What do you want for Christmas?
A couple of years ago our family decided it was too expensive and not really worth it to buy for every single person so we took to drawing names. Of course we all still get something for the kiddies – and in our family that number grows every year.
I was looking through the junk mail yesterday and found a London Drugs catalog, which I decided to peruse. “Oooh! A crock pot, then we could make chili!” followed by “Oh man, a dustbuster, we could SO use one of those.”
Aren’t women not supposed to want household items as gifts? I told my mom yesterday that a Safeway gift card would be awesome. Wow. This coming from me, the girl who used to sneak into her parent’s bedroom to scope out the goods she would be receiving – man I got in so much trouble when I spotted that Cabbage Patch Kids board game just days before Christmas.
The focus this year is on family and well you can’t have family times without the food. Mandarin oranges (that I’m allergic to but eat anyway), nuts, snacks, chocolates, turkey, stuffing oh man. Browsing through a regular read, I came across some recipes that John and I should really try out. We don’t do nearly as much ‘experimental’ cooking, which reminds me that we haven’t done Chillaquillas for a while.
Back to the appliances, I think my priorities have just changed. You’d think I would want to go completely nuts and shop for shoes and purses and froofy stuff but there are so many more things that take precedence. From our futon-couch to John’s dining room table-studio-office.
Regardless of gifts and food, I’m just glad that I’ll be spending another Christmas with my husband, our 3 foot tall fake plastic tree, and our Ralphie action figure. If we had a wish list, the #1 thing this year (same as last) would be his immigration approval and #2… being able to fly to Iowa and visit his family.
Surrounded by Monday Night Football fans, J.J., John and I waited patiently for Alanah and Dave to join us after the Oiler-spanking we incurred last night. Luckily, we got our reactions on tape for Episode 10 of The Crazy Canucks Podcast.
Ten episodes into the podcast, all of the members join up after the game against Edmonton for drinks and yakking about the Canucks. This was our first opportunity to have everyone meet face to face, and we had a microphone to record a little discussion. Some of us had been there a little while longer than the rest, and our blood alcohol level might have shown it.
Record as of this episode: 13-14-1 (3rd in the Northwest Division)
The Shark Club made for a very interesting atmosphere for trying to watch a unimpressive game, especially on a Monday night where the NFL takes precedence at one of the closest drinking establishments to GM Place. J.J. was still a little wiped out after returning from a vacation to Las Vegas and shares some experiences with catching a couple games in sin city. Dave brings up an interesting point about “we are all Canucks,†and Alanah had a backstage pass to the game that offers up a lot of great insights to the game against the Oilers. Rebecca brings up some good points about our lack of puck luck, and John starts to wonder about a conspiracy to our lack of scoring, but that could be the beer talking.
We realize that this isn’t like our regular episodes with a recap of all the games since the last one, but we’ll get back on track with our next episode. Leave your feedback in the meantime, and we hope you enjoy this “live remote†version of the podcast. It’s almost like you’re right there with us!
Run time: 28:33
Jen is my big sister and yes, my mother used to dress us in matching clothing (exhibit A is to the right).
She and I argue(d) over clothing, friends, and just because we needed something to do. We’d always know how to do the most damage on each other (physically and emotionally) yet – we’ve always been there for each other and no one else compares. What else are sisters for?
When I moved to Boston I had a pretty hard time. Completely alone in a new city, state, country and job. I found myself in a really rough patch and within a couple days my sister was a plane. She came out to spend a weekend with me just because I needed someone. These are the crazy things my big sister does for others.
She always thought of me as a pest, a pesky little sister that was emotional, clingy and an all-round pain in the ass. I don’t get it, she didn’t like hearing about how she was my hero and how much I loved her every hour on the hour? I mean, I was a really cute kid.
From the big huge selfless acts, to always planing my birthday parties and lending me her wicked nice shirts to wear, she’s pretty great. And aside from working and raising her 3 children, she had time to be my maid of honor this year and show me the best stagette (beware of the whip-yielding kitty!)
In return, I do things like regularly taking the Flickr pics of her that she thinks are ‘ugly’ (even though they aren’t in the slightest). I hope to return in kind the love and support she’s shown me over the years, if that’s even possible.
Maybe one day I’ll just be less annoying and embarrassing to her, although without that she wouldn’t have such juicy stories to tell at my wedding shower to all our friends and family. And I supposed writing an entire blog post about her doesn’t help – so yeah, I’ll start all ‘less annoying’ stuff tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Jenny. The big sister, the yummy mummy, and a true testament to the stubbornness strength the women in our family have.
And here’s to people thinking you are the younger of the two of us.
Yesterday was World AIDS Day. In Vancouver, there were services and campaigns to help raise awareness [AIDSVan]. Around the world, nations and communities marked the day, whether it was by handing out red ribbons or massive public demonstrations.
…The need for additional treatment and prevention programs, health officials say, remains staggering. The global pandemic has killed 25 million people since the first case was reported in 1981, with 40 million currently infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. [CBC]
For the sick and the less fortunate these special days once a year, mustn’t be enough but they must help in some way. If even to educate and remind others that there is suffering.
This morning I went to Safeway to get some breakfast items. Outside there were 3 young girls with a woman, handing out cookies and coffee cups (coffee was inside). Today is Safeway’s Food Bank Day. I’m unsure if it’s just this location, but they were encouraging food and cash donations and in exchange, offering warm beverages and baked goods. At the checkout I realized I didn’t have any cash (just debit, per usual) so they said I could round up my bill and donate the remainder to the cause. I wasn’t anticipating to donate anything today, but I’m glad I did. Although one would think it would also help to hand out those baked goods and warm beverages in the DTES.
What I’m not glad about is a woman placed her order on the conveyor belt then told me to go ahead of her as she dashed off to collect more items around the store. The clerk then ran up everything so I had to let him know what was and wasn’t mine. He removed her items from my bag (and my bill).
As I’m sitting at home typing this John calls from the kitchen “Fruitcake?!”. Yeah, apparently the clerk forgot about the other woman’s $8.99 fruitcake that he scanned and put in my bag. I feel pretty ashamed that my donation is now overshadowed by the nine dollars I apparently shelled out for this fruitcake. I’ll try to find a way to make things right this afternoon.
Northern Voice (aka Moose Camp) is ready and set for February 23 & 24 2007. Darren Barefoot made the registration announcement today and would like some input from all those in the blogging community – especially all the fine folks who wish to attend this “learning party”:
The conference, at UBC this year, will run for two days. Registration is open until Feb. 20th, 2007 and speaker submissions are open until December 1st, 2006. It seems to be very interactive and they’re always looking for feedback.
John and I will try to attend this year. We would really like to especially since, from our experience (at Barcamp, Metblogs meetups etc.), there are a lot of great people in the Vancouver blogosphere, Unfortunately, it just happens to be the Friday/Saturday before our 1 year wedding anniversary. Just how geeky do we want to be? hmm… we’ll see.
