Monday, December 11, 2006
Not for the Faint at HeartThe following pictures may shock some people. Please consider yourselves warned.
James called me today from my parents' house in P-town that he had a new pet. When I asked him what he meant, he sent me this photo:
That, my friends, is a bat. Unlike a normal person who would capture the bat and release it - James and my brother wanted to experience the bat a little further. So they let it fly around our bathroom.
At one point they even turned the lights out, but unfortunately we don't have a camera with night-vision... but here is one last pic for your viewing pleasure.
SO glad I wasn't home for that! That house had better be cleaned out of bats when I get there on Wednesday.
This is an e-mail I sent to my good friend Corie, who is in Barcelona... and I thought I would post it on my blog, since it describes what I've been up to lately.
"Hey Corie,
Just wanted to e-mail you because I've been slack lately on keeping in touch.
This past week I was in Pickering. I had ONE more paper to write, which I had ZERO motivation to do and had to start studying for my real estate exam. I wrote the paper, but it took me five days... and I didn't study for the exam. I'm studying now. Or was studying. Until I started writing you this e-mail. ....
The week was pretty adventure filled. That's because I spent most of it with my mom. Who you know is pretty crazy! Here is a list of the things we did:
1. Shopping. We searched high and low for Christmas presents. She even got one for me. :) And we went to Bayview Village which is this very high end mall where everything costs $1 billion dollars. The santa there looked so bored. sort of sad too. Because no one brings their kids there. People go there just to be seen browsing at this place. What were we doing there? My mom had a coupon for Banana Republic.. 15% off! So she bought my dad a sweater that was already on sale. But we were seen there.
2. Visited my grandma at the nursing home. She was pretty excited to see me.
3. Went to my dad's office Christmas party. Took the train with James downtown and then my dad picked us all up. Then we were treated to a wonderful and yummy dinner and drank to our hearts content (well, my dad didn't. He was designated driver. And James didn't, because he was the other designated driver for when we had to pick up the car from the train station). So my mom and I drank to our hearts' content. For free. But it wasn't that exciting because neither of us had that much to drink. So really, no story here.
4. Visited the doctor's office. We even got to share that little bed with the paper on it. We just sat on it though. My mom was getting a flu shot. I had pink eye. Yeah... I know.... gross. She got a shot and I got drops. It was eventful and was a meaningful moment for us to share.
5. Made fruit cake. Normally this is made in the roasting pan that she has. But we couldn't find the roasting pan so she had to spread it between two bowls. It was very time consuming and looked like barf before it was baked. But when it was finally made, it created a wonderful aroma in the house. It created 10 1/2 pounds of cake. !! But I won't eat the stuff, disgusting.
6. Picked out the Christmas tree and drove it home. When we were about 1 minute down the road, we noticed that the tree was edging its way over to the passenger's side of the vehicle instead of staying right in the middle. We decided to turn around and get the guys to re-tie it (afterall we did give them a tip of $5 each, thinking they had done a good job). We were smart to make that decision because it was almost on the road by the time we got the tree back to the store. And our timing was great when we got it back to the house, because my brother, Matt, came home from his friend's house right at that moment. That meant we didn't have to try to get the 10 foot tree off of the roof and into the house.
7. Went to the Christmas party at my grandma's nursing home. We ate wine, cheese, mini-sausage rolls, chocolate covered marshmallows. Santa showed up and a Johnny Cash wannabe sang carols and other songs. It was just delightful. My grandma was so happy to see Santa that she teared up. Loved it! I think I'll go every year because honestly... hanging out with senior citizens and singing Christmas carols is what I call a GOOD afternoon. I'm serious. I'm not joking. No sarcasm. HONEST!
8. Watched Pirates of the Carribean 2 with James and my cat, Sammy. Yes, the cat watched. I have pictures. He's so weird.
So it was a good week. I did a whole lot of nothing with my mom. She did more stuff in between all of those adventures, while I sat and stared at my computer screen, trying to write my paper. It was a good week. I'm looking forward to another week with mom starting this Thursday, when I'm done all my exams.
