Snow Day

On a day like today, when I don't have anything that I really have to do, and nowhere that I really have to go, I love a good snowstorm! It has been snowing and blowing like mad outside since yesterday, and I'm loving every minute of it, all curled up on the couch watching old movies and drinking tea. The only real downside is that TC, who was supposed to come back from Washington yesterday has been snowed in at the Detroit airport and won't be getting home until this afternoon, assuming that the new flight isn't cancelled too. He'll get home eventually, though. On the plus side, I've had lots of time to finish up this scarf that I've been making from leftover yarn:

It's kind of Christmasy, don't you think? I recently went through all my craft supplies, which have somehow grown to fill 3 or 4 rubbermaid storage tubs, and found so much scrap yarn that I need to use up in order to make room for more :) There really isn't enough of any one colour to make a major project, but I've discovered that I can usually manage to make a scarf or a hat from it.

Aren't I a little old to be homesick?

I thought that I was doing pretty well with the whole 'not-going-home-for-Christmas' thing, but it seems that I may have been a little premature in coming to that conclusion. I was just looking at some pictures that a friend posted on facebook of their birthday/early Christmas celebration(s) and was swept by a wave of homesickness, which completely took me by surprise. It hit me the moment I realized that we are not only unable to visit our families this year, which is bad enough, but we're also not going to be able to visit all of the friends we would normally see - and all of a sudden I started missing everybody. Sigh. My solution? Everybody needs to come visit us ;)

So in order to keep myself from getting weepy (I am at work, after all, and nobody likes a weepy receptionist), I'm going to make a list of some of the things that I'm enjoying or looking forward to this Christmas:

• not having to worry about booking flights or spending time in the airport
• getting parcels full of presents in the mail
• having 3 extra days off work to relax and enjoy the season
• seeing Toronto all decked out for Christmas (it really is beautiful at this time of year)
• learning about other people's Christmas traditions and experiences
• celebrating with our friends that are here

That's not so bad, is it?

Amaryllis update

We have life! My amaryllis has started to grow, which excites me very much. Probably too much :) I was kind of hoping it would bloom by Christmas, but I don't think it will since that's only 14 days away. We put our Christmas parcels in the mail today, which I hope was soon enough for them to get down home in time.

I had the preliminary interview today for the junior supervisory position that I mentioned earlier. It was a bit of a waste of time, since I already work for the company and have therefore already gone through the preliminary screening process, but for the sake of fairness every applicant has to do it. I therefore travelled 45 minutes from the office I work in to one of our other GTA offices, sat in the reception area for 10-15 minutes, was interviewed for another 10-15 minutes and then travelled 45 minutes back to my office just in time for my lunch break. On the bright side, I was told that I am definitely going to be one of the candidates for the major interview sometime next week. Woo hoo!

So what am I going to do with the rest of my evening? Sorting through this:

Two months' worth of receipts. Ugh. Everything gets entered into our budget spreadsheet, a relatively new endeavour prompted by the realization that I really don't know how much we spend on things. I do have a general idea, but it helps to have a definite figure to look at. It's been a very enlightening process.

Salmon supper

I tried a new recipe tonight, which I believe will now become part of the rotation. It's called Parmesan Baked Salmon, and was a breeze to make. Here's the recipe (or rather my version of the recipe, tweaked to fit the ingredients that I had on hand):

1/4 cup mayonaise

2 tbsp. grated parmesan

1/8 tsp. chili powder

4 salmon filets

2 tsp. lemon juice

10 Ritz crackers, crushed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix mayo, cheese, and chili powder until well blended and set aside. Place salmon on foil-lined baking dish. Drizzle with lemon juice and then top with cheese mixture, spreading evenly to cover salmon. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until the filets flake easily with a fork.

Continuing on the Christmas theme...

I'm so tired I can hardly think - you'll have to forgive any incongruities that might show up in this post :) I've been doing two jobs at work since the beginning of last week and it's starting to catch up with me, though on the plus side I've had lots to do every day. Let's see if I can remember what I was going to write about...

Another care package arrived from Mum today. This time it contained the tablecloth and snowman cookie jar you see above, as well as some Christmas socks and napkins. The best part, though, is that the cookie jar came full of Mum's Christmas cooking: peanut butter balls, mocho cakes, and shortbread cookies...mmm...I'm so glad she sent them. I'm still struggling with the reality of not spending Christmas with our families, and it means so much to have that little bit of home. Speaking of which...

Tada! Our Nova Scotia Christmas tree! I love the way the smell of the tree hits me as soon as I walk in the door. And then turning off the lights and drinking a cup of tea at the end of the day while just enjoying the sight and smell of it all...ah...bliss! Have I mentioned yet how much I love Christmas?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Yay! Our tree is now up and decorated and making our apartment smell like Christmas! Have I mentioned yet how much I enjoy the Christmas season? It's always been a special time of year for me. I'm a little less excited this year, though, since it's the first year that we won't be able to go home at all. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it will be nice not to have to spend a chunk of Christmas travelling - Pearson airport is definitely not somewhere you want to be this time of year. But on the other hand, we won't be near any family and most of our friends will be home visiting their families, which kind of sucks. I think we'll make out alright, though. If nothing else, this year will be a good reminder that Christmas isn't really about celebrating family, which is what it has become for a large part of our society.

On a related note, we discovered something amazing about our tree after we brought it home from the lot (an adventure in and of itself, involving carrying the 7' tree down six city blocks on a very cold and windy evening). We knew when we bought it that the tree was from Nova Scotia, but then we were removing the tag from the bottom of it and saw that it had been grown by Delong Farms of New Germany, NS - which is where I lived for the first 8 years of my life! How neat is that? Although we can't go home for Christmas, a little bit of home has come to us :)

I'll try to get a picture of the tree on here as soon as we figure out why our camera isn't working. Do any of you photography-inclined people know why a camera would say that it 'cannot use this memory card' when it was using it just fine several seconds earlier? It will work without the card, but then we can only take a couple of pictures before the memory is full. The card isn't full, and it won't even let us download the images that were on it. Grr...

Celebrating...winter?

Whew! It seems like we've been going pretty much non-stop lately. Last night was my office's Christmas party. No, sorry, it was our Winterfest celebration - a more neutral term that encompasses the celebration of Christmakwanzakkah. It was a lot of fun, mainly because the entertainment for the evening was the Barenaked Ladies, who put on a great show. Dinner was a typical 3-course affair, except that they included an extra course of Kraft Dinner with a fancy imported ketchup in honour of the band. :) We stayed for the concert, but left before the dance afterward, which turned out to be a good thing, since there was a bit of a storm last night. It was just pretty and snowy when we left - a fitting ending to a fun evening.