Adieu 2006

This will more than likely be my last entry of 2006, so to mark the occasion I decided to do a 2006 Year-In-Review. It was hard to think back to events from the beginning of the year and I'm sure I'm forgetting important things that happened, but here's what I could come up with. Enjoy and all the very best to you and yours in 2007!

January
-The new year started for Ryan and I by waking up at my friend Kim's house, after she hosted a great New Year's Eve party.
-The federal election saw the Conservatives defeat the Liberals, but Canada still ended up with a minority government

February
-My father celebrated his birthday on the 3rd.
-My best friend Carrie came home from Ontario for a visit and brought her friend and co-worker Tara with her, who had never been to the Maritimes before.
-I hosted a stagette party for Kim while Carrie was here.
-The 2006 Winter Olympic games were held in Torino, Italy.

March
-Kim and Jon got married in Cayo Cocoa, Cuba
-My cat Neo, turned 2
-My nextdoor neighbours had their second baby, another daughter, named Cassidy

April
-Kim threw Angela a surprise 30th birthday party
-Ryan celebrated his birthday on the 13th
-Carrie and Chris came home for a visit (Chris' first time east). Chris was down for a week, Carrie stayed for two.
-Kim and Jon held a wedding reception, allowing friends and family who couldn't make it to Cuba for the wedding, an opportunity to celebrate their union with them.
-Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had a baby girl name "Suri"

May
-I was laying out tanning regulary at the beginning of the month (holy "2006-year of crazy weather"!).
-Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had a baby girl they named Shiloh (wonder if they've ever been to Manitoba, lol) Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.

June
-I began the Weight Watchers program on June 5th.
-The Carolina Hurricanes won the NHL's Stanley Cup.

July
-My brother celebrated his birthday on the 4th.
-Chris proposed to Carrie while they were vacationing at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
-Carrie's grandmother passed away 2 days after her engagement.
-Pam Anderson and Kid Rock marry several times.

August
-I celebrated my birthday on the 17th.
-Carrie celebrated her birthday on the 8th.
-My friend Sherri and her husband Jamie welcomed their first child, son Tyson James.
-Carrie came home for a visit and we started planning her wedding for April '07, here in Fredericton.
-My neighbours purchased a new home and moved.
-Ryan and I, along with friends, headed to Woodstock to enjoy a weekend of camping and the sounds of the bands Survivor (Eye of the Tiger), Foreigner (Hot Blooded, I Wanna Know What Love Is) and CCR (I don't need to list any of their hits...everyone knows CCR!).

September
-My Mom celebrated her birthday on the 9th.
-Ryan went to Hong Kong to work on a contract with Treasure Island Resort.
-Tie Domi and Belinda Stronach let slip their courtship, which is going to cost Tie Domi in the end, with his messy divorce.
-Dog the Bounty Hunter gets arrested due to fiasco from arresting Andrew Luster in Mexico.
-Steve Irwin "The Crocodile Hunter" dies after getting stung by a sting ray.
-Britney Spears gives birth to her second child, son Jayden James.
-Another Canadian wins the reality show Rockstar. Lukas Rossi wins the opportunity to front the band Rockstar: Supernova.

October
-I found out my job was being taken to Tijuana, Mexico. All hope was not lost as I do get to be transferred to the company's other brand, although I am still not happy about the situation and am still looking for a new job.
-I celebrated a nice Thanksgiving with my parents and my brother.
-I flew to Toronto to visit Carrie for 10 days. During this visit we also ventured over to Buffalo, NY (I was not impressed by this place at all!).
-I made it back to New Brunswick in time for Halloween, where I went to my brother's to pass out treats to the kiddies.

November
-I got a new toilet on Rememberance Day weekend. My dad's friend Scott (a plumber) installed it for me.
-I had all of my Christmas shopping completed and wrapped by the end of Rememberance Day weekend.
-Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline call it quits.
-Jimmie Johnson wins the Nascar Nextel Cup.
-Michael "Krammer" Richards explodes into a racial tirade while performing at the comedy club "The Laugh Factory".

