commas and ampersands

I suppose I should give the addendum to the Ugly Santa debacle from the Christmas party.

That night, Esther and I were talking about going to Starbucks together so she could get the mug that she'd wanted and that Nancy had ended up with, while I was still in town and could give her my discount.

It didn't work out that week, and by Friday, when she was on her way out of town and I was leaving before she got back, I ended up at Starbucks on my own (which is another story, in which I was stood up for coffee with a friend), but I had to leave before Esther could make it over there. I offered to buy the mug for her, and she could pay me back, and she told me that I should buy two mugs because she felt so bad that I'd gotten stuck with her crappy gift at the gift exchange--not realizing that it wasn't actually a white elephant crappy gift exchange in the first place.

So, I bought two mugs, and that night, Colin and I ended up at Esther and Justin's house, where I got a Starbucks mug, purchased with my employee discount, as my replacement gift from the gift exchange. I'm very happy with it (one can never have too many good-quality travel mugs), and rather amused by the whole story.

Ugly Santa is still lying in wait for next Christmas, though...

I was at a Christmas party last night that included a gift exchange. It wasn't really a white elephant exchange; the gifts were mostly nice, useable things (a picture frame, a set of mixing bowls, a Starbucks mug, a bottle of wine, a gigantic chocolate bar, etc). This wasn't the "wrap a roll of duct tape and can of Spam" kind of gift exchange, although those are fun in their own way.¹

I was the second one to pick a gift, and the one that I happened to open was a Lindt chocolate snowman (not bad) and the ugliest Santa candle I've ever seen... and I knew as soon as I opened it that I'd be taking the ugly Santa candle home. No one would want to steal that gift from me--and I was right. My fate was determined in the first round of gifts, and that's exactly what I ended up with.

It wasn't until afterwards that I discovered that my very own sister had brought that gift, regifting some items from a gift basket, and didn't even warn me when I was about to pick it up! I didn't get a well-timed cough or a glare or anything! She just let me unwrap to my ugly-Santa-candled doom.

So guess what she's getting in her stocking next Christmas?

However, there are two ways to win at a gift exchange. One is to take home the best present (or the one you want most). The second is to have brought the most sought after gift--the one that's stolen the most often, desired by most people, and causes most disappointment for the ones who don't get it. In that part of the game, I totally won.

I took a Starbucks travel mug (one of the ones with a coupon for a free drink) and a pound of coffee, and it flew back and forth across the room a number of times before finally ending up in Colin's mom's possession.

Also sweetening our overall win of the evening, Colin came away with a brie baker, which we'd actually been wanting to get anyway. I'd seen one a week or so ago, and contemplated buying it, but didn't, and we were actually looking at it again yesterday afternoon. When someone else opened it, I knew it was pointless for me to try and steal it, because no one was going to steal my crappy gift away from me, but Colin did some clever maneuvering and managed to end up with it, so bonus points for us there.

Still. Ugly Santa is totally going in Esther's stocking next Christmas.




¹ I saw an article this Christmas with the best White Elephant gifts, and my favorite was to take an empty gift bag, and when you get to the party, take someone's purse from wherever people are storing their coats and put it in the gift bag. I have no idea where I saw that article, so if someone reading this entry linked to it, you get credit for this suggestion.

Generally, I'm quite a good packer. I can Tetris things together so that they fit in the car (or trailer, or suitcase)--a skill I inherited from my father. I can pack light and travel with no checked luggage. I can find a way to organize my cupboards so that everything fits.

At Christmas, though, that all seems to go out the window. For any other trip of the year, I only take a carry-on suitcase. That's sufficient for a weekend, absolutely, or for a week or even two, depending on the time of year. Summer, yes. Winter, no. (Sweaters are too bulky.) When we went to Europe, I did almost two months out of the carry-on suitcase. But this time of year... ah, sigh. My packing skills take a turn for the worse.

I check two bags (granted, one of them is the carry-on size suitcase, so maybe I'm not as far gone as some, who would check two large suitcases) and have two carry-ons--my laptop bag/briefcase and my backpack. That gives me a fair amount of space to work with, and it's the one trip where I have to get a baggage cart at the airport, because just dragging it all down to the front door to meet the cab is a feat.

