Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

I just got back from having dinner with D and am now toooooo full to do anything but slump in front of the computer while singing along with The Sound of Music on TV. I lead an exciting life ;)

I should be getting my presents, etc ready to go to my parent's house tomorrow as I'm staying the night. I, along with my two other single, successful, home-owner friends have unabashedly decided to sleep over at our folks' houses Christmas eve. There was just something so upsetting about the thought of waking up alone on Christmas morning. We need to be surrounded by love first thing, sleep in our old bedrooms and feel peaceful. I am SO looking forward to having breakfast with my parents, and sitting in front of the fireplace to open up our stockings. Stockings are my favourite part of Christmas because Santa (my mum) always found the most wonderful little trinkets and toys and gadgets and marvels, and it was so delightful to take turns at unwrapping those tiny miraculous things. I've gotten five little things for each of my parent's stockings this year, following suit with Santa and trying to find little treasures that I think will delight them.

I am also very much excited about Christmas dinner, although it's upsetting that Grandma B will still be in the hospital and not at our table. We'll take her little treats to the hospital, though, and try to make it a special day regardless.

What about you? What Holiday Traditions are you looking forward to the most?

Love and peace and joy to you all,

~g~

'Tis The Season!

Wow, have I had a productive evening! N&S came over after work to help finish up the present for my parents, I cleaned the place top to bottom, did three loads of laundry and am now making a CD of Christmas Songs. The place has gotta be ready for Santa, ya know.

I'm full to the brim with Christmas Spirit, so I shall share with you some Christmassy things:

My Christmas CD
Skating - Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas Time Is Here - Sarah McLachlan
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Bing Crosby
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ We Three Kings
- Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan
Shopping - Barenaked Ladies
What Are You Doing New Years?- Ella Fitzgerald
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas - Gayla Peevey
River - Joni Mitchell
The Man With The Bag - Kay Starr
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Santa Claus Got Stuck In My Chimney - Ella Fitzgerald
In The Bleak Mid Winter - Sarah McLachlan
The Christmas Waltz - Nancy Wilson
All That I Want - The Weepies
Gaudete - The mediaeval Baebes
Children's Winter - The Celtic Connection
Pat-a-Pan - Mannheim Steamroller
Wintersong - Sarah McLachlan

Recipe for Eggnog Muffins.

Caspian and I made these last year on Christmas Morning. I mixed the dry ingredients the night before and then in the morning we just dumped in the fresh ingredients, stirred, put them in to bake and made coffee for the parents and grandparents. By the time we were all up and about there was a lovely Christmas breakfast ready!
Now whenever I talk to Caspian he asks if we can get up early and make muffins together, so apparently he enjoyed it just as much as I did :)

Eggnog Muffins (Makes 16 muffins)
3 cups Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 cup Oil
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 3/4 cups Commercial Eggnog
1/3 cup Raisins
1/3 cup Chopped Candied Deluxe Mixed Fruit
(The kind you use for fruit cake)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Whisk together oil, egg and vanilla until blended; Gradually whisk in eggnog. Add eggnog mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until blended. Fold in raisins and candied fruit. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling cups three-quarters full. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 Celsius) for 25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool muffins in pans for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on a rack.

Mmmmm. Enjoy!
Love,
~g~

Baby In Red

Baby's sweater is done!!! I still have to wash it to tidy it up a little bit, but the knitting and sewing are done! HOORAY!
I'm actually really pleased with how it came out, so I hope Skylark and Hubby and Baby like it too!
I will post something else soon... as soon as I find something interesting to say.

Love and Candy Canes,
~g~

My Scary Morning

I’ve been having a time lately as you probably guessed by my lack of posts recently. Things have been stupid-crazy which is why I wasn’t overly concerned last night when my alley was blocked by a police car. I was so NOT phased by this that I didn’t even look out my window last night, because there are four thousand more important things going on in my mind, and it was late and I just went to bed.

At 4am something woke me up, although I wasn’t sure what. I fell back asleep and dreamt that I was at my parent’s house and that their dog was barking. At 6am my alarm clock went off, and I hit snooze and tried to fall back asleep except that someone was talking so loudly that I couldn’t sleep. After a moment it occurred to me that it was strange that someone was talking so loudly, so I got up and looked out my window, which has a beautiful view of the parking lot and alley. I saw a guy talking on a headset facing across the alley and got annoyed until I realized that he was talking REALLY loudly and there was an echo… like what he was saying was coming out of a speaker. I looked around and realized that in the darkness there were many dark figures crouched in my parking lot, also facing the alley. Figures with really big guns. That woke my brain up enough to realize what the man with the headset was saying: “I know you can hear me. You need to come out of the back door slowly. That’s the only way we can help you.”

Oh crap. I sat on my bed. This was a hostage negotiator. This was a hostage negotiator standing so close to my window that I could have reached out and touched his leg.

I did what any other brave young woman would do… I burst into tears and phoned my mum. “MUMMY there’sahostageandtheswatteamhasbiggunsandI’mscaredandIhavetogotowork.”

“Okay,” she said. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying away from the window and you’re leaving your lights off.” She told me to check the news, which I did. It wasn’t helpful except that my street was blocked off and that the police had been dealing with “a serious situation” since 6pm last night. What the hell?? So I went and lay down on my bed and listened to the negotiator talk for half an hour. It was all very interesting, in a terrifying sort of way, and I started to really worry. Things got quiet and I looked out my window to see the SWAT guys on the move, backing up in formation, BIG FREAKING guns drawn, and I started to cry again and dove back into my bed. Please don’t shoot someone in my parking lot. Please Please Please.

The negotiator started talking again, sounding slightly more anxious and BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM BOOM BOOM, gunshots and I sobbed and just KNEW he’d been shot or had shot someone. I knew someone was dying right there, 4 meters from my home, and it was all silent. I just lay there shaking and shaking, but I HAD to get to work, I had to see if it was okay. I looked out the window and saw all of the officers standing by my dumpster and I was horrified. Someone stepped out of the way and I saw them put a man in handcuffs in the back of the police van. He wasn’t dead, nobody was dead. The police milled around for a while longer and drove away after another half hour and the alley was clear, like nothing had happened. I was still so scared that I was fighting to breathe, and I wanted to thank the negotiator because he was so good and so calm. I wanted to thank the police officers for helping keep everyone safe, and for not killing anyone.

I got to work and bought myself a sugary latte and told a friend of mine about it, and he said that he heard on the radio that the guy had let a hostage go at 4am, and he figured that they probably only shot rubber bullets or tear gas to bring him down. I’ve been looking on the web for news, but there hasn’t been any, so that must mean that nobody died, thank God. What a horrible, scary way to start the morning.

Needless to say, I’ve been thinking a lot about this morning. Thinking about the things the negotiator said, thinking about how scared the people inside must have been, the hostage and the hostage-taker. What sort of desperation would drive a person to make a choice like that? How much would you have to lose or gain by resisting people with really scary guns for 12 hours? I really hope that the negotiator was being honest when he told the guy that they’d get him help. I really hope that the hostage has support and help available too. I hope that the negotiator and the officers have warm homes and loving, understanding families waiting for them, and that they understand the virtue of helping this man, and understand the virtue of saving lives, especially after twelve long hours. I hope I can show them that I appreciate that they were keeping watch while I slept a few feet away, completely oblivious to the turmoil. I’m glad that everyone is okay. I don’t ever want to witness that again.

Love,

G