December
-Carrie arrived home on the 9th for Christmas.
-I threw a bridal shower for Carrie on the 10th.
-Stephane Dion won the Federal Liberal Leadership.
-Baked Christmas treats and also cupcakes as a trial for Carrie's wedding "cupcake cake".
-counted down the days until Ryan arrived home from Hong Kong on the 22nd.
-attended Christmas church service with my parents and then attended Carrie's parent's annual Christmas Eve gathering.
-Celebrated a wonderful Christmas with my family and then again with Ryan.
-Caught Ryan's "Hong Kong Flu", of which I'm still not completely recovered from.

We're Down

I get into work today to find that our server system is completely shut down - our rental counters our down, our website is down, and we're down here at the call center. I love these days!!! I feel like this is the break that we've earned for putting in numerous hours dealing with extremely moody, negative, verbally abusive customers who call us day in and day out. It's so great to say "I'm sorry I cannot assist you at this time, please try back in X amount of hours". I then get to sit back and play on the internet or do whatever I want, while we wait for our system to come back up. It's been 3 hours now that we've been down. Usually if we're not back up within an hour, it means that we've got a major problem and we'll be down for the majority of the day...I love it!!!

Catch Up

Let's play catch up for the past couple of days. Friday night I left work and went to my parent's place to do up my week's worth of laundry. I wanted to have it done to free up my weekend for Ryan's arrival home and with Christmas and all.

I went home Friday and slept restlessly, eagerly awaiting my reunitement with Ryan. He spent some time sleeping in (extreme jet lag, coming from a country with a 12 hour time difference) and catching up with his family and then came over to my place after supper. It was so wonderful to see him again and show him the new me (ie- minus the 50 lbs I'd lost since he was gone). We spent a nice quiet evening at my place, filling one another in on the stories of our life in the past almost 4 months. Ryan had been sick his whole last week in Hong Kong and was starting to feel better when he got ready to leave. As soon as he got on the plane though, it aggravated his illness and he wasn't feeling too well until Christmas Day.

Sunday afternoon I went up to my parent's place to prepare Christmas Eve dinner, traditionally made by me every year. This year I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, as per my mother's request...which was shocking considering her picky-ness with food. She'd never had it before and claimed that she did like it, however I don't believe she'll be requesting it again, lol.

After supper I went to church for the Christmas Eve service with my parents and then up to Carrie's parent's house for their annual Christmas Eve gathering. Carrie and I exchanged gifts that evening as well and I received a pair of earrings, some Cadbury thins chocolate bars and a gift certificate to get my nails done for her wedding.

I then ventured home to my parent's house to spend the night and wake up on Christmas morning with them, along with my brother staying over too. We had a great Christmas morning and an amazing big breakfast together, despite my waking up with what I thought was a bad case of allergies. I received many wonderful gifts which including a Columbia winter jacket, a new coffee maker, cordless phone, new cookware, bath towels and a new shower curtain from my parents. My brother got me a potato and onion bin and Full House ( I loved that show) on DVD...although he got me season one, which I already had, lol.

In the afternoon on Christmas Day, I met Ryan back at my place for our Christmas together. His gifts for me all came from Hong Kong. I received a new purse with a matching coin purse, a beautiful jade necklace with matching earrings and matching bracelet and also a beautiful white silk kimono.

I then went back to my parent's place for Christmas dinner. At this point I was feeling miserable and realized that what I thought were my allergies bothering me, was really Ryan's flu that he brought home with him. I suffered through dinner and then headed straight home. I was supposed to go up to Carrie's parent's place after dinner and say goodbye to her as she was flying out at 6 a.m. on Boxing Day. I felt horrible for not being able to go up and say goodbye, but I called her and explained to her how sick I was. She understood, but I still felt bad.

Yesterday I layed low, trying to recover somewhat from my flu. Thank goodness I didn't have to work yesterday. I'm feeling a lot better today, but am still not 100%. All in all it was a wonderful holiday, although to me it just didn't feel the same this year. I don't know if it was the fact that Ryan wasn't here this year until almost Christmas Day or that there was no snow on the ground or what, but Christmas-time just didn't feel like Christmas-time this year.

