I can't sleep so I thought I'd put up some pictures that I finally uploaded, and do some online boxing day shopping. Well...online window-shopping if there is such a thing.
Actually, I'll write about this week and Christmas first then I'll do the pictures. So, this week, Cynthia and I are house managers. On Monday, we were supposed to go to Summerside to do the groceries but there was a storm and a TON of snow so we didn't. I got up and went to the gym at like 6. It was open, but the guy who owns it was about to lock the doors and keep it closed for the day because of the snow. I beat him to it and he let me stay :). Krista had gone to work but there was no one there, so she came by the gym thinking I would be there (which I was, obviously) and kept me company for a while. After that, we went to t he bakery where I had to meet Melina and Cyn for breakfast to go over our menu for the week and things like that. We got a bit of our groceries, just what we needed for Monday, at the Save Easy here in Alberton. One of the great responsibilities of being house manager is shoveling if necessary. There was absolutely NO way i was going to shovel the massive amount of snow occupying our driveway. Outside the Save Easy, there was a guy in a big truck with a plow on it shoveling out the parking lot. I dragged Cyn and Melina with me to the truck, and the guy saw us and stopped. "Excuse me? Hi! Do you think I could ask you a really, really, really, really big favor? Could you possibly plow our driveway?" Haha. The guy asked us where our house was, so we told him 409 Church Street and he was like "Ohh the Katimavik house!" He wasn't sure if his plow would be to wide and rip up our lawn, but he said there was another plow going around town and he'd talk to the guy driving that one and see what they could do. Later in the afternoon, our driveway was clear! Yeaaaaaah. They were probably think Katimavik kids are super lazy, but whatever. It would have taken the two of us like 5 hours to shovel the whole driveway, and it took a truck like thirty seconds.
It was Mat's 19th birthday that day too, so I made a blueberry cake for him. It wasn't that exciting... there isn't a lot we can make cake-wise here because we don't have cake pans. And I put the candles in and the wax melted on them. I couldn't understand why all the candles fell over when I went to get a match, but I guess the cake was way too hot on the inside for them. Oh, and Cyn and I made some pretty much totally fantastic chicken pizza that night. It was good. Later that night, we tried to make a gingerbread house. It was an epic fail. First of all, Mat put too much salt or something in the dough so it wasn't edible. And the icing wasn't strong enough to hold it all together. We just put icing on the pieces and decorated them with smarties and sprinkles...then ate the icing and candies. Icing should be banned. Seriously... all it is is butter and icing sugar. It probably contributes to like 40% of obesity in North America just on it's own. I almost went into a sugar-induced coma that night. It was bad.
On Tuesday, we went to Summerside at 8:00. Well that was the plan. We probably left closer to 8:30. So, 8:00 PEI time. We stopped in Wellington to pick up the group there, and then picked up the Summerside group too because their PL was on time off. Grocery trips to Summerside always turn into full-day epic journeys. We didn't get back to Alberton until 4. Yeaaaaah eight hours of grocery shopping! Sweet.
Alberton had a Christmas Light contest this year (maybe it's an annual thing...I'm not sure) and the mayor asked us to judge it. The nine of us (err 8 actually because Tyler was at a party at his work placement) drove around the town looking at all the lights. Some places were cute, but overall, none were all that exciting. I didn't think so anyways. Everyone in Alberton must think that Katimavik is a big bunch of creepers. People were probably looking out their windows as we were driving past (multiple times at some places) really slowly, wondering what the hell we were doing. A few of us went to Tim Hortons after that. Yeaaaah Timmy Hoes.
On Christmas Eve, we did a Power-Clean in the afternoon. There were a few of us working on the kitchen, and we pulled everything out of the cupboards and drawers and fridge, washed them out and put everything back as organized-ly as possible. I like cleaning the kitchen, actually. Whenever we clean the house, I always sign up for it. I'd rather do that then clean toilets, that's for sure. I just like being in the kitchen, in general.
That evening, Cynthia and I made my mom's hamburger soup (but with TVP...ohhh yeah!) and cheese bread. It was yummy. We did our "Texas Swap" gift exchange that evening. Everyone bought a gift that could be given to anyone, kind of spoofey, and then each person got a few turns to choose one or steal one from someone else. It kind of turned into a weird version of Sociables... which resulted in Melina dancing to Backstreet Boys on the couch. Definitely the funniest thing any of us have seen in... ever. Our PL is a champion.
