If I never have to go into a mall parking lot again, I’d be happy. 🙂

My shopping is done. I am serious about doing gift cards next year, cause they are good gifts, and ideally they don’t involve driving around to a dozen different stores. Plus, I can start buying those in the summer.

Yep, I’m up early. I’m heading to the post office for the 7am opening to send the last of my Canadian gifts. No, they won’t make it there on time, but it was (mostly) unavoidable. I’m over that too. No point in being upset.

Now I just want to focus on spending this blessed holiday with my family. I love the lights, I love the music, and I love seeing it all through my son’s eyes.

The bunny who visits our yard

With the release of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest this week, we were finally able to see it! What an excellent movie, equally as good as the first one. We bought it knowing we’d love it, and we did. I’m happy that 2007 isn’t so far away, I’m anxious to see the conclusion.

I don’t really feel like I did a ton this weekend. Saturday I went to the Trails and walked. I haven’t been to my aquasize class in a while, I may try to get to one of the daytime classes, and see if that works out better. I just don’t like having the class at 6pm, and then making it a late dinner.

Sunday we had a good church service, and I made Rice Krispie Treats. Mmm.

My Christmas shopping is going okay. I have a bunch of stuff waiting to get wrapped and shipped to Canada, but the thing I ordered online has not come yet. So, some gifts just won’t get there in time. Even if I rushed them, Canada Post and Customs suck and there would be no guarantee they’d arrive on time as promised. I think next year either everyone gets giftcards, or checks. 🙂

My Christmas shopping for U.S. people is so much less stress. I’ll pick up Geoff’s gift from Elijah this week, as well as Kelly’s & Elijah’s gifts. Geoff and I aren’t exactly exchanging a gift this year. We decided to get the family membership to Trails, and we’re paying it off monthly. So we’ll give each other a few stocking stuffers and that’ll be it.

It’s almost a month to my 30th birthday. Just mentioning that.

I want to be excited about my trip to Irvine in 18 days, but I’m more focused on Christmas. But I have my plans set with the Pursley’s & Eseras. And I told Cindy she’s got me all day on the Saturday. I mostly foresee hanging out, and not doing much else. We’re going back in July, so there is no pressure to accomplish anything. Though I would have liked to hit Disneyland (naturally).

I’ll close with a quote from Pirates Of The Caribbean:Dead Man’s Chest.

Jack Sparrow: How did you get here?
Will Turner: Sea turtles, mate. A pair of them strapped to my feet.
Jack Sparrow: Not so easy, is it?

Evidently this should be my next car. Yeah right, like I have money to buy a new car. Hee hee! I love how kid-friendly it is.

You Should Drive a Saturn Sky

You’re sleek and smooth, and you need a car to match your hot persona. Besides, sometimes you want your top up – and sometimes you want it down.

For everyone to consider:

Three Kroliks, a Gustafson, and a Stanley are participating in the L.A. Marathon. Crazy gals are going to walk the 26.2 miles. Please consider donating to them, with the proceeds going to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I’ve got a link on the left side of my blog, A Team In Training. The website has a place to donate, as well as any other information you’d want.

For my Canadian readers:

Something has to be done about the youth violence & the justice system. One father who lost his son has started a petition to hopefully see the changes that need to be made to prevent more “kids” killing each other without serious consequences. Visit the website, read up on it, and find out where you can sign the petition.

Evidently my blog wasn’t loading this weekend. I’ve since refreshed the whole thing, and that seems to have fixed it. Good thing I had people telling me they missed it, otherwise I’d have never known it wasn’t working.

I’d say the weekend was pretty successful in accomplishing errands. We got practically all the Christmas shopping done, well, the stuff being shipped to the Great White North.

Date night was fun. We ended up eating at McCabe’s Irish Pub at Southlands. The food was tasty, and it’s probably someplace we wouldn’t bring Elijah, though there were kids there. If it had been warmer, we might have wander around Southlands longer. It sure was nice to get a dinner alone and free babysitting. 🙂

Sunday Geoff made fudge (yum-o) and we had leftover turkey stew that I had made earlier last week. Last week I also made peanut butter cookies, and now Elijah keeps pointing at the cookie jar asking for cookies. I have to show him it’s empty. We’ll likely make chocolate chip cookies this weekend. Sadly cookies never make it to the freezer.

