Big Holiday Post

I might have to save this post and continue it later. We'll see :)

First, I shall start with Christmas Eve.

I got up at 7, so that I could shower and eat breakfast before my dad and I went to buy cannoli for our Christmas Day breakfast. I think I've talked about this before: we buy cannoli and other pastries from our local Italian bakery for Christmas Day breakfast. We also had to go to the grocery store to buy bread and cucumbers for our Boxing Day appetizer get-together - we had my Uncle Brent, Heather, and Heather's daughters over to our house for Boxing Day.

We went to the grocery store first to pick up the bread and cucumbers, and we also picked up a turkey TV dinner as a gag for my sister, who had mentioned that she didn't like pork (we had crown roast of pork for Christmas dinner) and would've preferred turkey ;) Despite the fact that the couple behind us in the check-out were a bit pushy (they complained a little about the line-up, and then pushed past my dad and I as I was trying to head to the exit), I was somewhat cheerful. There was a little kid jabbering away in her mom's shopping cart in the check-out line beside ours', which was really cute :)

After that, we headed to the bakery, but they weren't open yet. Another patron was waiting in his car when we pulled up to find a parking spot, and he laughed when he saw us. We sat in the car for a few minutes, then joined the line-up outside the door. The place got pretty packed when they opened the door; but despite the amount of people, the line progressed pretty quickly. I think it was because a number of people pre-ordered their cannoli. Dad always says he'll pre-order, and never does ;P

The rest of Christmas Eve consisted of cleaning, and wrapping presents. Fortunately, most of the stuff I got for people wasn't too tricky to wrap - it was just my brother's meat tenderizer that was tricky. After watching George Stroumboulopoulos's Christmas special, I went to bed so that my parents could wrap my stuff - and just before they started wrapping, I remembered I had to fill my hot water bottle, so I hurried upstairs to do that :p

And now, Christmas Day!

Christmas morning was very peaceful. After I got up, my dad put the kettle on for coffee and tea, and then we emptied our stockings. Mine was jam-packed with stuff - I can't remember everything that was in it, but I can tell you that it contained a new mug, a bath mitt, a box of Walnut Whips from our local British imports shop, Coronation Street playing cards (I imagine those were from the British imports shop as well), and a 'things to do' paper pad, to list things that are 'not done', 'almost done' and 'so done'. Pretty neat stuff :)

As for my main gifts, they were:

THE FIFTH SEASON OF DOCTOR WHO!!!
The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin
Tokyo Godfathers on DVD
Home for the Holidays on DVD (now I don't have to wait for it to be on TV!)
The Heavy's The House That Dirt Built
A set of Ralph Lauren sheets in pink, green and orange stripes :)

As you can probably tell, I'm very excited about the fifth season of Doctor Who :D I didn't get to watch it on TV, because Space is the only channel in Canada that carries it, and we aren't subscribed to it.

After we opened presents, my mom and I tidied up the spare room for my sister to use while my dad went to pick up Nathan (my brother) and Steph (his girlfriend). We had to hurriedly wrap the knit throw blanket my mom made because she decided to give it to my brother, and we had it wrapped just in time for when they arrived - I literally brought it downstairs and put it under our awesome red tinsel tree as they were taking their shoes off and saying hello to the dogs! :p

From my brother and Steph, I got a bag of assorted candies: two boxes of Pocky (I had asked for Pocky because they know a place that carries the fancier flavours), a box of Lemon Heads, some Necco Candy Buttons, a Chupa Chup, a candy stick that I'm not sure what the flavour is, a mini Cow Tail (a caramel fudge candy), a box of Japanese candies that Nathan wasn't quite sure what they are (they're some kind of strawberry candy, from what the packaging says), and a pouch of Pop Rocks. My parents got similar bags of candy, but instead of the Pocky and the unknown box of Japanese candies they got Malteasers and Peanut Butter Bats. I don't think they got the Candy Buttons, though, or the Lemon Heads.