"Hey La, Hey La...My Boyfriend's Back"

Ryan is back safe and sound now in Fredericton! I can not express to you how happy I was to see him again! I will report more later on the home-coming. I just wanted to take a brief moment before I sit down to Christmas Eve dinner to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! Be safe over the holidays! :)

On His Way

So Ryan is now on his way home as I type this! He boarded the plane in Hong Kong at 4:30 a.m. this morning (4:30 p.m. Hong Kong time). I have been tracking his flight online ever since I got to work this morning. It's pretty neat to see exactly where in the world he is at that very moment. The flight that he's currently on arrives into Toronto tonight around supper time-ish and from there he boards a flight from Toronto to Fredericton, arriving into Fredericton just after midnight tonight.

I think I mentioned this before, but I won't actually get to see Ryan until tomorrow some time. His parents are picking him at the airport tonight, along with his brother who is flying in tonight from Newfoundland. I can't tell you how excited I am to see Ryan!

This has been the week from hell work-wise. We have been so busy with the Christmas rush of travellers and then with Denver getting snowed in, it's been nuts! People have been extra bitchy and stupid this week as well. Of course we are sold out of all cars in New York City for Christmas day...you moron, LOL. All I can say is that I'll be happier than a pig in crap when I leave work tonight at the end of my shift. I'm not back into work until Wednesday, December 27th. It's not a whole lot of time off, but I'm happy with that.

Over Baked

Last night the bake-a-thon was on at my house. It doesn't seem like I made a lot, but the stuff that I did make took a lot of friggin', so it took me a few hours.

I started baking at around 7:30 p.m. At about 8 p.m. my friend Yolanda, who now lives in Edmonton, called me. She's home for Christmas and is trying to round up some of the old gang to get together at Dolan's this upcoming Saturday. We had a nice chat for about a half an hour or so and caught up with each other.

I hung up with Yo and then my friend Mark, who lives in Moncton, called me. He had been talking to Yo earlier and was under the assumption that the weekend get together was going to be hosted by me, at my house. I quickly cleared that up and told him I wasn't hosting and that the tentative plan is to go to Dolan's. He was a little disappointed, as Mark's not really into the bar scene anymore and would prefer to come to my house. I also would prefer the latter, but seeing that Saturday is my first day with Ryan after his return from Hong Kong, I don't want a houseful of people at my place and wishing that they would leave, so I could get some alone time with Ryan. No offense anyone! Just this way, we can go and make an appearance at Dolan's and then leave after a couple of hours. If it were any other time, I would be more than happy to have everyone over!

After talking to Mark on the phone, I picked up baking again and then Carrie stopped in after the movie that she went to with the girls. We sat at the kitchen table and chatted, while I frosted some shortbread cookies. Carrie stayed until about 11 or so and then I continued on with the baked goods.

At the end of the evening by about midnight I had a sinkfull of dishes washed and had 2 pumpkin loaves, oodles of shortbread cookies frosted with vanilla frosting and a cherry on top and a cocoa krispie roll made (my brother's favorite...he begs me to make it for him every year, but it's such a pain in the a$$ to make!). I was impressed with what I had got done, considering everything I had done in between baking. I was hoping to make a couple of more things, but just couldn't fit it in.

Tonight Carrie, Andrea (one of Carrie's bridesmaids) and Angela are supposed to come over around 8 p.m. If any of you friends reading this would like to join us girls, feel free to come on over! :)

Baked

I think I'm going to start my Christmas baking tonight after work. I have been putting it off because I don't have a deep freeze and the freezer in my refrigerator is completely plugged full. Not that I plan on baking a whole lot, but I will be making two or three things and didn't want them to be stale before Christmas.

