Santa's Workshop
Christmas Finale
As much as the Christmas season excites me, I always find myself just as excited when it comes to an end. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of everyone at the mall rushing around trying to find the perfect gift for that special someone, but the calm after the storm is also satisfying.
This year I
did the bulk of my Christmas shopping on December 23rd. This is
highly unusual for me as I like to try and get things done early. The reason
for the last minute shopping? I started a new job at the Body Shop during the
last week of school (a silly idea by the way), when I already worked at
Penningtons. Between the two jobs, I pretty much worked
every.....single....day....sometimes twice a day. So much for having a 3 week
holiday, maybe next year?
Anyway,
there wasn’t a heck of a lot of time to get any shopping in. I was also pretty
broke from only working 4-8 hours a week during the semester, so I had to wait
until I got a big enough cheque to spend on my loved ones.
My mom
loves Christmas just as much as I do, if not more; we always make a big deal
out of it. Since moving out a couple of years ago, I always make it a point to
sleep at her place on Christmas Eve, and hopefully Christmas day, depending on
how early I work boxing day (stupid retail). For the last two Christmases
I was house-sitting for my friend Michal and her family, which meant that I
could only sleep at my mom’s on Christmas Eve; I couldn’t leave Michal’s dog
Chloe alone for too long. But this year I didn’t sit for her, which meant more
time with mama Jennings.
We usually
each open one gift once it turns midnight, and then open the rest early
Christmas morning after we’ve had breakfast. Christmas breakfast is ALWAYS egg
nog pancakes, by my request of course. Delicious!
My mom
always gets me a ton of great gifts each year, one of the perks of being
an only child (I get her a ton of gifts in return). This year at the
gift on the top of
my list is a 43” plasma TV!
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| Me and my cousin Jules |
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| Cousins L-R: Tommy, Jules, Catarina, Brian |
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| Mom and Catarina |
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| Me and my cute lil grandma |
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| Grandpa |
December 20, 2011
Merry Christmas, From Dior
Absolutely love this video!
December 18, 2011
Holiday Bonanza Recap
After a
month of anticipation, Anita and I finally had our Holiday Bonanza last night. One
thing you’ll learn about me is that I tend to over prepare when I host events
and such. I was technically having two parties, one for my CreComm friends and
one with simpletons...I mean non-CreComm friends. Apparently that led me to
believe that I had to make twice as much food, not quite the case.
I cooked
about 5 lbs of spaghetti sauce because I didn’t want to risk running out during
the first party, not leaving enough for the second. I used the same thinking
for cupcakes. I made both vanilla and chocolate in case people wanted a choice,
and made 55, yes 55 cupcakes total! My intent was to ice them all before 4pm,
but of course that was a no go; I only iced half. I made them mainly because I
love how they look on my cupcake tree. By the end of the night, I was force feeding
cupcakes to people before they walked out the door, convincing them to take at
least 5 home, if not 10. Believe me, giving away delicious cupcakes is harder
than it sounds. I woke up this morning to about 35 cupcakes in my kitchen.
Geeze Louise!
What I failed
to realize while preparing mass quantities of food, was that I was the one who
suggested our party be a potluck, meaning, everyone bring food, not just me.
Tons of delicious treats filled our table. Crackers, cheese, spinach dip,
wings, mozzarella sticks, cookies, chips, salad, and the list goes on. I think
one reason I over prepared with the food is because there are usually quite a
few people who don’t bring anything to potlucks. I forgot that CreComm students
are usually on the ball, which I love and appreciate! Anyway, enough about
food.
We also had
quite a bit of booze as well, mostly wine, beer, strawberry daiquiris, and Jell-O
shots! In addition to over 50 cupcakes, I also made about 50 red and green Jell-O
shots, A.K.A. the perfect amount. I’m not in any way a Jell-O fan, but if there’s
raspberry or watermelon vodka in them, I don’t mind taking one, or 5, for the
team.
It was nice
seeing my fellow CreCommers, I’ve missed them this past week. And I’m sad to
say that some of us won’t be in the same class next semester. Oh well, it’s a
chance to make new friendships right? But we did have a good time last night.
It was also nice seeing some of my old high school friends again. It’s weird
how fast time flies...(cliché I know, but lucky for me I’m not composing a
creative writing assignment). It feels like graduation was just yesterday, when
in fact, it was 5 years ago. Don’t ask me how that works.
I’m glad
you guys n’ gals came to our party, and I hope you had as great a time as we
did. Happy holidays everyone :D
December 15, 2011
Throwback Thursday- Christmas Parties
In high school I used to have a Christmas party every year and it was always a blast. We would do an informal gift exchange and I ALWAYS got a gift from EVERYONE because I was the hostess, which may be why I kept having Christmas parties. I would cram 15 of my closest freinds into my apartment and we'd be nice and cozy. I haven't had a Christmas party since I moved out of my mom's place a couple of years ago, weird I know. But if you knew the history of my past living situations, it would make more sense. Anywho, my roommate Anita and I are having our first holiday party and we're both super excited. I'm guessing we're going to have about 20 people in our apartment, so I'm looking forward to that familiar cozy feeling :)
November 26, 2011
Holiday Shopper
Running behind a big empty cart,
all she can hear is the pounding of her heart.
“Why did I wait? How stupid? How
dumb? I’m always surprised when Christmas Eve comes.”
She slows down a tad to sip ginger ale, but
she can’t pause for long or she’ll miss all the sales.