Granted, presents take up quite a bit of room. This year, I had the advantage of an extra trip two weeks ago, so I took up a bunch of gifts then, still only using the carry-on. If I wasn't taking them, I could have almost packed in a backpack, since three days doesn't require much in the way of clothes. There's a large tote bag sitting in Colin's closest with half the family's presents in it.

Still, there were a few that were too big for the small suitcase, and a few that I've purchased or had shipped since then, so that's a bit of space.

The biggest thing, though, is that I have to pack for everything. Casual, dressy, semi-formal, and this year, I'm working, so I'm adding business casual to that. Of course, I'm not under the illusion that I have to pack enough clothes for four weeks. I'll do laundry several times while I'm there--and, in fact, I'll likely do laundry just before I come back so that I can unpack directly into the dresser instead of into the washing machine.

When I packed for Europe, a) it was summer, and clothes were a lot lighter, but more significantly, b) I packed 2 skirts, 1 pair of capris, 1 pair of pants, 1 sweatshirt, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 1 pair of pyjamas, and a bunch of t-shirts, which roll up nice and tiny. Oh, and one dress. When traveling around, mostly in casual scenarios, that's very feasible. I was sick of those clothes by the end of the two months, but they were sufficient.

For four weeks in Calgary, though, that's not nearly enough. And then, of course, I fall into the "but I don't know exactly what I'll want to wear!" trap. Do I need three pairs of heels (I think I'm taking... 7, maybe? pairs of shoes total)? Well, I'll probably wear them all at some point. In fact, I'm quite sure I will, because I'm thinking of specific outfits for specific occasions. However, I could probably get away with one pair and plan the outfits around that. (But that's not nearly as much fun!)

All this to say, I'm almost finished packing. I haven't packed my carry-on bags at all, but those will be fairly easy (as long as I don't forget anything like, say, my keys to Colin's house or my passport). I'll do one last load of laundry on Monday, just so that I'm not leaving any dirty clothes sitting in my hamper for a month, and there are a few last things I'll toss in then, but mostly, it's finished.

One concert down; two to go. Tomorrow, the choir sings in both morning services and then has both matinee and evening performances. Long day, but we get a couple of hours in between church and our call time. I live about 25 minutes from church, so there's not really any point in coming home for an hour and then going back, but I'll probably take a book (and laptop) and go sit in Starbucks in between.

Monday, last-minute packing and cleaning, a meeting at school, and more Christmas cards to write (there are a few more that need to be mailed before I leave the country, and I'd like to have the Canadian ones written so I can mail them in time to get to people before Christmas Day), but that's about it. And then... Tuesday, my flight leaves at 7:30 AM, so it'll be a ridiculously early morning, but that sets the stage for a good afternoon nap.

Goodness. I haven't posted a real summary of the weekend yet. I was too busy getting over the cold that I caught from Colin that he caught from Jakob.

It was a busy weekend (surprise, surprise), but a really good way to officially kick off the Christmas season. Thursday night, we went to Rocky Mountain College's Christmas concert (you know, with the whole "small world" thing with the director, who was the director at my church in California last year), and Friday and Saturday, Colin, Mom, and Dad sang in Ambrose's production of Messiah. Saturday afternoon, we went to a baby shower for Scott, Heather, and Martin; Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and then had two rehearsals in the afternoon before heading off to the airport. And somewhere in there (mostly after midnight), we still managed to find time to finish watching the first season of Arrested Development, which we'd started at Canadian Thanksgiving but not finished.

And, of course, there was the time with Kat, Aaron, and the kids, but that's already been well-photographed and posted about. :)

( A review of sorts of AUC's production of 'Messiah' )



Sunday, there was a rehearsal after church for Colin's cantata, which I'm going to sing in, despite only having one rehearsal with them. I've had the music longer than anyone else in the choir (I helped pick it), and I've been working on it on my own, so it'll be fine. After that, there was another rehearsal for the Christmas show at Foothills Alliance, which was my only chance to hear any of that show, since it'll close a few days before I get into town.


By Sunday afternoon, we were both well on our way to catching colds. Jakob, who was coming down with something, was all over Colin on Thursday, and then I think I got it from Colin by about Saturday. I stayed home Monday and slept, and that was helpful--it seems to be running its course really quickly.

And now, we're well into the home stretch of the pre-Christmas rush. I have five written assignments and two presentations to do in the next week, but fortunately, the presentations each correspond with a written assignment, so really, it's only five assignments. Also, a) some of them are already partially done and I just need to finish them up, and b) they're not all full-length papers. I don't think I have anything that will end up being longer than about 8 pages, which isn't bad at all.

