The Journey up north

We recently bought a house north of where we've lived most of our lives. The decision was both an easy and difficult one; difficult in the sense that we weren't sure where in the GTA we wanted to live, and easy in the sense that when we broke it down to what we really want for our lives and our family, this place was it.

So right now, we're still in the process of settling in. I used to love moving. Love love love. The idea of such a big change excited me; packing up my life only to unpack it in a new place, where my life would take a new turn. This time around, though, is a little more of a challenge. Or well, it's really tiring. It's not just about my life -- it's about our life, which involves four separate lives, with four sets of things to pack and unpack and find homes for. Add to that two little boys, full of energy, who, in this new space, want time to play with you. So many things to do, so many things I want to do, but also so many things I need to do. If only I had more time and energy!

Don't get me wrong though. There is still plenty of excitement there. It's exciting to see my husband putting together furniture and the satisfaction in his face when he finishes piece after piece. Every time I open a box that I haven't opened in two years, it's like Christmas all over again. When I finish unpacking a box and putting the stuff in their new homes, I get excited at the result of the love and care I put into making it all work, especially when it looks so neat and organized and makes sense!

When I see the boys screaming with excitement at the idea of so many toys in one space, I remember that this is exactly what I have been hoping to see. For the first few weeks that we lived in the house, we let them make a HUGE mess of the toys. All the bins were opened, empty, and their contents scattered on the floor. It was a big mess, but it was a happy mess. What kid doesn't want to see a mess of toys in their new rooms?

And so, in the bitter cold of winter, we settle in, and stay inside, with eager anticipation for the warmer weather, when we can go out, play with the neighbours, explore the neighbourhood, and enjoy the sun!

Hope you're all keeping warm! Brrrr....

Twenty-Five

Today, 25 years ago, the world lost a beautiful woman. Slipping away for months and weeks before, she let go of the world and all she had been clinging to, things we often think impossible to let go of. A strong, loving, faithful husband. An outgoing, friendly first child. A good-headed, caring and self-less daughter. A little daredevil who was quickly becoming a nurturing woman. A smart, creative and sweet tween. A "bunky", clueless little dreamer. And a hyper, excited toddler, her only boy. Two amazing sisters, a strong mother and father who had been constants in her life, countless friends and family members. And let's not forget a life, with so many ups and downs, wins and losses, one she had worked so hard to fill, one with which she spent most of her time filling others' lives and that she spent all her time living for God. And so it was with full trust and faith that she let go of all of this and went to God, knowing that all would still be good without her being physically there. Maybe not right away, and for everyone she touched, in their own time, but it would all be okay.

to be continued...

Being grateful - 20120529

I am grateful for Sarah Richardson.

Her new season of Sarah 101 started today, and they're airing two episodes every week. And I'm on mat leave. Awesome. While I can't say I agree with her decisions and design choices 100% of the time, I do like her style and find Tommy Smythe highly entertaining. If her choices aren't exactly top notch in my book, I find that the end snippet after the closing credits with Tommy makes up for it.

Kitchen help

So it's common knowledge that I'm short. (Captain Obvious!) Having cooked allllmost every day this week (I was having leg/hip issues on Wednesday, so Mr.S took care of dinner), I've been remembering how much easier I imagine it probably is to slice and dice when you're average height. I only know what it's like from my height, but I'm sure it's easier to exert the force and control needed when you're a bit higher than I am above the kitchen counter.

And so, dreaming about my dream kitchen, I think about the raised platform I'd have (that Mr.S could remove if he felt like chopping up some stuff) that'd make my life easier. It could maybe work like a church kneeler where you can move it up or down by hinges on the sides, or maybe it could tuck neatly underneath the cabinets.

And since I was in high school, I've been dreaming about having a library ladder along my cupboards so I don't have to keep hauling the stool over to get stuff I need (or holler for Mr.S to ask for a favour, i.e. "Can you get that for me please?" *pointing upwards and grunting at the thing I need*). I thought the idea was so original, I invented it, but I've seen it on TV in places like Ricardo's kitchen (you can see it blurry in the background).

Then there's the issue of if the kids would like to help me out in the kitchen. I have a feeling when D-nut's a bit bigger, he'll want to help me make cookies, or at least watch me make them and drool all over the counter (I'll just let him watch/help when we're making our own cookies in case some of that drool ends up in the dough). I'd totally welcome it, but with his current record of stool usage, I'm not sure how good of an idea this is...