At around 2:00, we headed to my grandparents' house. My sister was already there, and she gave us her presents to us first. I got a bracelet from Disney World (she had gone to a conference for her pedorthics internship, and the hotel she stayed at was right next to Disney World) and two sweaters from Old Navy - one is a brown and blue argyle cardigan, the other is a black cabled cowl-neck pullover. From my grandparents, I got a set of five pairs of earrings from Avon, a red and black wallet-on-a-string also from Avon and a Chapters Indigo gift card. I don't know how much is on the gift card, though, because Grandpa didn't write the amount on it.

Uncle Brent, Heather, Heather's daughters and their aunt arrived shortly after we did, and we gave Brent and Heather their wedding gift and watched Grandpa open the gift that Brent, Heather and my mom got for him (a new TV for in the kitchen, to replace the one he had), and we left afterwards.

When we got home, Katie opened her stuff from us and we ate dinner: crown roast of pork, mashed potatoes, turnip (which I didn't eat, because I don't like turnip), Brussels' sprouts, dressing, and lamb sausages for Katie. The pork was very yummy. We had trifle for dessert after we'd all digested dinner.

Lastly, Boxing Day.

We did more tidying up before Brent, Heather and the girls came to our house. Brent put on the World Junior Hockey game on and we snacked on cheese and crackers, veggies and pickle dip, chicken liver pate, smoked trout pinwheels, smoked salmon devilled eggs, kielbasa, and Christmas cookies. After the hockey game, Nathan plugged in his Nintendo GameCube, and I watched Nathan, Katie and Heather's daughters play Mario Kart Double Dash - which was highly entertaining.

After Brent, Heather and the girls left, Dad put on Kill Bill: Vol. I on MoviePix. I was pretty happy about this, because I hadn't been able to see all of Vol. I when it premiered on the movie channels, because Mom didn't want me watching past the hospital scene for some reason. I guess she thought the fight scene in the Japanese nightclub was too graphic for me :p Anyway, I absolutely loved it. MoviePix was showing Volumes I and II back-to-back, but I only got to see the first fifteen minutes of Vol. II because it was on really late and Mom wanted everyone to go to bed :p

So, that was my Christmas :) Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

BIG update post :)

Clearly I need to post more :p

I've been a bit busy. I went Christmas shopping at the mall with my dad Friday night, which was a success - I won't say what we bought, just in case my mom accidentally stumbles on my blog. Besides the actual shopping, walking through the mall was fun: we stopped at Second Cup to get a cup of coffee for Dad and a white hot chocolate for me, I saw a guy who looked like The Situation or Pauly D from Jersey Shore as we walked up the big staircase in the mall (the guy was tanned, with a plaid shirt and super-gelled hair), and I found out that we now have a Bath & Body Works in our local mall :)

On Saturday I went to the library to pick up my stuff - Debbie Stoller's book Stitch N' Bitch Superstar Knitting, Phil Collins' newest CD Going Back, a huge book on human anatomy, a National Geographic book on birds, the DVD of The Girl Who Played With Fire and the new Karate Kid movie. Oddly enough, as soon as I picked up my stuff I checked my account online and saw that another item - a book on writing screenplays - is in transit for me. Huh.

My parents went to a Christmas party on Saturday, so I got to catch up on my reading a little - but for most of the evening I watched The Breakfast Club again :p It was on MoviePix, but it was halfway through when I put it on; and then I caught it from the beginning on A Channel. I absolutely adore that movie - it's just so awesome.

I didn't do much on Sunday or Monday - just an errand on Monday. Today I went to Shopper's Drug Mart with my mom to look for stuff for Dad for Christmas, and we were fairly successful :) All I have to do now is buy a present for my sister.

We have snow!!!

It snowed last night :)

It was just a dusting at that point, so I was hoping it wouldn't melt in the morning. I woke up this morning and saw a bit more than a dusting when I looked through the living room window, so I was pretty happy about that. Hopefully the weather will be seasonable for Christmas, because last December I didn't get to wear any of the scarves I've made.

In honor of the snow, I give you: 'Walking in the Air', from The Snowman...






I really should find that movie on DVD. Our VHS tape of it won't last forever, and not many TV stations play it over the holidays.

