It's the Holiday Season...

And what a great time it has been thus far. Only 5 more days of it until I have to go back to work... I am still hoping for a snow day on Tuesday- after my plane lands of course! But is has been a great time at home-

1) I got to go to a REAL Christmas concert. My cute little nephews and niece. They even acted out the nativity and sang songs that mentioned Christ. So good. So cute.

2) Church on Christmas eve. It was just me and my parents- but fun to see a ton of people I haven't seen in forever- with their gazillion kids and cute wives/ husbands.

3) Christmas Eve at my sisters. We played a little Catch phrase and Loaded Questions. There is nothing quite like a question about bodily functions to get the party started. Good ol' Brian. I love when my Mom laughs sooo hard. Love it!

4) Sleeping in until 8:30 on Christmas day. And then waking up to cute little Addy and Janie. It was fun to open presents with them.

5) Resisting the stores on Boxing Day. I didn't even leave the house- sad but true. I am trying to be better about buying things i don't need... TRYING is the main word.

6) Dinner at my Auntie Shirley's tonight. My cousin mark is 44! 44! I remember when they would come and tickle us when we would sleepover in their living room. 44! Man I am getting old.

7) My semi-annual haircut. Happening tomorrow. Right now I am thinking I will try to grow my hair a little longer- at least until my next haircut. Tomorrow I might be thinking something else. I think I need to move closer to Andrea so I can get my hair cut more often than at Christmas and the summer... we shall see.

8)Organizing my room. I am so grateful that I still have a "room" at my parents. It is more like a storage room that they let me sleep in when I come home. One day I will take all my stuff out- when I live closer to my stylist!! I have so much stuff becuase I can't pass up a deal. If it is on sale- I HAVE to buy it. hence #5. But I am going to have the best stocked kitchen when I live close enough to move all my stuff with me.

9) Seeing Kim. Holy schmolies it has been forever- like 2 1/2 years. She is too cute. And her little Ryker. It was so fun holding him. Thanks for the fun visit Kim. You are great!

10)My family. They are great and I love them. They sure are what is tempting me to move back to Canada. Cute kids, fun sisters, interesting brother-in-laws.

I went to Church today...

without a coat or even a sweater! According to my trusty car "Norm"- it was 16 degrees celcius today! 16 degrees! That is amazing for the 17th of December! I can't believe it. I am SOOOOO ready for snow though. (I am sure everyone is asking why!!) Good thing I will be in the great white north in 2 more sleeps! Yeah!

I FINALLY did it...

I have driven past this store every day- 2 times a day for 2 years now and today was the day that I FINALLY went inside. Pathetic I know!
But I KNEW I would love it- so I stayed away for as long as I could.
It was dangerous.
I wanted to buy EVERYTHING!
But I just had to keep telling myself that I would have to get rid ofit when I move back to Canada as I can only take what will fit in my car- and I am WAY past that limit already!









I couldn't leave without buying SOMETHING... So I bought-

A cool paper towel holder- that is magnetic! So you can stick it to the side of you fridge! love it.








And a space bag... you know the ones that you put a ton of stuff in- suck the air out and you can store 10 times the stuff in the same amount of space...
Well I got a travel one. You just roll it to get the air out. I don't know if I am in love with it but I need all the packing help I can get!



Now I just need to "contain" myself from going back and buying everything else I want!

I am going....

Bananas...
It is quite the adventure being a Home Ec (a.k.a. Family & Consumer Sciences) teacher! One part of the adventure would have to be buying the groceries! Have you ever bought a cart full of groceries... except it is only 5 items... just 25 of each of the 5 items. I had this experience on Wednesday! We made banana bread in my classes on Friday! People look at you like you have something wrong with you...
maybe I just REALLY like bananas.
I had one woman comment about my amount of bananas when I was filling my cart. Once you say "I teach Home Ec" they instantly understand! When I was standing in line with my cart of 40 lbs of bananas and 6 cartons of eggs and older man came up to me and asked what I was going to do "with ALL of those bananas." I told him I was in need of a lot of potassium! Ha ha! He was excited when I told him I taught Home Ec. He even returned a bit later (I was in line for a VERY long time) and told me a story about when he was in Home Ec.
Gotta love the Home Ec stories!
Try it sometime- fill your cart with only a few different items and enjoy the stares and comments! It is great.

p.s. the banana bread was a success- only one group had a weird outcome and I don't know why! They always ask if they get a bad grade for messing up- Nope! The only punishment is they have to eat it!

Yippee!

My camera is fixed! I can't believe it happened so fast! One sad thing... the pictures I took when I was checking to see if my camera was broken... WORKED! So I totally could have taken more pictures in NYC! oh well!

Here are the pics I took BEFORE it broke! There are my yummy fries!! They have 2 tables (it is super cramped but super chic!!) that have holes for your cone-o-fries! And the delicious dill lemon mayo sauce.
Then there is me and Midge (a.k.a. Rachel- my roomie from 10 years ago! Yowza!) She is looking all cute and I am all nasty! I woke up at 5am- rode the bus for 4 hours! That is my bag that I hauled around ALL day! I am pretty impressed that I lived out of that bag for 2 days. I wish those fries beside Rachel were real. how COOL would that be?

You can't really tell my hair is darker...can you? I tried to get a picture of it today because one of my classes talked about how my hair looked so cute today (but I couldn't get one where the rest of me looked decent)! it was rather amusing. I actually get a lot of compliments on it... but it is by the trouble maker boys that are wanting to suck up for various reasons.