He was playing a game with himself last night while I put together a Taco Bake, where he'd sit on a stool, yell, "Ready, Seck, GO!" (isn't that so cute?) and run over to the couch and come back. On what-I-made his last run, he ran right into the table and then slipped and landed on the floor. Good times.

BUT, I learned about this today, the Luca and Company Little Helper Fun Pod, which makes it safe for kids to help in the kitchen on a stool....in a box. I bet it'd also be a good tool to use for time outs. It could go in the corner for those. (Haha.) I wonder if it's cheaper to make one though.

This excites me.

It's all about space engineering

Over the years, I have learned that it is very easy to accumulate stuff. You have a space and you just fill it up with stuff, stuff you need, stuff you don't need, stuff you want, stuff you don't want...

We have come to a point where we have way too much stuff and not enough space for that stuff. We also really need to purge (really really need to purge) and I'm working on finding some time for that. In mentally purging, which seems to be my new hobby, I'm also setting aside a pile for a garage sale...and since that pile gets bigger and bigger, I think we could make a killing. (Now if we could just hold a garage sale...our complex doesn't allow them. Boo.)

Anyway, often, when people have too much stuff, the first thoughts are either to purge or to find a bigger space. Part of me thinks that a bigger space would just mean accumulation of more stuff though. Maybe we could downsize to something like these spaces (I'm not serious, but how awesome!!).

WANT THIS!!

One day, in my beautiful dream kitchen, I'm going to have this hanging on the wall. AWESOME.

Busybee

My apologies for not posting for a while. Life's been busy. We're at the end of January though, so it looks like I SURVIVED!!!

I'm not gonna go into every single thing we've been doing this month, don't worry. What I am writing about is the pigsty that is our home right now. I am itching to clean the whole house, top to bottom, but I can't completely.

Read more »

What's cookin'?

I've been cooking nearly every day for the past few weeks. I don't know what happened. I'm not complaining, AT ALL.

I would usually try to cook as often as I could but many times, after a few weeks, I would feel tired of cooking and then we'd get on a take-out/delivery/frozen-food tip. It's horrible. And then, D-nut was born and lack of time and energy put us on that tip for a lllllong time. Just think: I didn't have sinigang for 4 months. And I was okay with that.

And then, finally, all that watching the Food Network got to me. And now, all I want to do is cook. FINALLY. I find myself thinking about what I want to cook several times a day. I know what I'm going to be cooking for all of next week.

Read more »

Maternity Leave

I'm marking today as my first day of maternity leave. My last day of work was on Friday. I'm proud of myself -- I got most of my work done (i.e. all the reasonable stuff on my 2010 To Do List that I could actually finish). My last week of work was a whirlwind. I was training people all week and at the same time wrapping up work, referring my clients to their new contacts, finishing up contracts, going to appointments, ugh, it was crazy. BUT, I also got to lunch with my friends (and my coworker-friends tomorrow...because we didn't get to last week) and had one last lunch with my sister on my last day (we work together). There was also a surprise baby shower for us too!! And Mr. S was there, which was the biggest surprise of all (and it's very hard to surprise me...I admit, I sorta knew about the office shower, but that didn't take away from the fun of it at all!). It was just a really great week at work and had me feeling a little sad to go, which I didn't expect.

This weekend, we finished up our prenatal class. At the end of it, we had made some friends, but also we had to write down the things we found most helpful on an evaluation form. To be honest, I felt like I knew most of the stuff already, thanks to all the stories I've heard from sisters, cousins, mothers, aunts and other female friends, but I think Mr. S learned a lot....and to my benefit. On the evaluation form, I put down two things:
1. Comfort measures
2. Birthing and labour techniques
i.e. The things that Mr. S can do to make my life easier. HAHA!

It turns out that one of the things we learned came into play in the middle of the night last night. I had my second (ever and hopefully last) leg cramp. We learned how to effectively get rid of it, together (other than me having to flex my foot until it disappeared). I felt it coming, woke up and said (note: I did NOT yell!), "Oh no! Oh no! Leg cramp! Leg cramp!" and like he was doing it in his sleep, Mr.S got up, did this thing, and when it was gone, gave me a kiss and plopped back down on his pillow. That, in itself, was worth the money we spent on the course (I don't remember how much that was, now that I think about it).

