02-03/12/17 Christmas Spirits and Other Sorts

I had made sure that Blake and I didn't make any plans for this past weekend because I wanted to do Christmas things. We had already brought up our "Charlie Brown" tree, which we left decorated from the year before so that was done. I just wanted to put up the Christmas lights and hang our wreath ... maybe bake some cookies and watch some Christmas movies too. Long story short, that didn't happen.

Friday was the first day of a big change for me at work. I had been training for 3 days and was now on my own in the Breast Assessment Centre at work. The Breast Assessment Centre is for women that have had a mammogram and the doctor has asked that they be followed up with special imaging to characterize what they are seeing on the mammogram. As well, it is for young women ... and men ... who have felt changes in their breasts and want to get it assessed; they come to us. Overall, the day went well. Then, Blake arrived Friday evening at about 7:00 p.m. Since he's been promoted to permanent full-time down in Toronto at Brookfield, he is required to go into work an hour earlier, which means that he can get back to me an hour earlier. The downfall is that he used to be able to take the 5:00 a.m. GO bus from Peterborough Monday mornings, but he can't anymore because it gets him to work a mere 15 minutes late. Total bummer. Anyways, Mollie and I had been out and about so we went to pick him up. Across from the bus station, there is this burrito place called Dante's Burritos; it seems like a sketchy place, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'm not usually a burrito kind of gal, but I know Blake loves them, so I figured that I was going to try it ... and it was delicious. I got a regular beef burrito for about 9$ and it was more than enough. I will definitely be going back, I've been craving burritos ever since, and recommend it to everyone.

Earlier this season, I had done a whole bunch of my Christmas shopping online (thank you Amazon) and I had already received one of my gifts that Thursday night. I opened that package and it was exactly what I had ordered, but not at all what I had wanted. I had forgotten to read part of the description, so I was upset because this gift would have been perfect if it had been right. Thankfully, Amazon has a great return policy, so I am able to return it, but it was still disappointing.

On Friday, we went to check the mail again because I had received an email that another one of my gifts had been delivered. So, if your package is too large for the mail slot, then they give you a separate key to open one of the large parcel boxes ... and the parcel box was empty. Nothing inside. Nada. My first order was not what I wanted and now my second one is somewhere lost in this world. We were thinking that they had probably just given us the wrong key because there are 4 separate parcel boxes, but there was no way for us to find out.

I didn't sleep well that night. I'm in charge of all of Blake and I's Christmas shopping and nothing seemed to be going well. On top of that, the house seemed to always get messy the day before Blake arrived, even though I had spent all week keeping it clean. There were more things on my mind too, just daily stresses and such that probably contributed to what happened next. I woke up early that Saturday morning and it wasn't long before I had a full blown meltdown. Like an ugly sobbing mess of a meltdown. Luckily Blake was there to calm me down and he is always so good at doing that. He immediately called Canada Post and put in a service ticket, then begun cleaning the house and doing the laundry. I helped, but I was slow. (Side Note: As I'm writing this, Canada Post came to my door and delivered all of the things that I had ordered and apologized for the mix-up ... so shout-out to Canada Post! Yay! ... I may have overreacted to the whole situation)

We eventually got to a state of happiness and relaxation. We had made plans to visit Lang Pioneer Village in

Keene for their Christmas by Candlelight event. We had gone last year and had the best time, so we wanted to make it a tradition. I had been looking forward to it for the past few months and was looking forward to watching the live nativity scene performed. On our way there, Mollie called us and said that her family dog had been missing, so we searched for him on our way there (he was found). Once we got to Lang, we took our annual historical Christmas photo (looking back, I think I wore the same outfit as last year) and then set out to explore the grounds. The line up for the horse drawn wagon rides was very long, so we opted to come back to it. Everything was in comparison to last year ... we had a delicious fruit cake last year, this year was gingerbread cookies ... I don't like gingerbread cookies. No one let us in to watch the bells and chimes performances. As well, the Christmas sing along with Sheesham and Lotus & 'Son (which by the way is a great folk group you should check out) didn't have as many chairs as last year, so it felt empty and thus, no one really sang. I was extremely bummed about that because that was my favourite part of last year. Then, I saw that there was nothing set up for the nativity scene and looked at the program to see that it was only performed on the Sunday night. Also, when we got back around, the line up for the wagon was even longer so we didn't end up going at all. The one better thing was that we watched a reading of Twas the Night in the South Lake School at Lang and the adult performer was way better than the one last year (last year I was the adult performer). So, we left early. I was so disappointed, but at least we know for next year to plan to go on the Sunday ahead of time. I would still recommend going because, especially if their is snow on the ground, it feels very Christmas-y and will get you into the Christmas spirit, but plan to go on the Sunday as it will be busier, but the spirit will be more alive!

That night, we had planned to dog-sit/baby-sit a doctor from work's house with Mollie. His house was hard to find in the dark when we had no idea where we were going, but we eventually found it. When we arrived, a spread of wine and treats were laid out on the table for us, it was so cute! The house is mostly in renovation mode, so it's huge, but empty. When Mollie returned from finding her dog, we went and explored every corner. Although it is a very beautiful home ... a great horror movie could also be filmed in it. The basement was creepy. It had a big open room with a single office chair and a small child's chair sitting in the middle with nothing else around it. *Shivers* You had to have seen it to get how creepy it was. We mostly stayed in the kitchen and dining room (because that's all that's furnished) and just those two rooms alone are larger than my whole apartment. We had a good time cuddling with the dogs, using the hot tub and watching movies. The three of us + the two dogs shared a queen sized mattress, so none of us slept very well, but we managed.

(Note: We're pointing at a tiny dog, she liked to bury herself in the blanket to sleep. Also, I'm wearing pajama shorts so I am in fact wearing pants)

We left early the next morning and it was eerily foggy ... adding to the horror movie effects. Poor Mollie had to work, but Blake and I got to go home and sleep. We awoke at 11 ish and I made us a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast. We sat in bed for most of the day and had a lazy day and then Blake left. It was quite the busy weekend with a roller-coaster of emotions and we didn't end up doing really any of the Christmas-y things that I wanted to do, but it was still fun and we got to make some memories. Next weekend we are going Christmas tree shopping with Blake's family so hopefully that will get us into the Christmas spirit!