I haven't been online in so long. But I want to wish everyone a late Merry Christmas. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and got the gifts they wanted.

We had a pretty nice day. No major fights. Although I did make Lachlan cry after dinner. But one can only listen to annoying sounds before they snap. Plus he's overly sensitive. The other night he was crying because he hates being the youngest. To be fair, I wasn't the only one who was irritated during Christmas dinner, I was just the one who snapped first. Aside from that the day was pretty good. I had my usual overly large helpings of Christmas potatoes and I got called a pig, as per usual. Oh, how I love my family.

As previously mentioned, because of my absolute faith in Santa Claus, he brought me Twilight. I was very excited about this until my mom opened her first gift from my dad. He bought her the entire saga in hardback. The entire saga in hardback! Not even kidding. She said the laughter she got out of the look on my face was better than the actual present. I think that was probably what my dad was going for.

I also got tickets to see Brad Paisley. Although this was because my mom had suggested to my dad that he get tickets to see the Manitoba Moose for my brothers as part of their stocking present (my dad also got one). My dad's company is a part owner of the arena, so they get advanced notice and purchasing of tickets. My dad being my dad, forgot to buy the tickets and my mom thought that was the end of it, so she didn't think she needed to get me anything else for my stocking. Then, on Christmas Eve, after we've all gone to bed, my dad puts on his coat to go out to the car. My mom wants to know where he's going, and he says he's going out to the car to get the hockey tickets. So then my mom's really upset because my stocking is going to be short a present, she's not worried about herself, just my stocking. So my dad has to get on the computer and find something for my stocking. He gets the Brad Paisley tickets, but they ended up costing way more than the Moose tickets, which my mom just said served him right. The best part is that my brother, Colin, who loves hockey, would rather go to see Brad Paisley and now he's all jealous. The bad part is that the concert is on a Tuesday in February, and I've always said that nothing gets in the way of me and my Tony DiNozzo, but I'll just have to watch it on Wednesday. Apparently, Mr. Brad Paisley can get in the way of me and my Tony.

I also got a huge package of cardstock (300 printed sheets - it's super heavy), two scarves, long underwear, a Russell Peters DVD, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Twilight soundtrack, Knots Landing Season 1, an iTunes giftcard (with which I purchased two Keane albums and the new David Cook album), a bookmark, a pair of jeans, a sweater, a portable DVD player, $75 Christmas money from my grandparents, a $30 gift certificate to Cleo (for my work wardrobe), and the customary food stuff from my stocking (Christmas orange, chocolate letter, licorice, marzipan and wafer cookies).

Then yesterday, against my extreme protests, I went to Reitmans with my mom. And I made out like a bandit. I got a pair of dress pants, two dress skirts, two long sleeved t-shirts, a sweater and a pair of jeans. I got it all for under $150. I love Boxing Day sales. Plus the store wasn't even that crowded, which is good, because usually I don't get to take advantage of the sales because of my slight tendency toward claustrophobia.

Also, I got the job. I officially start Monday. I'm really happy. I'm super busy and stressed, but the good kind of stressed. It's good.

This week's thefridayfive:

1. Do you like the look of your country's currency (bills and coins)? Well, I think our money looks like it belongs in Monopoly. Seriously, when they found all that Canadian money on CSI: NY all I could see was how colourful it was. I guess that's sort of European, better than plain green American money.
2. Regardless of their actual value, do you like bills or coins better? Bills because I'm less likely to spend it and it's not as heavy.
3. What is your favorite foreign currency? And why? Euros because if I have them it means I'm in Europe and I love it there.
4. Do you collect coins or bills? Elaborate. Coins because they're easy to squirrel away for a rainy day.
5. Do you think human society could make do completely without money? Explain. I don't think we can. We're just not that evolved. It's basically communism and it's great in theory, but it doesn't work out.

I went to see Twilight again last night. Still just as awesome. Now I have to find someone who will go with me again. I just can't get enough of it. I was telling my mom about how I want the books for Christmas and she told me that she couldn't find them online. But that's okay. I mean, I have complete faith in Santa. The year that I really, really wanted one of those ( Cupcake Dolls )
Mom told me that Santa might not be able to bring it for me. But on Christmas morning there was one waiting for me. And the next year when all I wanted was an atlas, Santa brought that for me too. So I have complete faith in Santa. I told my mom all of this and she said that she thought Santa probably already had my books. To which I replied, of course he does, Santa has everything at his workshop. Silly Mommmy!

Still unemployed (again!), but I have some leads which is good.

I'm walking over to The UPS Store to do some photocopying this afternoon. I really have to start working on my Christmas cards. So if you would like a Christmas card, let me know and I'll add you to my list.

( Dancing with the Stars )

Tonight is going to be the buttcrack of television. I'm not watching the election results for hours this evening. It was bad enough when it was my own country. It's not like watching is going to change the results. When I find out in the morning, the results will be the same. I guess it's The West Wing for me this evening.