This weekend was also our baby shower, thrown for us by our families. It was a crazy but oh-so-fun day, with it being our families and close friends...around 150 people. Yes, we're THAT big. It was so nice to see everyone and although we missed a few people, we remembered them all day. I can't even begin to express how wonderful a day it was, and to top it off, Canada won the hockey game, giving Canada the most number of gold medals by a host country and EVER! The evening was closed at our house, opening the gifts and watching the closing ceremonies together...OH, and MORE EATING.

Yesterday, Mr.S took the day off so we could put away all the gifts, do some shopping and finally finish up the baby's room. We had a bunch of errands to run as well and were also wickedly tired, so we didn't finish, but it's nice to know we've got everything and just need to find homes for it all. We got so many amazing baby gifts from everyone and have yet to play with everything, but that's what the next few days/weeks are for...heehee...

I've got my first massive load of baby laundry to fold (in addition to our own laundry!), so I better get on with my day.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

My Door Step

For the past month, every time I open my front door or walk up the steps to it after coming home from work, I search my door mat for the IKEA catalogue that was supposed to have arrived a while ago. Last year, I received the catalogue for the first time on my door step (the other times, I either took it from the showroom or my Mom-in-law was generous enough to give me theirs) and it was so exciting…until I accidentally threw it into the pile of recycling a few weeks later. Womp womp.

So I’ve been carefully eyeing my door step along with the others in my complex, noticing that this gift has not arrived and I’ve come to terms with the fact that it just might never come.

Then I read this article and while I am not outraged or anything like that, I did realize I would have noticed this change for sure.

1 Year Later

I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been for a whole year now.

Some of the most common words said to us before we got married were, “Good luck. Marriage is hard.”

So far, I have no idea what these people are talking about. I realize that when you add more variables to the equation, it gets more challenging, but this past year has been a dream. I like to think that years from now, we won’t forget what this past year was like and we’ll be able to continue to live in this state of euphoria for years to come, or at least, for the most part. If this year is indicative at all of how our marriage will be overall, I’ll be a happy camper.

It’s still hard to believe that we’re married. I know I promised in my second post that I would talk all about the wedding experience, and I have a really long draft, but I’ve decided to (really) condense it, and well, keep some of those things in my heart instead of online. There are still so many things about that day though that I’d like to share.

My Speech
I had maybe 25 drafts of my speech that I had written anywhere between two years and 2 days before our wedding. I had trouble deciding which one to go with, and the ones that sorta took bits from others ended up being too long. There’s only so much spewing from the heart that guests can take until they find you and your new husband boring. So when it came time to finally print one, I couldn’t find the files – ANY of them. I had lost my speech and it was the night before my wedding. It was actually a blessing that I had lost it. I sat there with my laptop staring at me with the same face I had. BLANK. I ended up writing my speech on only a few minutes – it was clear, concise, not too long (right?) or at least not as long as the others I had written, for sure, and it said everything I had wanted to say. It’s rare that I’m able to do that.

My wedding gift
The gift I gave to my would-be-husband came in several parts, some of which were things I had been putting together from before we even started dating officially, to things I had purchased not long before the wedding. They were things that he’d enjoy years from the wedding day, things he had already enjoyed and will enjoy again and things he’d enjoy that day. I couldn’t decide on just one gift and I’m glad I gave him his gifts the way I did. Each gift had its own significance and was given to him from me through each of his groomsmen as well as his parents, with a note and instructions – the entire thing was similar to the way he had proposed to me.

Bad luck shmad luck
You know how they say it’s bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding? Well guess what? We did. We made a point to go to confession before the ceremony and had tried to time it so that we wouldn’t run into each other. The line for confessions ended up being a bit longer than we had thought. When I walked into the church at the time we had allotted for me, the first person I saw was him and I sorta froze in my tracks and then proceeded to the end of the line. It was kinda funny running into him at that time and that place because that was actually where it all started. It was a nice way to bookend our courtship.

That was the last time I saw him the way I used to see him.

The Walk
The walk down the aisle was surreal. Really, there’s no other word for it. In my mind, I had pictured this moment over a million times and never once did I imagine other people there. I’m not sure why. But still, as it was happening, the only person I really saw was him and he was a totally different person from that moment on. It really was a truly spiritual experience.