Emmanuel Church's Christmas concerts are on the 13th and 14th, so we have our dress rehearsal next Wednesday. Colin has more in the way of rehearsals than I do (although I need to be in on some Borkman rehearsals in the next week, as well). He's finished with Messiah, obviously, but Foothills Lutheran's cantata only has a few rehearsals left, he's heading into tech for Foothills Alliance's show, and he has to finish the design for Steel Mags, which apparently is kind of a train-wreck of a show, in some ways.

I was going to try and keep this entry from being too epic, so I'll post pictures later, as well as a story about Amazon.com. In the meantime, my homework and my pillow are both calling me. The sooner I get to one, the sooner I can get to the other.

Yay, Christmas decorations are up!

There's no tree in the apartment, so I had to get creative. We may get a tree later (after Thanksgiving), and if we do, I still have plenty of ornaments that didn't get put up, but in the meantime, here's what we've got:


( This way for pictures )

There's a garland around the door, which I didn't take a picture of, and I might pick up a few more little things, like a wreath, if I find some good stuff on sale. Mervyn's is going out of business, so I'm going to stop in there on Wednesday and take advantage of their 60% off sale to get some more decorations and hopefully a few gifts.

Today and tomorrow can't possibly go fast enough. Wednesday will be fine; I don't have class, so it'll be a day of laundry, packing, cleaning, shopping, and getting a haircut, but I'm ready for today and tomorrow to be over.

The writing prompt on the lj homepage is "What have you lost that you wish you still had?", and I don't usually write the prompts, but an immediate response came to mind with that one.

When our house burned down 14 years ago, a lot of family heirlooms and treasures were lost: my mom's wedding dress (which had been her mother's dress), our baby books, pictures, some jewellery that had been passed down, report cards and other records, and so on. Irreplaceable items that don't carry the significance and weight of the relationships and legacy that they represent, but that are still important and meaningful on their own. Oddly enough, though, those aren't always the things that come to mind first.

No, what often comes to mind is this little jewellery box that I'd gotten for Christmas a month before the fire. I don't even remember who gave it to me. My grandma, I think, but I'm not entirely sure. I don't even remember if I got it during our Christmas at the farm or in Chicago. It was wooden, kind of an odd shape, with a few little drawers. It was more for show than anything else, I think, since there were only about three drawers and they were so small and oddly shaped that they wouldn't hold much more than a few pieces of jewellery... but then again, that's probably what it was best designed for.

I have no idea what else I got for Christmas that year, and if the fire hadn't happened, that box probably would have just been something else that I collected and eventually outgrew. I'm guessing that it likely would have stayed in my parents' house when I went to college, or I might have given it away at some point, or a piece would have gotten lost, or the handle would have fallen off, or...

But because I only had it for a month, it stuck in my mind. I have very clear memories of writing it down on the insurance forms (or maybe it was just my list that Mom transcribed onto the official forms). There are a few things that I remember clearly about that process: a heavy, ceramic bank shaped like Noah's Ark, with who-knows-how-much money inside; giving up on trying to list my clothes and books individually and just estimating how many of each I had; thinking through my bedroom from one end to the other, trying to picture everything in it, writing each item down as I pictured it; someone blurting out "Umbrellas!" in the middle of a conversation, remembering that they needed to be added to the insurance inventory; spending every spare minute in school the day after the fire writing the list, when the visual of the rooms was the clearest.

Maybe I don't miss that silly little jewellery box the most out of anything that I've lost, either tangible or intangible. If I had my choice of something to have back from my life, it wouldn't even make the top 10, I'm sure. And maybe I don't really wish that I still had it, but of all the random possessions that I sometimes remember, that one comes to mind fairly often.

Merry Christmas!!

(Or Merry Boxing Day. Or something.)

It's been a really, really good holiday so far. Busy, but it's busy in that good way--the "We're seeing lots of family and spending lots of time together" way, rather than the "I've got papers and projects and meetings and work" way.

