Archive for the ‘Christmas countdown’ Category:
The cilftmas tree struggle continues
Sorry that I didn’t post yesterday. I was too busy fixing our tree. Because it grew on the side of a cliff it has scoliosis and crashed to the ground after all the ornaments were on it. Luckily, after much craziness including changing the stand without taking the tree down, all is well. And I think we have the best tree ever. There is a little picture on Tom’s flickr, but I’m sure he’ll post another one later.
Luckily, I wasn’t home when the family decorated the tree, so none of my (zillion) ballerina ornaments were on the tree. They all survived. Well, until I dropped one of them last night and her head fell off.
Subscribe to the comments for this postMelted Salad
There are only six days until Christmas. This should be a lovely post about a wonderful Christmas memory or a favourite Christmas recipe. Except, truth is, I have whatever Tom has. Sore throat, headache, and I’ve slept more in this past week than I have in the past semester. So this is a bit of a lame post, it’s just a recipe.
I’m really not a fan of anything cold. I’m that annoying girl who says “no ice” at restaurants. This makes winter a little tricky; however I compensate by eating very warm things all winter long. Apparently though, you are supposed to eat salad all year round because the vegetables are good for you. So, to get around the cold-ness of a salad, here is my recipe for Melted Salad - I invented it on the bus the other day after griping for a while about eating salad in winter.
Cut up an onion and some garlic.
Cut up some celery (really tiny because celery strings are gross)
Cut up a few carrots
Cut up a turnip (or rutebaga if you’re from Toronto)
Cut up some spinach (salad = need for some leafy greens)
Cut up anything else you like in your salad (except berries)
Put your favorite salad dressing in a big pot (Greek is good. So is oil and balsamic vinegar). Add tons of salt and pepper. Throw in all the vegetables. Cover the works with water, turn on burner. You’ll know it’s done when everything has melted.
This is the kind of salad you’ll want to serve in a bowl, not on a plate.
Home and Food and Sleep and
I made it home to the island with only a scratchy throat and stuffy nose to show for it (Katelyn says I have the hi-ni). I’ve spent the last couple of days visiting friends, taking dance classes, eating Katheryn’s Christmas cookies, sleeping, shopping, discussing university politics with my friends at the student’s union at Grenfell College, drinking tea and laughing at talking sheep and rabbits and orangutans, helping my dad move a snowblower (our family finally caved and purchased a snowblower and are super happy about it), and trying to kick this sickness in the stomach with steel toe boots (that’s right, I went there).
Even though feeling like this sucks, I’m glad that I have it now, instead of in a week from now. That would be unfortunate.
Oh! Cliff-mas Tree
I made it home. Barely. The flight was less than fun. Five babies, 2 dogs, 1 loud drunk woman, turbulence.
It’s all better now though.
Today Mom and Katelyn and I went to get a Christmas tree. Fun times. First Katelyn had to drive our car up a cliff only to realize that we went in the wrong direction and had to turn around. Then we all had to climb the cliff (which was a slippery, ice cliff) and freeze until Katelyn found the perfect tree. Personally I would have been content with any of them. Preferably one closer to the car. Really, what’s the fun in a perfect tree. I like mine to have a little character. The farm worker came and cut the tree down, hauled it down the hill, and binded it up to put in the trunk. Mom and I laughed and laughed and slipped down the cliff. Then mom drove down the cliff and we headed home.
I haven’t picked out a Christmas tree in years because of my predilection for homely ones because I’ve been really busy, so it was great to get out today with my family and do it. We have a lot of fun together. I’m sure all the other less happy tree-hunters were jealous of us.
Oh, and Tom made it home safely too.
Early Christmas Present!
Tom gave me an early Christmas present.
It started Sunday night when he told me I had to be packed before 6:00 on Tuesday (which I’m not). Then yesterday he told me that I had to be ready to leave the apartment by 6:00 on Tuesday and wear something nice because we were going somewhere.
I pretty much incessantly asked him what we were doing for the next 24 hours.I’m really not a fan of surprises. I didn’t know how to mentally or fashionably prepare myself.
Then at 6:30 we left the house and got on a bus. Then he told me we needed to get another bus. I had no idea where we were going. We got to the subway station and Tom led me to the North-bound trains. This totally confused me. What happens North of Sheppard/Yonge Station? There are only 2 stops.
We got off at the next station and Tom led me though a maze of plazas and municipal buildings. Then, as we crossed the street to the theatre I realised where we were going - to see Jersey Boys.
Jersey Boys is this eye-candy, corporate, musical production about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons that has been running and heavily promoted since we moved here.
It was a fun show and I had a great time. It was a lovely present. I’ll “review” the experience in another post because now it’s bedtime and I have to be well rested for my flight tomorrow.
Gift Story
You know how when you’re growing up and Christmas rolls around, and all of the toy ads start? And then the Christmas catalog shows up at the door and you spend hours and hours flipping through it, careful considering everything and wondering what best to ask for from Santa? And then you very carefully circle the things that you like the most, make sure that you write them out perfectly on your letter to Santa and also make sure that your parents know exactly what it is you’d like, just in case Santa can’t get something so maybe they could help.