I didn’t actually walk down the aisle. My legs literally gave, and this is me -- I have strong legs (haha). My parents had to really hold on to me and during the smiling and the tears (oh my, did I do the ugly cry!) they still kept asking if I was okay because they had to practically carry me.

The Readings and the Hymns
My husband and I chose the readings, the intentions and wrote some of our own intentions as well. It’s kind of rare to find that both partners make the wedding plans together, but we felt that since it was OUR wedding, we should make all the decisions together. All in all, it was a collaborative effort, extremely fun and quite seamless. My favourite reading in the whole wide world was read by my Goddaughter as the second reading. I was so thrown by how perfectly she read it. The readings to choose from were all beautiful, but the ones we chose seemed to be perfect for the type of people we are. (However, I had no idea one of the readings was actually about sexual love until our priest talked about it in his homily!!!)

The hymns were sung by one of our favourites – my brother-in-law’s sister. She helped us choose which hymns would work and also incorporated our personal choices into the ceremony. I chose the closing hymn, my absolute favourite, For The Beauty of the Earth as composed by John Rutter, and my husband chose the accompaniment for the opening, played by one of our bestfriends on his guitar – Unbelievable by Craig David and Only You by Joshua Radin.

Our Rides
In keeping with the eco-wedding theme, we had some Priuses to drive the wedding party in and we travelled around in style in a Smartcar. It’s different from any car you’ve ever driven and I admit at first I hated it, but the longer we had it (we had it for a few days) the more I grew to love it. And when we filled up the tank before we returned it and saw that it cost us less than $15, I loved it even more. I feel like if I were to choose a car that’s like me, it’d be a Smartcar. My hygienist has one though and when I told her we’re thinking of getting one some day, she told me she doesn’t recommend it because they’ve changed it so that it takes only premium gas instead of diesel since owners were complaining it didn’t have enough power. There were other reasons too, so when the time comes, we’ll see if it’s worth it. It’d be nice to drive around in our wedding car every day :)

For Our Guests
When you go to a wedding, it’s expected that it’s about the couple. And of course, why not, right? We felt that it might be nice to have our guests—our family and friends, know how involved they were in the entire day, the entire journey that we’ve been on. Each table had several photo trees. These photos were of pictures of the guests at the tables from memorable moments we had with them – just something they could take in during the night, and after, if they wanted, they could take whatever photos they wanted home. Our main giveaways were trees – seedlings and seeds to plant that would help our guests help the earth, which was one of our main goals with the theme we chose. We also had candles that we had made ourselves with beeswax and non-lead wicks which burned the entire night. Since they were made from natural materials, they released less toxins in the air than other kinds of candles. Our guests took these home as well. We still have several boxes full that weren’t taken home but we like to use them around the house.

Our First Dance
We danced to “our song” (do teenagers still do that?) and I think the entire moment was surreal. We had intended to tack on a funny dance after but we didn’t have time to finish the choreography. I think it was better that way because it ended up just as I had imagined it all these years and it sorta felt like we were the only ones in the room, even though everyone was there. Even though we didn’t do anything as silly as originally planned, it was still us.


The Speeches
To this day, our family and friends still tell us about how we had some excellent speeches that night. What can we say? We hang out with excellent speakers! I think the speeches each had the perfect amounts of funny, sentimentality, humiliation (for us, of course!) and charisma. They were perfect lengths too. We LOVED them.

Paper paper paper
My sister was the genius behind our branding. Everything was green, coordinated, and if you know me, you know I’m all about coordination and green. It just keeps everything nice and tight. In our home now, we’ve put together all our stationery from our wedding and it’s so beautiful to look at. Everything matches and everything is us. Also, everything that was printed for before we were married was square, and everything for after was circular. I hope that our guests saved some of this stuff – it was so beautiful!

The Cake
We had a very simple cake. It was delicious, and I think that’s more important than what it looks like. Remember, some bakers put icing on styrofoam and add it to the cake. Styrofoam probably doesn’t taste very good. The big thing with our cake though was our bobblehead. One day, we thought of it and magically, we found a company that made them. All you had to do was take a few pictures of yourself, send them in and you’d get the proofs to approve, then the finished product. It’s definitely the best bobblehead in my husband’s collection.

