With the tree still in its box
and the angel candle holder frowning down
upon the non-Christmas-y apartment
and amanda still in her nightgown.

No Christmas lights are lit
No Christmas music is playing
Just the screeching and caterwauling
Of another load of laundry washing

Ross is out shopping
for dinner and goodies and treats
While Amanda is blogging,
Puttering and cleaning

Ever have one of those moments where you just want to do something like this to someone? I wonder if Ross thinks of things like this when he's leaving for the gym and I'm still in bed...

Knitty's much anticipated Winter 2003 stuff is online!!! Yay!! I love Kyoto and the Sound System Snugglers and I want to make Coronet, although I think wearing hats is a dying "art" (for lack of a better word). Most people hate wearing hats.

Did I mention that Ross has been off work for a while using up his vacation? I'm sitting in a room with stuff sorted into piles. The shelves look great. The floor and the guest bed are holding all the piles. I've been unbloggable for a while - cleaning or working or Ross is on the computer. Next week, back into the swing of reality!

Mom, Buzz and Craig come tomorrow for Christmas number 3! I have tomorrow and Friday off! WHOOPEE! The family unit should be here between 1 and 2. More gift wrapping, more cleaning.... just what I needed..... no, really I didn't. Do you know how hard it is to clean/tidy when you can't lift? I'm not supposed to use the vacuum either. Laundry...washing floors (can't lift a bucket). Can't take the recycling down. Can't make my bed (requires lifting the mattress). Can't help carry groceries. Can't put the KitchenAid away. Can't lift some of the presents to wrap them. It's completely frustrating. Just when I felt like I was nearly back to normal, I reinjured myself a week and a half ago. When they say no lifting - they mean NO lifting!

We never did put up the tree. It never made it upstairs until the 23rd. We had family stuff to do on Christmas Eve so I never had time to get it out of the box. Sad when things are more important than our symbol of Christmas. Did I lose my spirit somehow along the way? Christmas has become cleaning and shopping and wrapping. I didn't have time to sit and think about my tree until tonight. Ross asked me when I got home, "Are you putting the tree up?" Somehow, me decorating a tree on my own isn't as endearing as it was the first couple of years. When I was little, it was always mom and I decorating the tree together. There was Christmas music and eggnog... Buzz would sort out the lights and be our tester. The lights are always supposed to be the man's job. It was a whole day affair. Then we'd have a nice dinner with the lights lit up. Decorating was always something we did together. Although I was spoiled every year, I remember the stuff we did together the most. Those are my cherished Christmas memories. I do remember, however, Buzz spending all of Christmas day assembling all of my gifts! Including my pink sewing machine that I got when I was about 9 or 10! LOL

This year Ross framed some of his pictures for people. They were all received very well. He even sent a bunch to the Lake to his family there. He baked cookies (and I'm sure there will be stories to be told for years to come about those cookies), shopped and we even entertained this year. I hope that next Christmas we'll be in a house. Nothing will stop me from putting up a tree then! and lights!

For us, this is Christmas Eve again. Merry Ho-Ho everyone. And Happy New Year!
Lots of love xo

Imagine my surprise when I opened Elizabeth, Figurine of the Year for 2003 from Royal Doulton. Ross bought her for me. I cried my eyes out! I made my mother-in-law cry too! She even has a lovely wooden plaque to stand on with a brass plate that says Royal Doulton.

What else did Her get?
toolbox
scrapbook and little scrapbooking goodies
whiffer slippers (they smell like strawberries)
gift basket with a chinese tea set and green tea and cookies
Lost by Gregory Maguire
2 J.R. Tolkien books
ROOTS jammies from hubby (and they match my slippers)
clay chiminea. Ours is top, middle - with grapes.
candles
ABBA DVD with all 30 of their music videos
Nelly Furtado's new CD
3 new sweaters
Body Shop goodies

ok, you get the picture. I'm spoiled! Ross has two new outfits from the GAP, from his lovely wife. He looks very.... gappy...hip....

You've seen posts where I've mentioned my friend Del who lives in my building and is 87. A week ago this past Saturday, Del passed away. I'm very sad and will miss all of her cheerful emails and jokes. She was always so happy to see me and we've had some lovely visits with tea and cookies in her apt. She was a real sweetie. She gave me all of her crafty books and magazines and hand-written patterns about 2 years ago. I'd love to spend a whole day pouring through them and reading the things that she wrote.