Christmas Eve, Colin and I had breakfast with murphy987 (yay!) and then had a relaxing afternoon before heading to church for the 4:00 service at my church and the 7:00 service at Colin's parents' church, and then over to Grammie and Grampy's house for their annual Christmas party. Christmas Day, we started at my parents' house with stocking, breakfast, and presents; then we went to Colin's parents' house for stockings and presents; and then down to Auntie Marge's house in High River for turkey dinner with his dad's side of the family. Today, we're heading to my aunt and uncle's for my extended family's dinner, and then it's off to one more Christmas party tonight before we get a couple of days off. I think that the next family dinner that we've got (thus far) is on Saturday, so we've got a few days to just hang out.

I've discovered that doubling the family means doubling the gift haul. ;o) It also means doubling the number of presents that we have to buy, but I'm just not thinking about that part of it right now... Heh.

This was the year of the duplicate presents for us, but none of them are actually getting returned. Colin had asked me for a good set of headphones for his birthday, but I didn't end up getting them for him, so I told Esther and Justin that they should get him some. So they did, and so did his parents, but he can use a pair at home and one at work, so neither pair is getting returned. The ones from his parents are a better pair, so they're staying at home for when he's mixing audio, and the ones from Esther and Justin will be good for work.

Also, we (well, I, but really we) got two Magic Bullets. And not the dirty kind. I'd been dropping hints for ages that I wanted one for my kitchen, so Colin and my mom each picked up on the hint and got one for me. (And the funniest thing is that I was *thisclose* to getting one for Esther and Justin, but I didn't.) Colin thinks that it'll be an appliance that we can use multiples of, though, so we're hanging onto both of them. He's keeping one here for now, and I'll take one back with me, and then eventually, we'll have two in the kitchen.

Hmmm. What else did I/we get? We got a bunch of gift cards, so we're set for date nights for a while, which is nice. Kat and Aaron got us dinner at the Keg and a movie, Jay and Jillian gave us a movie, Devin and Lori gave us dinner at Earl's, and his parents got us a gift card that will probably buy a couple of dinners at Redwater Grill, which we've never tried before, but his mom really likes it.

Santa left us some car accessories in our stocking at his parents' house--a little vacuum that plugs into the cigarette lighter, a visor organizer, and a little whiteboard for the other visor. Colin's parents gave me Ratatouille, Esther and Justin got me season 7 of Gilmore Girls, and Carl gave me season 3 of Veronica Mars (because I forgot to tell people not to buy me DVDs until the writers' strike is settled).

Mom is hinting strongly that she wants me back this summer to do the breast cancer walk with her; she got me a pair of black workout pants that match the black and pink jacket I got last year. They're actually really comfortable, but the funniest thing was that she wrapped them with a huge pink tissue paper breast cancer ribbon on them, with "hint, hint" written on the ribbon. She said that she would have paid for my registration if it would guarantee that I'd be here for the walk, but we'll have to see once we decide what's actually happening this summer. Soon. We'll be making that decision sometime in the next couple of weeks, and then I can tell her. (I wonder if she'll still pay for my registration that way...)

We also got a few ornaments to start our tree with. I got Colin two ornaments (as the more sentimental/romantic/whatever part of my gift)--a little wooden airplane, and a little pewter picture frame with the word "Love" on the back. I figured that those two, as much as anything, defined this year for us. Jakob and Kayla gave us a Hallmark penguin and polar bear ornament, my mom put matching heart ornaments in our stockings, and I got a Starbucks red cup ornament in my stocking. I've got a good stash of ornaments of my own, but they're mostly generic sets of whatever Ikea ornaments I've picked up for my tree over the years--it's nice to start building a collection of ornaments that have history and meaning to us as a couple.

Oh, and from one member of Colin's choir, we got a bottle of wine. Apparently this guy's brother owns a winery in Australia (but I can't remember the name right now...), and the tradition in their family is that a bottle of their wine, given as a gift, is saved to be opened for the firstborn's birth. So, we already have a bottle of wine for when our first child is born.

So, that's been the holiday so far. It's been so good to see family and have time with them, and so good to have time with Colin. It's amazing how quickly this becomes normal again. The fact that for the past four months, "normal" has been the distance and frustration and loneliness disappears so quickly, and it's amazing how fast it's normal to be at his house, sharing the car, doing as much together as we can... which, of course, isn't normal when we do live in the same city and we're both working, but for now, it's the best kind of normal that there is.

And in there, even in the busyness and great company, there's been time for reflection and worship and celebration. Christmas Eve was nice in that way--there was the deliberate time set aside to celebrate Christ's birth in a more intentional way, and that set the tone for everything else.