I’m feeling much better this week, not as stressed, not as overwhelmed. Thank you to everyone who kept me in their thoughts and lent an ear. Especially to Geoff for taking over most of the Elijah duty this weekend. Love you babe!

This week, no House, but I have new Top Chef & Scrubs to watch. I also suspect I’ll get to watch a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a while.

I think I’ve watched Elf a few too many times this last week and a half. So I’ll close with a quote from it.

Eugene: [brainstorming for a new book] What about this: a tribe of asparagus children, but they’re self-conscious about the way their pee smells.

I was up for two hours last night in the middle of the night, my mind was just racing. And then when I woke up this morning, I felt like crying. I just felt so overwhelmed by a multitude of things. Sigh. I’m feeling a little better, but I think I need to do something for myself this weekend. Even if it’s just for an hour.

Right now, listening to Fountains Of Wayne is enough to make smile. I think I’ll make a mix cd for the drive to pick up Geoff.

Frowny Face – It’s cold outside, and icy.

Smily Face – It looks like Christmas outside.

Now for more smily face stuff…

Scrubs returns tonight (yay!) and I got a taste of what this season will hold courtesy of my press contacts. Should be a good season.

House was excellent this week! The ending surprised me, but I guess it shouldn’t have if I had been paying attention.

Easily Amused, one of my favorite Canadian bands (and really nice people) are playing in Edmonton on Dec. 12 at the Sidetrack. If you live in E-town, you should go. Tickets are only $7, and the show starts at 8pm. If you watched Canadian Idol last season, you saw how talented Keith is, Renee is just as good.

Saturday night is date night! Whoo-hoo! The church is doing a free childcare night, now we just need to settle on what to do with our free time! I also hope to get Amy to watch Elijah one night this month so we can go to a movie.

That’s about all that is going on. I have a lot of running around I want to get done this weekend. We will see what gets accomplished.

I’ll close with a quote from this week’s episode of House.

Judge: You were in here yesterday telling me her father’s guardianship was best for her.
House: I honestly thought I’d get a different judge.

Here is what the rest of Saturday held:

We were treated to Jim N Nick’s by our company, and they loved it as much as we do. There was a ton of food leftover, which made for a tasty dinner for us Sunday night. I switched them on to the awesomeness of Cost Plus World Market, I think they’ll go there all the time now. That was all the day could afford before they had to catch their afternoon flight.

Sunday we stayed home from church, because I was still coughing, and Elijah’s nose was still runny. We cleaned the house, then decorated for Christmas. We put up the fake tree (who was named Cornelius a few years ago) and I had to pick which ornaments would adorn it. There just isn’t enough room for all of them. We then pretty much took it easy all day.

Yesterday I called Dawn to wish her a happy birthday, and ended spending almost an hour and half on the phone with her & Colin. She LOVED her gift (yay!), and we had a good chat. Dylan liked his birthday gifts too, and Colin won’t get to open his until Saturday.

Today, I went to the dentist for a cleaning, and there were no problems. It was the shortest appt I’ve ever had.

This week, nothing else going on. We were watching The Secret Life Of… last night (it was about Christmas foods), and Jim O’Connor said the funniest thing. So that’ll be my closing quote.

“Don’t hide your stale nuts in a fruitcake”

What a wonderful weekend (and it’s only Saturday)! An excellent Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for. 🙂

Thursday morning Elijah and I watched Geoff run in the Mile High Turkey Trot. The weather was brisk, but not unenjoyable. Plus it’s only a 4 mile race. Elijah loved seeing all the dogs there and the turkey mascot. We came home, he had a short nap, then we went to Curt & Jan’s Thanksgiving feast. A tasty, fun time, as always. There was a little drama with the dogs, but he eventually got over that. He was just startled by the dogs greeting him, he prefers to be the one approaching dogs. By the time we left, he was petting them.

We picked up our company at the airport, and talked the evening away. Friday, we had our own feast to enjoy. The day was much chillier than Thursday, which made for a chilly walk around Southlands. Geoff slaved away over the stove, and it was every bit as tasty as the previous turkey dinner. We played games, and went to sleep by 11.

Today we’ll bid adieu (sadly) to our guests. Thankfully it’s supposed to get up to 58 today (that’s 14 C). Tomorrow we’ll decorate for Christmas, I can hardly wait.

Lastly, Happy 7th Birthday Dylan!