judith_jane's blog

Boxing week = nuts!

I decided to spend boxing day in my pj's doing very little - something that I haven't had a chance to do all Christmas week. I did a bit of poking around online to see if there were any online sales that would be worth my time and I didn't find HUGE enough sales to bother purchasing anything online. So we decided we'd go the day after thinking that the chaos would be over - eh WRONG! The streets to the malls were packed, the parking lot was crazy and in the mall wasn't too bad until you stepped foot in some of the stores. I feel sorry for the poor unfortunate soul that has to tidy up BlueNotes - jeans on the floor, sweaters strewn about, t-shirts picked through... oy! Then when we leave the mall, we're walking to the car and the mall security is by my car. We get closer and find out that my car was boxed in. BOXED IN!! Someone decided to park behind me. How was I going to get out?? Security assured me that they'd find the owner of the car and if not, a tow truck was called. So we waited a good 10 minutes. Finally, the car in front of me but one over decided to leave at the same time that the car beside me was leaving, so I was able to easily get out. But seriously.. who does that?? How RUDE!!!

Two days later, I figured I'd try the malls again. Oh wow, still no luck. Still as busy as the day before! Jeeze.. and as usual I didn't get the chance to actually go to the stores I wanted to check out because I kept bumping into everyone. Will tomorrow be the day I get some shopping done? Probably not, I want to stay home.. haha. Happy shopping!

Christmas Cheers!

Merry Christmas!! This consisted of cooking in the evening on the 23rd. The 24th: cleaning and laundry first thing in the morning, cooking from 11:30 am to 9:30 pm followed by wrapping until 12:30 am. Yup, and you'd think that the cooking would be complete by Christmas day - WRONG! Woke up, continued cooking the side dishes and rushed to get ready for church. What a huge surprise to step out and see that Winnipeg was covered by a THICK blanket of snow. At lunch, our kitchen and living room were filled with food, presents, family and friends. Very little room to move and all the food you can eat translated to great times! Then the partying continued at Mark's house. More gifts, food and family. I played Taboo for the first time and it was pretty hilarious.. haha. Spiked Blue Kool-aid, home made Bellini and fruity "tagay" made for one funny evening. The gag gifts were a good idea this year, just maybe more organized for next year :p.

Whilst driving to Mark's house, I had a chance to remind July what Christmas was all about. Remind her that not everyone was fortunate enough to have the difficulty of figuring out which of the many dishes to eat or which of the many toys to begin playing with first. Maybe next year July and I can volunteer some of our time to those less fortunate - a humble reminder of just how truly blessed we are.

Merry Christmas to everyone and may the spirit of the season find you healthy and engulfed by an abundance of love.

CHEERS!!

Christmas Chaos

I finally have a chance to make a post.. it’s been nuts!

Thursday was July’s LAST Christmas concert in elementary (the grade 5 & 6’s do a spring concert in place of a Christmas concert). This meant going to her school 2 hours early to ensure a great spot. Yup, TWO HOURS EARLY! I ended up being 2^nd in line.

 

Friday (18^th) had dinner with my girlfriends at a wonderful new restaurant called Hermano’s in the exchange district. We had to be relocated to a different table because our table was reserved after us and apparently, we took too long.. haha. What can I say? When we get together, we need a few hours to chat. I’d be so lost without my girls. I love my family, I love July and I love my fiancé, but there’s nothing like getting a chance to chat with your girls. We exchanged gifts and a tone of fun. It was so cute how Cadence was dancing and wandering with bows and ribbons attached to her head – what a goofball. 

Oooo the food was spectacular! There has only been one other place in the city where I’m never disappointed with my steak (CHOP) so I was thrilled when the steak I ordered came out perfectly cooked and you can taste that it was cooked on a grill. It was butter baby! 

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That same night, I said my good byes to my girls to go pick up Mark. We head to the opposite side of the city to enjoy an impromptu Christmas party with the “younger” generation from work. Everyone was pretty much hammered by the time we got there. Highlights? Rock band with a guy who totally thought he was a rocker but really he was your typical computer nerd, a hairy kangaroo scrotum bottle opener that was used for many things other than opening bottles and two incidences that saw the same guy plant kisses on two very unsuspecting victims. VERY rowdy evening.

Saturday: woke up late, went shopping with my parents which was CHAOS! Rushed home, wrapped my exchange gifts that I bought last minute then rushed to pick up Mark so that we could go to the Filipino Hydro Christmas party. Yes another work party. Fun times with the long gift exchange story that seemed to never end and a party would not be a party without karaoke.