Most of us went to church at 10.30 that night, at the Catholic Church in Alberton. I was totally wiped and was fighting not to fall asleep pretty much the whole time. The priest was weiiiiiird. And the way he spoke was bizarre... it was as if he punctuated his sentences in the wrong places. The two guys in my group who came with us were checking out girls the whole time (not that us girls weren't scoping the guys, I suppose...). It finished just before midnight, and the seven of us who went walked home afterwards. Outside, it was snowing lightly. Beautifully, actually. Then the snow turned into icy rain which attacked my eyes, but it was pretty while it lasted. Back at the house, everyone started opening presents. I opened my stocking with everyone and then went to bed at about 1.30. I got some tea (Numi Bergamot Black tea... my favorite kind EVER), a bag of mixed nuts from Community, an organic spritzer drink thing (also from Community, probably), a BEAUTIFUL silver necklace that I love, some moneh, and yeah. Santa's a pretty smart guy. Amy made these amazing cookies earlier in the day, they're like gingerbread kind of with butterscotch chips in them, and I ate like 8 of those coming home so I felt really sick when I went to bed. Again. I've cut myself off junk food now. Again (haha). Seriously though.... my body hates me this week.
On Christmas morning, I got up at like...8.30. I have issues sleeping in. I got all my recipes together and then started making brunch. I found a recipe for oatmeal pancakes which I added molasses, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to so they'd be a bit more festive, and then made 2 quiches (hehe), and some peanut butter, too. Cynthia got up at like 10:00 or 10:30 and made a huge fruit salad. My dad had sent me some Christmas-themed pancake molds (Santa, reindeer and a snowman) from Williams-Sonoma, which I tried to use at first but it was taking too long and they were getting kind of messy so I gave up. My pancake-making skills have improved greatly. The first dozen or so used to always turn out more or less scrambled...but not this time!! Overshot the quantity though...our freezer's newest tenants are three bags of leftover pancakes. The quiches were SO GOOD. Not gonna lie....easiest thing to make ever. And yummy as hell. Also, a ton of fun to have in this house becuase no one can say quiche without laughting. In french, to say "lâcher un quiche" means you farted. The phrase "Auuuugh who lâché-d that quiche??" is said at least ten times a day here.
After brunch, we did our other gift exchange. This one was a secret santa type deal. Instead of each person guessing who they though their secret Santa was, each person described who they had picked without saying their name. It was nice...everyone said a few nice things about the person they had bought a gift for before giving it to them. Krista had chosen me, and her gift was quite honestly the one of the most sincere, thoughtful presents I have ever recieved. First, there was a mug from Tim Hortons. A) I love Timmys and B) I'm always complaining about not having big enough mugs here. Inside, there was a little chocolate-scented body wash and some pieces of paper that I didn't really understand at first. Krista explained that they went together to make a Christmas tree...there were two green triangles for the tree, a brown piece for the stump and then a star to go on top. The other day when we were cleaning, Krista had asked to borrow my phone to play music off it (it's a walkman phone), but she had actually taken it and called my mom with it. My mom thought something was wrong at first, I think, but she assured her everything was fine. Krista asked my mom about what she would wish for me at Christmas... and kind of in life in general. So, on one side of the tree, there's a really sweet note from Krista, and on the other side there's little things that my mom said. I started to cry, because the sentences from my mom were exact phrases that I can hear my mom saying. It was such a sweet gift. Krista is a sweetheart :).
I had an awesome chat with Courtney in the afternoon, and we both opened our gifts from each other while we were on the phone which was fun. She sent me the new Killers CD (so so SO good!), a CD that she burned me (also great), the cutest little book of Sudoku puzzles I've ever seen, some tea and almonds to make almond butter with :). Court's pretty much my favorite person ever, if you didn't already know that.
My family got back from church in Calgary just before 4:00 PEI time, so I called them after talking to Courtney. My dad put me on speaker phone on his cell so they read the letter and opened the gifts I sent them while I pretended to be there. They all liked their presents, so I'm happy! My sister and brother sent me an apron and pot holder thingy which are really nice and my parents sent me a really cute scarf.
Wow this blog is never ending. Ok so after that we went to dinner at a lady named Maria's house. A bunch of her family was there...probably 12 or so plus the 9 of us. It was really nice to have a meal out of the house, and to meet a few new people. We stayed until just before 10, and then came back here.
Now it's boxing day. I've been up for 3 hours, with nothing to do. That would be why I just wrote this novel of a blog entry. Ugh. I want to go to the gym but it isn't open until 1...and we have to do a power clean or something in half an hour so I probably won't even GET to go. Eff. I'm going to go start cleaning now, then. Maybe then I can get out of doing some later. I hate my inability to sleep in.
I'm sick of typing and being on the computer so I'll put up pictures later. Yeeeeh.
Oh and also LESS THAN TWO WEEKS ON THE ISLAND WHHAAAT. Time flies, eh?
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