Farewell, friend.

"No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness."

~ Hermann Broch ~

Um, stuff... if I post any of it, you'll all know what you're getting, duh! Except for Jamie, her gift is done. But we're both busy working on stuff :) I can't wait to post it all when it's all over. We're having fun doing all of this. I hope you all enjoy the gifts as much as we have enjoyed gathering and putting them all together.... (is that vague enough? Does that give anything away?)
Blogging is extremely difficult right now!

Yesterday, my loving husband told me that he doesn't like my hair. He says that while this style looks good on other people, it does not look good on me. Mental note: Shave head.

I was going through some old recipes to send to Amber for her family cookbook she's working on. She's compiling all of our favourite recipes and we're each getting a cookbook.

This recipe is from Kim's Cookbook for Young People. I've never made this one, but I know that the recipes in here are really yummy, so it's sure to be a winner!

Eggnog

Beat until stiff but not dry 1 egg white.
In another bowl, beat 1 egg yolk.
To this - add 1 tblsp sugar and 1 cup milk.
Beat until well blended.
Add 1/4 tsp vanilla.
Fold in beaten egg whites. Sprinkle nutmeg on top. (Fresh, grated nutmeg would taste better)
Makes one serving.

Do you love the show Trading Spaces? Well this is Frank & Judy Bielec!! They've got clipart, free cross stitch patterns and well, it's Frank! Go for a visit. He has posted some of his Trading Spaces projects too :) I love it!

Just for Christmas, of course! Love this one. Funky Santa and His Pals Two Hearts Design (very, very cute) Awesome Clipart for Kids

The Christmas cards are done.
It's colder today.
My "Out of the Cold Sock Gifts" are ready to go.
Tomorrow we have staff Christmas party number 4 (and I missed the one out at the bar tonight)
And what the heck, I started another project today. LOL

My living room looks fabulous by the way. Ross repainted the coffee table and the two end tables in the living room, dusted and rearranged the knick knacks in a more pleasing way. "This old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb... with a knick knack paddy whack, give a dog a bone.... this old man came rolling home..." Sorry, had to. I know you're singing it now.

I have to get Amber some of my favourite recipes. She's compiling a McAlear/Godfrey/Rader/Lewis family cookbook. (only a family member would get a chuckle out of that I guess). I've decided to include a recipe I used to make a lot when I was living at home with my mom. From Kim's Cookbook, a cookbook for the budding chefs (kids). Notice how it didn't really stick with me! I already gave her my great Auntie Louie's home baked macaroni and cheese recipe. Mmmm. Mega comfort food there!

Ah well. I have some "chores" assigned to me by Ross! I better get at them!

Right now, I'm at work, sitting in the PT/OT Staff Office. It's snowing outside. All the lights were left on, but there is only me. All of the staff are usually out of here by about 4 pm and the stragglers are out of here by 5 pm. Ok, I turned off some lights. I'm listening to the screechy, kinda vacuum cleaner sounding noise which I think is coming from the radiator. Ross is picking me up tonight and we are heading out to Pontypool to spend a little more time with his grandparents. We're staying overnight and will take them to Union Station in the morning. They take VIA Rail home to Winnipeg and the trip is 30 hours. I can't imagine sitting on a train for 30 hours.

Have you sat down and really thought about how close Christmas is? It's one week today. I'm in complete and utter shock. Or am I dismayed? Here are some reasons why it cannot possibly be Christmas.

1) It's not cold enough.
2) My tree is not up from the basement.
3) I still have my "everyday" floral arrangement on my door. No Christmas wreath yet.
4) I have way too many projects on the go.
5) Realistically, I'll only get maybe 2 more done. I should quit while I'm ahead or I'll make myself nuts!
6) Who the hell has time to bake?
7) Everyone needs to take the week off prior to Christmas to have enough time for all of those last minute details. Remember how great it was when we were in school? We had 2 weeks off. Plenty of time for play, crafts and visiting.
8) I need more snow to get into the Christmas spirit.
9) We have not bought any eggnog yet this year. It's never officially the holidays until you've had some rye and eggnog.
10) I haven't even figured out what I really want for Christmas.
11) We haven't decided who we are visiting this year for Christmas.
12) I have not even brought out my real winter coat yet.
13) I haven't mailed out the Christmas cards yet! Zoinks!

