Christmas is only but 361 days away

The tree is put away, the stockings are packed away and all the Christmas baking has been eaten. Some homes may keep the tree up until 2009 but my parents took theirs down yesterday (Dec 28th). Guess it gets in the way when vacuumming....

This Wednesday is New Years' Eve and the only plans I have is "wing night" with some friends from work at the local pub. Wing night has been a weekly ritual for us for the past couple months now and we all look forward to getting out, having fun, and having someone else cook our dinner. Other than that, no plans but to sleep in the next day and probably do some house work, math homework and whatever else. Has New Years' eve/day become over-rated?

My Christmas was nice and quiet. My sisters and their hubby's were over in the morning and then went to the in-laws for the rest of the day. So I spent the day with my parents. I tried to get a nap in every day and even went to bed super early for two of the days....guess I was tired. The drive back to BL was a bit hard. I had drank 2 cups of Iced Tea and a Starbucks coffee before and during the drive but my eyes were battling to stay open. At least the roads were in good condition and there wasn't any wild life lingering on the side of the highway. After getting home, I unpacked and went to bed at 7:30pm. I'm such a party animal!

Well 361 days until Christmas again....I don't know about you, but I don't plan on getting into the spirit until at least October!

Do you work on Dec 25th?

It's Christmas, Christmas eve today and I'm at work, while others are travelling to their Christmas festivity destinations and others are taking the week off to prepare for the big day.

On the other hand, there are those "essential services" that don't shut down or close their doors because of a holiday, yes not even for Christmas which for many is the biggest holiday of the year. I work in a hospital and know many of my co-workers that will be working on Dec. 25th. It is a shame for many, missing Christmas morn because of the work schedule. And then there are some that won't be seeing any family because of distance or lack of, so working doesn't seem that bad, plus the money to be made on this holiday increases about 2.5 times/hr. There are pros and cons to working this day.

For myself, I'd hate to be working in an industry that's considered "essential" and doesn't stop for this one special day. On every Christmas day, my whole immediate family has been together. The past 10 years or so, my grandparents and uncles/aunts/cousins haven't been together because of distance but a Christmas card is always exchanged. I couldn't imagine not having everyone together, if not for the whole day but for a couple hours. (My sisters have to share their day with in-laws.)

I've talked to one co-worker who celebrated Christmas on Dec 22nd because it worked well for having the whole family together and nobody had to work either. She is scheduled to work on the 25th otherwise. Because I've never had to do that, I think opening all the gifts so early would feel weird/odd....but if that's what it takes, then that's what ya gotta do.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great Merry Christmas and are surprised with the gifts you are given and happy with the reactions you get from the giving. Don't eat tooooo much so you feel uncomfortable....there's no fun in that!

Merry Christmas!

Door Decorating Contest @ Work

This Christmas season, I organized a Door Decorating contest at work. Almost all the departments have participated and the hopsital is now looking festive.

This door belongs to X-Ray. This one won 2nd place.
I decorated this door but it belongs to CSR/Stores department. It wasn't until I was done that I realized 2 of the sayings blended into the wrapping paper background. Under the red, it says "joyeux noel" in blue and then in green, it says "merry christmas".
This is the Pharmacy door that I decorated.
This door belongs to Lab. I bet this one will win the contest. Judging happens this Friday morning. Unfortunately I'll be out of town working so won't see the judges or find out who wins until later. This one won 1st place...I figured it would. Good job Shelagh!

Weather Update for Today

Weather Forecast: Burns Lake, British Columbia
Current Weather Updated: Monday, December 15, 2008, 9:00 PST - Burns Lake

-34 °C

This is the weather forcast as of 9am this morning as recorded on the www.weathernetwork.com website. I forgot to plug in my car last night so it bearly started this morning at 6:20am. This temperature is cold enough to freeze the inside of your nose!

I can't imagine how the animals, both domestic and wild, can handle this temperature outside!!

The Tree is UP

This is my parent's Christmas tree which was put up this past Saturday. My dad ended up putting the majority of the decorations on as my mom ended up being distracted with other things. Caitlin, Brad and I decorated from our chairs. We're the "encouragers".

If you notice, the red bells have pictures of our family members....even the 3 cats are included. I call it the "Family Tree" now.

A New Home - well temporary home

I was offered a house-sitting job for 4 months that started Nov 30th. I'm so very happy to be out of where I was living as it was a communal place. Now I have peace and quiet, a cat, and my OWN space. One thing I really like is being able to spread out my stuff on the kitchen/dining table and not have to tidy up at the end of the day. I know a silly thing but after living in a communal building for over 2 years, you realize what sort of things are taken for granted.... but maybe not for granted.... maybe just lack of freedom and 'own' space.

My new kitchen. (No dishwasher though) There is lots of cupboards but I just leave my non-perishables on the counter.
A dark picture of the living room. There are 2 couches back-to-back.
Check out the view! As you can see, the deck is huge....it wraps around 3 of the 4 walls of the house! There's also a hot tub but it's been turned off. That's fine, I'm not a hot tub type of person anyways.
Smedley, the cat I live with. He's such an oldy!
The front entrance of the house.