And now I'm just waiting for Colin to show up so we can head over to Doug and Tammy's. We're not in any rush--we were told to show up between 12-ish and 1-ish, so I told Colin to come by at 11:30-ish. It's getting close to the 12-ish now, but I haven't done my hair or makeup yet, so I won't be ready when he gets here anyway.

Randomness.

Today was going to be my errands day, and tomorrow was going to be house-cleaning and packing, but the people just below us had to call the plumbers about a leak, which needs to be fixed from my apartment, so I've had to be home all day so the plumbers can get in and out. So I've been doing laundry and starting to pack. Fortunately, they were only working in Mariah's bathroom (and didn't have to turn off the water), so I can still be doing laundry and cleaning my own bathroom.

I think they're finished now, though, so I can head out and do some errands, which is good, because I really should have the Christmas shopping finished before I try to do most of the packing.

On that topic, I really need a bigger suitcase. I only have a carry-on sized one, and Mariah loaned me her carry-on, but I'm taking so many presents back that I don't think I'll be able to fit my clothes for three weeks into the leftover space. I think I need to look for a bigger, cheap suitcase. I'd love to invest in a decent piece of luggage, but that's not in the budget right now, so I'll have to see what I can find.

Also on the suitcase topic... I found a card from Colin in an outside pocket that I rarely use. I think he must have put it in there when I was in Calgary for Thanksgiving. Either that, or it's been in there since I moved down here, which is entirely possible, given that the pocket also contained a sports bra that I thought I'd lost last spring. (I don't remember when I packed it! Maybe one of the weeks that I spent a significant amount of time at Kat's house?)

***

Yesterday at the Christmas concert, most of the women wore slippers whenever we weren't onstage. Just one of those random things that's apparently a tradition with this choir (I didn't take my slippers on Saturday night, but I had them yesterday). We were on our feet in heels for so long that during sound checks and our break, it was nice to just run around the church in slippers (with our formal concert wear. Nice!).

***

Plans for Christmas week are in the process of being solidified. So far, here's what my time in Calgary looks like:

Dec 19 - fly in, hang with Colin for the evening.
Dec 20 - Nothing yet
Dec 21 - Breakfast with Janna, and then something at Colin's office (their big work party was a couple of weeks ago, but this is something smaller at the office in the afternoon [which he's not sure if I'm invited/expected to be at], and then the evening at his boss' house [which I will be at]).
Dec 22 - Heritage Park with Kat and the kids, and then, in the evening, our gift exchange/Christmas with Kat, Aaron, and the kids.
Dec 23 - Church (probably x2) in the morning, and then a matinee of Oliver Twist at ATP.
Dec 24 - The day may be free (maybe), and then Christmas Eve with Colin's family in the evening.
Dec 25 - Stockings, breakfast, and presents with my family; stockings and presents with his family; dinner with his dad's side of the extended family.
Dec 26 - Family dinner with my dad's side of the family, and then a Christmas party at his aunt and uncle's house in the evening (depending on when we leave my family's dinner).

After that, it kind of calms down a bit, but there's still one more family dinner in there, as well as a conference that we're going to over the first weekend in January. I'm so looking forward to all of it, but it'll be nice to have the week when Colin's back at work and things settle down a little. That's my time to (hopefully) have lunch/coffee with the people that we don't need to hang out with together.

***

I need to finish writing Christmas cards and get them mailed sometime tomorrow. I'm about 2/3 of the way done--even the Canadian cards. I haven't separated them out, simply because my Excel list is alphabetical, so I've just been going down the list that way. I guess it's as good a way as any to get it done, hey?

***

By now, I'm just procrastinating. I'm off to shower and get a bit of shopping (hopefully the last bit of shopping) done before work, and then tomorrow really can be all about the packing and cleaning and organizing.

I can remember being in kids' choir when I was in elementary school, being the brat who would poke other kids when they weren't doing things right.

(This morning, in church, the little kids sang a song, and there were a few of those kids, and it was just cute and fun to watch them.)

When I was in grade six, my friend Erin and I wrote a list of things in the choir that we thought needed to be changed. Stricter dress code, selected (talented) kids doing choreography, people who could sing on key doing the harmonies, more complicated choreography that looked more exciting than just hand actions.