Talk to you soon,
love Court"
Saturday, December 02, 2006
10 Things I Love About Christmas My Aunt Cath posted on her blog about 10 things she loves about Christmas and I thought I would do the same to try to get into the Christmas spirit before school takes over again.
1. No school and no homework. I love being able to just be in the moment without any of the other stresses from school to get in the way. This will be my last Christmas where it's like that. Next year, I'll be working leading up to Christmas, which will definitely be a different feeling.
2. Gumdrops. My mom makes gumdrop cake at Christmas time every year. I don't like gumpdrop cake. But I LOVE gumdrops. So does my mom, my sister, and my dad. So for as long as I can remember, my mom will buy bags of gumdrops for weeks before she actually hides one bag and uses it to make the cake. So yummy!
3. Christmas hymns at church - I love them. I think it is because we only really get to sing them once a year and it is wonderful. People sing them with such jubilance and it totally stirs my heart. Love it! Love it! Love it!
4. The Christmas Eve service at Good Shepherd Community Church. I went to this church when I was a little girl, but the distance was hard so we switched to Forestbrook. Ever since, though, we have gone to the Christmas Eve service to get our "dose" of Good Shepherd. The service is pretty much the same, every. single. year.
- Rob somebody sings one of his adult contemporary songs.
- Anthea sings O Holy Night in her opera voice.
- The same old woman plays the organ and piano.
- The words to the Christmas songs are on overheads using an overhead projector (not on slides using an LCD projector).
- Jessie (who is the cutest, loveliest old Jamaican woman I have ever met) comes up to me and tells me she wants to borrow my clothes. I think she has done this since I was about 5 or 6. I used to be scared of her, but when I was old enough to realize that she wasn't actually going to take them, I loved her!
- And then at the end of the service - they turn out all the lights and give us each a single candle. Paul Johansen then stands at the front with his candle lit and says "Jesus is the light of the world". And then, he passes the light on to people in the front rows saying this as he gives them light. Then the light is passed by people around the sanctuary with everyone whispering to each other, "Jesus is the light of the world". At the end, the sanctuary is all aglow with candlelight and we sing Silent Night together, acapella. It is absolutely the most beautiful thing, every single year.
6. Buying gifts for James. James is so easy to buy for. He would never dislike a single thing I buy him, except when I bought him the Shrek movie for an undiscounted price. He was angry because I didn't buy it "previously viewed" for like $6.99. WHATEVER! I love buying him clothes, dvds, cologne, whatever. He loves it all and is so genuinely thankful. Makes my day for sure to know that he loves what I'm going to give him.
7. My extended family. I see my extended family at least 3 times a year - Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. It is such a mesh of different people and it grows with the significant others of those members. And when my Nana comes, she brings baked goods, including her delicious ginger snaps!! Mmmmm! Same shapes every year and boy are they delicious!
8. Stuffing. I could give or take turkey - but I know that it comes with the famous Sillanpaa (or is it a Maenpaa recipe?) stuffing. Many have tried to duplicate this stuffing (like James' sister Jen, who is a marvellous cook, but her stuffing is not my mom's stuffing!) but let me tell you, it has been best made by my mother, Grandmother, cousin Susan and of course my Aunt Eila. It is fluffy and not pasty. There are just the right amount of onions. There is sage and other delicious spices. NO mushrooms or cranberries or other things that DO NOT BELONG IN STUFFING. Just white bread crumbs and a whole lot of love! I can't wait!
9. Our Christmas tree. My parents' house has a cathedral ceiling in the family room where the tree goes. That means we can get a HUGE tree. A real one with all the good smells that come with it. We usually have to tie it to the wall using a hook because it is SO big. This tree is FILLED with memories for me because of its ornaments. Every vacation, my parents buy ornaments to put on the tree. Every year, my mom would buy my brother, sister and I an ornament for the tree as well. When we were little we would make ornaments. And I have started giving my mom ornaments as well. Some ornaments, old ones, are retired, but most still live on. And I can almost remember where each one is from. Last year, for James and my first "married" Christmas together, my parents gave us their old fake tree. Along with it, was a shoebox. When I opened it up, it was filled with all the Christmas ornaments my mom had given to me over the years at Christmas time. This is why she had been doing it, so that none of us would ever have a bare Christmas tree. So now I have my own Christmas tree filled with memories.