Tonight a bunch of my girlfriends are heading to the movies to see "The Holiday". Since I don't get off of work until 7:00 p.m. tonight, I unfortunately won't be able to make it. Seeing as nobody will be around tonight, I figure that it's a good night to put on the Christmas music, do some baking and start cleaning the house before Ryan gets home! I am so excited to see him in mere days now!

Pizza and Dancing

The pizza party last night was fun. Carrie and I stopped into Jack's pizza and picked up the pizza and some garlic fingers and then headed to Shelly's place.
We enjoyed pizza and great conversation and then the two kids treated us to some after dinner dancing, which was so gosh darn cute! Alicia who's 5 was a little more timid than her baby brother Callum, who is 1, but after Callum started showing off his moves, Alicia joined in. :)
I drove Carrie home after our visit to Shelly's, as she was going to visit her friend Andrea, who is home from Halifax for the holidays. I declined the invitation to visit with them as I was exhausted still from last Saturday night and opted to go home and go to bed early. I got a good 9 hours sleep last night and still woke up tired, lol.

Pizza Party

Carrie and I had made plans with Shelly to go for dinner tonight, but her husband has to work now and she has no babysitter, so Carrie and I are going to take a pizza down to her place and have a pizza party there with her and her kids.
Yesterday afternoon Carrie and I went shopping for more wedding stuff. We got some tiers and pillars for the cupcake wedding cake we're making for her wedding and we bought some stuff to make a trial run of the cupcakes. They were so-freakin-good! I can't wait to see them all made up and in the cake tiers.
Carrie then joined my family for Sunday dinner and then we went back to my place to watch the Survivor finale and pig out on treats. :)

Weekend Update...with Kelly :)

It's been a busy weekend, but relaxing also at the same time. It's a shame how quickly they pass by though!

Friday night started with me going to pick Carrie up after I got off work. We went to Pizza Delight for supper and I even managed to stay within my Weight Watcher point range, although yesterday I started the official "Christmas Vacation from Weight Watchers". After dinner, Carrie and I went back to my place and went over the "to-do" list of items for her wedding. I had also been busy creating a program for her wedding and we went over that together to make sure she liked everything I had done with it. Since this is Carrie's last visit home to New Brunswick before her wedding in April, it's unbelievably important that we get done everything that requires her input and her chequebook, lol, then I can take care of everything else for her.

From there we went up to Walmart, seeing as it was open until 11 p.m. (did I hear correctly that this week Walmart is going to be open 24 hours a day?!? craziness!). We picked up some vases for us bridesmaids to place our bouquets in during the wedding reception, got some decorative cording that I'm going to use to make drawstring purses for us girls, using the same material that our dresses are being made from and we bought a whole bolt of fabric to use as the aisle for the ceremony. Seeing as Carrie's wedding is getting done in one whole shot (i.e. marriage and reception both at the hotel), the hotel doesn't really have an aisle per se, so we had to come up with something that would work.

Saturday morning saw me hit the farmer's market with my brother. It was windy out, but it was so worth it to taste the goodness of a fresh donair and a tasty treat from the German baker. Enjoying these delicacies made me realize why I got so fat though, lol. Good thing I've changed my habits and enjoy those treats only once in a while.

Saturday afternoon I prepared homemade Mac N Cheese for supper with my family. My father requested Mac N Cheese for Christmas Eve dinner (which I make annually) but my mother would have none of that. She is extremely fussy and picky when it comes to food (she complains that I was as a child...she's WAY worse that me) and said she "didn't like" homemade Mac N Cheese. This coming from a woman who fed us Kraft Dinner every week for lunch when we were kids. My dad is my hero and means the world to me, so I still wanted to make this treat for him. I told him that I would still make it and that mom would either have to swallow her pride and admit that she really does like Mac N Cheese and just didn't want to have that, or she'd have to find an alternative for herself. She found an alternative, lol. She picked up some fried chicken at Sobey's while they were out grocery shopping earlier in the day, lol.

Dinner was great, my dad was in heaven with his meal and it made me happy to give him something that he really wanted, as simple as it may have been. My dad is such a hard working man and devotes his whole life to his family, it was the least I could do.