Mom (who was the director) wasn't too impressed with us, I don't think, and there was definitely an aspect of snobbishness there, but looking back on that nearly 15 years later, I realize that was the beginning of the aspect of producing that we spend a lot of time on: developing a personal aesthetic. A big part of producing is knowing what you're passionate about; what visuals and stories attract you; what makes you tick; what you want to invest your time, money, and professional reputation in; and so on. It's developing the "Blink" effect (from Malcom Gladwell's book "Blink"): being so secure in your expertise that you can make a split-second decision and trust your gut.

When I was 12 years old, I was starting to develop the aesthetic that has continued to form throughout my theatrical training. I value well-produced theatre and professionalism at any level (independent of budget or training), among other things, and those parts of my personal aesthetic were what I was starting to develop when I was disturbed by the amateurism in the kids' choir.

Context, of course, is an issue there, and there's a time and a place for demanding professionalism--and maybe second-graders aren't the people to expect it from. Still, the seeds for what I'm doing with the rest of my life were planted there.

Aesthetic also plays a big part in my directing, obviously. I'm constantly telling my casts to trust my vision and trust my aesthetic (or, if not telling them outright, working to earn their trust), because I see the big picture (figuratively) and I've seen the big picture since long before they came on board with the project, and also, I literally see the whole picture--because they're onstage and I'm not.

Having said that, though, this weekend's Christmas concert challenged my aesthetic.

I'm not speaking as a choir director nit-picking the music itself here, because a) I'm not a choir director, and b) that's definitely a place where I don't have an objective view, hearing only the people around me and not the entire mix. As a producer-slash-theatre director, though, there were elements of the program that I watched with a much, much more critical eye than most people either involved or in the audience. There were many little nit-picky details, like the timing of the light cues, that I would have changed; there were bigger things about the process, like the dress rehearsal process itself, that I would have done differently.

There were places where I was grasping to change people's attitudes. Heather and I have been working hard for several years to begin to expect a higher degree of professionalism from the people involved in the drama ministry at Foothills, and we're finally beginning to see those changes. People are starting to expect and give certain things, and it's cool to see. This week's dress rehearsal felt like going five steps backwards from that, and I just wanted to sit people down and give them the lecture about dress rehearsals that I've given to many a high school student.

There were things that I would have done differently about the program itself--changes I would have made in the way the concert was structured.

It was a good concert. The choir sang well (although last night, we were a little disastrous on some of our words... it's amazing what leaves your head at the most inopportune times), and it was well-received (although people's praise never seems to really be dependent on how good it actually was. That's just a random observation, but I've learned not to take my most heartfelt criticism from the audience, because there's a certain point where hearing mindless comments that people enjoyed it just doesn't give me any constructive criticism and really isn't what I need to hear... but I digress. That's a conversation for another day).

I'm not trying to discount the entire thing, or to say that it was poorly done. There were just a fair number of things that I would have changed--and that's my aesthetic. It's what I've developed in my years as a theatre artist, and what I'm continuing to develop as a producer. And, trusting the director, I'm sure that some of it was deliberate. I think that some of it, though, wasn't. Maybe I'm just being the kid poking the child beside me. I felt like doing that more than once this weekend (do people really need to be told not to whisper their comments to their neighbor while they're onstage? Is at least that level of professionalism--and not only that, but respect for whatever else is going on while we were waiting for the next song--too much to ask? I should have started poking), but at least I'm poking with an educated finger and honed instincts. Okay, that metaphor isn't really working any more, is it?

It went well, although I'm still not entirely sure that I should have stayed here this weekend just so that I could sing in it. I'm not sure if I gained more by being here or if I would have appreciated it more if I'd been in Calgary to see Colin's cantata this morning and Foothills' show tonight. I'm not sure. But I'm still glad I was here for it.

Now I'm tired. My feet hurt, because two 2-hour concerts (in heels) back-to-back is not friendly to my feet. I need a foot massage, but by the time I see Colin on Wednesday and can try to convince him that the greatest thing in the world would be for him to rub my feet, they won't hurt anymore, so it won't matter.

Happy Thanksgiving, Part Two!

I worked this morning--it was really, really busy, but yay for time-and-a-half (and for the shift going really quickly), and I'm hanging out at Jenny's house right now, waiting for dinner tonight. Mmmm... turkey. I should keep track of how many turkey dinners I get this year. This one is number three--we had two for Canadian Thanksgiving--and I'm not sure how many we'll have at Christmas. Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, we'll be at five, possibly six, different dinners/parties/gatherings, and I'm not sure how many of those will involve turkey. I'm guessing two, but I could be wrong.

