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Christmas 2006 Update - Long Post!!!

Well, I didn’t get around to updating over the Christmas break, it was oh so busy, but now that things are getting back to normal (yuck!!) I guess I’ll do an update. Christmas break this year was great, but it passed really fast. That part of my vacation passed way too quickly. We went home to Pictou on Friday, the 22nd of December. The last time I posted I was sick. I was still feeling pretty crappy when I got home, but by Saturday it was starting to pass. On Saturday morning I went to watch Liam’s hockey games at the Pictou rink. He scored a few goals. He’s a really great little hockey player. He can skate better at 6 years old than I ever could!! Next, on Saturday, I met up with the newly engaged Christine (yay!!), Dawn, and Jenny for lunch at the best restaurant ever – Café Italia!! It was really yummy, and we had a great lunch. We had slices, salad and coffee, and we just sat there and talked for a long time. It was great to catch up. We went to the mall after that to finish off the last minute shopping. I didn’t have much left to do, so it wasn’t too stressful. We went home after that, and I don’t remember what we did, but I was pretty tired, and we were supposed to be going out to the Tavern that night. I didn’t really feel like it, but then at around 8, I opened up my bottle of wine to have a drink. Well, by 11, I was ready to hit the tavern. I got pretty tipsy, pretty fast. In my state of drunkenness I begged my father to drive us downtown, because it was raining (yes, rain on Christmas eve eve!!). I don’t remember exactly what time we got there, just that it was the perfect time – everyone started to pour in shortly afterwards and it was just one big Pictou reunion. Mel had her camera there, so there are pictures, but I haven’t gotten them from her yet. I had an awesome time, and I remember being pretty angry when the lights came on at 2 AM!! So Bevan and I made our way home, and I woke up the next morning feeling just ok, but after a nap, all was fine.

So, then it was Christmas eve. It was a pretty uneventful day, which ended with Church at 8 o’clock with my family and Bevan. We came home, opened a gift, had a glass of wine, and headed to bed.

We got up on Christmas morning at 7:00 (as always), and Bevan was at our house by 7:30. He was there for most of the gift opening. Once again, it was a fabulous Christmas, and we all got pretty spoiled!! From my parents I got a great little box with an engravable plate to keep wedding memorabilia in, Bevan and I got a ticket for the vacation draw at the deCoste Centre. I got some clothes, some gift certificates for Future Shop (to go towards my camera!!!), a chocolate fondue fountain, etc. Bevan gave me a natural light lamp, a tea brewer, and a sweet Napolean Dynamite action figure!! Mel gave me a Guess wallet. I got tons of scrapbooking stuff. Frankie had a great Christmas, too. At first she would only open a gift it she could smell treats inside, but by the end of it, if you put a gift in front of her, she tore it open!!

Bevan’s gift from me for Christmas was a Nintendo Wii – which became the entertainment at my house for the entire time we were home. Melanie was so sore after playing all day Christmas day that she wouldn’t even touch the thing on Boxing day, but by the next day she was back at it!! Mel thinks she’s a tennis pro now, and she swears she’s going out to buy a racquet.

Oh, and Bevan sold his old car while we were at home. It was his very first car, and he was sad to see it go. We took some pictures to remember it by:

Bevan and I headed back to Summerside on the 29th (Friday) with a very full car!! After a million trips from the car to the house we were finally unloaded, but our living room was soooo full. So, we got to work putting everything away, and finally, things are pretty much back in order here. The Christmas decorations are all taken down and put away for another year.

I’ve put away all my scrapbooking stuff and even scrapbooked a couple of pages. One is of our Christmas Tree this year:

And the other is one that I saw the idea for last year. It is the perfect page for me, as I always like to keep my Christmas cards, but I’ve been trying to be less of a pack rat – so I cut portions out of the front of each card, and made a scrapbook page out of them:

Bevan and I spent New Years here at home, just the 2 of us. We ordered Chinese food ( we actually had to go to the restaurant to order, because the phone lines were jammed!! ). It was really busy. We went down at 8:45, and our food wasn't ready until 9:30. It was well worth the wait though, as this has been our New Years tradition for the last 3 years!!

Today is my last day off before I have to go back to work tomorrow. I’ve been on vacation since December 7th, so tomorrow is going to be a painful day!! 6:15 is going to be really early!!!

Yes, it is 5:30 AM

and no, I'm not awake just because I'm excited about Christmas. I'm SICK!!! I have a cold. I haven't been sick with the cold in the last 2 1/2 years. Even last year in the midst of my hives and immune system breakdown I did not get sick. It happened really quickly. Just after I took the picture for my last post I started sneezing and feeling like my sinuses were filling up, and it just snowballed from there. By the time I went to bed I was totally congested. I couldn't sleep so I went down stairs and I've been awake for most of the night, other than a half hour of sleep here or there. And of course since I never get sick, all of the cold medications we have here are expired!! I'm impatiently waiting until the stores open to go stock up on softer kleenex, halls, orange juice, some type of a cold and sinus medication, and perhaps some zinc lozenges (which I hear are helpful). Anyways, hopefully I'll post over Christmas, but Merry Christmas otherwise!!