Sunday: woke up late, again. Met up with my parents for lunch, went grocery shopping, met up with Mark at Toys R Us, then went to Polo. All that shopping and I still wasn’t done!! Needing some down time, we head to Mark’s place to watch Hang Over and just chill. I loved Hang Over because it took me down the streets of Las Vegas and I was instantly transported back into time back to Mark’s proposal.. aww!!

Monday: cleaned up a little and head to, guess where? Another party!! Haha.. no it was my sections Christmas lunch at Elephant and Castle. I had enough of the burgers and meat so I decided to go for the salmon lunch. Big mistake!! The combination of the flavors made for a really fishy tasting salmon – was NOT impressed L. Picked up mom and guess what? MORE SHOPPING!! Haha. We went to that Sally’s beauty supply to pick up hair color and hair products, went to Canadian Tire (picked up some cheap ornaments for my very own Christmas tree next year).

Tuesday: guess what? Yup you got it.. MORE SHOPPPPPPING!! My goal that day: find Mark’s Christmas present. Why so late? Well we had decided a while ago that we wouldn’t be getting gifts for one another since we were trying to save for a wedding. Then a few weeks ago, that goof said he found my present. So obviously I had to find one too. Mark is the type of guy that would just buy anything that he wanted so that made shopping for him hard. Even more so, his hobbies are EXPENSIVE! Golfing, snowboarding.. what could I buy that wouldn’t break the bank. SUCCESS!! The first store we went to we found something which set the tone for the whole day. July actually picked it out and I loved it! So we finished the rest of our Christmas shopping and head home. In the evening we watched Avatar. THE best movie I have seen this whole year! I went into the movie not knowing a thing: didn’t know the premise of the movie and I didn’t seen a preview of it so I hadn’t a clue what it was about other than it was a SCI-Fi film. Unbelievable CGI, great story line and I think their casting was spot on. It was a long movie but didn’t drag at all! I definitely will see it again and have been telling everyone to go. However, if you are prone to motion sickness, I suggest you watch it in 2D and opt out of the 3D version. I won’t give details as to why but, you’ll understand when you watch the movie. This is definitely a must see on the big screen.

That brings us to today. I spent most of today cleaning and cooking. I stepped out with my mom for LAST minute grocery shopping. Ya ya, more shopping! Went out with my “Ate” Mary-Anne to do some catching up. (Ate is the “big sister” in Filipino – used for any female older than yourself as a sign of respect). She’s my God sister who moved to Toronto a few years back. We grew up never saying more than a few words to each other and only when we’d bump into each other by chance. Just a few years ago, Mark and I went on a trip to Toronto and figured that it was a great chance to meet up with her. Since then we’ve been communicating via email and facebook and it’s great to start getting to know her. We had a great time chit chatting and catching up. I hope that we can make a trip out to Toronto so that I can show July Niagara Falls before Mark and I start having kids.

So that’s it – long update huh?? Haha.. Hopefully these’ll be more frequent. Christmas is going to be a busy one having all of our time already previously scheduled.. haha!! So busy that mom and I are cooking all day tomorrow and parts of Christmas morning.. yay! haha.. well.. good night!

Constant State of Rumination

I know these posts have been few and far between - my life is normally a
huge mess of chaos combined with great memories and great company. The
Christmas season seems to magnify this chaos and I barely have time to
rest my feet. Amidst this chaos, one would assume that I'd have no time
to think about anything other than what needs to be done next - how
unbelievably false that assumption would be. It seems that chaos breeds
contemplation. And maybe it's because I'm constantly busy that when I
finally stop for a moment, my thoughts catch up to me and there's no
turning them off. After July's gone to bed, the chores are half done,
the time on the clock displays a time much later than it should be, my
face is washed, pj's on and feeling too tired to care about the mess in
my room, I crawl into bed and finally I've stopped "moving". I sit up
against my headboard and finally exhale in exhaustion. That's when the
thoughts begin to haunt me, bombarding my mind about everything under
the sun. I pick up my phone just to see if maybe I've turned the ringer
off, nope, he just hasn't called. So I pick up my book and enjoy the
quiet that it brings me. Soon I am lost in another world and I don't
have to think about mine. But of course, that is until something in the
book reminds me of what's going on in my life and I'm right back to
thinking, day dreaming. *Make the thoughts stop!* I finally close my
book a few minutes, an hour later and allow the slumber to encapsulate
me, welcoming me into its' comfortable arms and all too soon, my
thoughts make way for the darkened void. Sweet, sweet, quiet void.