10. JESUS! I was going to put him first or earlier... but this is the thing about Christmas that I wanted to leave any readers out there with. I love Jesus with all my heart. This last month in November would have been awful if I couldn't get down on my knees and cry out to him to work a miracle in whatever paper I was working on. Christmas is the day he was born. And with my new little niece in my mind, I can imagine him in the manger, surrounded by hay and animals and his exhausted and relieved parents... and really that song Silent Night is wrong, because I doubt it was silent at all! Without him, I would not have listed any of the above 9 things because there wouldn't be a holiday. (well - maybe Hallmark would have made something up) Some of them have nothing to do with him at all. But many of them do - in a metaphoric or symbolic way. I am so thankful for his birth and for his death because it was all for me. And for you. And for the world. And every year, I read and hear the story of his birth and am amazed that this one child could accomplish so much. But it was all because of his Father, my Lord. Thank you Lord for Jesus and that he truly is the light of the world.
Merry Christmas everyone! Feel free to post your favourite things about Christmas in the comments or on your blogs!
Friday, December 01, 2006
This should make up for my lack of November posting....So lately, I have been a bad, bad blogger. Here's an update!
- I had three papers to complete for school for today. Because I am a procrastinator, I started writing those papers about three weeks ago. Not such a good idea. Also in there, was a class presentation on dangerous dog legislation in Ontario. So this is what I've been doing since my last post. Law school is my life.
- I haven't seen my niece Emily since the weekend I last posted. That's how nuts life has been. I miss her and can't wait to see her in the little polar bear suit we bought her! I'll post a picture when I see her in it!
- I went to an Imogen Heap concert on the 8th. If you don't know who Imogen Heap is, then you need to check her out... best concert I've been to in awhile. And the guy that opened for her, Kid Beyond was just unbelievable.
- My birthday came and went. The party my friends threw for me was AWESOME! We ate great food, had some wine, talked, laughed and then we walked over to the bowling alley for some good times. Best birthday ever! Even my sis was there! AND - I was surprised because Nic (Marquis) and Missy came too! So fun!
- Last weekend I went home to my parents because I desperately needed a change of scenery and a hug from mom! I also got to spend time with my little sis on the train there and back. It was just what I needed to get myself back on track with my papers.
- I got an extension on one of my papers. The shortest one. My prof was super understanding and said, don't worry about! What a relief, because I'm pretty sure that I would have handed hers in late anyway! So I have until next week to do it.
- My other two papers were LONG. The first on dangerous dog legislation (in particular the pit bull ban in Ontario) was 6500 words and my second, on whether genocide is occuring in Darfur, Sudan was 8500 words. I wrote the first paper in less than 2 days and the Darfur paper in about 3 days. That doesn't include researching. I have to admit, the Darfur paper was quite depressing and if you don't know what is going on there, then I suggest you find out. It's probably the world's biggest humanitarian crisis to date. Think Rwanda.
- This past week I think I had an anxiety attack! But... my one of my bestest friends Corie, all the way from Barcelona, Spain, was able to help me put it all in perspective. Man I need that girl to COME HOME NOW! So get your butt on a plane and come home! She'll be back in February - thank goodness!
- And what about James? Well if he isn't just the biggest breath of fresh air to me. I love that kid a bunch and couldn't have made it through this stressful month without him.
- What's next? I still have my last paper to write, on restorative justice and youthful offenders and one exam, on real estate law, how fascinating. Please pray for these two last things that they don't drive me crazy with boredom.
Oh and it's December - Merry Christmas. I will officially start celebrating and looking forward to it on December 13th at about noon (because that's when my exam ends and I can start focusing on life, instead of the law).
