I demanded that we get a tree this year and so we did, quite late into Christmas too! It’s just a little one, no taller than I am and the poor guy’s a little bit flimsy and can’t hold up heavy ornaments, which means neither of us were able to hang all of our ornaments, but I’m not complaining! It was a dream come true really. All of the presents are neatly arranged under our Charlie Brown tree and Conor is persistent in his begging to open up “one” Christmas present. I always say no although sometimes I’ll toy with him first. Conor is the worst at waiting for his birthday or Christmas to come before he opens gifts. And it doesn’t help that our neighbors are opening one gift a day leading up to Christmas because they can’t fit all their gifts in their luggage (thanks a lot Mel and Ryan!). And so as grinch-like as this sounds, I will be grateful for Christmas Day because then the nagging will cease!! You know what I really dislike about Conor’s inability to just hang in there? I’m the one that got named the “peeker” in his family and FYI, I’ve never peeked. Not even once!

Here are a couple shots of our lowly Christmas tree and gifts. No ornaments in these ones!

Yesterday afternoon, Melanie and I made Christmas treats to last a lifetime! We made 2 types of bark, fudge, caramels, and dipped pretzels and melted rolos on pretzels. The first batch of caramels was a disaster. The bottom burned and the butter separated. Somehow the guys managed to salvage the pot (phew!). Our only casualty was my favourite 9×13 pan. Melanie surprised us all with her Kelly Ripa strength and got all of the caramel out of the pan. There was still a bit left on the bottom that I thought I would try my hand at removing and with my first try I shattered one of the corners of my pan. Arg! Will I ever be able to replace it? Anyways, everything turned out absolutely delicious and perfect and so Christmasy! We packaged it all into white blouse boxes with red cellophane and will be making deliveries this afternoon. Next Christmas, we’ll be old pros.

Busy Kitchen:

Failed caramels. It looks like there’s pepper sprinkled in it, but really that’s just the burned sugar. Mmmm!

Beautiful boxes:

My new best friend, Melanie, did a campaign for beauty on her blog, you are my fave. I finally participated and was featured today! Head on over to find out what I love about me.

As a side note (and this is not revealing all), Conor says it’s funny that I said I love my boyish figure because, “when did you ever have a boyish figure?” Thanks Conor, for finding my figure beautiful in every womanly way. Aren’t I good at putting words into his mouth?

——-

I had a really intense dream last night. Conor and I were in Germany and there was probably a couple of inches of snow on the ground. For whatever reason we were being evacuated and could only bring a backpack of things we owned. Spare clothing took up the most of the pack (a change of clothes and undies) and then I had to decide what to fill the rest of the space with. I decided on my laptop and our external hard drive of all our photos and I think I brought a journal. I slung our camera bag and video camera bag over my shoulder. And then I realized that I couldn’t bring my big box of journals which document the last seven years of my life almost daily. There were all these things I had to leave behind not knowing if I could get them back, the most important to me being my journals. Do I take a couple of my most recent books or the ones that tell of Conor and my dating experience and early marriage? In the end, the box wasn’t accessible in the amount of time we had because it’s underneath our bed in the middle and our bed needs to be taken apart a bit to get at ‘em (true story).

When I woke in the middle of the night for my usual bathroom break, I thought about what I would take with me in such a case. My pearl necklace, wedding ring, watch… And found myself only saddened by the thought of leaving behind all my worldly possessions although to me, my journals aren’t quite worldly. My journals are so much more, a big part of me on pages and in words.

What would you take with you in case of emergency? What’s most valuable to you?

Oh, and I’m definitely doing 72-hour packs in the new year!

I think the whole country froze this weekend from South Dakota to Seattle. And of course Denver was on that list. Last night we were a whopping -26C or -15F, only 3 degrees celsius warmer than Calgary. And the best part is that the fourth floor (on which we live) doesn’t really pump heat at all when it gets cold. And so our apartment is at 50F (10C). Our thermostat thermometer is at the bottom of the pile, so who knows, it could be colder! We’re only at -23C so far this morning. I don’t remember it being this cold last year!! Oh and I guess we have frozen pipes too because some people on the fourth floor went away for the weekend and left their heat off. So far I’ve had running water, but it may come to an end shortly. Hopefully the maintenance guy brings us a space heater asap. Conor went and bought those one log fires this morning, but that’s giving off a piddley amount of heat. He’s going to pick up some real firewood and we’re going to put our fireplace to work! I can see myself sitting on the couch with a blanket reading all day long. For the moment, though I’m thinking about mitts and wishing I had some Granny’s Tea!