The Heroes
Our wedding party was made up of a group of phenomenal people. Our Matron of Honour, Man of Honour, Best Man, Bridesmaids, Groomsmen, Flowergirls, Ring Bearer, Coin Bearer, Principal Sponsors, Secondary Sponsors, Readers, Emcees and of course, our parents made up such an amazing team. Our wedding party was MASSIVE. Of course, there are much larger, but in a typical wedding like ours, it was big, and well, it’s because we’re fortunate to have big families and lots of friends.

It was so great to work with them and they were always so patient and so willing and available to help. Some of them who’ve been through this before always offered excellent advice and ideas and we were so grateful for that. We had a great time whenever we got them together and sometimes we even wish for reunions, but then we realize it’d be a little weird to have a wedding party reunion. There are always family and kids parties when we’ll all be together down the road, right? ;)

My Husband
How could I not go on about my husband? He was half the reason for the day!

Since we’ve been married, he’s a totally different person to me. The change that some people talk about when they marry someone sometimes refers to adjusting to habits, to living together, to weird quirks, but for me, the biggest change was not in things he did or things he said, the way he acted or the way he looked (even though he finally shaved his beard after growing it for MONTHS). It was in the way he was to me and the way he treated me.

He’s always treated me well, but it was different. It’s hard to explain. It’s like there’s more love in everything now, even though there was love before. It all just feels really different and really well, nice! It’s about knowing that I have this person, this partner with me for the rest of our lives and we’ve promised that we’re going to continue to love each other no matter what. It’s knowing that I’m going to create life with this man and we’re going to work together and do our best to make things work with the lives we create. It’s an unwavering faith that we are going to be just fine, because we’ve been that way all along. It's about continuing to make each other better people, because that's exactly what he does for me. He makes me want to be better, be bigger, all while making me love the person I already am. He makes me want to make the world a better place so our children can benefit and do the same for their children.

I feel my husband’s love just like how I feel God’s love. It protects me. It heals me. It nourishes me. It keeps me strong. There’s nothing like love like that.


And so, a year later, we remember the first day we lived happily ever after.

The Importance of Pancakes

One of the surefire signs I know my husband loves me deeply is rooted in The Pancake.

I love pancakes--homemade ones though. I've never had a good pancake outside my home and that's pretty sad for anyone who's never lived with me before. Growing up, my dad made all-star pancakes. Like, they were seriously delicious. One of the real tell-tale signs it was gonna be a good morning was the smell of pancakes and bacon. Heck, breakfast always smelled good to me. Even on one fateful morning where my new nightgown was too tight around my wrists and my hands swelled, I remember the smell of breakfast and not my sister waking me up gawking at my hands (I wish I could have seen it all happening outside of my body! LOL Lei!).

My Dad made pancakes from scratch. He never wrote down the recipe anywhere; it was all in his head. When I woke up one morning during summer vacation (waking up in the morning in the summer was RARE) I called him at work and asked him for the recipe. He said it was common sense. Then my dad started making pancakes...from a box. OMG. The world was coming to an end. I haven't had my dad's pancakes from scratch in forever. These days, he insists the box version is the same thing. LIES.

And then my husband started making pancakes for me. The race to the end of the world has ended and all is right again. When he first made pancakes for me, I felt like a kid again, and even now when he sneaks out of bed to make them for me, it brings me right back to age 4. They're just as good as my Dad's, very similar in taste but perfect in their own way as well. And he makes them a cute size, which is just what I like. :)

MMMMMM pancakes.

Fresh!

Every year (except last year because I was moving out and moving in and getting married during peak herb shopping time) I buy fresh herbs and either plant them or dry them (when they’re no longer fresh) or grow them (i.e. I buy them potted and hope they don’t die). Like most people, I prefer to cook with fresh herbs. Also, I keep knocking over bottles of dried herbs when I'm rifling through my pantry while I'm cooking, resulting in broken glass and wonderful aromas on my kitchen floor (and some swearing). My mominlaw gave me a beautiful set of bottles of dried herbs and spices and now I'm down two bottles. The bottles were so pretty, I was planning on keeping them and just refilling them every time I run out. :(

I don’t have a green thumb. I haven’t really tested it outdoors other than in my parents’ garden or my flower boxes, but indoors, my plants are screaming for mercy…all TWO of them. Feeding my “magic” fish is part of my routine while feeding my plants – not so much. My brother looks after watering them.

