365 shopping days left to next Christmas

I don't know what makes me sad more, the day after Christmas or New Years. I always get sad at New Years for some odd reason. But the day after Christmas always makes me sad. It's like we rush rush rush to Christmas Day and then boom, it's over.

This year I was so busy, I arrived here on Saturday, took the kids to the theatre, Sunday I met with my friends, hung out with the kids, Monday I went in to work, and then we did the usual Christmas Eve. Getting ready, getting the kids to bed, getting some time together in (I hang with my sister and brother in law) and then it's suddenly Christmas morning.

The kids were up early. Well, the oldest was up at 5 and told to go back to bed. We all got up about 8:30 and headed down to see what Santa brought. Hijinks ensued. Got the turkey in the oven and managed to take about ten minutes to relax after getting ready and cleaning up. My sister, brother, mom and my brother's girlfriend arrived shortly after noon and we opened presents for several hours (that's the part I love about Christmas). And then my cousin and her husband and son arrived for dinner.

We shut 'er down around 2 a.m. when my cousin's husband and her son left. The weather turned so much warmer (fog anyone?) and they just walked around the block home. Now I'm up, saying goodbye to the nieces (they're off to the grandparents) and heading home to pack up my other suitcase for Texas. Can't wait to see Jen and hang out, but still a little sad that it's all over for another year!

Hoping that all my friends had a wonderful fun filled Christmas with their family/friends or whomever they spend it with!

Traditions

Christmas in my family means many traditions. And a few my sister has carried down with her kids. The one in particular that I love is "mom's store". My mom started this when we were kids. She would stock up on little gifts and then she would open her "store" and we would take our money and buy little gifts for each other. Nothing cost more than a dollar and it was a great way for us to be involved in it. We had other gifts for each other that our parents bought, but these little gifts were extras.

Tonight, "mom's store" was open for business. My two nieces went shopping. What's cute about it is a few minutes ago, while my sister was doing some dishes, my younger niece came down with a big sad face saying she needed her to open her store back up because she didn't buy enough for me. Adorable. So my sister's answer was "one, my store is still open, and two, everything is free". She turns and gives me a big grin and takes off to do more shopping. Love it.

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Tonight's sleep will be brought to me by Gravol. Because I am in serious need of some sleep. I swear, I don't know what happened to the last three weeks but they are gone! Tuesday I realized I hadn't sent any Christmas cards out. This was after I started making them in October! I furiously sent out about ten and then gave up. And then, I went and got the last minute things I needed to get for other people on Friday night and went to bed at midnight. Woke up in a panic at 5 thinking I wasn't done! After whipping around yesterday morning to pack, get my stuff organized to come home and pack up for Texas on Boxing Day and then organized and left. Last night we got home from Anne of Green Gables (more in a minute) at 11:30 and I stayed up to talk to my sister. Finally at 1:30 I fell into bed. Again with the wake up in a panic thing. Woke up at 5:30 this time. Fell back asleep and then my nieces came in to me at 8:30. I couldn't get back to sleep no matter how I tried so I just got up. I am a walking zombie!!! I don't know how my sister is doing it. She went to bed at 4 last night!!!

Anne was excellent. I have never seen the PEI version, it is good from what I hear. I decided to do two things different this year. I got front row seats AND we went to an evening performance, instead of a matinee. Neither of them slept and my nieces are the kind of kids who get "drunk" when they're tired. We didn't leave the house until 7:20. On a good day it takes about 30 minutes to get to the theatre and we had to find parking. We actually made it in 20 minutes and found parking right away. My younger niece wasn't so into it. Again. After every song the younger one would turn to me and say "is it over now?" because she wanted to leave. Although, she was hilarious at the end of the play after the curtain call she says to me "I want to be an actor".

My little groupie (the older one) wanted to meet the star so we hung out in the vestibule at the stage door. Drunk moment came along when the younger one tripped on the step. Fell flat and proceeded to cry. My drunk moment was before the show when I didn't grab my camera. Wish I had, it would have been cute to get a photo of them with "Anne". The actress came out and was so good with them. But I have to hand it to my nieces, they say the funniest stuff. Favourite part of the show "when you dyed your wig green" (the youngest). "Where is her tour bus?" from the older one. "She gets paid to sing and dance? Cool!" from the younger one.

It was fun...really looking forward to Christmas Day with them. But really looking forward to some sleep first!

Bring us some figgy pudding

Ok, that's it, I'm done. Well, not quite done. But almost done. Sort of done. Well, I'm done. Other people are not done. So I have to help them be done. Then I'm done.

That is how I describe my final plans for the holidays. Last night I tripped on over to the States to pick up a couple of things and lo and behold...sold out. And it wasn't like it was a fight for dolls in the toy department. These were electronics....FOR ADULTS. Well, not those kind of electronics...so now I have to go and get them here in Canada. Sucks!