Are these enough? Need I go on? You get the idea. I'm just not ready!!

amanda
A functional programming language derived mostly
from Miranda with some small changes. Amanda was written by
Dick Bruin and implemented on MS-DOS and NeXT. It is
available as an interperator only.

(the funny part is that when I was little, I hated the name Amanda. I swore that when I turned 18, I would legally change my name to Miranda!)

amanda, OH (village, FIPS 1630)
Location: 39.65038 N, 82.74326 W
Population (1990): 729 (284 housing units)
Area: 0.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 43102

AMANDA f English
Pronounced: a-MAN-da
This name was created in the 17th century by the playwright Colley Cibber. He based it on Latin amanda meaning "lovable".

Saturday, we headed out to the in-laws to have a visit with Grandma and Grandpa who are visiting us this week from Manitoba. We're having a nice visit, Allyson and Len arrive and Allyson and I played "Show And Tell" with our knitting and crochet projects. Facing the front window in the living room from where I was hunkered down on the couch, I happened to look outside and to my utter and complete shock, my Grandma is walking towards the door and with my dad. Still not cluing in, I asked what my grandma was doing walking up the walkway to the house! Turns out my sneaky MIL decided to throw me a surprise Graduation party. What a surprise that was! You know, she always gets me. She always has me sucked right in! I got some lovely presents:

"For You" Royal Doulton figurine. This figurine has a gold plate on the bottom that reads "Amanda Rader OTA/PTA 2003" and this was from Dad, Marian and Grandma

My father-in-law is framing my diploma for me and hand-crafting the frame.

Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Neil and Auntie Tannys gave me a photo frame/album. It has a stand and can sit on a coffee or end table.


Allyson and Len gave me a Willow Tree angel - Angel of the Heart (funny, I wanted one of those!) The card enclosed reads: "For Those Who Love and are Loved"

Kathryn got me a yummy cake from the bakery in Orono. It was the same cake as Allyson's, but mine had pink flowers instead of purple! It had the cutest grad hat and diploma on it. Now Allyson and I both have our own! On our way out on Sunday, Kathryn said to me, "I love you" and I said, "I can see that. You're pretty obvious about that!" Thanks, Mom!

I love my RCA LYRA. I don't use it as much as I could/should. Today when a high school girl was relating a story to her friend on the bus in her high-pitched-like-oh-my-God voice (and then she goes....and he goes...) and THEN, I like TOTALLY wanted to smack her! Like, Oh MY GOD! No way! So I like totally realized that I should totally have my freaking MP3 player with me at all times on like the bus.. so I don't like, have to like, listen to that EVER AGAIN!

Now why will my computer allow me to easily empty the contents of my LYRA, and yet I can't move music over to it? HRmmmmmmmmmm?? And yet it shows that all the songs are on the LYRA? ACK! I'm so like, totally confused and sad right now....

You know those people that just stand right out from the rest of the crowd?

I walked past three young people, looking younger than my baby sisters (who are both 21) sporting grown-up suits adorned with badges that read: Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ

I'd be interested to see the rest of the church, if these teens are Elders...

Tonight as I sat in a non-heated circular kiss-n-ride thingy at Kipling station, Preston Manning appeared walking up the steps. He looked dapper in his business suit, complete with briefcase and a great big smile. He was with someone (another male dressed similarly) and they got picked up. Can you imagine - I was the only one who noticed?!

I'm curious to hear about what other people are doing this Christmas for charity. I'm still working on my Out of the Cold sock gifts and want to get a toy for the CHUM City Christmas Wish Toy Drive.

My sister Amber told me that her fiance's gramma knits 50 pairs of mittens and 50 hats every year for the Salvation Army. What a Saint! Can you imagine knitting that much? That would take me years!

Some people adopt a family for Christmas which I think is a lovely idea.

I'd love to hear what other people are doing this year for those less fortunate and in need or for your favourite charitable organization.

Is it just me, or does this cat look embarassed?