Mum and I walked over to Walmart today. It was like 18 degrees, on the third of November, how insane is that? Everyone laughed at us for moving to Winterpeg, but who's laughing now? London got a dump of snow last week, as did Edmonton. I wore bare feet in my crocs, it was awesome.

Anyway, we walked to Walmart today, and got the rest of our Christmas stuff for overseas. The only thing we need now is the new Great Big Sea CD and we're set.

It appears that people are starting to post their Christmas wishlists, so I thought I'd do the same. If you have a Christmas wishlist posted that I missed, please let me know.

( The Rules )

( The List )

I'm putting out another call for anybody who wants a Christmas card. Let me know and I'll add you to my list.

On a non-Christmas related note, I left a temporary placement with Capital Health yesterday. It was terrible. My commute was three hours, the office was in the basement and was so cold it was almost like being outside, they were completely disorganized, and I only got a half hour for lunch, which my boss usually talked through. Glad to be gone, however I am now unemployed for the next little while. That sucks. But I just got NCIS: Season 4 and CSI: NY: Season 3 on DVD, so that should last me a while.

Our house still hasn't sold. We had an open house two weeks ago, and a few people came in, but still nothing. My dad left for Winnipeg two weeks ago. Not that I spent a lot of time with my dad, but I miss him. And the ride to work in the morning. I really missed him last week when I got up at the crack of dawn to take my brother to curling on the bus, and then got to the club and found out that there was no curling. I did stop at Lush on the way home, and dropped a fair chunk of change on bath stuff. Of course, his car got broken into this week, and his GPS was stolen. It's been really hard on my mom. She hates being by herself. One of my brothers is an absolute ass most of the time, usually to her, and she doesn't have my dad to back her up. Not that he usually does that by himself, but she can tell him what a pain Colin's being, and then he'll deal with it.

I think I'm getting a new mattress this weekend. Which I desperately need. Mine is terrible. I've had it for several years, and it was our spare before that. I think we got it around the same time I got my original mattress. When I was 6. For clarification, I'm now 23. Pretty sure that my parents should have replaced it long before now. There goes another chunk of change. Must find new temporary placement ASAP.

So, it's only taken me four days of nabbing computer time whenever I could, but I have finally caught up on my friends page. My life since last Thursday has been pretty hectic, and it seemed like every time I sat down at the computer, someone (usually brothers) would need the computer. I, personally, think that IMing your girlfriend is not a vital activity. Especially since he's sort of grounded. Ugh!

I met up with a couple of friends from high school on Thursday. I was sort of dreading it and sort of looking forward to it. I had a major blow out with my friend, Julie, in September and we haven't talked since. So, I was definitely dreading seeing her. We used to talk to each other at least twice a week. I was so upset when we had our fight. I cried and I was upset for weeks, but this time I wasn't calling her. She's super opinionated and very tempermental. She has what I would consider a superiority complex. She graduated in April with a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on East Asian History and felt that should qualify her for better paying jobs. I've been working my ass off for two years (since graduation) and she figured that she should be getting better jobs and getting payed what I get payed. All she ever does is complain about her receptionist job, and she seems to think that because her job is boring that all administrative jobs are boring. Let me tell you, so not the case. Before we had our major fight, she'd been really condescending, but I was willing to let it slide because her dad had just committed suicide, and she was, in effect, being evicted. Her mom and step-dad were moving to Victoria. They bought her a condo, so she wasn't being hung out to dry. But when she called me dehumanizing, I'd had enough. She may think that I'm a dehumanizing, uneducated fool, but my other friends don't. So I just didn't call her. And on Thursday, it was nice to see her and catch up, but I realized that my life is way less stressful without her. I think she's going to be a once a year type friend.

I was, however, super excited to see my friend Carol. I've known Carol since the 6th grade, but we really became friends in high school. She's studying for her Masters in Entymology at McGill. It was really good to see her. She's so off the beaten path and she's just so accepting of everything. And we always have the best time when we go to her place. Her mom's a storyteller and dinner conversation is always really interesting. This time we talked about the different types of intelligence. It was so much fun.

We exchanged gifts. I gave Carol Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and I gave Julie a Buffy Bobblehead. I received the new Tamora Pierce book from Julie and a pomello, Christmas light earrings, and I Capture The Castle from Carol. The funny thing was that Carol had given me the same book two years ago for Christmas. We got a good laugh out of that.

I had a horrible day on Friday. For the past two years, I've been working for the same company. They have a horrible problem with keeping staff. Especially in the Administrative area. My former boss (she quit, smart lady) and I pretty much ran the office. When Lori quit, I had to step up and do things that a lot of people two years out of college would not be doing. My thanks? They hired an Executive Assistant and basically demoted me. Fun times. To top it all off, the EA is a complete bitch. She bosses me around. Two summers ago, my friend Michelle (who was working there at the time) and I created a brand new filing system. It took us months to put together and no one wanted to provide any sort of input. The new EA gave me a half hour lecture on why the filing system is inadequate and that most staff members were in agreement. I almost cried. I managed to hold it together until I left the office (early, thank goodness). I did, however, provide several patrons of the Edmonton Transit Service with my opinions (I was on my cell phone with my mom). The one, bright, shining moment in my day was that one of the temp agencies that I had contacted called me. I did speak with her today. I just did the online testing and I have an interview on Tuesday morning.