Saturday evening I went to Kim's house. She was having Carrie and her sister Alisha over for supper, then Angela was heading over as soon as she got home from her trip to Florida. Angela got engaged while in Florida (congrats again Ange!) so we had a great evening sharing some beverages and talking weddings. Sherri came over later in the evening after her Christmas party and it was great to see her too, as I hadn't in a couple of months.

Carrie and I got up to leave Kim's house at around midnight or so, when Kim's inibriated husband Jon (who's a complete sweetheart) came home from a "shed party" with some stragglers who still wanted to party. By the time we finally made it out of Kim's dooryard after saying goodbyes again to everyone and Jon's repeated attempts to get us to stay, it was almost 1 a.m.! Carrie was, well, drunk, but in a happy drunken, giddy state at this point (I had no alcohol and was driving) and she was talking to her fiance on the phone while we drove away. As we were driving up the Lincoln Road (Kim lives in Oromocto) we spotted our friend Shelly's van at the little bar along that road. Her husband Scott works there and Carrie and I hadn't seen him in a while, so we decided to go in and shock the hell out of him, as we would be the last two people he would expect to come in there. Shocked he was indeed. It was funny because we walked in and were all "Hey Scotty, how the hell are you" and so on, and this guy at the bar (who we learned was a "regular") said to us "Ah...he's married you know", to which I replied "Yah I know, I'm going out for supper with his wife on Monday". It was pretty funny, maybe you had to be there.

Carrie had a quick beer at the bar and then we were on our way again. We reached Fredericton's Northside and then Carrie proclaimed that she'd like to have some McDonald's, so we hit the drive-thru and shared some nuggets and fries in the parking lot. I said to Carrie "You know what's funny, I totally feel like I'm in high school again, driving around late at night, eating McDonald's in a parking lot", lol. We had a good laugh and declared that it had been one crazy night. It's times like this that make me realize how lucky I am to have Carrie as my best friend :).

It's Friday!

Yeah, it's Friday! This week went by surprisingly fast! We're now down to only a week before Ryan will be home! Techinically though, I won't see him for another week plus a day, because he flies in just after midnight next Friday night and his parents are meeting him at the airport then, as his brother is flying in at the same time from his home in Newfoundland, for Christmas.

Carrie is coming over tonight after I get home from work. She didn't make it over last night for Survivor, as her mother wanted her to go to Bingo with her last night. We don't really have anything specific planned for tonight, we'll probably get something to eat, maybe hit Walmart (I know - crazy thought) as we need some fancy rope-cord-stuff to make draw string purses. Fabricville doesn't have the right color cord that we need, so it's basically up to Walmart now.

It's The Most Crabby Time Of The Year (For Some People...Not Me!)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love Christmas. As the song goes, ...it's the most wonderful time of the year. For me it is anyway. It's always been a magical time for me, even as a child. Time to celebrate the birth of Christ, time to spread joy to others, quality time spent with family and friends, time to indulge in those once-a-year treats, and so on.

Christmas has never been stressful for me, well except for the years that my mother was sick and hospitalized over Christmas. Other than that, I have never felt burnt out or stressed over the holidays, because I prepare well in advance to the holidays. I start buying gifts months before Christmas and wrap them as soon as I bring them home, I write up my Christmas cards early so I can just drop them in the mail when it's time, I put up my decorations and tree the first weekend of December, so I can sit back and enjoy it all, and so on. To me, these things aren't hard to do and they sure make life easier over the holidays.

The thing that I don't get it is why people leave their Christmas preparations to the last minute. The benefits of starting early far outweigh putting things off to the last minutes and it doesn't require much extra effort. Plus you're not so broke over Christmas because you've spread your spending out.