I haven't quite decided how much Black Friday shopping I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm picking murphy987 up at the airport at 10:30, so I may go out and try to do some shopping (but not stand in line at 3 a.m.) before that, just because I still have quite a few presents to buy, and if I can catch some of the sales (not necessarily the door-crashers, but just the weekend sales), it would probably be a good thing.

I'll do a "thankful list" when I get home tonight, but I'm really looking forward to this weekend. It's good to have some time off, awesome to get to spend some time with Heather, and so good to know that Colin has today and tomorrow off, too, and that even though he's still got work to do, he's able to relax a little. That makes me incredibly happy. And it means that I get to talk to him a little more than usual this weekend. That also makes me happy.

Anyway... more later. In the meantime, enjoy your turkey!

So, I've booked my flight back to Calgary. I'll fly in on Wednesday, December 19, at 8:20 p.m. I'd looked at a few other flights, including one getting in earlier that day, but I really didn't want to leave for the airport at 4:00, even though it would mean having more of the day with Colin. I'd be too tired to really enjoy it (even though last time I flew in, I took that flight [after working until 12:30 the night before], and then went non-stop all day until about 2 a.m.). This will give me a bit more of relaxed day when I fly in, and give a good start to the vacation, I think.

I haven't booked a ticket back yet--we're still waiting to hear from Lori about how much a buddy pass would end up costing, so I'll figure that one out later.

Less than six weeks until I get to see my baby!

Man, that's still a long time. That's longer than we went from the time he left here in September until I was there in October, and it's already been a month since I was there. Hopefully, though, with the end of the semester fast approaching (5 weeks of class left!), the next 5 1/2 weeks will go by a lot faster than the last 5 have.

I found the coolest meme ever a few months ago, and I've had it sitting on my computer for ages. I'm finally getting around to it, and hopefully I'll post it sometime this week. It's a lot of work, though, and takes more imagination and creativity than a lot of memes out there. Seriously--it's very cool.

I have a paper due Friday, and I've barely started on it, mostly because I'm much more interested in the other two papers I've got due a few weeks later. It's so much easier to work on them, because I actually care about the topics (probably no surprise, considering the fact that they're both for producing-related classes, and the first one is for play analysis). I really need to get this one written, though, and then I can focus on the others. At least the more boring one is due first, so it's out of the way. And, thankfully, none of them is too long. They're all only 10-page papers, which is totally manageable. The other two are more project-proposal-oriented, so the structure isn't as strict, and the length isn't as set in stone, but the first one is definitely a paper, not a project (or a proposal, which is more accurately what the other two are).

My internet is being ridiculously slow today. Bah. I think that's a sign that I need to get ready for work and stop procrastinating.

What a good night.

The services were great; the scene was fantastic. Steve, Scott, Heather, and I had such a great time putting it together, and it really paid off. It was much more in-depth than a lot of sketches we've done, and it really showed in developing the characters and the text--it made it that much richer. Plus, Steve and I didn't lose it on the "Further in and farther up!" line like we did in rehearsal. Yes, we can turn Narnia into boob jokes. I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed.

I love the Christmas Eve services, though, and I really don't mind being there all afternoon and evening. Someone has to be around to put it all together so that the people who make a service a part of their Christmas Eve tradition can just come and enjoy it. Behind the scenes, of course there are going to be people who are putting more time into it, and I love doing that, because it makes Christmas Eve that much more special for the families who can just come and enjoy it all.

I love the carols--this year we had a small orchestra for them, which was cool. I love the stories they tell and the theology inherent in the words; the poetry of the words themselves; the tradition of the songs. It's part of why I enjoy going to a church that includes liturgy as part of its worship. It's not something that I do on a regular basis, and it's not part of my church's tradition, but there's something comforting and stablizing about singing words and praying prayers that have been a part of the church's tradition for hundreds of years. It's a connection.

At Colin's concert on Wednesday night, the pastor said something about the Christmas story being the same forever and always, no matter how much the world around it changes--the story of Jesus' birth is the same--the angels, the shepherds, the trip to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph, the wise men, the stable. The truth of the story never changes, and that's a comforting, beautiful thing, and for some reason, is really striking me particularly poignantly this year.