Saturday was a cleaning and wrapping presents day. Sunday morning we went to church and then I took a nap, peeled potatoes, and then we watched Christmas music videos on CMT. We opened our Christmas Eve presents (pyjamas! Shocker!) and went to bed.

Christmas was pretty lazy. We didn't even get out of bed until 11:30. We opened our stockings (Amy Grant CD, body butter, gloves, blue cable knit sweater, underwear, candy, a chocolate letter, and a Christmas orange). Our family gift from Santa was the Deal or No Deal DVD game. Then we lazed around for several more hours while we started on dinner and did our Christmas phone calls. We talked to my Opa at the rehab centre. He's really grumpy and negative. He's not even trying to get better. We had talked to Oma the night before. We opened our gifts from Holland (chocolate letter, craft knife and a 3D card book, with a single sheet from Marco at the market, for me and licorice, gouda cheese, kruidnoten, rum nut bar, and cookies for the family). Then we were on the phone with my Aunt Tiny, and then we spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with Harm & Lenie. I didn't get to talk to Tom, but I'll talk to him later. I told Lenie that I really want to work in Holland, and she said that if I come this summer (to live, but I think the invitation would still stand if I visited) I can go with them to Lyon, France. I really, really want to go back now. I miss them and Holland so much. And somewhere in there we talked to Grandma & Grandpa for a while.

When all of that talking was done, we moved on to presents. I got $75 from Grandma & Grandpa. Lachlan gave me socks and a Diddl pen (yay! I love Diddl). My mom bought the pen when we were in Holland last year and forgot about it. Colin gave me The Devil Wears Prada DVD. Before we opened presents, I had been sitting in the living room reading the book, so he was pleased. Graeme gave me the Angel Season 5 Angel action figure. I already have it, so I'm going to exchange it when I go to West Ed with my mom and cousin tomorrow. And, of course, I save the best for last. My parents gave me Keen Eddie: The Complete Series DVD set, a VCR (so I can watch all the stuff I tape on other VCRs in my bedroom), and a leather jacket. The leather jacket is so pretty and it smells really good.

The best gift I got, though, was not an actual gift. My brother, Graeme, is completely immature. He took a year off (which has now extended to two years, with no end in sight) to earn money. He promptly spent it all on comic books and DVDs. He's addicted to comic books like an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol. It's really sad. Anyway, my mom asks him what he's going to spend his Christmas money on and he starts talking about this Batman Lego set that he's going to buy. The day goes on and I don't think about it again until Lachlan, my 9 year old brother, is opening one of his gifts. I'm looking the gift he's unwrapping and as the paper is coming off, I think I see the Joker. So, I say as much, and as he tears more paper off I realize, yes! It is in fact the Joker. Mom & Dad got Lachlan the gift that Graeme wanted. I, meanwhile, have just about fallen of the couch laughing. There were tears streaming down my face, and my stomach hurt so badly. It was the best gift EVER!

We finished our day out by watching 1 vs. 100 on TV. We're big game show people.

Boxing Day was so lazy. I didn't get out of my pj's until 3:00. And I didn't leave the house. We braved the mall on Wednesday, where, all in all, it wasn't two crowded. I got some make-up remover and lip gloss. My mom got a $540 London Fog coat for $230. She put her Christmas money toward that. I almost had a freak out at the Disney Store. They're usually so well stocked after Christmas. I really wanted one of those stuffed animals done in the icy white colour, but they didn't have any. The stock was really limited. I picked out a purple Tinkerbell mug and a Tinkerbell sweatshirt that says Enchanted State. My brother got a couple of things. We then stood in line forever. They had three staff members working: two folding shirts and one on the till, where they were doing both refunds and exchanges. Then one of the girls folding shirts comes over to the till. She helps one customer while talking on the phone to the manager, who was in the back. Then, right when it's my turn, she leaves to tell a staff person who had come in and wasn't supposed to, the plan for the afternoon. Asking him when he wants his break, and other stupid things. Deal with the huge line, then talk with employees. Duh! She then goes back to folding shirts, and I still haven't been helped. By this point, my mom and I are loudly bitching about the situation. She finally comes back and helps me, and I ask for the name of the manager so I can complain and I find out that she's the assistant manager. My mom had to hold me back. I was ready to punch her out.

We went out to a party that night. The house was huge. And every house in the neighbourhood was huge. The smallest house out there was worth $750,000. I wish. My friend Bev and I went over to our friend Karen's house yesterday afternoon. And this afternoon I finally caught up on my friends page. Which brings me to now. If anyone read all of that, I will be extremely impressed.

I've read a ton of memes over the last little while, so I'm going to do a mass post when I finish with this one.

I'm in the midst of peeling potatoes for Christmas dinner tomorrow, but I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Or in the case of my O.C. friends a Happy Chrismukkah.

I hope everyone has an awesome holiday!