Given that I work in the customer service industry, I deal with crabby people all friggin' day. It's a stressful job and I look forward the end of my shift each day, so I can get away from people's bitchy-ness. This time of year I deal with more and more crabby people, like every other person I deal with, instead of every 1 in 4 people I deal with. I know it's because it's the holidays and people let themselves get super stressed out. It's amazing just how stressed people let themselves get and then don't realize how much of an a$$hole it makes them be. I know that in the run of a day the number of people I deal with who actually will sit back and say "Wow, I really was an a$$hole to that lady I dealt with on the phone" are slim to none. For example the very first person I spoke to this morning used some extremly vulgar language with me. What a great way to start the day.

Hopefully the joys of the season will spread to these people and they will understand that being short with people who try to help them, makes for a bad day for everyone.

My Name Is..A..Borat!

Carrie and I headed up to the theatres last night to see Borat. We had heard so many people say that it was a bit disturbing, so we went to it with an open mind.
I don't know if maybe I just have a cruder sense of humor or what, but I actually didn't find it that bad disturbance-wise. I mean there were some very politically incorrect moments in the film, but I have definately seen movies with far worse scenes and language in them.
So my verdict for the movie is, if you like stupid humor you'll laugh your arse off at Borat! Carrie and I both said we'd like to see it again, because it's one of those types of movies where every time you watch it, you'd pick up on new funny things that you missed before.

Goin' To The Show

Carrie and I are going to the movies tonight to see Borat. It starts at just after 7 p.m. and I am supposed to work until 6:30 tonight, which would have been cutting it close. Luckily, I managed to be able to get scheduled to leave early for 5:15 tonight, so that works out perfectly. I can even go home and have some supper, so I don't have to get any high calorie snacks at the theatre and can stick with the Weight Watchers :) .

Weekend Over Already!?!

Wow, do the weekends ever go by fast! I can't believe it's Monday and I'm back sitting in my chair at work! Craziness!
Carrie arrived here safely last Saturday evening. I went up to visit her and her parent's and took a whole car load of stuff up for the bridal shower that I was hosting for her on Sunday afternoon at her parent's place. I would have hosted it at my house, but it just isn't big enough, that's why I used her parent's place.
The bridal shower went very well. We played lots of fun shower games, Carrie received lots of great gifts and we had lots of great food - I was stuffed all afternoon and evening! I'll try and post a few pictures as soon as I have a chance to upload them.

Christmas Cutie!

Here's Mack, my brother's English bulldog, after telling Santa what he wants for Christmas this year.

Looking Forward To This Weekend

Ah...it's Friday! I have been looking forward to this coming weekend for a few months now. Carrie arrives home tomorrow and then I'm hosting her bridal shower on Sunday. It should be a great time with great company, great food, fun games and prizes! :) I plan on cheating a bit with the whole Weight Watchers thing at the shower, but I'm not too worried as I've been extremely good all week.

Not too much is planned for me for tonight, other than trying to get everything organized this evening for the bridal shower and packed up, so I can cart it all up to Carrie's parent's house, the location where I'm hosting the shower. Tomorrow morning I'll be getting up early to do my laundry and other household chores that are normally reserved for Sundays, so I can spend the rest of the weekend with Carrie. I'm so happy that Carrie is coming home so soon. Now I just have to wait for Ryan's arrival home, which will be here before I know it! :)

Florida Bound...I wish it were me!

One of my closest friends, Angela, has left town bright and early this morning, Florida bound. Her parents, her brother, her sister in law and two nephews are also travelling with her to Orlando for a wonderful family vacation - I am so envious of her now that there's snow on the ground here! I'm sure she'll have a blast and come back with lots of pictures and memories.

Last night was a quiet evening at home. I went home and cooked some steak for supper (Yum!) and then jumped on my gazelle and worked out for a bit. After that Angela came over for a visit before leaving today, as she wont be back from Florida until December 16th. She brought Tim Horton's coffee over with her and we sat and chatted and laughed for about an hour and a half. I'll miss her while she's gone.

My best friend Carrie is coming home from Ontario for Christmas soon! She arrives this coming Saturday and is here until Boxing Day. I'm so excited to see her! I'm throwing her a bridal shower on Sunday afternoon, so that will be fun :)!

