Christmas 2009 - A Memory by Pictures

Christmas Eve after the church service, we went to Caitlin and Brad's place to open stockings and have sweet goodies. This is Saibry in her Christmas dress and Corbin....well....trying to reach the tree.
Christmas morning with mom opening her personalized digital scrapbook all about her. (Dad commissioned me to make it).
Dad with Metroid Prime 3 for the Wii from me. He gets a game every year either as a Christmas gift or by purchasing one on Boxing Day from Rodgers video. He takes a year to finish every game too.

Brad with his stylin' new tie from me....do I have good taste or what?!

I gave Caitlin a black and white plaid hat and scarf and watch.

Corbin, being such a big boy at 5 months (20 lbs), is very strong....he's lifting this gift (from me) all on his own!

Then he had to mash his face into it after opening it. Mmmmm plastic.

Saibry after opening her large pillow cat. She just woke up from her nap. I hope she enjoys it!

Here is our dinner family picture just before delving into the yumminess of Christmas turkey dinner. (Corbin is missing as he was sleeping).

An action shot for the evening gift opening. (Mom, Alicia, Tenille, Dave, and Cassidy)

Another action shot of the other side of the room. (Caitlin, Saibry, dad, Brad, Corbin and mom). Why aren't I ever in the pictures??

I made this gift. Each 4x6" picture is a letter of the alphabet. I ordered the letters from alphabetphotography.com. Brad & Caitlin's word is "FAITH".

Dave & Tenille's word is "UNITE"....great picture to go with it!

Saibry and Alicia goofing around.

And finally me receiving my Sirius satallite radio!

What a great Christmas! I think this years' Christmas was the BEST I can remember. Everyone was in a good mood, the food was great, watching everyone open their gifts from each other was fun, and having 2 little chillens ("children") around made it even better.

Now only 360 days until Christmas 2010! (But we won't think about that now!!)

Secret Santa Gift Exchange at Work

At work we also had a secret Santa gift exchange that went over quite well. There were 22 participants; up 8 from last year!! I received Christmas socks and a pumpkin & cinnamon oil infuser with reeds. Smells yummy!
The other participants.
This is Dolores. She received a total of about 5 lbs of m&m's and jelly bellys!! All her faves.
This is Jeremy from Lab. He was instructed to gown up before opening his gift.

He received 3 specimens complete with requisitions ordered by Dr. Santa. He had a swab, a urine sample, and a Clostridium Difficile (C Diff) sample. If you don't know what that is, check out this link: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/id-mi/cdiff-eng.php It's quite gross really! (Sorry no pics available).

His real gift ended up being a bottle of beer from Yale, pretzels and a chocolate hockey advent calendar.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Decorating Contest at Work

Once again the hospital had a door/dept decorating contest. The pictures below show the enthusiasm of each dept. Check out the detail put forth!! This door belongs to the pharmacy dept (well sort of). I decorated it. I cut out all the snowflakes as well. Did you know there are patterns online for snowflakes?

This is my attempt at a panarama shot of the nurses' station.

This area belongs to the front office admin.

This door belongs to Medical Records. They won 2nd place.

The above 2 doors belong to the X-Ray Dept which turned into Santa's Workshop. This dept won first prize.

The above door belongs to Lab. It's a Charlie Brown Christmas.

And last but not least, this is Public Health.

Some of my Thinkings....

I'd say almost any female, at any age, has thought about what their wedding would look like, what dress they'd want to wear and who would be the groom.

Here's a link to my chosen dress, as of now:

http://www.kleinfeldbridal.com/index.cfm?pid=52&item_id=12107&rowid=5&page=1

It is from Kleinfeld in Manhattan, NY. I've recieved compliments from co-workers that this would suit me very well. Myself and some other girls were looking at the dresses at work, druing break of course. Do you have any thoughts?

Another thing I've been thinking about is what my next tattoo will look like. Where will it be on y body? I just became a fan of Kat Von D (tattoo artist in LA) on facebook. Her work is amazzzzzing!! Apparently she doesn't draw with colour much but rather black, grey and white. Take a look as this link....pay close attention to the water drop detail on the person's face. (Do you recognize the person?)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7919642&id=237437860453&fbid=237499365453

Now Corey Miller is also an amazing tattoo artist who works with Kat Von D. His work is also amazzzzzing!!

Check out his handiwork in this link. You'll be amazed but the picture is sad.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3619492&id=133715040020&fbid=138528535020

I had this random thought yesterday. This could be my all time trip of a lifetime. #1 - save up for a trip to LA and #2 save up for a custom tattoo done by either Kat or Corey. How about this....my youngest sister has voiced that she'd also like a tattoo one day....we could both go down there and have double tats done by either artist. Now that would be sick!!

I've had some thoughts on what my next one would be....either a portrait of my cat, Loomis, byt only done by a harsh portrait professional (Kat or Corey) and the other is a couple flowers and a vine to finish the honey bee one I have on my left ankle.

I'd love to hear comments from you about my thinkings. Feel free to share but please don't be too critical. :)

Christmas Baking

Well my Christmas baking doesn't consist of yummy sweet treats but instead consists of nuts n'bolts. I think I started making large batches of it in 2003, perhaps. Since then some family members request it at Christmas and I'm very happy to make it. Although this year, unfortunately, the corn snack "Bugles" are now discontinued. I put those into the batches last year for the first time and they were a huge hit! That snack has been around over 50 years and now it's gone....what is this world coming to?? They might as well discontinue Cheerios too!! (Who are "they" by the way??) Below is what 2 x double batches looks like! Not very much considering I'm giving a bunch to each sister and my parents and then the rest for Christmas day. I"ll have to make another double batch next week. Sure gets expensive though :( But belive you me, it's WORTH IT!!

Here's the recipe...

Nuts n'Bolts - Double recipe

1/2 c butter, melted

2 tbsp worchestershire sauce

1 tsp each: celery salt, garlic salt, onion salt, and paprika

4 cups of each: Cheerios, Chex/Crispex/Shreddies, pretzels

3 c peanuts

1/2 bag corn chips

1 1/2 c corn nuts (regular flavour)

Heat oven to 250F. Melt butter, blend with seasonings. Pour over rest of ingredients mixed in large oblong pan (roaster). Stir, bake one hour, stirring with wooden spoon every 15 min. Yummy!

Being Silly!

Brad, Saibry's dad, was being silly one night while at my parent's place. Him and Saibry were playing with the balls, throwing them around, and then he started putting the ball under his chin. Saibry, of course, copied him. Here's what I captured on camera....

She was telling me to smile while I had the camera pointing at her.
Here's daddy, the brains of this operation!