She then picks up speed while in
the toy aisle; it’s packed with late-shoppers, not one with a smile.
She stops for a minute to reach her
hand up, “What kid would want this? A pig in a tea cup?”
With no time to waste, toy pig goes
in her cart, further down the aisle, she begins to dart.
She grabs all she can, rushing to
checkout to pay, “I need to rush faster, there’s no time to delay.
Before she reaches the checkout, off
go the store lights. On the intercom she hears, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good
night.”
Charmaine & Anita’s Holiday Party Bonanza!- November 16, 2011
Hey you!
No, not you...YOU! Over there. Behind that guy with the eyes. No. No. You, to
the right. Yes you! Hello.
What are
you doing on December 17th?
You’re
going to Charmaine & Anita’s Holiday Party Bonanza? Lucky you! What time
does it start?
Oooh, 7:30?
Sounds like a good time to start a party. Where is it?
At their
apartment eh? Sounds like it’ll be nice and cozy...I like cozy.
I know they’re
going to provide some food, but are you going to bring food with you too?
Ya, I
figured you would. You’re so nice! I’m sure they’re not gonna make you cook a
whole turkey or anything, just finger food and stuff right?
Thought so.
Do you know
if everyone who looks at this page is invited? Cause that would be a ton of
people...
Ya, I
figured they’d make a Facebook event with the official invite list. It’ll
probably be made by the end of this week I’m sure.
What was
that? You have to bring gifts for the bodacious Charmaine and the beautiful
Anita?
Ha ha ha, I
knew you were kidding about that. Man, you are high larry us!
Well,
hopefully I get invited too! I guess I’ll have to hang tight for my official
Facebook invite.
Until
then...
CreComm Section 2Holiday Party- November 12, 2011
Hello
CreComm Section 2.
It saddens
me to say that our time together as the best section in first year, is coming
to an end. Let’s all take a moment of silence to reflect on the semester thus
far...
Good times
at Kings Head...
Mark’s
marker social wife beater...
Things Big
Shooter says...
Brandon’s “C’MON
MANs”...
Writer’s
Craft rants (My scrambled eggs is better than yours)...
And the
list goes on...
What better
way to bring this semester to a close than to have a HOLIDAY PARTY!!!!
All of you
guys are invited to come over to my apartment on Saturday, December 17th
at 4PM for a section 2 holiday fiesta. I know what you’re thinking, “How are 24
people going to cram into one apartment?” The answer? We’ll make it work; it’ll
be nice and cozy J I’ll be creating a Facebook event for this as
well which will give you my address and more details.
I believe a
few people mentioned the idea of doing a gift exchange, so I’d like to know how
you guys would want to do it? We can set a gift price limit and simply do a
secret Santa, draw names, and buy a gift for that person. Or we could all bring
one gift to the party, and draw names for the picking order of gifts. Or we can
do something entirely different. What do you guys ‘n gals think?
I was also
thinking a potluck would be fun! Yay or Nay? I could conjure up a sort of “sign-up
sheet” to pass around so we don’t send up 23 different desserts and 1 salad. I
vote Yay!
Leave a
page comment and let me know what you guys think and we’ll go from there.
Happy
Sunday everyone.
Now get back to writing those articles!
Santa Clause Parade- November 11, 2011
Tomorrow is Winnipeg's 102nd annual Santa Clause Parade!
Fun Fact: Eaton's Department Store held its first Santa Claus Parade in 1905 in Toronto. The Parade was so successful that in 1909 Eaton's started parades in Montreal and Winnipeg. The Winnipeg Santa Clause Parade has been held sucessfully every year since and celebrates its 102nd anniversary this year.
The parade starts at 5PM and will end with fireworks at The Forks at 7PM. Check out the Santa Clause Parade website for more details.
Have fun ladies and gents!
I Hate Winter- November 9, 2011
Okay, I don’t
HATE winter, but at times it drives me absolutely bonkers and makes me question
why all Winnipeggers don’t follow the birds, fly south, and stay there until
Spring. I’m not a fan of -50 weather, I
dislike how busses are always late (or don’t show up at all), snow seeping
through my boots and getting my socks wet is annoying, trudging through un-shovelled
snow banks makes me sad, and the list goes on!
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| View From Balcony |
However, I
do like one thing that accompanies winter...THE HOLIDAYS :D I love the
Christmas commercials, the holiday parties, the scenery, egg nog, ice skating at the forks
(though I don’t know how), Christmas movies, PRESENTS, house-sitting for my little sister Michal while she’s in
Hawaii with her family (she’s cute and Jewish... a fun tidbit and a clue that
her name is not pronounced “MichaEl”), and so much more.
Because I
love the holidays so much, I’ve decided that this year I’m not going to focus
on the frostbite on my ears, and just enjoy the holiday season with my family
and friends. I invite you all to share in the holiday spirit with me, by
commenting on this page. I want to hear how you celebrate the holidays, your favourite
holiday memories, or what you plan on buying me for Christmas.
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| Portage Place |
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| Portage Place |
In return,
I’ll keep you posted on what holiday events are going on in the city, and do my
best to entertain you with my own little Christmas activities.
Let the
holidays begin!
My roommate Anita and I
plan on turning our apartment into Santa's workshop; jam packed with
decorations! Our friend Josh put up our tree last weekend.
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| Josh and Anita |
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| Now it just needs decorations! |
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