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!

Hyper kids and baked beans.

It'll all make sense in a minute. First, the hyper kids.

Yesterday went alright, until we got to Chapters. First, though, we went to Costco. Mom got pissed off because she stopped, turned, and went back to look at something, and I instinctively turned to follow. She yelled at me to "Follow your dad!" So Dad and I browsed and complained about Mom.

Winners was bad for Dad. He turned and wrenched his leg, so he was hobbling around for the rest of the night. He was still okay to drive, though, it was walking that gave him trouble.

Chapters was the worst. Dad told us he'd sit in Starbucks while we looked at books, because of his leg. Mom and I had to dodge kids, because there was a fundraiser or something going on. I think the kids were part of a choir, because they gathered on the stairs and sang 'We're All in This Together'. Gah. I'm so sick of all that music from High School Musical. I didn't get anything, because I couldn't really look at any books because we had to keep dodging kids. Plus, I hate crowds. Always have, always will. When I was little, I used to get so edgy around crowds, loud buses, etc. Buses don't bother me now (just the bus drivers who act like they own the road), but crowds still bother me. When we got home, I took an Advil and went upstairs to write.

And then, I saw that my parents had eaten perogies, and didn't ask me if I wanted any. That made me so mad. So, I had leftover baked beans.

I woke up this morning with the worst gas I've had in months.

And then I discovered later that morning that Mother Nature inflicted her stupid curse on me.

So, I had gas and cramps this morning. I took an Advil and drank some water, and when the cramps went away I ate a banana. Then I read Terrier, ate a sandwich, drank some awesome caramel hot chocolate, read Terrier some more, and then at noon I put it on BBC Canada so that Mom could watch EastEnders.

While I was reading Terrier (which is an awesome book by Tamora Pierce, by the way), I was listening to music on a few Galaxie channels. I can't wait till the holiday channel is added on Monday :)

I'm sore

I went to cardio kickboxing yesterday afternoon, and man oh MAN am I sore today. George, who was my mentor through my black belt tests, taught the class. He's such an awesome guy.

So my abs are pretty achy today. When we went to the car after going to PetsMart (or is it 'PetSmart'?), Mom and I didn't have a lot of room, so I had to squeeze through the door. Not a very good idea when your abs are sore. So, in the car, I told my mom that I'm no Tomb Raider.

I got a book from Chapters today. It's about the civil rights movement. I might use it as study material for homeschooling. It's got audio CDs, too.

At Costco, Mom and I each got a pack of Sharpies, and we also picked up some pens and a set of two clip-on reading lamps. Cool.

Just a few more hours 'till Dad goes to work! YAY!!!!!!

And, at 6:00, the library's adding the new items to the catalog!