Merry Christmas

Well that went by awfully quick eh? I hope everyone has survived and came out a little happier, more relaxed and surrounded by the people that love you. If that fails, I hope you had sufficient booze. I actually worked through Christmas. I didn't really mind. I enjoy my work. I was still able to spend time with my family. I did miss the big dinner but that has been merely postponed. We will all travel to my Mom's for New Year's. I think she is more excited than we are. She has been planning for a few months. This will be the kids' first trip to Ontario and I think they are a little worried. The only thing about which I'm a little apprehensive is the long drive for them to keep occupied. Then I remember it's not like how my sister and I were young children. We had our books and Walkman's with batteries that would last about one hour tops and then had to listen to my parent's music for the remainder of the trip. Now they have their DS's,Ipods and whatever little electronic thing to amuse them in a car for a few hours.
This was my first Christmas with children. It was definitely an amazing experience and I hope that I have many more to follow. The kids were thrilled with their presents. I believe it took them 2.7 minutes to open everything. That's has to be some sort of record right? One item has to be exchanged for a larger size. You would think I would have learned from a past boxing day experience not to go out there! It's like a zombie apocalypse or something. I thought it would be a little easier because we would leave for the mall when I finished work. It was actually easier, but we were missing a few details.
We arrived at the mall at 10h00. We thought it weird that were not that many vehicles in the parking lot but figured we were just lucky.
Then we noticed a huge line forming outside Future Shop.
Ok.
That's a bit odd.
Oh well.
We continue to the mall.
All the stores are locked up.
Oh.
Maybe they open at 11h00 today.
As we are waiting outside this particular store to make the exchange a security guard that sort of reminds me of a Smurf informs us that the stores will not open until 13h00 and will not do exchanges. If the store opens prior, it will a 3000$ fine.
We make the decision to wait until after New Year's to do our little exchange as we notice the crowds start to form outside all of the stores. I don't like people enough to spend this much time in a line waiting to do a less than ten minute transaction.
Well then, let's share some pics!
Our Christmas tree:

No, I didn't toilet paper our tree. That is ribbon. ;)

Very important coffee!!!!

Hubby opening/examining his gift.

Napoleon pretending to be a present.

Rebel being "amused"...

Tom not being amused by anything..

There are pics of the human children, but I feel weird about posting pictures of children online.

Looking at the date at the bottom of my screen, I realize I'm a bit late, but
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope this year will be everything that you need it to be.
Cheers!
Jocelynn

Suggestions?

Anyone?
I am in the market for a new computer. The one I'm currently using is a re-furbished Gateway model. It has Windows 7. That is about all I can sadly tell you at this point. My PC skills are basically pushing buttons to see what they do and hope nothing disappears on a permanent basis.
I pretty much just use my computer for games and researching recipes and knit patterns. In the future I might be using it for work related purposes that I cannot really get into at this point. I would appreciate any suggestions that any of you kind readers can tell me.
That's about all that is going on in my little world. See you later. :D

Twitchy and B!tchy

Let's start with Twitchy.
That would be Napoleon.
We drove Napoleon to the vet yesterday to see why on Earth he has this constant need to lick off all of his fur. My imagination ran rampant with possibilities. What if he has a tumour or a skin disease or nutrition problems or, or, or.....
Turns out he is just twitchy.
Napoleon's little body is just constantly in motion, even when he is at rest. The weird part, weirder than the whole licking off all of his fur, is that only half of his body twitches. The vet gave him a shot of cortisone to see if that settles the twitches. He warned us that it would take a few days to take effect. I can see a difference in Napoleon's behaviour right now. Unfortunately I can just attribute this change to him being stoned out of his little tree. He has been staring at the same spot on the floor for about two hours like it is the most fascinating thing in the entire world. Yep. He's trippin'
Okay, Bitchy.
That would be me after trying to do this Christmas shopping thing.
People are absolutely crazy out there. I'm so relieved I ordered a few my gifts online. I just don't think I have the strength to venture into another mall anytime soon. I have bruises on my shins from people trying to liquify through me. The odd part is I wouldn't mind if people accidentally bumped into me as long as they would say I'm sorry or something to that effect. The other part that is pissing me off is the lack of manners altogether. Like really people! How difficult is it to say "excuse me"? It's just two very small words that mean oh so much. Way to spread the Christmas cheer and teach your young ones how to act in society.
I'm going to see if Napoleon will share trip. I hope you all stay safe and have a great day. :D

It Snowed...

and the snow is still falling down.

