-day Dec. 8, so I don't want to put up decorations before then, and I figure waiting a couple days after that is a good idea, too. In practice, the decorations go up when I have time and feel like it.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Whaddya mean, excluding dessert? I live for dessert! Okay, well, if I have to play by the rules, then I'd have to say stuffing--but only certain kinds.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? I really don't remember that much. Maybe when I won that colouring contest and Santa came to my apartment door with the prize. I think I was in grade 1.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't honestly remember. I was pretty young. I do remember my entire grade 1 class wrote letters to Santa and sent them off...and I was the only one who didn't get a reply. I do know I mentioned God in my letters to my teacher now and then, so maybe I mentioned Him in my letter to Santa and whoever writes the replies didn't know what to do with that? Maybe I just got overlooked? Who knows...but yes, I am still bitter!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I've posted a pic of the tree and nativity set setup we've used the past 2 Christmases. The picture also shows that in 2004 I also hung stuff off the storage closet doors that are in the middle of our basement apartment, but that turned out to be a pain in the butt and I don't think I did that in 2005. We use the mini tree so that we don't trip over it in our small space, but we have used part of a larger tree in the past. Hubby is somewhat of a Christmas humbug so I decorate the tree myself these days, though we do snuggle and enjoy the lights on the tree at various points and various days once it's done. Oh, we also have a little box that you plug the lights into that makes the lights blink in time as it plays Christmas songs. I grew up with it, got it from my parents and we still enjoy it.

11. Snow... love it or dread it? It is very pretty...when you're inside...and so long as the cars haven't yet driven through it and dirtied it (or as long as you don't look at the roads). I hate shovelling, having to walk through it when no one else has shovelled, and driving in it, and I hate the cold, so I can only enjoy the snow at limited times.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, but not well, not fast, and not backwards.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I guess that would have to be my engagement ring. I've had a lot of really nice gifts, though.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? It be (the time when we remember) Jesus' birthday and all the amazing events surrounding that, as well as the reason He was born. I love the candlelight Christmas Eve service at my church, when we are able to attend. I do enjoy the family times, too.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Oh, I do get to talk about dessert! My favourite holiday dessert I've ever had was a President's Choice ice cream that was vanilla (or similar) ice cream that had candy cane pieces and a fudge crackle in it. Yum! It was a tradition for a while when we had dinner at my brother's in-laws' place, until they were no longer able to find it; I think we found something similar after a while, but it wasn't the same product.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Um...I like presents. And opening up my stocking. And the candlelight Christmas Eve service, when we are able to go.

17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Tough call. I would probably like giving more if I knew better what to get people and my gifts were better-received.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I'm not sure. I like Silent Night.

20. Candy Canes... yuck or yum? I like 'em. They're better in ice cream accompanied by a fudge crackle, though, or with their flavour put into Second Cup's candy cane white hot choclolate. I really am a mint chocolate kind of person.

That's it from me. Next!