Sad News

My friend Shelly's mother in law passed away yesterday from cancer. Shelly, I'm so sorry for your loss and if there's anything I can do for you, please let me know.

Christmas Version Of Getting To Know Your Friends

1) Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate...I only like Egg Nog with rum in it!

2) Does Santa wrap presents or just put them under the tree? as a kid they were not wrapped, now they're wrapped.

3) Colored lights on the tree/house or white? definately white - I hate those circus lights people put up (multi-colored).

4) Do you hang mistletoe? No I don't, does anyone still do that?

5) When do you put your Christmas decorations up? The first weekend in December

6) What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Favorite Holiday Dish? I dunno, I guess the gravy boat. HAHA. To be serious, it's the Turkey

7) Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Visiting my grandfathers on Christmas Eve

8) When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I never really did, just grew out of it. My mom still tries to convince me there is a Santa, funny that he has the same penmanship as my parents when he signs the gift tags for presents, lol.

9) Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? no, not really. As a child we used to open a yearly traditional Hallmark ornament that my parents would get us each Christmas, then we'd put it on the tree before going to bed. We don't do that anymore though.

10) How do you decorate your Christmas tree? with white lights, twisted ribbon going down the tree, lots of crafty ornaments and some white bows

11) Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it on Christmas, hate it at any other time

12) Can you ice skate? Yes, I played ringette for many years as a child

13) Do you remember your favorite gift? I loved them all!

14) What's the most important part about the holidays to you? Spending lots of time with my family

15) What is your favorite holiday dessert? All of them! I haven't had dessert in so long, I'm looking forward to tasting them all!

16) What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going to church with my parents on Christmas Eve and then going up to my best friend Carrie's parent's house for their annual Christmas Eve gathering afterwards.

17) What tops your tree? A country crafted star with an angel glued on it - it's very cute

18) Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I like to watch people open the gifts I've selected for them, but it's always fun receiving too!

19) What is your favorite Christmas song? Silver Bells

20) Candy canes: Yuck or Yum? yum when I was a kid, I don't eat them anymore.

In The Spirit

This weekend really brought out the Christmas spirit in me! Friday evening saw freezing rain and snow here in Fredericton. I didn't feeling like going anywhere that evening after I got home from work. I was talking to my mother on the phone and she asked me to come up for a visit. My brother was up at my parent's at the time, so she tried to use that to lure me up, lol. I told her I wasn't going out in the weather again that night and that I was planning on staying home and putting up my Christmas decorations. My family decided that since I wouldn't go to them, so they all came down to my place. It was a wonderful evening, feeling cozy in my living room with the glow of the Christmas lights and the decorations and the tree going up.

Saturday I had plans for lunch and a movie with a couple of friends, but neither of the plans worked out. During the day time hours of Saturday I ran a few errands like getting groceries, going to Green Village and picking up my brother's dog's picture with Santa (which turned out incredibly cute!) and I went to the craft fair on the exhibition grounds. Saturday evening was spent refining my Christmas trimmings and adding to my Christmas tree. I am happy to report that the tree is now complete and I really enjoy sitting back and enjoying it!

Sunday morning after I had finished having some breakfast, I started to do the dishes and the telephone rang. I answered it and got the most amazing surprise...it was Ryan calling from Hong Kong!!! We talked for about a half an hour or so, until his phone card died on us when it ran out of minutes. It was so awesome to be able to talk to him for the time that we did get to. This was only the second time that we have been able to speak on the phone since he went to Hong Kong in September, given the cost of making such telephone calls and with the extreme amount of time difference, it has been hard to reach me when he has tried a few other times, as I'm usually at work when he calls. I have been on cloud nine ever since talking to him yesterday and can hardly wait for him to come back home...only 18 more sleeps until he's back!!!

New Home!

Here is the new home of my blog. I have been considering leaving Blog-City for a while because of it's lack of features with the free version of it, which I was using. After some unwanted visitors to my Blog-City, that solidified my decision to jump ship and come to Blogger.

I hope you all enjoy my postings here at my new home!