I took my car in the other day for the oil change and brake service and also got it all cleaned inside...nice. I love it. That was last on my list. Now it's off to London for the holidays. Have to make a couple of stops then it's pick up the kids and go to the theatre for our annual tradition of seeing a play.

Definitely worth the snow conditions

I have to say, right up front, aside from the substance abuse problems....Nicole Kidman is one lucky woman. While I'm sure her relationship with her husband isn't all roses and candlelit serenades etc....getting to be married to Keith Urban...is a gig I could go for.

I stayed in London last night to go to the last concert of his tour. It was my gift to my sister, she likes him, I've really only heard a couple of his songs in passing and boy was I glad I stayed to go. At one point, on the way to the show my sister said she wouldn't be disappointed if I decided we should turn around. We had a huge snow storm that day and the roads were pretty bad. I told her to do what she thought necessary....she pushed on. Really glad we did.

Urban is an incredible performer...he puts on an amazing show. I can't even quite put it into words...I would have paid $150 for the tickets it was so good. I'm sure others will argue that there are other great bands that put on great shows (I won't argue that U2 is a good show, because dudes, it's Bono!) but he is the best I've seen so far. I managed to get some awesome seats...we were about 13 rows up from the floor so we were above it and could see everything. He has a stage that comes out in a walkway to a circular "in the round" stage in the middle of the floor. He spent a great deal of time walking out into the audience that way. At one point he yelled at security to let people in the section across from us come down to shake his hand. And he made the show so personal by changing words to his songs like "Raining on Sunday" to "Snowing on Sunday" and also adding "wishing I had a snow plow". He's just so great and we had such an awesome time.

I do realize I need a better camera...for some odd reason the photos kept coming out fuzzy in no flash mode...and he's such a nimble little sprite that he kept moving!!! But definitely a great show.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow?

I think it might have been overkill at "Let it snow" because we have been walloped. I'm not kidding. And this isn't me all Canadian saying "oh that's nothing....when I was a kid we used to get four feet of snow and still go to school!" This is bad.

Thankfully I had already planned to stay in town tonight as we're going to the Keith Urban show in town. But still, I'm a little scared about driving home tomorrow. It took someone else I know three hours to get to Chatham with limited visibility! That's about 45 mins to an hour normally!

But I do have to say, it's kind of funny because my brother in law just got a new snow blower and he hasn't really had a chance to put it to use this winter (a couple of inches isn't really all that good for one of these things...you want the snow storms like we've got now that dump about 30 cm an hour to blast through). Well, the funny thing is, two of his neighbours have come over already to clean out the driveway. Meaning there isn't going to be much for him to do!

Junk in my trunk

I have had one of the busiest weekends of my life, which is surprising since I spent a great deal of time on the couch, or at least I think I did. I also understand why I end up sick...

I went up early because I had an appointment with my doctor in London. I haven't given up my "family doctor" back home because of the shortage of doctors in this province but also because I really like this doctor and he knows me, he knows my history, he knows what works and what doesn't and I'm not about to go and set up that history and rapport with another doctor. It was a nice visit though, we got to catch up and I was able to ask a few questions and find out that some of my worries were for naught. And it was nice to see him so much more positive since the last time I saw him. He's changing his practice and he's hoping it will help him with his patient load.

It was a professional development day for the schools so my nieces were off. I had agreed to look after them. They were with my cousin while I was at the doctor so I went and met her at the mall because that's where they wanted to go. After a nice filling lunch of fries (oh man) we looked around and then went home. I was of course exhausted because I had also had a tetanus shot at the doctor and that just wiped me out. Didn't stop us though. We then went to my mom's house to go for a swim in the complex's indoor pool and after two hours of that and then dinner, we were ready to come home.

Saturday it was go go go again. Errands, things to do, places to go...exhausting again. The kids stayed up to watch Home Alone while I was making some christmas cookies. I taught my niece the saying "junk in the trunk". She thought this was the most hilarious thing she had ever heard. I thought her reaction was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. Until she positioned herself under the Christmas tree and told us all she was a new puppy waiting for Christmas morning. Good times.

After about four hours sleep last night I got up and finished up my cookies and then went to Costco with my brother in law to get a gift. I headed home shortly after that. I was welcomed back to town with icy rain and frozen over driveways. Fun.

I'm actually looking forward to going back to work. I might get back on a schedule!

Darn you Mother Nature

I have to buy snow tires.

I have no idea how I am going to go about buying snow tires but I have to buy snow tires.

I have put off buying snow tires in the hopes that really my little car would be ok in the snow and ice.

I have come to the realization that buying snow tires will be a good idea.

I am embarassed to say that I know that they sell tires at tire stores and car stores and other stores that carry tires but I have no idea how to actually pick out which ones are best, which ones are a good investment and which ones will make my car drive better in the snow.

I have to buy snow tires.

I am a little scared.