MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's Christmas tomorrow and Scout is off to the Farm to spend the holidays with Uncle Dirt. Marty and I are off to Vancouver to spend Christmas with his family (last year we got to spend it with mine and last year Aim and Shane got engaged on Christmas Day infront of us all! :) We'll be back here the 26th though, in order to pack for Mexico!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

BUSTED!!

Yesterday, Maria and I went to the mall (only maniacs go to the mall after Dec.20th.) We went to the Mac Makeup store. I was determined to get a professional show me how to apply beach wedding appropriate make up. Maria was there to take notes, draw diagrams and commit to memory the process as a guarantee of recreation when the big day arrives (8 more days!!!!)

We got to the mall early, before it got too busy and were lucky enough to get to Mac just before it got super busy. We got seated at the mirrors right away and a happy, beautiful girl with the plumpest lips, I have ever seen began schooling us on the most effective way to create an "I just wake up this beautiful," natural look. She used brushes to paint a masterpiece on my face, stopping only to answer my questions and to let Maria's drawing catch up.

I left the store a few hundred, yep that's right a FEW hundred dollars poorer (turns out looking naturally beautiful aint cheap,) but happy and confident with my look. Maria had some more shopping to do. She ducked into change rooms in nearly every store we passed but I couldn't just sit on the stools provided for supportive friends waiting for fashion shows. No, I had to park myself in front of the full length mirrors. I couldn't stop staring at the paint job on my face. I pulled my hair back, I pulled it on top of my head, I pulled half of it up, I tucked some behind my ears, I put ear rings in, I took them out, I tried every variation of "Jeanne's face" I could manage right there, in the very public mirrors. A new face was as good as a new hair cut, one you love so much you can't stop playing with it. I was having a grand old time, fussing with my "look" until a well dressed, perfectly coiffed sales man's voice broke my trance, "you just color your hair or something? Looks good." Ahhhh, I was busted. He totally caught me checking myself out...embaressing!!!!

SANTA CLAUSE

There really is a Santa Clause!

Last weekend, he stopped by to take Scout for a walk!

Sure, Santa looked a lot like Marty, or Marty looked a lot like him, but I knew it wasn't Marty sitting on my couch, because he asked for a beer instead of Bacardi!

Ho! Ho!

GREAT CANADIAN NORTH

It is cold here, really, really cold! Too cold to be frolicking in the dog park, but our condo and our sanity can only be stuck inside with a 16 month old boxer cross puppy for so long, before we all GOTTA GET OUT!!!!!

Today, the cold snap, showed no signs of letting up, so we decided we had to suck it up! Marty and I dug out our warm gear, mine included sweat pants under a giant pair of fleece lined jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, mitts and this awesome ski mask of Dad's that I had found in mom's basement. Marty wore his snow pants with nothing under them except his skivvies, is that even warm??? His winter coat, a ski mask and his tuque and mitts. Even Scout sported a hand me down jacket from Jasper.

We drove down to the dog park, knowing that if we walked down there as we normally do, we'd have been frozen by the time we got there. Scout hurdled herself out of the vehicle and bounced through the park looking for another semi frozen pup to play with. Amazingly there were a few other humans on the brink of loosing their minds who had brought their puppies out to burn off some energy. I gotta admit, it was us humans who got cold first and had to put an end to the play date. Freezing for those forty minutes was worth it though, as now i can type this without Scout shoving tug toys in my lap, for she is exhausted sleeping peacefully at my feet. Yay!!

DECORATING

In the staff room the other day, a bunch of us got to talking about decorating our homes for Christmas. Most of the ladies explained that their husband's jobs and interest, when it comes to decorating, stop at hauling boxes up from the basement. Some explained that they had 2 trees. A tree for the family, a gigantic one in the living room, decorated carefully and methodically with fancy white lights and special ornaments. Another, smaller Christmas tree would be set up in the rec room. This rec room tree is the one the kids were allowed to decorate. I sat quietly counting my blessings, for I grew up with a Mom who didn't feel the need to have two trees. A mom who proudly hung every ornament we ever made for her, on our family tree and still has most of them to this day! A mom who let us help decorate and never once worried about the tree looking Martha Stewart perfect! I also have a fiancee who may not admit to loving the decorating process, definately loves the egg nog and Bacardi that I insist we sip while decorating. One who loves his home made ornaments, the ones he created out of mini bottles of Bacardi and insists on hanging on the tiny tree he owned before I met him! One who hangs lights like Clark Grizzwald and one who burns Christmas CDs for me!

While I love the idea of the classy white lights, the perfectly decorated tree and a home decorated for the holidays with a common theme or color scheme, it's just not my style. I admire those homes for sure, it's just that I don't see the fun in all that "order" and thought. My decorating style is definately caotic and random. Our condo has been adorned with a mixture of country stars and balls, homemade stockings, white lights, colored lights, liquor bottles sporting red bows, red wooden beads, green garlands and snowmen with cowboy hats. Some might call it tacky, we call it festive the Wright Way!!! :)

Santa's little helper

POP TARTS

I have not thought much about pop tarts in my adult life, but today, it took a great deal of self talk to stop myself from snatching one out of the hands of a 4th grader! Just seeing that kid casually munching on his toasted strawberry snack, brought back several happy childhood memories.

Pop tarts were not just a sugary breakfast treat for us, pop tarts were an experience. We had a whole system, one we believed we invented, for eating and enjoying pop tarts. I shared this system with the grade 4's. They were not nearly as excited as I was about it. One girl did offer to bring me a "smore" pop tart tomorrow though. A smore pop tart? Ewww! The best part about the pop tart is the sweet jam and the icing on the top, who wants one that tastes like roasted marshmellows for breakfast???

We'd carefully tear the edges off all the way around the pop tart, this part was kind of like removing the crust off of a slice of bread.'/] Next we'd slide the bottom off the icing covered top. Sliding was essential, for if you were to get cocky and lift the bottom off, you'd only break it in a bunch of annoying pieces. Sliding the top off, all in one piece gave us the same satisfaction normal people get from removing the bottom of an oreo cookie all in one piece! We'd lick the jam off the top first before popping the entire icing covered pastry in our mouths, yummmm!!!