Speaking of TV, this Christmas will be the first Christmas that we've had AMC and TCM. My mom and I watched Meet Me in St. Louis on Saturday, which was nice. And yesterday afternoon we caught the last twenty minutes or so of The Bishop's Wife. I'm hoping to be able to watch A Child's Christmas in Wales, but I don't know if it'll be on TV - sometimes a channel like Knowledge Network or TVO will have it on, but it isn't always on every year. TVO and Knowledge Network are kind of like PBS stations in Canada - they're commercial-free and often have educational programming.

Yesterday afternoon, after we watched The Bishop's Wife, I found one of my favourite Christmas movies, All I Want For Christmas, on YTV. After that was Call Me Claus, which I watched the last half of (I had gone on my computer when it started); and then after that was Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

In knitting news, I'm halfway through my bobble pillow :) I finished the bobble half, and now I'm doing garter stitch for the back half of the pillow - which will be a lot easier on my hands. The bobble side took so long to get through, and my hands hurt from knitting the bobbles in acrylic on metal needles, but the pain was worth it. Now I can zip through the rest of it.

I watched Jonah Hex the other day. It was good - I wasn't totally wowed by it, but it was good. I still have another library DVD, Driving Lessons, to watch. I might watch it tonight if there isn't anything on TV tonight. Or we also have plenty of Christmas movies to watch.

I can't think of a witty title.

I'm really at a loss as to what to call this post. So... yeah :p

My cat was being a little devil yesterday. She kept sneaking up onto the stove to drink meat juices - I had to chase her away five or six times - and she later puked them up on my carpet. The stain looks like a red wine stain, so it proved troublesome to clean up. It doesn't look as bad as it was when I discovered it - it looked like a crime scene when I started cleaning it up. I half-expected David Caruso from CSI: Miami to be standing there, taking his sunglasses off and putting them back on and commenting on the stain. I got some of the colour up, though, which is good. I may have to ask my parents to buy carpet stain remover, though.

I went to the library yesterday, and picked up some CDs (Cyndi Lauper's Memphis Blues, Sting's Symphonicities and The Who's Tommy) and two DVDs (Jonah Hex and Driving Lessons). I'm kind of excited about both movies, but a bit skeptical about Jonah Hex. I hope it's good.

I got more Christmas shopping done last week. I got some cooling racks for baking for Steph, because she likes baking. I still have to shop for both of my siblings and my mom, though.

Well, that's what's happening lately. I should probably go eat now.

December

So, NaNoWriMo is over, which means I now have time to post regularly. Sorry for the long gap between posts, I was really busy :p

NaNoWriMo actually went pretty well. I'm happy with my novel, unlike last year's novel, which sounded silly to me. Next year, I want to try something completely different - either science fiction or an adventure-type novel (think National Treasure). I started a synopsis for each novel idea, and I have a protagonist for each one as well. I need a break from urban fantasy writing... :p

Now that NaNoWriMo is done, I'm itching to read a lot of books. I started Un Lun Dun by China Miéville, but I'm still in the prologue because I couldn't focus on it when I started it. I read a bit more today, but got distracted because the dogs wanted inside. I'll probably read more later.

But there's so many books I want to read. I really want to start Terrier by Tamora Pierce again, but I promised myself I'd try to read all of Un Lun Dun. Plus, I have the books I just bought a month or so ago with my Chapters Indigo gift card from my grandparents, which is just too tempting. But Un Lun Dun is a library book, so I kinda have to read that first.

I'm kind of in a panic about what to buy people for Christmas. I have no idea what to get my sister. I have some ideas for my brother and his girlfriend, though, which is comforting. I like to get my shopping done early so that I can relax. I hope to only go into the mall once, to shop for my mom, because the mall gets a little crazy during Christmas shopping season - and sometimes it gets crazy outside of that season. For instance, one year I was in the mall with my dad (I think we were shopping for either Mother's Day or Mom's birthday), and out of nowhere this woman almost walks into us on a diagonal and gave us a pissed-off look.

I'm happy that it's December, though. It means that I can put on the Galaxie Traditional Holiday channel on my TV and sweep the living room, or listen to my holiday playlist on YouTube while on the internet. Speaking of sweeping, I have to vacuum my room...

Anyways, that's my post-NaNo update of sorts. I'll try to post more often :)