This is the first year that I do not have to drive for a living or to get to my living in the white stuff. It is a wonderful change. I can actually say without any hesitation that it does look very beautiful and peaceful outside my kitchen window.

Socks and Bread

I'm trying to get Hubby addicted to television. I think my plan is working. So far on our queue is American Horror Story, (holy crap for a television show is certainly is freaky), Sons of Anarchy, and Once Upon a Time. I'm also watching Grimm, which I think I will introduce to Hubs a little later. He really is not a big television guy. Over dinner tonight I learned he had no idea who The Beaver was.
I finished a pair of socks for little Miss last night. She put them on immediately which made me feel very good since the art of cool is sometimes very elusive.

This afternoon I wanted to see what the big deal with making your own bread is all about. I do not have a bread maker nor do I have patience. I do however have access to the wonderful internet which helped me out huge. I located this recipe which made the most sense to me, for White Amish Bread. I must disclose at this point that my dough did in no way, shape or form resemble the picture. I then added some Italian seasoning, pepperoni and a lot of cheese. This is the result:

It tastes awesome!!

I'm going to watch a few episodes of Beauty and the Geek and work on another knit project. I hope you all have a wonderful night.

Would Not Trade Anything

I would never want to relive my teen years for all the money imaginable. To see someone so impressionable having to experience all this confusion makes me grateful I survived. Here you are a young person caught between a child and an adult in mind and in body. You have no idea which section to select your clothes in the department store. You have no idea what is considered cool because the rules are constantly changing. It is so important for your classmates to like and accept you at whatever cost you think you can afford. Sadly, there are a few of us that will not survive this tortuous time. For those individuals I wonder what happened to their support networks. At any age you can feel alone and isolated. At this age of uncertainty, it is ten times worse. For the survivors it is worth the wait. You get to be this strong person with a special personality. You no longer what others value as important or cool. You get to decide for yourself these important matters. I hope this one person I'm watching grow discovers this little tidbit. For the time being, I get to be the adult that really doesn't understand. At least this person has people in her life that truly care and love her no matter what she may orchestrate. I just hope I can survive this experience.
At this point in my life I can say that I would not change any of that experience because it has made me who I am today. I am so much stronger than I could ever imagine. I have this great family. I get to learn new things everyday. I will learn all about home renovations hopefully soon....Sometimes you just have to go through a lot of bullshit to get where you need to be.

It just dawned on me I haven't shown you what was on our front door:

Now I need to find a wreath for Christmas.....

Lot to Say and Unsure How..

There are some days where I feel like have only walked backwards. Right now I'm looking at a sink full of dishes and thinking I swear I just did those. Then there are days where I am on top of the world. The problem I struggle with most is waiting. There is something huge in the works and I'm not really able to talk about it for fear it will fall apart. Let's suffice it to say, in a few months I'll be able to divulge all. No Mom, I'm not pregnant. :D I've recently learned my Mom is traveling along the internet highway. My parents have recently acquired a laptop. I'm not sure how well it is working for them because I have yet to receive a response to an email I sent a few days ago. When last we spoke there was some man in the bottom corner that kept popping up and would not go away even though Mom pushed X. I have no idea what this is all about. I'm a visual type. I need to see who this mysterious man is in order for me to be of some assistance. We had a fantastic Halloween. It truly is a different holiday when there are children involved. It was nice to be all dressed in costume and actually have children to take Trick or Treating. It almost didn't happen due to disciplinary problems but, it is a work in progress and I have a very good feeling it will soon be resolved. At least I hope so. There are days when I have one nerve left and then the little darling jumps on it. I do have pictures of our Halloween adventure but I feel weird posting photographs of children online. I was trying to see if I could crop it a certain way, but it would really distort the picture. I did however find some truly awesome pictures/drawings/works of art thanks to a friend. I've not seen anything like Laurie Lipton's art in a very long time. I just noticed that I spent about an hour going through her webpage. You can truly lose yourself staring at these pieces because of all the crazy detail. Unfortunately I have a wee bit of a cold so I'm just going to sign off with my big cup of tea and veg out in front a television program. I'll post some pics a little later of the things I have been working on. I hope you all had a great Halloween. :D