It just is. It doesn't have to prove itself; Christmas is what it is, and that never changes, and that's an amazing thing.

Happy birthday, _standingstill!!

Gah. Woke up too late this morning. I've still got to wrap the kids' presents before I go over there tonight, and I've got to go back to the grocery store before I go for a costume fitting and rehearsal for Christmas Eve, because I stupidly left my diet coke and Kleenex behind when I left.

Tomorrow, I really need to set my alarm to make sure I actually get up and start working at a decent hour, especially since I need to bake two loaves of bread, and that's going to take time, so I need to make sure I'm not still just putting a loaf in the oven or something dumb like that when my family comes over at 4.

But I got the ingredients for my cheese fondue, and I'm using tortellini, shrimp, and French bread cubes as the dippers. It should be good--it's an herb and garlic fondue recipe, as opposed to the traditional two-cheese kind, so hopefully that'll be good, as well.

Okay. Got to run.

( Christmas picspam! )

( Yet another Christmas meme... )

Today does feel long. It didn't until about half an hour ago, but now, the two hours until I leave work seem incredibly long. It's probably because I'm not taking a lunch break today so that I can leave an hour early, miss the traffic, and get up to the church earlier to get ready for our Q to Q tonight.

I'm still playing around, procrastinating on... finishing my last TWoP card, working on my fic, and editing lady_m2835's last chapter. I really just need to get to work on all three of those (and I also have some MI.net stuff to write, but I can't do that at work, since I'll need the episode in front of me), but instead, I've been finding more icons and mood themes.

I'm finding myself in a very, very Narnia-ish mood today. I want to watch the movie again--I want to get the four-disc special edition--and I really feel like reading all seven books back-to-back.

Heather and I have been working on a script for our Christmas Eve services, using some of the dialogue from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," and I've been mulling it over all week, and will likely continue to do so, since I'll be acting in the scene in the services. Last night, I had some interesting continuity things hit me--things that I hadn't noticed before, even in reading the series at least 10 times. I won't go into it all now, but in any case, my Narnia love is being renewed, as it is every time I read the books. They're among my favorite children's literature ever--in fact, I'd say that although Madeleine L'Engle is my favorite author, Narnia is my favorite kids' lit series, even more than Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables, both of which were absolute favorites of mine as a child.

In any case, I love the Narnia books more every time I read them. The theology is so rich, yet it meant so much to me as a child--every time I read them, I discover something new in it, and it's so brilliantly and intricately layered that it takes some time and maturity to get all the levels that Lewis intended, and I'm sure I'm nowhere near finding all of them yet.

Anyway. I'm trying to do some Christmas shopping, and I wanted to get a bunch of my stuff off Amazon, because it'll still get here in time, and there's free shipping, but I can't, because amazon.ca doesn't have all the different stores and products. Maybe it's worth it to pay shipping from amazon.com, just for the convenience and actually getting some of my shopping done. Grrr. Does anyone know of any Canadian websites--preferably sites that will offer free shipping--that are kind of a catch-all for everything, like amazon.com (but apparently not .ca) is?

Ahhhh. I'm finally semi-caught up on forums, lj, and email. Sort of. I was offline for most of the weekend, so there was a fair bit waiting for me!

My roommate and I cleaned the house, rearranged furniture, put up Christmas decorations, and got the ornaments out for the tree yesterday--in my world, the house has to be clean before the tree can be put up. It just doesn't happen otherwise. So, I'm going to go to IKEA at lunch and get my tree and a few more ornaments then, and drive around for the rest of the day with a tree on top of my car.

My immediate family is doing our Christmas on the 23rd, and we're right now in the process of trying to figure out where it's going to be. My sister and BIL offered their house, but they won't have a tree (since they'll be at his parents for the week of Christmas, and it doesn't work to leave a tree in an empty house). I offered my place, but my 88-year-old great aunt will be there, and we're not sure if she can do the stairs. It's a possibility, because there's a wall on one side, but no railing on the other side. If someone walks down with her, and she can hold the wall, it might be okay, but we're not sure.

So, it might end up being at my parents' after all. That's fine, but we're doing Christmas Eve/Christmas Day there, and possibly the bigger extended family Christmas dinner, so it would be nice to spread it out a bit.

Oh, the complications.