Dec 26-27 2012

Yesterday our crazy hammer-town received its post christmas gift... 3 feet of snow!
It snowed all day, and snowed all night and didn't stop til this morning. All the houses and cars and plants and Christmas lawn ornaments were covered!
Since my family is so busy for the christmas holiday, we usually post-pone our gift exchange/christmas morning until the week after the christmas festivities have ended. So yesterday my siblings and I went to the mall- because we're insane!- and shopped for one another.. we always like to take advantage of the boxing-week deals... I managed to pick up a few things for pretty cheap- dresses that would normally cost $150 reduced to $30, electronics all $100 off or more.. the savings were beautiful! But the chaos of the mall was the ugliest thing ever! My sisters and I observed that not only did we all look like little capitalist aunts feeding the machine of greed etc, but furthermore, if someone pulled the fire alarm we would be unable to locate or get near an exit. My brother was probably thinking that we'd be sitting ducks if there ever a zombie apocalypse was to break out. Gah!
Anywho we made it back home from the mall, over the treacherous fast blowing snowy drifts and through the un-ploughed streets after about 5 hours of boxing day madness... but our anger was yet to be quelled. After going out to Kelsey's for dinner, we wrapped up our preciously sought out bundles and put them under the tree.. then at around 12:30am, my sister and new bro-in-law left for their own home. They drove up a street to the next intersection, and got stuck trying to turn the corner. My bro-in-laws front tires had no tread left and he didnt have a chance to change them before the snow came... So at about 1am, we get a chilly phone call and a summons to shovel. So my brother and I dressed warmly and set off with the shovels to see about getting them out. My other sister came shortly after with boots for our married sister - she was in pointy toe pumps naturally and freezing in 3 feet of snow...
By 2am we were back home- we had pushed the car safely back into a parking space on the left side of the road and left it there. Then my sisters, brothers and father went out in my dads new car to the other house because my sister needed her meds and we figured they might as well sleep over so we could have our pseudo "Christmas morning" with them. Then I set to work changing bed linens and finding enough pillows to accommodate everyone and by 3am we were all nicely tucked away in bed.
Luckily, no one was hurt last night- besides my sister getting a little cut when we were wrapping gifts- and no frost-bite to be accounted for. We woke up this morning to find a tree full of gifts and the world full of fluffy white stuff.
Christmas miracle of the year I suppose :)
Xoxo
C

"Today for YOU a Savior is Born..and His name Is..

Christ the Lord... You will know it is He- For you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a major"

Merry Christmas to One and All!!!
Buon Natale a Tutti!!
Feliz Navidad a Todos!

Joy to the World!! The Lord is Come! Let Earth Receive Her King! Let every Heart, prepare him room!!

Good Tidings we Bring, to You and Your Kind- Good Tidings for Christmas and  a Happy New year!

Silent Night.. Holy Night.. Son of God, Love's Pure Light.. Radiant Beams from Thy Holy Face, With the Dawn of Redeeming Grace- Jesus Lord at Thy Birth!

Come They Told Me pa-rum-pa-pum-pum- A new Born king to See!!

O Holy Night, the stars are brigtly shining- It is the night, of Our Dear Saviors Birth.

He can turn the tide and calm the angry sea... He alone decides who writes a symphony.. He will take the time to hear a childs first prayer- Saint or Sinner Call and Always Find Him There! He'll Always Say, I Forgive.

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him- Christ The Lord!!!

The Newly Arrived Baby Jesus in our Family presepio (nativity scene)

  Merry Christmas  and A Happy New year!!

XOXOXO
C

Positive reinforcement from Halls..

My sister gave me a package of Halls honey-lemon cough drops to help me get through the dry cough my cold has left me with, and upon opening the package I was pleasantly surprised.

When I pulled out the first wrapped losenge, I read the following message.. "keep your chin up". That's right, my Halls was giving me some positive reinforcement. I thought this was the neatest idea ever so I took some pictures of the other wrappers I've encountered in this package for you.

Thanks Halls, for reminding me that I can overcome these physical obstacles that come with a cold :)

Definitely helped me feel better :D

Xoxo
C

P.s in case its not too clear, the first picture has the messages "you've survived tougher." And "you can do it and you know it". The second pic has the messages "march forward!" and "don't try harder. Do Harder!" . Cool right?

You know its almost Christmas because...

In our family, we know that we are nearing Christmas because the masses double, everyone gets sick and my mom remembers that we misplaced the "capanna" (manger) for our "presepio" (nativity scene) :D

We went to get our Albero di Natale (christmas tree) last week and it sat ourside for 6 days.. which is fine because trees belong outside, except as usual my dad decided to do the fresh cutting (means taking an inch off the end of the trunk so it'll drink water)on day two and then leave it outside 4 more days.. Which is exactly what he did last year and our tree barely have any pine needles left by Befana (January the 8th).

  Anyway we had to wait a week to put the tree in the stand because my parents were getting the carpet professionally cleaned.. but we managed to put the tree up on Saturday without much trouble- although my dad forgot to screw the grate onto the the trunk bottom for the stand... and like always, on Sunday we went to decorate it and we ended up having to pull the tree out of the stand and put the grate on because the tree started tipping forward.

By the end of Sunday we had the tree all decorated and lit up and my sisters and I, along with our new bro-in-law sat in front of it and enjoyed some tea and ginger snaps and christmas records- that's right records! It was really a nice way to end the evening..

We're working on the Presepio but my mom put its together so its going at her pace- pictures to follow!

Below are some pictures of our masterpiece tree- with all the old school mismatching ornaments we've had since before I was born :) and of course the lights that we put on every year after complaining we ought to change them.. enjoy!

Xoxo
C

December first and...

There's snow on the ground!!! The end of November brought the first snow fall to our little neck of the "true north strong and free" which has remained on the ground, covering bushes and benches and grass and walkways from one end of the city to the other.
Its astounding how a little bit a snow- we barely got half an inch- makes people forget how to drive and can cause accidents left, right, and centre. Oh Canada, how easily we forget  what this "broad domain"  looks like for 5 months of the year! Luckily, no one in my family had much trouble... although I believe my one of my brothers-in-law couldn't get out of a parkinglot on account of the slippery black ice and did in fact slide right back into the parkingspot from which he was trying to vacate.
Another interesting story I heard among my communication channels last night is about a dear friend of mine who left his place of work in Mississauga at 3:30pm and didn't get home until 10pm because traffic was bumper to bumper at less than 10 km/hr. And even though his unidirectional tires were on backwards, he made it safely- don't worry, he's a mechanic and knows what he's doing about tires, just didn't anticipate the snow...
Anyway, I think the city looks wonderful covered in white- even though I had to shovel it when I got home last night twice over because it was still snowing. The roads were rather icy thanks to the initial icy-rain that had fallen but the city sanded and salted valiantly so I have no accidents to report that I witnessed.
Figured you'd like to see what our first snow fall looks like. Enjoy! Comment and/or email :)
Xoxo
C