Then I learned about this: The Prepara Power Plant Professional.

It uses NASA technology something something something. There’s a video on the website on how it works (there’s also a video on the internet of someone using it to grow weed. Tsk tsk + wagging finger). I’ve blogged before about indoor herb gardens, but I think this one’s small enough that one, I have space for it and two, it looks pretty easy so I think I can handle it.

I hope they have it at Williams-Sonoma here.

Sarah

Have I ever talked about Sarah Richardson before? I’m not sure I have but in case you don’t know already, I’m part of a HUGE fan base. I love her. She has so many great ideas, all of which are clean, innovative, stylish yet timeless. She rocks my socks. She’s the reason I even check what’s on HGTV these days. Plus, she’s one of the only females on TV who my husband and I can agree to watch hours of.

So anyway, after a Sarah’s House marathon months ago, I became addicted to all things Sarah Richardson. I don’t know how many repeats I’ve seen of Sarah’s House and Design Inc. but I can’t get enough, and I think neither can my sisters. We’ve driven by Sarah’s “Sarah’s House” (I’ll post pics later…how stalkerish are we?) and we talk about her quite often.

A few weeks ago I saw her and her house on MTV cribs and I (and husband and brother) almost fell off my couch, jaws dropped. I can’t seem to find the bit online, but I found this. The cool thing I want you to see is the secret bar behind one of her book shelves. It’s better when you see it in motion. The whole house is awesome and looks very “her”. I especially love her nursery...it's got the prettiest crib.

And then while waiting for the train, I saw an ad for HGTV with a new Mike Holmes show…and this:

I almost fell onto the tracks to see if there was more information about the show, I was so excited. It airs tonight at 9PM. I’m going to have to take advantage of time shifting when Fringe starts again next week because I am NOT missing this show!

YAY!!!

Morning

On Sunday morning, I woke up much more easily than I do on other days, whether weekday or weekend. It was late enough that the sun was up and it hit my face in such a way that I was reminded of one fateful morning that was like no other, except like this, where the sun hit my face and woke me up the same way.

It was the morning of my wedding day. There are some parts of the day I remember a little blurrily, but other parts that are so vivid. The morning was one of the vivid parts.

I had initially thought that I’d wake up and run around the house screaming but instead, when the sun hit my eyes, I felt humbled. Today was going to be a huge change for me. Yes, it meant a change in my lifestyle, a change in my independence, and of course, a change for us, a step forward in this journey that we’d been on for so long, but that wasn’t long yet at all.

On this particular morning though, I felt a change in my spirit, deep down in my soul. Today would change me so deeply, I couldn’t even imagine.

But Sunday morning was different. I turned over and found my change lying beside me.

It was a good morning.

Before you get into the shower,
Before you worry about your hair,
Baby give me one more hour,
I want you to stay right there,
I don’t wanna lose a moment,
I don’t wanna miss a kiss,
If I could plan the perfect day, love,
Then I would start it just like this,

Good morning,
Good morning love,
It's my favorite love song,
I waited all night long,
For morning,
Good morning love
Before we start the day dear,
I'm whispering in your ear,
Good morning.

-John Legend, "Good Morning" - my morning alarm, sometimes from my cell phone, sometimes sung by my husband

MY CHARGER IS HOME!!!

Whew, that was one tough week and a half. Please, text me, text me, text me! Hahahaha!

We cracked

Husband and I have been on a no-take-out, no-restaurant policy since mid-January. I actually thought it was before then, but we realized we started a bit late. It was pretty much in an effort to eat more healthily, save money and most of all, to see how long we could last. Going out for lunch every so often or social outtings didn't count.

We cracked the other day and due to my laziness and lack of time to cook, and our need to finish dinner before the Lost recap and the new Lost episode, we opted for Hakka food.

Yum.

(Then it made me gassy at work the next day when I baoned it. LONG STORY.)

Our first Christmas...so far

The Story of Candy Fat Ass
We decided that with this being our first Christmas together (actually, it's our 11th, but we're starting all over [or "starting Back at One" as he SANG]) we'd do something fun and get a REAL tree. The whole tree farm thing would have been nice but it also would have taken an entire day, probably would have seriously tired us out and we would have needed a whole bunch of contingency plans if the weather wasn't in our favour for example, so we decided to stay local.