One Christmas I really wanted this game called Crocodile Dentist. (My Mom has probably started laughing at this point.) Man-o-man I really wanted that game. It was a plastic crocodile that you had to try to pry the teeth from without it chomping on your fingers and coming after you. It looks like this. And for some reason I really wanted it for Christmas.
So Christmas rolls around and (if my memory serves me right) I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get it. After all the presents were open there was sadly no Crocodile Dentist. But I believe something happened along the lines of Dad finding a present that Santa hid down there that was for me and he brought it up. I tore open the wrapping and it was - *gasp* - Crocodile Dentist! Wicked-Super-Pumped!
Later that day, we took it out of the box and set it up on the dining room table. I probably managed to get one or two turns in before the crocodile slammed its mouth shut and chased after me.
And man was I terrified.
I screeched and bawled, and wanted Crocodile Dentist taken away forever. And it was. Phew.
A couple years later I remember finding it in the basement. I set it up and played once or twice, not really sure why I had made a big fuss. But… I guess weird things get to you when you’re a kid. Especially angry crocodiles with toothaches.
Bed Lunch
Today I read a little snippet in Women’s Health that said apparently “studies” show that couples who drink hot liquids together trust each other more. So now I’m pretty sure that Tom and I are still together because of all the tea. I think Tom and I have been having nightly cups of tea together every day for about five years. And these teas are often accompanied by bed lunches.
When we first started having bed lunches they were often after long evenings of dancing and were often carb-o-licious slices of raisin toast with butter. Then that whole thing with the gluten happened and my snacks shifted to having cereal or leftovers from supper. Tom would have, like, a roast or something. Now, that I’m not quite as active and don’t eat as much fruit during the day my bed lunches are usually just a piece of fruit and maybe some cheese. Mmm cheese.
But the point of this post is not meant to be some sort of food diary or exposition of my weird relationship to food. It’s meant to talk about the best bed lunches of all. Those when you’ve eaten all the good food you need to during the day, got all your micro and macro nutrients and the bed lunch is just the icing on the cake. And sometimes, it can even be icing. Or, cheese and crackers and jam; or a muffin; or a piece of banana bread crumbled into un-homogenized whole milk yogurt (can you guess what I had for a snack tonight?)!
So, if “hot liquids” keep couples trusting each other then I think bed lunches (or at least the good ones) can let couples know what their partner’s indulgences are and subsequently keep them interested in each other! The combo works well for us!
Holiday Party!
The home stretch is in sight, and concentrating on study is incredibly difficult. Thankfully I got a diversion from schoolwork on Friday night when Candice and I headed downtown to go to the YFS’s annual holiday party.
The night started with us waiting for a bus that never came, followed by a quick subway ride and a short streetcar trip. We arrived at a very lovely loft in Kensington Market, full of smiles, food and drinks. We hung out for a couple of hours, talking with friends who you usually only see while at school or in the middle of a campaign, so it was nice to be able to see people in a different atmosphere.
Some awesome music helped turn the night into a great time, and I’m looking forward to doing it again. Another quick transit journey full of laughs and Peggle brought us back to our apartment in northern Toronto. There are a couple pictures from the night over here, if you’re interested.
Ps. Yes, this post is super late. Apologies. I’ll make up for it by seeing you soon.
Don’t be too grumpy with me!
Alright, I dropped the ball and totally forgot to make a post yesterday.
Our days have been non-stop busy with hopes of getting at least a few things accomplished so that we can have a relaxing break at home.
However, to make up for it, I’m going to share perhaps the best Christmas special ever. At least watch one of the segments. It’s called Grumpy Old Women at Christmas and it is a bunch of British women complaining about Christmas traditions.
Snaps
Over the past few days I’ve received a handful of emails from people asking me to send them some photos I’ve taken over the past year or so. These people were mainly looking for photos of family, but I was kind of shocked to find out that I had very few that I could send over. Unless it was an event where photos were expected to be taken (birthdays, parties, birthday parties), I didn’t have many.
It didn’t really surprise me after thinking about it for a second, since I’ve found that whenever the camera comes out during times when people aren’t done up, folks instinctively slink away from my viewfinder or ask me to put the camera away. But the whole point of me trying to take some photos at these times is so that I can capture the memories of when we were “just hanging out” or “just playing cards” or just being ourselves.
I love taking photos of animals, and I love taking photos of landscapes, and I really like taking photos of performances, but when I really enjoy is taking photos of friends and family so that when one of them emails me looking for a picture from that night where we sat around doing nothing except spending awesome time with each other, I can say sure, no sweat, here you go. Because lets face it, those are often the times that you want to remember more (or at least, I do).
This trip home I’m going to make an effort to try to get more shots of my friends and family. And really, what better time to spend awesome times with friends and family than at Christmas?