My new hair

Here it is: It's slightly shorter, no color this time. But I love the way it is styled and I totally think I can do it myself. She just diffused it, and then used a curling iron here and there. I know, it's a pretty bad picture, but I'm here all by myself, so I had to use the camera timer - I hate those things. Oh, and in order to put the picture on the computer, I had to upload 122 other pictures!! I had pictures on my camera that have been there since the summer!!!!! I have a clean slate (an empty camera card) now, though, so I'm all ready to take lots of pictures over Christmas!!

And I call myself a scrapbooker

I'm sitting here staring at my camera, thinking that I can't remember the last time I uploaded the pictures from it to my computer. Now, if I were any kind of a scrapbooker at all, that would mean that I would have hundreds of pictures on it, but in all actuality, there are probably only about 5!! I have had no interest in taking pictures lately, I guess I feel that there hasn't been anything exciting going on. I know I should be taking pictures of those everyday things, because those are just as important as the big events, but I've been slack. The truth is, I'm underwhelmed with my present camera. For months now, I've been dreaming of owning this:

It's the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Bevan's work has one, and he's had it home a couple of times and I've gotten a chance to snap a few pictures, and now, my little Fuji point and shoot just isn't the same. I watch and watch for the camera to go on sale, and everytime it is on sale I add it all up to see if I can afford it, and the outcome is always the same - not this time. I'm trying to save all my pennies for the wedding at this point, so I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

In other, very exciting news, one of my bridesmaids - Christine - got engaged this past weekend!!! I'm sooooooo happy for she and Paul and I can't wait to see her when I go home for Christmas.

Christmas Cards Done!!

Well, my Christmas cards for 2006 are all done and delivered. I had the ones that had to go in the mail out last Thursday, to be sure they got there on time. I hand delievered some last night and today as well. All together I gave out 40 cards this year, all hand made. Here are a few of my favorites:

The KI Memories Alpine Collection was by far my most used paper this year. It's untraditional, but I LOVE it.

My vacation is going great, but I haven't done much relaxing. Last Wednesday I went to Moncton with Carolyn and all her sisters and Michelle. It was a really fun day. I'm trying to get the house cleaned up now so it's clean when we come back, but cleaning isn't really my greatest talent. I've managed to keep the kitchen clean, but haven't gotten the living room cleaned yet (it's filled with wrapping paper, tape, scissors, etc...).

I'm getting a much needed hair cut tomorrow. I'll post pictures when it's done.

Anyways, that's it for now. I'll blog again soon!!

I'm back!!!

Well, It’s time to get back to blogging. I know it’s been a long time, and I’m not very happy with myself about it. Just a short update post for now, but I’ll have some Christmas Card pictures to post later. I’m determined that I’m getting them finished today. Let’s see, what’s new since September??? Oh, firstly, Bevan’s job renewal went through!! He signed a contract for another year at his job – we were sooooo happy with this, because the job thing hasn’t really gone smoothly for him since we got here. In my last post I was complaining about Bevan’s car. Well, after Dad fixing it (again!!), I think Bevan drove it for a few more weeks, but we decided that now that he would be traveling to Charlottetown again and he had a job with some security he needed a new one. So we had Dad on the look-out. We test drove some Civics, Corollas, Camrys, etc…, and then my Dad happened upon a Jetta. Well, Bevan loves Jetta’s, so that’s what he went with. It’s a 1999 Volkwagen Jetta – Silver. He’s happy as a clam with his new car. Today he’s getting some new winter tires put on it – the all season’s just weren’t cutting it in the snow. Thanks to Dad (again), he got a great deal on some good winter tires, so we don’t have to drain our bank account either!!

I’m on vacation again, too!!! My last day of work was December 7th (a Thursday), and I don’t go back until January 2nd (a Tuesday). We went home this past weekend and got the tree all decorated. We decorate our tree at home differently every year - this year we made all of our ornaments out of Basic Grey scrapbook paper. I loooovvvve it. We took pictures, but they’re on Mel’s camera, and she hasn’t sent them to me yet. I’ll post them as soon as I have them.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet – but I’m not complaining – it’s been nice. I have lots to do this week to get stuff ready for Christmas. Our house is decorated, but I have lots of projects to finish. More later, I promise!!

Complaining ...

Please forgive me in advance, I just have a little venting to do. We've had a kind of crappy few days. Nothing major, just little things that add up to make it seem like everything is going wrong. Firstly, Bevan's car didn't make it back to PEI after his trip to Halifax. He called me on the way home to tell me it was making a really loud noise. He made it to Pictou, thank goodness, and now my Dad is working on fixing it again. Thanks goodness for a mechanic in the family!! Also, the renewal of Bevan's job isn't going as smoothly as we had hoped. I thought they would just have a board meeting, say that they approved the budget, and therefore, his job, and voila!! Well, it's not quite that easy. Almost a week later, and things are still kind of up in the air. On a much smaller scale, we really wanted some Diet Pepsi with our supper on Sunday, and when we got home with it and opened the bottle, the bottle was broken, so we couldn't drink it - stupid glass pop bottles on PEI. Then, on Sunday night I really wanted a cup of tea. So I boiled my kettle, got out my favorite tea cup, put in the tea bag (Honey Lemon, yum), poured in my water, and CRACK!! My favorite cup cracked right up the side!! Anyways, that's enough venting for now, I needed to get all of that negativity out of my system!!