We found ourselves at Home Depot since it's so close by, and spotted us a nice full tree. It was already tied up, so we didn't quite know what the shape of it was, but it looked like it'd be a good one. So, after getting it bundled up and hauling it to the cash, we found ourselves wheeling the tree to the car...where it was too big to neatly fit in the trunk and inside the car without totally demolishing it. So we brought it over to the lumber area and used their string to tie the sucka to the roof. Yes, by this time, the tree was a sucka.

Having no roof rack nor experience tying anything to the roof of the car, you can imagine the looks on the two employees standing nearby clearly showing no interest in assisting us. We did the best we could (okay, not really the best) and after much exasperation (and not completely securing the tree to the roof), we drove off. I held on tightly to the strings from inside the car so that outside the car, the strings would stay taut and hopefully keep the tree in place. We made very slow turns and finally made it home.

It got inside the house okay and it was placed in the stand until we could figure out how the stand worked. Husband had never had a real tree, and for me, my Dad was always the one to get it set up and I was never interested enough to check out how he did it. Turns out that the stand we got had some sort of siphoning mechanism so that watering the tree would be easier than just pouring water directly into the stand. We tried so hard to figure the sucka out, we ended up resorting to doing it the old-fashioned way--watering directly into the stand.

So, now that the tree was in and we screwed the four screws into place, it was time to cut off the ties from the tree and see what a beauty it was.......

The thing was FRIGGIN' HUMONGOUS. No exaggeration here. It was a nice height but the thing was FAT. Not PHAT. FAAAAAAAAAAT. It was so fat, there was no safe passage around it without getting needles on you...or worse, in you. Don't get me wrong though, it was pretty. It was pretty, full and FAT. (I can't type it in anything but CAPS because it doesn't say exactly how FAT it was/is.)

After all this, we thought it'd be a good time to have dinner and then we'd decorate it. As we were eating dinner, we could hear a rustling sound. I panicked because I thought either:

1. A frickin' raccoon is gonna scurry out of the thing and we wouldn't have had any idea it was hangin' out in there because the tree was so full, or
   
2. The tree was slowly keeling over.

It was the latter (thank[s] God [that was for you, Lei]). By the end of dinner, the tree was leaning on the bookshelf beside it and suddenly having the tree against a wall and not a corner didn't seem like such a good idea after all.

So what did we do? We moved furniture around and pushed and pulled the tree into the corner. This wasn't enough though. It was still so big it was sticking out and blocking any path to get into the greatroom. So, we shoved it into the corner. By this time, I was so frustrated, I left it.

Two days later...after a very successful overnight shopping trip out of town, I came home, took my shears and trimmed the sucka until it wasn't a sucka anymore. It was still leaning but not as much, and I only cut enough so that it didn't look like it was shoved against the walls but was still full. Just like that, we turned it all around.

Right after, we put on the lights. I had bought a bunch of LED lights a few years back when warm white LEDs were still new and I bought another bunch this year. The ones this year were more yellow for some reason, so I devised a plan to still use them because I couldn't fill the tree with just the original ones. I think it turned out better than I had thought! Then we decorated the tree and had ornaments left, which was nice because I worried we might not have enough.

This year, we decided to go colourful rather than go with a colour scheme. It just seemed more fun...and in the end the tree reminded me of candy...hence the name, Candy. She's Fat. And Ass because initially, she was a pain in ours. I love her...especially now that she's hooked up to a timer, so I don't have to slide under the tree to plug her in.

Wreaths
I paid a long-awaited visit to marthastewart.com one day and found myself very inspired to make some wreaths. I'm forcing myself to stop at these because I don't have hooks for them all.

Pre-Christmas Gifts
Husband has this thing where he gives me a pre-Christmas gift...and I never manage to remember that he does this so I never have anything for him :S

This year, he said I could open something in my stocking, you know, since it's the third week of Advent and all (riiiiiight...because that's the day to open pre-Christmas gifts).

Yay for Brian McKnight's new Christmas album and Brushfire Fairytales' Christmas album!

Celebrating with Santa
We did the Santa Shuffle this year, a 5K run (or 1K Elf walk), the proceeds of which go to the Salvation Army. I did it with my husband and it was his first race ever. It was really fun, despite the cold and I enjoyed having someone to run with. It's been a while. I'm really proud of how well he did and I look forward to doing more runs together.

Keeping warm in the car

Post-run